Chief's order dictate vote, villagers say

Ethnic Krueng villagers sit on the steps of their home in Sre Chhouk village, Kbal Romea commune, in Stung Treng province's Sesan district. The village is home to five different indigenous groups. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Tuesday, 29 May 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

The streets of Phnom Penh are alive with the sounds of campaign music and political slogans this week, but in the remote areas of Stung Treng province, which are home to many of Cambodia’s ethnic minorities, it is eerily quiet.

In villages of Sesan district, where minorities such as the Kouy, Pnorng, Prao and Laotian traditionally live off the land, the democratic spirit is hardly thriving.

June 3 commune council elections are fast approaching, but almost everyone here – at least those who can speak Khmer – says when it comes to voting, they simply do what they are told.

In Kbal Romeas commune’s Sre Sranok village, 45-year-old Prao ethnic villager Oeun Chantho, flashing coal black teeth, said she was too busy with farming to pay attention to the election.

“The village chief told me not to be worried about this, and on the election day, I’ll just tick the party that I used to vote for. So that tick will be on the logo of the flower-scattering angel as before,” she said, referring to the insignia of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

She said she knew practically nothing about other parties that were running but had received clear instructions from the village chief to vote for the CPP

“Our chief gave us salt, sarongs and told us that we have to vote for who offer happiness to us, so that we know who offer us peace - only our village chief’s party,” she said.

NGOs list suggested govt reform

Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

Land and resource revenues top groups’ development concerns

LAND rights, the environment and extractive-industry revenue transparency are the focus of civil society recommendations released ahead of landmark government-donor meetings scheduled for next week.

The documents, released at a workshop in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, assess the government’s progress on the series of reform benchmarks – known as Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMIs) – that are tied to disbursals of foreign development aid.

The workshop comes ahead of the Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), scheduled for June 2-3, at which donors will assess the government’s progress on previously agreed upon JMIs and set development priorities for the next 18 months.

At the last CDCF meeting, held in December 2008, donors pledged US$951.5 million in development assistance, up from $689 million the year before, according to an IMF estimate released in September.

Among the chief concerns registered in the NGO position papers were the issues of natural resources and land rights.

“Despite the fact that the rights of indigenous peoples in Cambodia are recognised by both national and international law, across the country there are severe violations of indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights,” one paper stated, calling for the full implementation of the 2001 Land Law.

Resource revenue transparency also looms large over next week’s CDCF meetings, following a disclosure by Prime Minister Hun Sen last month that French oil giant Total paid a total of $28 million to secure offshore oil exploration rights in the Gulf of Thailand.

In a statement issued April 29, Global Witness, a London-based watchdog, said that the CDCF meetings should be used as an opportunity for donors to “ask tough questions” about such payments and whether they have been registered in national accounts.

A position paper authored by Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency applauds the government for introducing a Public Financial Management Reform Programme, which includes a pledge to implement the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international benchmark for the extractive resources industry.

The paper calls on the government to “prioritise implementation of EITI” in 2010-2011 and promote “other policy measures that strengthen transparency in oil, gas and mining, most notably transparency in licensing”.

Other areas flagged by NGOs include agriculture, gender-based violence, education, health and environmental protection, especially as it relates to a series of large-scale hydropower dams currently slated for construction on Cambodia’s rivers.

Calls for transparency

Son Chhay, a Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker, said donors should take the opportunity to push the government to improve its transparency with respect to resource revenue payments and other areas.

“The donors have full rights to demand the government be transparent before they offer more money,” he said.

“How can you talk about good governance when the government is not prepared to be accountable?”

Other critics said the very architecture of the pledging process is geared in favour of continued government impunity.

“One of the major problems is that the JMIs are not binding and therefore have no teeth,” said Eleanor Nichol, a Global Witness campaigner. “Aid flows continue despite the lack of implementation of, or progress towards, the JMIs.”

One government official said, however, that there had been significant steps towards transparency, achievements that Western donors recognised.

“We are not just talking transparency: We are creating it through the system,” said Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, citing the Law on Anticorruption, passed by the National Assembly in March, and administrative reforms as key milestones.

Donors “understand that we have started to make this country more and more transparent through the system, through procedures and through the law”, he added.

