Land grabs leave thousands destitute in Cambodia

CHHOUK VILLAGE – Tieng Khov has only enough food to feed his family for the next few weeks – leftovers from last year’s harvest that were brought in before the bulldozers came to plough under his crops.

The 46-year-old says he is tired, but the anger has not gone out of him; like hundreds of families in this farming community in southwestern Cambodia, he suddenly lost everything to the Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company land concession that overtook his rice fields and orchard. “We still have a surplus of crops from last year, but when that runs out, we will die,” says Tieng Khov, who lost 17 hectares of land.”They’ve killed the animals, they’ve threatened the people and they’ve stolen the land,” he said.Behind him the 9 700-hectare Koh Kong Sugar concession, one of the largest in Cambodia, stretches in an arc along the foot of some low hills, a vast gash of bare earth and smoking brush cuttings.A moat has been dug around the border, and armed police stand guard, turning away the curious.Koh Kong Sugar, one of at least 57 ventures awarded “economic land concessions” since 1992 under a plan to turn fallow fields into export crop plantations, is a glaring example of how Cambodia is being parcelled out to politically connected companies, land rights advocates said.This “land grab,” as the activists call it, has dispossessed tens of thousands and fuelled a growing anger at the government’s disregard for its most vulnerable people, they said.Most of those left homeless by land seizures are poor farmers or urban slum dwellers with little or no political leverage.Only some are compensated for their losses and of those who do get money, few are paid anywhere near fair market value for land that is often re-sold for hundreds of dollars a square metre (yard).”Almost no economic land concessions in Cambodia involve consultations with the residents in the communities,” says one lawyer with the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC).”We can see that land grabbing has increased every day – evictions, conflicts between the poor and the rich taking their land,” said the lawyer, who asked that his name not be used.Land records were largely destroyed by the communist Khmer Rouge, which forced most of Cambodia’s population onto vast collective farms during their rule in the late 1970s.Nampa-AFP”We still have a surplus of crops from last year, but when that runs out, we will die,” says Tieng Khov, who lost 17 hectares of land.”They’ve killed the animals, they’ve threatened the people and they’ve stolen the land,” he said.Behind him the 9 700-hectare Koh Kong Sugar concession, one of the largest in Cambodia, stretches in an arc along the foot of some low hills, a vast gash of bare earth and smoking brush cuttings.A moat has been dug around the border, and armed police stand guard, turning away the curious.Koh Kong Sugar, one of at least 57 ventures awarded “economic land concessions” since 1992 under a plan to turn fallow fields into export crop plantations, is a glaring example of how Cambodia is being parcelled out to politically connected companies, land rights advocates said.This “land grab,” as the activists call it, has dispossessed tens of thousands and fuelled a growing anger at the government’s disregard for its most vulnerable people, they said.Most of those left homeless by land seizures are poor farmers or urban slum dwellers with little or no political leverage.Only some are compensated for their losses and of those who do get money, few are paid anywhere near fair market value for land that is often re-sold for hundreds of dollars a square metre (yard).”Almost no economic land concessions in Cambodia involve consultations with the residents in the communities,” says one lawyer with the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC).”We can see that land grabbing has increased every day – evictions, conflicts between the poor and the rich taking their land,” said the lawyer, who asked that his name not be used.Land records were largely destroyed by the communist Khmer Rouge, which forced most of Cambodia’s population onto vast collective farms during their rule in the late 1970s.Nampa-AFP