‘Burst’ of Land Disputes Sees Dozens of Cambodians Charged: Rights Group

 
Cambodian authorities have charged nearly half as many villagers in land dispute cases in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2013, a local rights group said Thursday, adding that most of the rows stemmed from government-granted land concessions.

Following a “burst” of new land disputes, 48 people were charged for their alleged roles in land disputes in the first quarter of 2014 alone and 12 among them had been detained, compared to 100 people charged and 20 detained last year, Adhoc said in a new report.Speaking at a press conference in Phnom Penh, Adhoc director Thun Saray said that the majority of the disputes had arisen from land concessions and called on the government to take responsibility for resolving the crisis by ending the practice.

“The government’s policy on agriculture is a mistake,” he said of how Prime Minister Hun Sen’s administration had continued to allow concessions to operate despite an order he gave in May 2012 temporarily suspending those that have led to land grabs and illegal logging activities.“We have seen that land concessions encroach on villagers’ land and crops where they used to live in harmony. The companies came and destroyed their property,” he said.“We have sub-decrees on land concessions, but there is no implementation. This is a problem.”

Thun Saray said that in order to reduce land disputes in the future, the government must “completely end the practice of granting land concessions” and “confiscate any land from companies that don’t follow their agreements with the government.”If the government continues to grant concessions, he said, companies should end the practice of evicting villagers and instead provide them with crops to grow that can be sold in foreign markets.“This way, both the people and the companies will benefit, and the government can benefit through tax collection,” he said.

According to the Adhoc report, at least 770,000 people—about six percent of the population—have been negatively affected by encroachment on their land since 2000.Those affected by the disputes often face the loss of their homes or the forests they subsist on, as well as poor relocation packages.Some 2 million hectares (4.94 million acres) have been granted as land concessions in Cambodia, mostly in Preah Vihear, Siem Reap and Ratanakiri provinces, the report said.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told RFA’s Khmer Service that the government had “reformed and reduced” land disputes cases, adding that Adhoc’s report “doesn’t reflect the [situation] throughout the country.”He said there are three main types of land conflict in Cambodia—one between villagers and companies, another between villagers and companies granted land concessions, and a third involving villagers who encroach on public land.“We are allowing all sides to participate in resolving the issues,” he said.“Those [disputes which involve] complicated issues, we will investigate in greater detail.”

Also on Tuesday, a group of around 400 members of the Kouy indigenous ethnic minority filed complaints through the Preah Vihear provincial court against Chinese companies Rui Feng and Lan Feng, accusing the two of perpetrating crimes against humanity in a forced eviction.

Adhoc provincial coordinator Lor Chan told RFA that the approximately 400 families from Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district took the action because the two companies had forced them off of their land, “preventing them from farming, and they regard those actions as a crime against humanity.”The villagers demanded that the companies compensate them for damages, which included “thousands of hectares of forest.”Community representative Svay Poeun said he would like the court to investigate the allegations of deforestation.

“We would like the court to discuss with the companies how to resolve the problem of the villagers’ land being cleared,” he said.Provincial prosecutor Ly Lon said he had received the complaint and pledged to investigate the case.“We need to conduct preliminary investigation to see if the companies have breached the law,” he said.“If we have enough evidence, I will send the case to the investigating judge.”RFA was unable to reach either of the two Chinese companies for comment.

But villagers said that the government’s policy of giving land concessions to private companies had led to the destruction of their culture.They said that one of the companies had already cleared about half of 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres) which were previously occupied by residents.Currently, five companies have been awarded 42,000 hectares (103,785 acres) of land in three districts in the area, they said.

Bitter problem

Land disputes are a bitter problem for Cambodia, where rural villagers and urban dwellers alike have been mired in conflicts that the U.N.’s special rapporteur for human rights to Cambodia has warned could threaten the country’s stability.In addition to the suspension and review of land concessions, Hun Sen established a land titling program in late 2012 relying on more than 2,000 student volunteers to measure plots and distribute documentation, but critics have said the campaign lacks transparency and independent monitoring.

