40 people arrested by rubber plantation guards [-Extreme poverty pushes villagers to do anyhting they can to survive, even if it means death]

16 May 2007
By Or Phearith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

At least 40 people were arrested by the security guards at the Chamcar Andoung rubber plantation. They were accused of stealing resin residues on 15 May.

A representative of the villagers from Village 32, Ta’ong commune, Chamcar leu district, Kompong Cham province, said that a number of people, including several children, were arrested by the security guards of the Chamcar Andoung rubber plantation since early morning. At 3:00 PM, those arrested have not been released yet, and even if their families went to fetch them, they were nowhere to be seen yet.

The representative of the villagers said: “They arrested the people who went to pick the rubber residues left at the bottom of the collecting cup and these residues fell to the ground. The [rubber] company ordered the arrest of everybody, young and old, and they took them inside the company [compound]. There were more than 40 of them [arrested], and we have not found all of them yet, they are children and adults. The company does not allow the release of the people yet.”

The woman-representative of the villagers said that extreme poverty pushes almost all the villagers to go pick rubber residues from the ground to eke out a living: “People in Village 32 are extremely poor, some don’t even have a cup of rice left in their homes. Some villagers who dare go to Phnom Penh [to report their situations?], are reprimanded by company, they are called in to be verbally reprimanded.”

Lim Sun Leang, the director of the Chamcar Andoung rubber plantation, gave an interview to RFA over the phone. He said that only about 20 villagers have been arrested, and the arrest was made only to protect the company’s financial interest. He said that he did not violate the rights of those arrested.

Lim Sun Leang said: “I am doing this according to the law, I did not send them anywhere, I told them to go ask a letter from the village chief, the commune chief, to bring to us as a pledge not to do this (pick rubber residue) anymore. If they are arrested the second and third time, we will have to take legal action against them. In Chamcar Andoung, there are 1,352 families who live in the workers’ village who do not work for the company.”

In the rubber plantation zones in Kompong Cham province, there were several reports indicating the arrests and tortures, and even the killings of people who sneak in to pick rubber resin residues.

During an interview given at the end of 2005, No. 32 villagers said that even with the killing of 2 sisters caught stealing some bananas, they are not scared and this killing does not deter them from stealing in order to survive.

Hun Sen's predicted workers' revolution in the making: More evictions in Chamcar Leu

Villagers in Chamcar Leu face eviction

14 May 2007
By Or Phearith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

“The entire village cannot go out to earn a living because they have to stay home, they are afraid that people (from the rubber plantation company) would come and bulldoze their homes. We are prepared to demonstrate or to do something to prevent them from doing anything they want.” These are the concerns expressed by villagers living on Chamcar Andoung commune, Chamcar Leu district, Kompong Cham province, after they received a letter ordering their evictions out of their homes so that their lands can be used to build a school.

Villagers in No. 2 Village, Chamcar Andoung commune, said that the director of the Chamcar Andoung rubber plantation company issued a letter to all the villagers who are not working for the plantation and who live on a plot of land facing the No. 2 village elementary school to vacate the location.

The villagers claimed that they were all former workers at the plantation since 1980, and they lost their jobs in 1995 when the plantation company decided to uproot the old rubber trees and plant new ones. The villagers say that they do not oppose the development (for the school) but that they need a solution for their cases.

A villager said: “We do not oppose the construction of a school, but they must have a solution for us, either in terms of monetary compensation, or land exchange. But they don’t want to do any land exchange for us, they only want us to get out, please help us find justice.”

Other villagers demand that land ownership titles be given to them for the land they occupied from 1980 until now, which is more than 20 years already. “We protest so that housing is provided for us to live. The order issued by Samdech [Hun Sen] states that whoever work (for the plantation), they must be provided with 5 years of housing, all of this has expired … They want us to get out, if we don’t, they will bulldoze (our houses).”

The villagers have gathered 458 thumbprints for a protest petition to be sent to Hun Sen for intervention.

However, Lim Sun Leang, the director of the Chamcar Andoung rubber plantation company, said over the phone on 14 May, that he will take this land to build a school which will include elementary school and all the way to a high school. This school is needed for the education of the villagers’ children and for the workers’ children, and these children will have access to a nearby school. He also said that according to the law, people who are not working for the plantation cannot live in the workers villages.”

An anonymous NGO official whom the villagers handed their letter and ask for his help to intervene in this case, said that for lands located within the plantation zone, the plantation company has full right to take any plot it wants by claiming that it needs them for development, and in doing so it can avoid all problems. Furthermore, the NGO official said that based on Por Try, the former director of the plantation company, the workers have already paid off the purchase price to the plantation company for the lands they occupied.