With severe shortage of food in rural areas, destitute Cambodian people are coming in drove to the capital to seek relief. Food shortage is more severe for people living along the Vietnamese border (Photo Licadho)Caught between the Vietnamese authority which prevented them from farming the land they own inside Cambodia, and land grabbing from Cambodian government officials, Cambodian villagers living along the Vietnamese border are caught in a cycle of poverty which they have a hard time to get out of. Poverty had forced a large number of them to pull their children out of school to help earn a living for the family. In this second installment, RFA is reporting this poverty cycle which the government authority is turning a blind eye on.
Livelihood of Cambodian villagers along the Vietnamese borders
23 Feb. 2006
By Ouk Sav Bory Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
On the trip to Daung commune, Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province, located next the Cambodia-Vietnam border, crop growing fields are vast but they are all bare of any crops. Each village we passed by are almost deserted, the villagers told us that they have left their villages to work as laborers outside of their home.
The Daung commune authority, Mr. Ouk Soeun informed us that some of the villagers had left their villages to find work in Phnom Penh, while others went to work in Vietnam.
The reason they had left their villages was because they lack the mean to plant their own rice fields. Ouk Soeun told us that the villagers do not lack land for rice field, each family own three to four hectares of land, however, because of the border dispute, almost all of the villagers now have no land to plant rice. Furthermore, there is shortage of water combined with the successive droughts in the past few years, the villagers are now lacking food.
On top their plight, inside the district, there is no work so that 90% of the village young people had to find factory work elsewhere to earn money to feed their family. Four villages are destitute: Paun, Daung, Chheu Teal, and Prey Tuol villages.
Ouk Soeun added: “In these villages, there are about 400 to 500 families that lack land to plant rice. Even if they have land, they are very small plots.”
Pen Phon, a villager from Daung village, told us that people in his village lack both land and water.
He said that the border treaty had been agreed on but the installation of border markers are not done yet, and the villagers still don’t know which plot they can plant rice on.
Whenever the villagers start to plant anything on Khmer land, Vietnamese soldiers came in to prevent them and accuse them of plating on “white zone,” [areas where borders delimitation have not yet been agreed upon by both the Cambodian and Vietnamese parties] just like it was 20 years ago. However, on the Vietnamese side, the Vietnamese farmers can plant their crops all the way next to the Cambodian villages [even though they are considered as white zones also].
Pen Phon said: “On the Vietnam side, they can plow the land further and further into our side. Now, they plow the land, they dig canals to irrigate water.”
So Doeun, a woman from Prey Tuol village added: “They designate [these areas] as white zone, they said that the Vietnamese are not allowed to plant crop, and so do the Khmer people. But now, on the Vietnamese side, they plant crop everywhere, they can do anything they want. On the Cambodian side, even on a width of a plow, we are not allowed to plant on.”
An anonymous man from Prey Tuol village said: “Like my rice field, they [the Vietnamese] took half of it to plant their crop, the other half, they prevented me from touching it. They can plant, but we cannot in these so-called white zones. I saw the prime minister signing the border treaty, I was very pleased, but up to now, I am not happy at all, because they [the Vietnamese] can plant, but I cannot.”
Meung Nam, a woman villager from Daung told us that a small rice field does not produce enough rice for her feeding, and she has to go find work in Vietnam to earn some money for living.
Meung Ham said: “Anything I transport, they [the authority] come and confiscate it, I plant rice, the Vietnamese chase me away. Think about it, where can the Cambodian people live?”
Mao Sokha, a woman from Daung village told us that she has no land to plant rice, and she has no money for her children’s schooling. She will pull her children out of high school this year.
Mao Sokha said: “We have no rice field, the Vietnamese took all our land. When my children need to go to school, I have no money to pay for their schooling because I have too many children.”
Daung commune is located at the Vietnamese border, in Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province. It consists of 22 villages and 2,447 families. The area occupied by rice fields, although not yet clearly determined [because of the border dispute with Vietnam], is about 2,600 hectares. There are seven villages which are located directly next to the border.
We continued our trip from Romeas Hek district to Svay Teab district, and into Korki Som commune, also located next to the Vietnamese border. The commune authority, Mr. Chheang Bit told us that his commune consists of 8 villages with the village of Kampot Touk located next to the border.
He told us that the villagers do not produce much rice on the 4,000 hectares of rice field. Because of the drought in the past two years, villagers are lacking food this year.
We met with villagers from Kampot Touk village. They live next to the Vietnamese border, and their village is about 300 meters from the border. They told us that there is no work in the village. People went to work as potato and sugar cane field laborers in Vietnam. In a day, they earn about 4 to 5,000 riels (US$1) to buy rice to eat.