Son Chhay said, however, that the government had proved itself adept at manipulating donors, and that the stance of Western governments was tempered by the increasing influence of China, a country that does not participate in the CDCF process.

Sin Somuny, executive director of Medicam, an umbrella organisation for health NGOs, said the CDCF process is valuable for promoting a culture of open exchange between government authorities and NGOs.

“We have to change the culture of discussion among politicians and civil society,” he said. “We have to build a culture of discussion.”

Community Worries as Students Leave School

By Chheng Sambo, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 October 2009

Song Pro is a widow from the Pnorng ethnic group. She lives in Mondulkiri province, where she has watched all five of her children drop out of school, none of them reaching beyond the fourth grade.

Most of them now are fully grown, young men and women without jobs, a source of much regret to their mother.

“If you dropped out of school, how is your future?” she asked recently. “My children say, ‘What should I do, Mother? It is because we are poor, so let chance decides.’”

Song Pro’s children are not alone. A recent report from the Ministry of Education shows that some 700 ethnic minority students dropped out of school in the 2008-2009 school year, compared to less than 1,200 dropouts nationwide. That’s an increase from 522 dropouts in minority groups last year.

Sroung Polonh is the head of Pechr Chenda district’s education office in Mondulkiri, where 156 students dropped out of school.

“There are a lot of influences,” he said. “However, the most important thing is their living conditions, and the teachers are not often there to teach in class. Also, the study facilities are poor.”

Khan Channy, the head of an ethnic community in the province, said most minority students drop out of school because they need to find work to support the family.

She worries at the rising numbers of dropouts, which are increasing each year.

“We don’t know what the future ahead holds,” she said. “However, in Pechr Chenda district, there is a lack of teachers, people are still poor, and there is no development in the village, because there are no human resources and leaders.”

In the entire province, minority students number 6,404 in primary school, from first to sixth grade, about half of the 11,297 total students. But in the lower secondary and high schools, minorities only number 481.

The national policy is to push students to reach at least the ninth grade.

Teum Sangvat, director of Mondulkiri province’s department of youth and sports, said it was not only the minority students but all students in the province who were at risk.

Rong Chhun, head of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said the minority dropout problem will negatively affect Cambodia’s developmental process.

“A society can be developed depending on its human resources,” he said. “And these resources come from the strengthening of education and by encouraging Cambodians to attend school, along with quality.”

Teum Sangvat said the Ministry of Education was working to build more schools in the province’s five districts, to curtail the dropouts.

Meanwhile, the government has begun offering scholarships to students who pass their bachelor’s degrees in university, in an attempt to encourage students to continue their studies.

Ratanakkiri Villagers Seek End to Land Violence

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 May 2008

About 280 ethnic minorities of Ratanakkiri have met with rights workers at Adhoc to find ways to end violence over land in the burgeoning area province.

The villagers from various communities across nine districts in the remote northeast of the country joined a rally recently; they had planned to demonstrate by road, but authorities did not allow it.

The villagers blame senior government and military officials for theft of their land.

“Since 2006, there is no resolution for us,” said a villager named Sal Lin, in a meeting that was surrounded by police. “We need to get it back.”

Ratanakkiri Adhoc coordinator Pen Bunnar said local authorities worked to prevent villagers from joining the rally, a claim the authorities rejected.

Adhoc estimates that thousands of hectares have been taken from villagers through illegal or dishonest means by the rich and powerful.

Cambodian hilltribes shouldn't just resort to levy mere fines, they should put voodoo curses on colluding high-ranking gov't officials also

Cambodian hilltribes turn to tradition to stop land rush

Mon, 21 Jan 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian hilltribe people will try self-policing and implement traditional fines in an effort to stop illegal land sales, a rights activist said Monday. Pen Bonnar of local human rights organization Adhoc confirmed local media reports that the Kreung ethnic minority of Rattanakiri province in the country's far north-east had turned to tradition to stop members of their community selling off land.

"They have to do something because people are selling off all their land even though it is illegal and they need it to grow crops," Bonnar said by telephone.

People found selling community land will now face fines of a jug of rice wine and a pig. Community leaders will have to forfeit a jug of wine and a cow. Cash fines would also be enforced, he said.

