GENERAL APPEAL (Cambodia): Army threaten villagers in land disputes

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that army officers have threatened to imprison villagers in land disputes in two different locations. In Rattanakiri province the threat came from three officers alleged to be Prime Minister Human Sen’s bodyguards and relatives. In Kratie province it came from army officers and five soldiers.

CASE DETAILS: (Sources: Pen Bunnar, ADHOC, Banlung, Rattanakiri; Bun Samean, villager, Daun Meas village, Sre Char commune, Snuol district, Kratie province)

The first land dispute is between villagers of the indigenous minority in Ta Pang village, Ta Pang commune, Lumphat district, Rattanakiri province, and a company named DM Group over altogether 300 hectares of land and woodlands where those villagers practice slash and burn cultivation and gather forest products to make a living.

The representative of the affected villagers named Yao Than said on May 2008 that, in mid- May 2008, while the dispute was ongoing and had not been settled and the villagers were protesting, two army officers named Tvan Naun and Hin Sitha, alleged to be Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguards, and another man named Vichay, alleged to be his relative, had brought in four tractors to clear the land for the company. The three men, armed with handcuffs, then threatened to arrest any villagers who dared put up any resistance to the clearance work.

The second dispute is between 14 families in Daun Meas village, Sre Cha commune, Snuol district, Kratie province, and an army officer named Ngoeurn Bunthinh. Those 14 families planned to go on 19 May to seek the direct intervention of the provincial governor to end Ngourn’s obstruction to their farm work on their land of altogether over 30 hectares.

Those villagers said that in February 2008 Ngourn had sent five of his subordinates to prevent them from planting tapioca on their land as Ngourn claimed that the land belonged to his army unit.?The soldiers then allegedly brandished an assault rifle and pointing it at them to force them to cease their work. They also threatened to arrest any recalcitrant villager. The villagers have since suspended the planting while some soldiers have been posted there to obstruct it.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

In the first land dispute in Rattanakiri province, the DM Group company said that it had bought the land from villagers living in another village called Sa Yoh in the same commune. The head of Sa Yoh village named Pheng Maing confirmed this purchase. However, Pa Pang villagers protested against the sale of the land and began to oppose any clearance work on it since 2005. The clearance work on the disputed land has continued since mid-May.

The provincial governor of Rattanakiri province, Muong Toy, and an unnamed cadastral official of Lumphat district have said that the sale of the disputed land is not in conformity with the land law and the provincial authorities have not approved the DM Group’s investment.

In the second dispute in Kratie province, the 14 families have claimed that they had occupied and worked the disputed land since 2000. The head of Daun Meas village named Om Pich has confirmed this claim. He has said that the soldiers had gone to obstruct the villagers’ work on the land without any official documentation proving their unit’s entitlement to the disputed land.

After those soldiers’ obstruction to their work on the land, the concerned families sent to petition to the provincial governor, Kham Phoeurn, to seek his intervention to end that obstruction. On 9 May Kham ordered the district governor, Iv Sokhom, to settle the dispute. But they badly need to be free of any obstruction to resume their planting of crops now as it is already well in the middle of the plantation season. Missing this season and having no crops at the harvest season would be a serious threat to their livelihood.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

For his protection Prime Minister Hun Sen has a body guard unit of some 2000 men who are army officers and soldiers seconded from the country’s army.

Over many years Cambodia has been facing a serious issue of land grabbing. This issue is created by disputes over land by two politically and financially unequal parties: the powerful and the rich on the one hand and the weak and poor on the other. The powerful and the rich, either separately or in combination, would secure, though abuse of power or the use of financial means, concessions or ownership of the land already occupied or owned by the weak and poor people.

The powerful and the rich would secure, again though abuse of power or the use of financial means, cooperation from public forces to evict the occupants or owners from their homes and lands, giving them no compensation or compensation below the market price of the land. Many evictees from Phnom Penh are forcibly relocated in resettlement areas on its outskirts much less social amenities and economic opportunities. Many a time evictions are simply brutal.

Land grabbing has been extended to woodlands which belong to public domain or which are legally recognized as communal property of indigenous minorities. The powerful and the rich would clear woodlands to get timber to sell and then own the land thus cleared. The grabbing of woodlands has contributed much to deforestation in Cambodia.

The northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondolkiti are covered with a lot of forests, but are sparsely populated. The population in these two provinces is composed mainly of different indigenous minorities. These minorities have been badly affected by such deforestation and acquisition of land. They have dramatically diminished their community forests and lands and have adversely affected their livelihood and culture.

These minorities practice slash and burn cultivation and gather forest products to make a living, and their way of life requires vast areas of forest and land. The country’s land law has recognized their communal ownership of land which includes the land and woodlands in their areas. Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an order to all authorities respectively in June 2004 and September 2006 to take action against deforestation and illegal acquisition of woodlands for private ownership.

Over the last couple of years land price has been dramatically spiraling upwards, doubling in a matter of a year or so in some areas. This price increase has generated much keener competition for land and aggravating land grabbing more than ever before.

SUGGEDTED ACTION:
Please write your letters to the authorities listed below to urge them to conduct investigation into the threats inflicted by the alleged bodyguards and relative of Prime Minister Hun Sen on the indigenous minority villagers in Rattanakiri province and by the army officer and his subordinates on the villagers in Kratie province, and also to take action against those perpetrators.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteru on the Question of Torture, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for interventions in this case.

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