The World Bank halted funding to Cambodia in 2011 after state security forces helped to violently evict thousands of families from the Boeung Kak lake community in Phnom Penh to make way for a real estate project in one of the country’s most-high profile cases.The country’s land issues date from the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime, which forced large-scale evacuations and relocations, followed by a period of mass confusion over land rights and the formation of squatter communities when the refugees returned in the 1990s after a decade of civil war.

For communities, threats routine

 
Two disputes involving a land developer with ties to the highest ranks of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party have once again exposed the lack of justice faced by impoverished communities in the capital, affected residents and rights groups have said.In Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kork district, three families are holding out against a daily routine of threats and intimidation from a group of “gangsters” they say have been ordered to make their lives a living hell by tycoon Khun Sear, a politically connected businessman who has major interests in agriculture and real estate.
Since last year, Mok Seav Horng has taken to bolting herself in her corrugated tin shack day and night to prevent the men from stealing her property.

“They threaten us with metal bars and samurai swords,” she said of the dozen or so men keeping a lethargic watch over the houses. “It’s very hot in the house, but I’m afraid of being outside in case the security guards move into the house to destroy my things.”Sear’s company, registered as Khun Sea Import Export, intends to open a garage on the site, according to documents in which the company claims it gained ownership of the land after cutting a deal with the authorities in 2010.But the involved families say the company’s high-level political connections have resulted in the government ignoring multiple attempts to register the land, even prior to the 2010 agreement.

Yim Leang, son of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly and head of Senate President Chea Sim’s bodyguard unit, is listed as a major shareholder in the company. Leang’s sister, Yim Chhay Lin, married Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son, Hun Many, in 2004.Representatives of Khun Sea Import Export could not be reached yesterday.“The authorities, the courts, the company – they are cooperating in a very cruel way to evict these families,” Nan Ony, legal officer with the Housing Rights Task Force, said.The Council of Ministers issued a letter in October 2010 effectively signing over the land to Sear, a decision formalised by City Hall’s cadastral department last year.

Workers erect a brick wall next to a road on contested land yesterday in Phnom Penh. Pha Lina

“Even though it’s a small plot of land and just a few families, I think it’s the most serious violation in Cambodia, because they are [intimidating the families] every day in front of the authorities,” Ony said.The dispute came to a head last year after a series of reported attacks against the families, including assaults by men armed with metal bars and axes, raw sewage being poured on their houses, and even a bag of cobras being thrown into one house.

“Nothing has been done to protect us and no one has been arrested. They are using thugs and security forces to push us out and monitor us all the time,” Seav Horng said.As Sear seeks to expand his business empire, other communities are becoming embroiled in disputes with the tycoon.In Meanchey district, Khun Sear is developing large tracts of land along the under-construction Techo Hun Sen Boulevard. On Tuesday, 170 families in the district’s Chak Angre Leu commune filed a complaint to City Hall after the company began to build a wall obstructing the access road into Prek Tanou village.

Tech Sim, 51, a representative of the villagers, said the community is worried that fire engines will not be able to access the village if the authorities do not intervene.“We are not against his [Khun Sear’s] development, but we need him to give back our road to allow fire trucks to come here when fires break out,” she said.Chreang Sophan, deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said he did not know precisely what the company was building in Prek Tanou.“We will open the meeting with the villagers in order to resolve their problem, and we have sent officials to investigate,” he said.
Chan Soveth, senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, said that the two disputes are indicative of a system that provides for the rich before the poor.“Most of the government officials display favouritism towards the rich. They are not brave enough to take responsibility and find the evidence to provide justice for poor communities,” he said. Sok Huch, 48, said she has lost her income as a medic because she has been too afraid to leave her house at the Tuol Kork site.“We cannot go outside to earn a living. I am skilled as a medic, I used to treat people in the clinic. But now I cannot leave my house,” she said.