Land-grabbing and illegal sales of land are massive problems in Cambodia, which has only recently established a cadastral commission after 30 years of civil war. The Khmer Rouge regime wiped out ownership, and many people are uncertain which land is for the state, the community or themselves.

Remote ethnic minorities also sometimes fail to understand a cash economy, selling land without understanding they can no longer work on it after they receive the money.

Hun Sen’s sister denied involvement in forced land sale

02 October 2007
By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Hun Seng Ny, Hun Sen’s younger sister, issued her initial reactions on Tuesday 02 October 2007, to reject the report which claims that she is behind the middlemen who are forcing villagers to provide their thumbprints to sell their lands. Hun Seng Ny said that this report affects her honor and dignity, as well as those of her family.

Hun Seng Ny’s reaction came after ethnic minority people living in Kam village, La’ak commune, Ratanakiri province, claimed that Kdok Reuy, the police inspector of O’Chum district, and An Long, a former soldier in the province, were leading an effort to buy 400-hectare of lands. The villagers accused the pair of threatening them, saying that the land is destined for the development to be made by Hun Seng Ny. The villagers said that the name of Hun Sen’s sister instills fear in them.

Hun Seng Ny said: “Buying lands by having someone threatening and using the privilege and the power, I did not do that. The population must understand this clearly, in the future, don’t let someone uses the name of a high-ranking official, the family name of a high-ranking person to threat people, to discourage them and (force them) sell their land. I want to know, I told the authority to find out this guy [KI-Media note: Hun Seng Ny uses “ah neung,” a derogatory designation] and arrest him. It’s difficult with our family name, when Older Brother (Hun) Sen knows about this, he never believes us. I told him already, I never ask anyone to buy land (for me).”

Kdok Reuy, the accused O’Chum police inspector, confirmed that he led a land purchase deal so that he can resell these lands back, but that he never used the name of Hun Seng Ny.

Kdok Reuy said: “I am only a real estate agent, there are 70 families who provided thumbprints agreeing to it, there is no sale or purchase yet. The accusation that I was ordered by her (Hun Sen Ny), I don’t even know her.”

227 ethnic minority people from Kam village who are representing a total of 90 families provided thumprints to their protest letter seeking protection to end the purchase of community lands which consist of farmlands, forests, and mining areas.

Khun Sanoy, the Kam village chief, said: “At first, they (the land buyers?) told us that the lands belonged to their ancestors, and they don’t fear anyone because the name of new boss is Hun Sen Ny.”

Pen Bonnar, the investigator for the Adhoc organization in Ratanakiri province, said that there is no report which claims the involvement of Hun Seng Ny in this sordid affair. Nevertheless, he said that he will investigate this case anyway.

Pen Bonnar said: “Since ever, we see these lower level officials creating these problems by using the names of others, they even use the name of Samdach Heng Samrin, Samdech Chea Sim, etc…”

Adhoc reports indicated that there are many cases of land disputes with ethnic minority people, starting since 2005, and that the large majority of these land disputes involve local officials and powerful government officials.

The CPP admits land-grabbing by high-ranking (CPP) officials, what will it do next?

Cambodian Officials Echo UN View on Land Grabs

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 August 2007

"Our government only sees money ... The rich and the powerful want more and more money. Greed makes people forget what's right and what's wrong." - Sam Rainsy, Opposition Leader

Cambodian officials said Thursday they agree with a UN report criticizing the country for doing little to protect the land of indigenous groups in the northeast of the country.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Wednesday the government needed to protect those groups and to preserve their heritage and culture.

The UN report was issued on International World Indigenous People's Day.

Land theft is a rising problem in Cambodia, where the poor are cheated out of land by powerful military and political leaders.

Cambodian People's Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap acknowledged the problem of land-grabbing in this part of the country and said the UN's report served as a reminder to the Cambodian government to make changes.

"The report is right, and it is a reminder for us to think about the effects on the minority people before we take any action," he said.

Governmental corruption and greed lead to the theft of land, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said.

"Our government only sees money," he said "The rich and the powerful want more and more money. Greed makes people forget what's right and what's wrong."

