Although a group of villagers–members of an indigenous community–in Cambodia’s northeastern province of Rattanakiri were told by local authorities that their lands were reserved for development, around 10 years later no development has yet taken place. Instead, without informing the villagers, the authorities conceded the lands to a businessman. This businessman, without securing a title deed of ownership, began to clear the lands and the crops in January 2006. While protesting the grabbing of their lands and the destruction of their crops, two of the villagers were arrested and charged with causing damage to other peoples property.
This case is but one among several other land grabbing cases in Rattanakiri province. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learnt from a local human rights group that an army general has been involved in grabbing over 100 hectares of land, a senior ministers sister over 500 hectares and a businessman over 100 hectares from villagers in that province.
Land grabbing in Cambodia has increased since 2004 and is widespread throughout the country. From 148 complaints of land grabbing in 2003, the same human rights group received 356 land grabbing complaints in 2004. The AHRC has come to know that in recent years, few months pass without protests occurring against land grabbing. In 2005, a foreign company was given a land concession of tens of thousands of hectares for pine tree plantation in the northeastern province of Mondolkiri. This concession infringed upon ancestral lands of an indigenous community, who strongly protested the concession and blocked the entrance to those lands. There were also protests against a big land concession of some 30,000 hectares straddling two western provinces, Kompong Chhnang and Pursat in 2005.
More recently, in January 2006 some 290 families from the provinces of Battamabang, Kompong Speu, Oudor Meanchey, and the municipality of Sihanoukville camped out in front of the Parliament in Phnom Penh. This was done in protest of eviction from their lands. Finally, at the end of February, the police destroyed the camps and forced them into trucks that were to take them back to their provinces.
The use of force and intimidation in these illegal evictions is common. When this fails to deter victims, government officials have even pressed criminal charges against them or thrown them in jail. Five villagers were killed by the civilian and military police forces during the eviction of some 200 families in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, close to the Thai border, in 2005.
Although Cambodia’s Land Law was enacted in 2001, it is not enforced. In fact, many laws are not enforced within the country, due to political manipulation and corruption within Cambodia’s rule of law institutions. The brunt of this is felt by the poorer and marginalized sectors of society. Cambodia’s courts are politically controlled, and like all other government agencies, corrupt. The national, provincial and district cadastral commissions created under the Land Law are unable to fulfill their mandates due to a lack of independence, resources and expertise. Government officials are quick to charge protesters with infringement against private or public property or with causing damage to markers, topographic points or cadastral signs in order to arrest and imprison them. The same officials overlook article 36 of the Land Law, which states the need to suspend the execution of any eviction order that could cause instability or social repercussions. Similarly, the provision prohibiting infringement against land rights of indigenous communities when concessions of such lands are granted, as stipulated in articles 26 and 265 is also overlooked.
To respond to this situation, the Cambodian government has recently set up the Land Dispute Resolution Authority, by way of an executive order. According to information received by the AHRC, a senior advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen has been assigned to head this agency as his representative. The other members of the agency are also political appointees. The agency will work on an ad hoc basis with no set procedure, and it is very likely to use political pressure to compel litigants to accept its rulings. The AHRC therefore views this agency as a political expediency to please donor countries prior to their meeting to pledge aid to Cambodia on March 2-3, 2006.
Land grabbing is a violation of the right to ownership guaranteed by article 44 of the Cambodian Constitution. It also a violation of the right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions as stipulated in article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Cambodia is a party.
In order for these rights to be realised, the AHRC recommends that Cambodia’s Land Law be effectively enforced. To this effect, the Land Dispute Resolution Authority should be scrapped, while the cadastral commissions must be strengthened and given the necessary independence, resources and expertise to resolve land disputes. The present practice of development land concessions granted by the government should also be stopped. Furthermore, the government should effectively redistribute land to the poor and landless, ensuring that they have access to employment and public services. Lastly, victims of evictions should be given adequate compensation. The AHRC also urges the international community and UN agencies to discuss and resolve the issue of land grabbing with the Cambodian government.