South Sudan peace talks to start in Ethiopia

The US says it is not optimistic that Friday's one-day talks will produce an immediate result.
The conflict has left thousands dead and more than one million homeless.The UN has accused both sides of crimes against humanity, including mass killings, sexual slavery and gang-rape.

"Widespread and systematic" atrocities were carried out in homes, hospitals, mosques, churches and UN compounds, a UN report said on Thursday, calling for those responsible to be held accountable.

An estimated five million people are in need of aid, the UN says.South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of conflict with the Khartoum government.'Step forward'A peace deal was signed by the two leaders in January but failed to bring an end to the violence."I don't believe that [the two sides] will reach an agreement straight away," US Ambassador to South Sudan Susan Page said during a radio call-in show.

A deal brokered by Kenya on Thursday that will result in treason charges against several South Sudanese politicians being dropped is being seen as a step towards ending the country's brutal civil war

Both President Salva Kiir (R with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) and rebel leader Riek Macha are under intense diplomatic pressure to reach an agreement

"But if they can agree on a broad-based process on how to resolve the conflict, end the fighting, that would be a step forward."Ms Page said that people wanted peace and could not understand why the country should have descended into war barely three years since independence.
Peace mediators in Ethiopia confirmed that Mr Machar arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday in preparation for the talks in Addis Ababa.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in an interview that the talks between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar should include an outline for an inclusive transitional government.
"Otherwise, there will be consequences that will follow," he said. "We will increase our pressure on the parties. Even tougher measures will follow in the coming weeks if there is no political will to solve the crisis."Correspondents say more far-reaching international sanctions could be imposed against both sides if there is no discernible progress in reaching an agreement.

The violence began when President Kiir accused sacked deputy Mr Machar, of plotting a coup.
Mr Machar denied the allegation, but then marshalled a rebel army to fight the government.
The battle assumed ethnic overtones, with Mr Machar relying heavily on fighters from his Nuer ethnic group and Mr Kiir from his Dinka community.The UN has about 8,500 peacekeepers in South Sudan, which became the world's newest state after seceding from Sudan in 2011.
However, they have struggled to contain the conflict, and the government has accused the UN mission of siding with the rebels.It denies the allegation.

Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic.

Woman naked for 50 years

Upon seeing strangers, Dong hastily covered her body with a blanket.

Dong’s village is situated in the Da Bac District’s Tien Phong Commune. To meet with her, reporters had to scale dozens of steep, slippery slopes.
Mr. Khanh, the guide, explained that, even when it's very cold, with temperatures down to 9-10 degrees Celsius, Dong does not wear anything.
"She is very healthy. Whether it is cold or hot, rainy or sunny, she is still naked. Only on extremely cold days does she stay at home to be near the fire,” Khanh said.
Upon seeing strangers, Dong hastily covered her body with a blanket. But after the guide’s introduction in the Muong language, her reticence seemed to ease, and she became less shy. Appearing much older than her real age, with sunken eyes and wrinkled face, she said: "I do not know why I cannot wear clothes. If I put them on, I feel uncomfortable, irritable and itchy, and I just want to tear them into pieces".
Despite never wearing clothes, this strange woman has never been sick at all. "My body is healthy, the skin is very thick. I don’t feel the cold," she added.
She pulled away the blanket, revealing her bare back with rough and blackened skin.

Ms. Dong's house on stilts.