The villagers informed us that after hearing the government had resolved the border dispute with Vietnam, those who own land and could not grow rice on since 1985 because the Vietnamese authority prevented them from doing it by claiming their land to be in the white zone, when the villagers were about to start to plant their crop again, the former commune chief, Dam Savon, who is currently the councilor of Korki Som commune, prevented them to do so. He told the villagers that the land of these rice fields now belong to an upper government official instead.
An anonymous villager of Kampot Touk said: “After the signing of the [border] treaty with Vietnam, there was no reaction [from the Vietnamese authority] when we went to plant our crop or dig the field, or fence our plots. But, now the Cambodian authority is the one which prevents us from doing so.”
Dam Savon, the former Korki Som commune chief, admitted that when he was commune chief, he did issue land title to the villagers.
However, those land titles he issued in the 80s and 90s, it was only to give away all the land. He would write down that “X” owns a land extending from one landmark to another in the land title, and it was for 3 or 4 hectares each. After the commune election, there was an official land division which determined that there remains about 60 hectares of land still filled with landmines. He then divided this remaining land to those who don’t have enough land in the commune, and also to some government officials. But because the land was filled with landmines, the villagers and the government officials owning those lands cannot occupy their properties.
Following the 2005 signing of the supplemental [border] treaty, the villagers of Kampot Touk went to occupy those 60 hectares land and it caused a lot of commotion in the commune.
Dam Savon said: “When the tractors were brought in to plow the land, the Vietnamese prevented the plowing. It caused problem until the land was cleared but it cannot be plowed. This year the villagers forced in to take over this land. Those who came to occupy the land, they did not ask for authorization, they occupied it by force, it is anarchy. There are previous land titles.”
Kampot Touk villagers denied that the destitute villagers ever received any land from the commune. It was only Dom Savon himself who grabbed the land in the white zone which was not planted for many years, and he took it to give to new owners among whom are those government officials.
An old woman who does not own land confirmed that she never received any land from the commune.
Mr. Mom Am, the deputy-governor of Svay Rieng, declined to make comment on this issue.
Mr. Try Chheang Huot, the vice-chairman of committee 3 of the National Assembly in charge of economy, investment, agriculture, rural development, and environment, said that members of committee 1 of the National Assembly had gone to survey this problem.
Both of the communes located next to the Vietnamese border in the province of Svay Rieng: Daung commune in Romeas Hek district, and Korki Som commune in Svay Teab district, lack the ability to produce rice because of border dispute with Vietnam. That is why the villagers there are poor.
The Daung commune authority, Mr. Ouk Soeun informed us that some of the villagers had left their villages to find work in Phnom Penh, while others went to work in Vietnam.
The reason they had left their villages was because they lack the mean to plant their own rice fields. Ouk Soeun told us that the villagers do not lack land for rice field, each family own three to four hectares of land, however, because of the border dispute, almost all of the villagers now have no land to plant rice. Furthermore, there is shortage of water combined with the successive droughts in the past few years, the villagers are now lacking food.
On top their plight, inside the district, there is no work so that 90% of the village young people had to find factory work elsewhere to earn money to feed their family. Four villages are destitute: Paun, Daung, Chheu Teal, and Prey Tuol villages.
Ouk Soeun added: “In these villages, there are about 400 to 500 families that lack land to plant rice. Even if they have land, they are very small plots.”
Pen Phon, a villager from Daung village, told us that people in his village lack both land and water.
He said that the border treaty had been agreed on but the installation of border markers are not done yet, and the villagers still don’t know which plot they can plant rice on.
Whenever the villagers start to plant anything on Khmer land, Vietnamese soldiers came in to prevent them and accuse them of plating on “white zone,” [areas where borders delimitation have not yet been agreed upon by both the Cambodian and Vietnamese parties] just like it was 20 years ago. However, on the Vietnamese side, the Vietnamese farmers can plant their crops all the way next to the Cambodian villages [even though they are considered as white zones also].
Pen Phon said: “On the Vietnam side, they can plow the land further and further into our side. Now, they plow the land, they dig canals to irrigate water.”
So Doeun, a woman from Prey Tuol village added: “They designate [these areas] as white zone, they said that the Vietnamese are not allowed to plant crop, and so do the Khmer people. But now, on the Vietnamese side, they plant crop everywhere, they can do anything they want. On the Cambodian side, even on a width of a plow, we are not allowed to plant on.”
An anonymous man from Prey Tuol village said: “Like my rice field, they [the Vietnamese] took half of it to plant their crop, the other half, they prevented me from touching it. They can plant, but we cannot in these so-called white zones. I saw the prime minister signing the border treaty, I was very pleased, but up to now, I am not happy at all, because they [the Vietnamese] can plant, but I cannot.”
