Tuesday, 17 June 2008Ly Menghour
The Mekong TimesThe Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Committee (AHRC) has launched an online petition against land grabbing in Cambodia, where users can add their names to an open letter seeking intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians live in fear of forced evictions or have already been evicted, claims the letter, listed at the group’s website: www.ahrchk.net Human rights abuses, such as false arrests and “brutal” beatings often accompany evictions, it adds.
“The petition urges the prime minister of Cambodia to immediately end the suffering and fears of those people by halting all evictions in which disputes have not been resolved or just compensation has [not] been paid,” said an AHRC press release.
Since the campaign started last week, over 50 people have added their names to the list — which is not anonymous — including Secretary General of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party Mu Sochua and Lao Mong Hay, a senior researcher at the AHRC.
“People power and the use of non-violence is slowly gaining power,” said Mu Sochua, railing against the donor community for failing to take action on land grabbing. “The people’s right to land, shelter and security and justice must be part of state policies … A campaign against land grabbing and illegal logging is long overdue to stop further the raping of Cambodia’s natural resources, of [our] indigenous cultures and practices, and [the] people’s right to dignity.”
The National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
However Information Minister and government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said that land issues are complicated and differ greatly from one to another, making generalizations difficult.
“The poor are not always right and the rich not always wrong, and vice-versa,” he said. “The government has resolved many land disputes according to legal principles with equal justice for all.”
Government policy is to “give land to the landless,” he said, adding that land disputes are increasing as as land prices rise, though only a tiny proportion of Cambodia’s 14 million population is affected.
Ny Chakriya, a monitoring officer from local human rights group Adhoc, said many communities involved in land disputes send their representatives to Phnom Penh in the vain hope of government intervention.
“But the land disputes have failed to be solved by authorities at any level. There are no effective methods to resolve land disputes for people. There aren’t any measures taken to blame or punish authorities, wrongdoers, and land-grabbers.”
Adhoc recently reported it received 78 land complaints between February and April, with the number rising each month. In April 31 cases were reported involving over 3,800 hectares, and affecting 2,292 families.
Many of the disputes involved government officials, including the ruling elite, police officers, soldiers and commune or district authorities, the report noted.