"Previously I was very frustrated. I did not dare to appear in front of others. But gradually I have stopped hiding myself from my fellow villagers. Only before strangers must I shield my body. I know that I’m strange and it is a miserable existence for me, but I cannot do anything about it."
Dong is the fifth child in a family of six brothers and sisters. At birth, she was normal like any other child. Everything changed when she was 5 years old, after family upheaval.
Her parents died young from diseases. Relatives took four of Dong’s siblings to Dak Lak, but left Dong and her younger sister. The changes were a shock to Dong. From a normal child, she became taciturn. And, she lost the habit of wearing clothes.
At first, because she was so small, the villagers paid little attention to her. But as she grew up, neighbors recognized there was something strange about her, but found that it was too late to change her behavior.
Some initially thought she was too poor to afford anything to wear, so they gave her clothes. She received them but she did not wear them. If she was forced to wear clothes, she tore them off after several minutes.
The villagers knew that Dong was not mad because she was very intelligent. So they believed that she was haunted or under a spell. They invited exorcists to "chase away the ghosts", but that proved fruitless.
Although Dong does not wear clothes, her life remains normal. Every day, she goes to work like everyone else in the village. She goes to the field to plant rice and cassava and to the river to catch fish.
Mr. Dinh Van Tan, the village chief said: "Many times I saw her going into the forest to pick firewood with clothes in her basket. She’d put them on before climbing up a tree. After gathering firewood, she’d take off the clothes again and return them to her basket. She said she wore clothes to climb trees to avoid being scratched."
A fisherman says each time she goes fishing, Dong is also nude. She stands to row very powerfully. But every time another boat passes, she sits down, turns her back or covers her body with something until the boat is fairly distant.
"I was very curious about Ms. Dong at first, but then I felt pity for her, so when we accidentally saw her, we deliberately avoided her so she could do her job comfortably," the fisherman said.
It is not easy to force Dong to wear clothes. Even her relatives and her younger sister cannot persuade the woman to wear clothes.
"Once provincial officials paid a visit to our village. Several local officials bought nice clothes for my sister. Some villagers gathered to help her get dressed but when the clothes were just put on my sister, she almost went mad and began tearing them apart. She even tore the clothes with a knife. Since then no one has dared to force my sister to wear clothes," said Dong’s sister.
The sister said that Dong refused medical checkups. Sometimes medical workers asked the police to help but after seeing doctors and police officers, Dong hid herself in forest for several days.
Given her odd habit, Dong could not have her own family. That doesn’t concern her, or so she professes. But what does trouble her is guilt over the plight of her younger sister. "Because of me, my sister cannot get married,” she said in tears.

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck to face impeachment over rice program

 

Ousted Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces impeachment by her country's Senate, following an announcement by an anti-corruption body the day after a top court removed her from office.Members of the National Anti-Corruption Committee unanimously decided to indict Yingluck for dereliction of duty over her government's controversial rice subsidy scheme, and will ask the Senate to impeach her, NACC member Wicha Mahakun told reporters in Bangkok Thursday.

Asked how the 46-year-old could be impeached when she had already been dismissed from the premiership, Wicha said the case still needed to be reviewed by the Senate, as Yingluck could be banned from holding political office for five years if impeached.

Analysts had speculated that Yingluck's replacement as caretaker prime minister, Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, may also be implicated in the affair, but Wicha did not announce any measures against the new premier.He said a committee looking into potential criminal charges against Yingluck had not yet found evidence to lay charges. But another committee considering her potential impeachment had found evidence that she had neglected her duties to prevent damage to the country.

The program, introduced in 2011, pledged to pay farmers well above the market rate for their rice, but has run into financial problems.Critics say it has wasted large amounts of public funds trying to please rural voters, hurting exports and leaving the government with large stockpiles of rice it can't sell without losing money.

'Political freefall'

The news broke as both sides of Thailand's political divide are vowing mass rallies in Bangkok in the wake of the former prime minister's ousting, with analysts warning the country faces "political freefall" and the potential resumption of violent clashes.As tensions and rhetoric escalated Thursday, officials confirmed a grenade had been thrown at the house of one of the Constitutional Court judges whose ruling Wednesday forced Yingluck Shinawatra and nine cabinet ministers from office, in what her supporters see as a "judicial coup."Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut, security advisor to the Prime Minister, said nobody was hurt in the early morning attack on the home of judge Jumpot Kaimook. "It landed on his garage," he said.The court removed Yingluck, who was elected in 2011 and had been serving as caretaker prime minister until elections could be held, after finding her guilty of violating the country's constitution for reassigning a senior security official in 2011.