Meung Nam, a woman villager from Daung told us that a small rice field does not produce enough rice for her feeding, and she has to go find work in Vietnam to earn some money for living.
Meung Ham said: “Anything I transport, they [the authority] come and confiscate it, I plant rice, the Vietnamese chase me away. Think about it, where can the Cambodian people live?”
Mao Sokha, a woman from Daung village told us that she has no land to plant rice, and she has no money for her children’s schooling. She will pull her children out of high school this year.
Mao Sokha said: “We have no rice field, the Vietnamese took all our land. When my children need to go to school, I have no money to pay for their schooling because I have too many children.”
Daung commune is located at the Vietnamese border, in Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province. It consists of 22 villages and 2,447 families. The area occupied by rice fields, although not yet clearly determined [because of the border dispute with Vietnam], is about 2,600 hectares. There are seven villages which are located directly next to the border.
We continued our trip from Romeas Hek district to Svay Teab district, and into Korki Som commune, also located next to the Vietnamese border. The commune authority, Mr. Chheang Bit told us that his commune consists of 8 villages with the village of Kampot Touk located next to the border.
He told us that the villagers do not produce much rice on the 4,000 hectares of rice field. Because of the drought in the past two years, villagers are lacking food this year.
We met with villagers from Kampot Touk village. They live next to the Vietnamese border, and their village is about 300 meters from the border. They told us that there is no work in the village. People went to work as potato and sugar cane field laborers in Vietnam. In a day, they earn about 4 to 5,000 riels (US$1) to buy rice to eat.
The villagers informed us that after hearing the government had resolved the border dispute with Vietnam, those who own land and could not grow rice on since 1985 because the Vietnamese authority prevented them from doing it by claiming their land to be in the white zone, when the villagers were about to start to plant their crop again, the former commune chief, Dam Savon, who is currently the councilor of Korki Som commune, prevented them to do so. He told the villagers that the land of these rice fields now belong to an upper government official instead.
An anonymous villager of Kampot Touk said: “After the signing of the [border] treaty with Vietnam, there was no reaction [from the Vietnamese authority] when we went to plant our crop or dig the field, or fence our plots. But, now the Cambodian authority is the one which prevents us from doing so.”
Dam Savon, the former Korki Som commune chief, admitted that when he was commune chief, he did issue land title to the villagers.
However, those land titles he issued in the 80s and 90s, it was only to give away all the land. He would write down that “X” owns a land extending from one landmark to another in the land title, and it was for 3 or 4 hectares each. After the commune election, there was an official land division which determined that there remains about 60 hectares of land still filled with landmines. He then divided this remaining land to those who don’t have enough land in the commune, and also to some government officials. But because the land was filled with landmines, the villagers and the government officials owning those lands cannot occupy their properties.
Following the 2005 signing of the supplemental [border] treaty, the villagers of Kampot Touk went to occupy those 60 hectares land and it caused a lot of commotion in the commune.
Dam Savon said: “When the tractors were brought in to plow the land, the Vietnamese prevented the plowing. It caused problem until the land was cleared but it cannot be plowed. This year the villagers forced in to take over this land. Those who came to occupy the land, they did not ask for authorization, they occupied it by force, it is anarchy. There are previous land titles.”
Kampot Touk villagers denied that the destitute villagers ever received any land from the commune. It was only Dom Savon himself who grabbed the land in the white zone which was not planted for many years, and he took it to give to new owners among whom are those government officials.
An old woman who does not own land confirmed that she never received any land from the commune.
Mr. Mom Am, the deputy-governor of Svay Rieng, declined to make comment on this issue.
Mr. Try Chheang Huot, the vice-chairman of committee 3 of the National Assembly in charge of economy, investment, agriculture, rural development, and environment, said that members of committee 1 of the National Assembly had gone to survey this problem.
Both of the communes located next to the Vietnamese border in the province of Svay Rieng: Daung commune in Romeas Hek district, and Korki Som commune in Svay Teab district, lack the ability to produce rice because of border dispute with Vietnam. That is why the villagers there are poor.
2 comments:
Please Sam Dech Ach Ho, open your eyes and see the misery of our people who are suffered from your bright government that yields only loss. You should know that you are like father or mother who have to protect your home and your children from misery. Or you all do not know what your functions are. Please be Cambodians, and help Cambodia.
If someone comes and take one meter of your land how do you feel Monsieur Samdeach Ach Ho.
Our people are being suffered enough from one goverment to another. Nothing changes, but more suffering. If you can't deal wit it this mess, let others who have enough capacity do it.
Post a Comment