Ethnic monirity people in Ratanakiri are facing famine

Ethnic minority mother and child in a village in Ratanakiri. Almost 800 families of ethnic minority villagers are currently facing famine (Photo: Tharun Bun)

26 July 2007
By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A high ranking official of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) declared that his committee needs exact number of people who are facing famine in Ratanakiri so that help relief can be provided to the actual victims.

Nhim Vannda, the first vice president of the NCDM, said on Thursday 26 July 2007 that he wants the provincial authority and local officials based in villages and communes to provide exact number of people who are facing famine, as well as the provincial authority’s ability to provide food or to seek help to save these people.

Nhim Vannda said: “I am asking the local authority to clearly evaluate the number of families who, for 100%, don’t have food at all, to determine their percentage, etc… And also (to tell us) how many cases the local authority has already handled. This voice will clearly show the actual number of needy (families).”

Nhim Vannda’s declaration was made following a report that about 70% of ethnic minority people are lacking rice for their daily consumption.

The Khmer Leu people association completed the tally of its research results on the number of ethnic minority families who are extremely poor and who currently don’t have rice to eat anymore in 8 districts, 14 communes, and 67 villages, where 768 families are being affected.

Mrs Phum Meas, an official of the management of the Khmer Leu association said: “Ethnic minority people … went to collect the information themselves, they went to interview and visited the locations. There are families who really need (rice), they (now) eat bamboo shoots, some eat manioc tubers instead of rice, they eat corn, potatoes to replace rice, the majority of them are eating these to substitute for rice.”

Nat Bun Heng, the director of the Ratanakiri provincial office, said: “We already reported to the NCDM, there are more than 2,000 families in Andoung Meas and Veun Say…”

On Monday, the Ratanakiri provincial authority as well as MPs for the province obtained 40-ton of rice from the government provincial department of social affairs to distribute in 2 communes in Veun Say district. According to provincial officials, up to now, there are no organizations or institutions which helped to provide aid to help these people yet.

Muong Poy, the Ratanakiri provincial governor, said also that the province does not have sufficient rice stock to distribute to needy villagers. He called on villagers to go look for work outside the province and to plant crops to help support the current need.

There is no report yet about people dying from this famine, however, the provincial authority recognized that some villagers went into the forest to collect precious wood to sell to buy rice to eat.

Famine in Ratanakiri, where is Bun Rany's Red Cross to the rescue?

Ethnic minority in Ratanakiri province are facing famine

Sunday, July 15, 2007
By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

An official of the Khmer Leu Association in Ratanakiri province claimed that, currently, ethnic minorities in almost all communes in the province are facing famine due to lack of rice for daily consumption.

Mrs Dam Chanthy, President of the Khmer Leu Association, said that her organization completed a survey on Friday on the group of villager families who no longer have rice to eat, however, she said that the total number of families who lack rice has not been tallied yet. Nevertheless, she said that about 70% of ethnic minority families are facing daily rice shortage.

Dam Chanthy said: “I am only reporting the information to the government and its partners, because I surveyed poor families, widower households, they just don’t have (rice to eat).”

During the 2006 rainy season, a lot of rains fell during the beginning of the rainy season, but at the end of the season, there was a shortage of rain water, several thousands of hectares of rice crops were damaged due to rot, insects infection, and the rice crop was damaged due to lack of water.

Em Sovann, the second councilor of the Nhang commune, Andoung Meas district, confirmed that since May, the villagers’ leftover rice was all depleted, and 90% of the more than 3,000 families of villagers living in this commune, are currently forced to eat potatoes , corn, or bamboo shoots instead.

Em Sovann said: “In some homes, when I went in, all that I saw was only boiled bamboo shoots, they don’t have anything else to eat at all. I feel really sorry for them.”

The Department of agriculture of the Ratanakiri province, said that there are 4 districts where the villagers have a more severe rice shortage. An anonymous provincial official said that based on the (survey) number, there is a shortage of about 1,000 tons of rice to help fulfill the need of ethnic minority villagers.

Muong Poy, the Ratanakiri provincial governor, confirmed that he received the report from a number of communes regarding the shortage of foods faced daily by ethnic minority villagers. He said that the province does not have sufficient food to distribute to the needy people, but he said that foods were distributed to those who have urgent need.