The official was replaced by the then national police chief, whose role in turn was given to Priewpan Damapong, a relative of Yingluck. Damapong is the brother of the ex-wife of Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother who was overthrown as prime minister in a military coup in 2006 and has since lived in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction.

'Polarization to intensify'

The dismissal of Yingluck, who has been replaced by Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong, has deepened Thailand's protracted political crisis, which has occasionally spilled over into deadly violence.Analysts say the move has heightened the risk of clashes between opposing camps, and made near-term compromise solutions unlikely."The post-Yingluck polarization is likely to deepen and intensify," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University."We are now looking at a political freefall... Much worse looks likely in the near term, before we can hope for improved circumstances in the longer term."Analyst Paul Quaglia, director at PQA Associates, a Bangkok-based risk assessment firm, said the court's removal of an elected prime minister on what he described as "fairly weak" grounds was viewed by the government's supporters as a case of politically motivated judicial overreach.

"They consider it a way to usurp democratic elections," he said.

Yingluck is the third Thaksin-linked prime minister to be dismissed by the Constitutional Court, which also dissolved Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai political party in 2007, raising suspicions among government supporters that the institution was biased against them.Thitinan said the appointment as caretaker prime minister of Niwatthamrong, seen as closely affiliated to Yingluck and her brother, was poor judgment, especially when another deputy prime minister, Pongthep Thepkanchana, would have been a more acceptable compromise candidate."He lacks the stature and networks to see through an interim caretaker administration," he said. "Nevertheless, no matter who comes in as the new caretaker, the tensions will mount."

Widening divide

Thailand's widening political divide pits anti-government, predominantly urban "yellow shirt" protesters against the pro-government, mainly rural and working class "red shirts."

The yellow shirts, drawn mainly from Bangkok's middle class, royalist establishment, allege that Yingluck is her brother's puppet and seek to rid Thai politics of her family's influence.

Led by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), they began their protests in November, outraged by her government's botched attempt to pass an amnesty bill that would have paved the way for the return of Thaksin to the political fray in earnest.

Parliament was then dissolved in December ahead of a February general election that was disrupted by anti-government protesters, and subsequently ruled invalid by the Constitutional Court.

The yellow shirts are seeking a new government -- but not through elections, which the opposition Democrat Party has boycotted, arguing the alleged corruption of their political rivals makes widespread reform necessary before any meaningful vote can be held.

"They claim the Thaksin clan as they call (it) is corrupt and has dominated the country's politics, and the only way forward is to remove the Thaksin influence from politics and not have elections," said Quaglia.PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister for the Democrat Party, has instead called for power to be transferred to an unelected "people's council."

But Quaglia said the opposition's real motivation for avoiding elections was clear.

"The Democrat Party say 'No, we can't have elections,' because they know they will lose those elections."

In contrast, the red shirt supporters of Yingluck and her brother, many of whom hail the north and northeast of the country, accuse the court of bias against their side.Hundreds of protesters from the anti-government PDRC gathered in Bangkok Thursday as they have for six months, calling on supporters to join them for a mass rally Friday to push for a new government.PDRC spokesman Akanat Phrompan told CNN his movement did not recognize the legitimacy of the caretaker government."Currently there is no government to govern this country, so we must find a way to appoint a new government."'Breaking point'Meanwhile, the red shirts are planning their own rally in Bangkok Saturday to protest what Quaglia said they saw as "a judicial coup."In the wake of the court's ruling Wednesday, supporters at the red shirts' Bangkok headquarters were defiant.

"This is the breaking point now, everything is leading up to the breaking point," Kanthira Ketawandee, a Bangkok piano teacher and Yingluck supporter, told CNN. "I would say Yingluck has died (in) her duty for democracy."Thida Thavornset, a red shirt leader, urged supporters to join Saturday's rally. "We won't give up until we win."Elections are scheduled for July 20, but Thitinan said he believed it was "unlikely" that a vote would proceed in the wake of recent developments."The PDRC appears intent on pressing on for an appointment government of its preference, which can only galvanize red shirt protests," he said. "A showdown is looming."