UPDATE (Cambodia): Ratanakiri authorities halted the bulldozing and clearing after forced eviction of the 115 hectares of indigenous community land

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had previously received information that the Ratanakiri provincial governor allegedly rejected the prosecutor’s decision, made on 16 November 2006, of halting the planned bulldozing of 115 hectares of disputed land in Chrung and Kachok villages, Kok commune, Bokeo district, Ratanakiri province. The land belongs to the local indigenous community and has been protected by the villagers in Kok commune. It was used for sustainable cultivation (see further: UA-382-2006). On December 2006, the Ratanakiri provincial authority had ordered the bulldozing of the land to be stopped and the 115 hectares returned to the indigenous community, after having received many reactions from the local NGOs and from the local media dissemination. We welcome the governor’s decision that the Ratanakiri authority is responsible for the villagers’ concern over the land grabbing issue in its region.

According to the information we have received, the Ratanakiri province governor Mr. Mourng Poy had ordered the provincial land dispute authority and Bokeo district authority to halt the workers from clearing the 115 hectares of controversial land which was allegedly illegally purchased by a businessman named Kim Mao. A Bokeo district governor Mr. Khum Sakhan, who is allegedly an accomplice of Kim Mao, carried out the Ratanakiri province governor’s order to stop the bulldozing and clearing of the land and to return the land to the indigenous community so that they may grow their crops as usual.

Further information reported that Ratanakiri province governor Mr. Mourng Poy intervened in this land dispute after receiving complaints from more than 200 Bokeo district villagers and a local NGO ADHOC as well as a report from the provincial police who investigated into this matter after court prosecutor Mey Sokhan ordered the investigation. After Mr. Mourng Poy got all these complaints, he set up a provincial working group to investigate the concerned land dispute.

The AHRC had requested the illegal land grabbing be halted in the concerned case since November 2006 and had directly spoken with Mr. Mourng Poy to ask him to stop the land grabbing as soon as possible on 8 May 2007. Regrettably, the governor did not show his willingness to intervene in this case at the time the AHRC interviewed him, but we are pleased to hear the news of the termination of the land grabbing of the concerned land.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Since 2004, the disputed land which is located about 50 km from Ratanakiri town has been quietly sold by an ethnic minority leader to a businessman named Kim Mao. Kim Mao then hired 64 year-old Lom Chor Commune Council member Puy Yong (a local ethnic minority leader) to clear the 115 hectares of land at a cost of US $300/hectare. If Kim Mao’s hired hand could not clear the land, he would then have to pay five times the amount in organising a legitimate private contractor. Puy Yong was then provided with a tractor, a bulldozer, as well as local workers to clear that land.  However, the demolition was met with resistance from roughly 840 villagers from the Chrung and Kachok Kok communes who clashed with the hired workers from the Kan Te and Lom Chor communes in the O’Yadaw district.

When Ratanakiri court prosecutor Mey Sokhan heard about the situation, he issued a warrant to stop the Kan Te and Lom Chor commune hired workers from bulldozing the land on 16 November 2006. The prosecutor ordered the provincial police to stop the bulldozing after 18 of the 840 residents of Chrung and Kachok villages, Kok commune, filed a complaint to the court. However, the Ratanakiri provincial governor Mourng Poy allegedly rejected the prosecutor’s decision and stopped the police from halting the demolition (see further: UA-382-2006).

The AHRC had then requested the authorities of Ratanakiri government to intervene in this unlawful and brutal exercise against the local indigenous populations since November 2006. The AHRC had a chance to talk with the Ratanakiri provincial governor Mr. Mourng Poy in early May of this year and he clearly showed his unwillingness to intervene in this case. He also showed his discomfort towards the involvement in this case of organizations from abroad.

However the AHRC appreciates the Ratanakiri authorities who have made the decision to intervene in this land dispute for the people who really need the land to grow crops for a sustainable economy. We applaud the Ratanakiri authorities for practicing the land law 2001 properly and respecting the Cambodian government policy, which is to promote the ban on illegal land grabbing and using violence in the course of land eviction. We expect this sort of peaceful solution and enforcement of law to become the norm in Cambodia.

We urge the Ratanakiri authorities to bring the alleged land grabbing perpetrators before court and examine their legal liability to the victims. We urge the Cambodian authorities to respect the rule of law in the country, especially the land law 2001, so that illegal land grabbing and illegal land eviction may effectively be eliminated.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please immediately write to the relevant authorities listed below, demanding their immediate investigation and intervention into this matter, so that the alleged land grabbing perpetrators will be brought before court.

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