Muong Poy said: “We are discussing with involved organizations to help fill the shortage temporarily only, to give out sufficient food, we don’t have the ability to do that at all.”

According to survey in the villages made the Khmer Leu Association, it was found that the communes which are currently facing food shortage are: Sesan, Ya Tung, Nhang, Ta Lav, Kachong, Ta Veng and Cha Ung communes.

Nevertheless, the Khmer Leu Association confirmed that it will seek partner NGOs, and International charity groups to help provide food to help ease the famine faced by the villagers.

SRP’s reaction to the pursue of its activist in Ratanakiri

28 April 2007
By Kem Sotheavin Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The Sam Rainsy Party issued a statement on 27 April, to defend one of its political activists in Ratanakiri province who is now in hiding from the arrest threat by the authority.

Song Yim, a SRP activist who has just been election as the Pate commune chief, Ratanakiri province, is accused by the court of involvement with the traffic of Montagnard refugees.

The SRP statement refuted the provincial court accusation on its activist. The SRP statement indicated that Song Yim used to work as a Degar (Montagnard) language translator for the UNHCR in 2001 and 2002. The statement noted that the authority had made the same accusation against Song Yim once in 2003.

The statement called on the provincial court to review this accusation and to put to an immediate stop this arrest. There is no reaction yet from the authority on this statement by the SRP.

US Ambassador visits Ratanakkiri province

20 March 2007
By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The US Ambassador in Cambodia is considering that land problems sustained by ethnic minority people in Ratanakkiri who are currently embroiled in numerous land disputes, is an imminent danger. The loss of lands and the land grabbing will cause instability in the society.

In front of national and international journalists who were interviewing him at the provincial court, the US Ambassador indicated that a common resolution of the above issues is of utmost importance.

US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli made a one-day official visit to the Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday 19 March 2007, to study a number of plans related to the training of judges and prosecutors provided with the US aid to Cambodia.

Ya Narin, the president of the Ratanakkiri provincial court, recognized that land disputes with the ethnic minority groups in Ratanakkiri are worrisome. “We see that the court lacks the means to investigate, the court lacks all kind of materials, and the court building is very small.”

Officials from human rights organizations, local lawyers and jurists in the province welcome Mussomeli’s visit, as they consider this visit as an important step.

Adhoc NGO official said: “His visit to the court is a strengthening of the justice system which has been degraded and criticized by the population.”

Land disputes: Four demonstrators are sued by the Stung Treng court

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

By Ung Chansophea
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Tola Ek

The authorities had brought charges against four villagers from the Stung Treng province, accusing them of leading of protest movement formed by ethnic minorities to oppose land concessions.

Four representatives of ethnic minority groups which demonstrated in Stung Treng, in the Sesan district, on Saturday against land concessions granted to four companies, are now facing charges leveled by the authorities. Chan Soveth, local Adhoc NGO representative, qualifies this land dispute as being a “serious problem,” and he explains that “the police and the military police are accusing the four of inciting poor ethnic minority villagers.” He said that he is worried that the four may be sent to jail. The Adhoc investigator is also worried about the safety of the Proeu and Phnong ethnic groups in this area because of the rise in tension due to land conflicts. “They live in rural areas, the police do not provide security in these villages, meanwhile there are soldiers there and they are trigger happy.”

Vuthy, one of the four persons targeted by the charge, confided about his fear of being arrested. He explained: “I did not incite people to demonstrate, it was the anger, the injustice which pushed the villagers. Our daily life depends on the forest where we can find wood resin, woods, fruits … Without these, we will die.”

Chan Soveth also denounced the authorities’ behavior toward NGO officials: “We were accused of being the instigator of this demonstration, we were caught on film… This does not worry us that much, this are their usual tactics. We do not get any profit from this dispute, we are only defending the victims. To say that we are manipulating people, it’s like looking down on us.” He said that he fears the new demonstrations may lead to violence. Meanwhile, the companies which were granted land concessions, and are controlled by family members of government officials, are occupying forest land extending over 30,000-hectare.

Neither the provincial governor, nor the police commissioner could be reached yesterday. The commune and district chiefs also declined to comment.