Land Grabbing in Cambodia

We received some great news recently that Deutsche Bank in Australia has selected ActionAid Australia as one of its two “Charities of the Year” for 2012. We are going to be working with Deutsche Bank in Koh Sla Commune in Kampot Province and I was privileged to visit this former Khmer Rouge area in July this year.

The people of Koh Sla have multiple challenges they are bravely struggling with which include ensuring children have access to free, high quality education and food insecurity. The food security and general livelihoods challenges are amplified by the actions of other stakeholders in the commune.

For example in 2008-2009 the government gave 9000 hectares of public land, which was being used for agriculture by the community, to a private company, World Tristar Entertainment, a subsidiary company of the Songuon Group under the economic concessions legislation. This company plans to use the land for commercial farming to increase food exports and is currently looking for foreign investors to partner with them in this venture. No compensation was provided to the local people for their loss of their livelihoods.

The people affected by the land grabbing have discussed the situation with the commune leader with no initial results. They also met with the company which led to a fight and the company guards shooting a number of the villagers with a number of people wounded but no one killed. No charges have been laid.

In addition the company has reportedly used chemicals to clear the vegetation which affected fruit/ pepper trees/local water supply and led to the hospitalisation of 95 people with acute vomiting and diarrhoea. The villagers have observed the companies moving large quantities of logs out of the area. Community leaders have been threatened with kidnapping and the community has had to mobilise large groups of people to protect their leaders.

In later discussions between the community and the commune chief he recognised that the land is public land and belongs to the community although this hasn’t been recognised by the district chief or the Provincial Governors Office. As a result of this negotiation the company has agreed that 3000 hectares belongs to the community although it maintains it owns 4200 hectares of the land A further 1800 hectares remains in dispute and this is illustrated in the photo attached to this post.

The community remains locked in dispute with the company and one of their big challenges is for the entire community to join the struggle as a number of women felt it was only the people directly affected by the land grab who were engaging in the struggle. There is also a need for the community to become more familiar with the Kampot Five Year Development Plan and government legislation which is an ongoing initiative that ActionAid and our local partner, CWDCC, are working on. The struggle continues.