Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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The chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Legislation and Justice has called for a united effort to safeguard the rights and interests of indigenous peoples.
Pen Panha said Cambodia paid attention to indigenous peoples in areas such as tradition, identity, land ownership, and rights to participate in politics, economic, social and cultural activities.

In a workshop titled “The Dissemination of Traditional Rules, Policies National and International Laws relating to the Indigenous Peoples” at the National Assembly yesterday he said indigenous people were protected by national and international laws and policies.

However, he admitted that they experienced challenges from economic and social changes in the areas where they lived. Their land, culture, language and traditions were also under pressure from development and globalisation, Mr Panha said.He urged ministries, institutions and local authorities to “continue to strengthen all data, share information and collaborate to address challenges and provide better services to indigenous peoples”.

Mr Panha also continued to push for identification and registration of community land, recognition of indigenous communities, and provision of legal ownership of collective land to the community, as well as the protection of the rights and interests of indigenous peoples.

Mong Vichet, representing the Highlanders Association, said hydropower dams, economic land concessions, social land concessions, mining concessions and tourism had helped the nation and the national economy to develop, but also affected the lives, land, culture and traditions of indigenous people.

“We ask for help. Indigenous people do not reject development but we ask for win-wins in which the community, government and our whole country will profit,” he said. “We ask for mitigation of the impact.”
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5085787/cal ... s-peoples/
Kouy ethnic minority member Sien Kheourn, 59, of Preah Vihear province’s Chey Sen district, said tribal people feared the loss of their farmland and trees due to Chinese companies digging mines.

“We do not want a ban on any location where the government wants to carry out developments, but in places where there is collective land and farming land, we would like to ask for the registration of that land for protection by indigenous people,” he said.
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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After five years, local protests continue over indigenous land in Preah Vihear province that has been granted to Chinese companies by the Cambodian government.

Organisations back Kuoy land claims
August 10, 2018
Two organisations aiming to restore indigenous land around the world on Wednesday expressed concern over land in Preah Vihear province after a major Chinese conglomerate began developing it with approval of the government.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-determination and Liberation said in a statement that it is collaborating with the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty to urge the governments of Cambodia and China to hold Guangdong Hengfu Group Sugar Industry accountable for the loss of indigenous land in Cambodia.

“We express solidarity to farmers and indigenous communities in Preah Vihear province in Cambodia, who have been struggling for more than five years to assert their rights over disputed land,” said IPMSDL global coordinator Beverly Longid.

“We hope that our global action will pressure both the governments of China and Cambodia to finally fulfil their mandate in protecting the welfare of affected people, especially indigenous Kuoy villagers,” Ms Longid added.

Roy Anunciacon, PCFS global secretariat coordinator, said that representatives of the indigenous Kuoy have been communicating with various international organisations including the United Nations for intervention.

Mr Anunciacon said that the Cambodian government has not done enough to settle disputes involving Chinese companies working throughout the country.

“While there are numerous laws and international conventions that provide measures on holding corporate violators accountable, it really takes [strong] political will for justice to take place,” he said. “In Preah Vihear, the people are exercising their right to protest. We stand with them and demand that Cambodia cancel its land concession with Hengfu, pull it out of Cambodia and hold it accountable for its violations.”

Hengfu, a sugar company based in China, was in 2011 and 2016 granted Economic Land Concessions of more than 42,000 hecatres in Preah Vihear by the Cambodian government.

Past research conducted by international NGOs in 2016 concluded that five of its subsidiaries received land, including Heng Nong, Heng Rui, Lan Feng, Heng You and Rui Feng.

The company opened a $360 million mill and refinery that same year with the aim of supplying sugar to markets in the European Union, India, and China.

Ang Cheatlom, Ponlok Khmer Organisation executive director, said the Chinese companies in Preah Vihear have grabbed indigenous lands.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50521266/o ... nd-claims/
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Rubber firm accused of clearing 10ha
Khorn Savi | Publication date 26 July 2019
Villagers from Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district have accused Try Pheap Engineering & Construction Co Ltd of clearing the remaining 10ha of community land in Romny commune’s O’por village, which was reserved for building a school, a hospital and a pagoda. The local authorities said it has no power to intervene.

A resident, who asked not to be named, told The Post on Thursday that the Boeung Tonle Mrech community land was rich in natural resources and the forest supports the livelihoods of the Kuoy ethnic community.

He said the area was acknowledged as community land by the Ministry of Environment in 2010, but it had been encroached upon by locals and people who moved in recently from other communities, and especially by the Try Pheap group that has been operating rubber plantations and growing cashew nuts in the area since 2011.

“The area was previously covered by forest, but now that has gone and all that remains now are cashew nuts and rubber plantations,” he said.

He added that the Boeung Tonle Mrech community land covered 2,351ha, most of which was forested, but 10ha was reserved for special purposes.

Try Pheap and local authorities had promised to build a school, a pagoda and a health centre on the reserved land for the people’s benefit, he said, but they had not done so.

The resident said that when Try Pheap encroached on the community land, the ethnic indigenous community protested and complained to local authorities for intervention.

But he said Try Pheap then filed a complaint against the people for interrupting the company’s work. The move, he said, was intended as intimidation so no one would dare protest again.

“The company sued several people. Some were charged by the court and will appear to answer questions on July 25.

“No one dares to interrupt them because the company is very rich. The villagers no longer protest because the company warned it would sue again,” he said.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... aring-10ha
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Landgrabs, deforestation and an increasingly-globalised Khmer culture are encroaching deep into the lands and lore of Cambodia's indigenous Bunong people
WHY WE WROTE THIS: Because economic development should not destroy tradition.
Tabitha Payne, SEA Globe
August 29, 2019

Speaking over the not-so-distant hum of chainsaws in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Briv*, an indigenous Bunong forest guide at Jahoo Gibbon Camp, admits that he would prefer that schools teach in both Khmer and Bunong. According to World Hope International (WHI), an international NGO doing community development work in Andong Kralong, a majority Bunong village by Jahoo Gibbon Camp, it is difficult for minorities to find public education in their own languages. This in turn makes learning an uphill battle for Bunong children who may have never spoken Khmer in their life – a marginalisation experienced by many ethnic minorities across Southeast Asia.

Briv values Khmer as “the language of the law”. Often caught up in land disputes over forested ancestral lands, the Bunong must know the law in order to protect the forest and their culture.

But, he adds, “Bunong culture is the law to protect the forest.”

This past week, images of the fires ravaging the Amazon to clear land for cultivation have shocked the international public. But for the Bunong, over the last 40 years, a less publicised blaze has been eating away at the jungles in which they had lived for an estimated two thousand years.

In 1973, 13.1 million hectares of forest blanketed Cambodia. By 2014, this had dropped to 8.7 million – marking the first time Cambodia had less forest cover than non-forest cover in that period, according to Open Development Cambodia (ODC), a Southeast Asia-based online open data source, using information from the Cambodian Department of Forestry Administration and analysis by a mapping team. According to 2017 NASA satellite imagery, only 3% of Cambodia’s primary forest still stands.

A voracious hunger for land and precious timber has gobbled up over half of Cambodia’s dense woodland, leaving the country the ninth most deforested in the world, going by an index drawn up by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm.
“If there is no forest, there are no more Bunong”
Briv, a Bunong forest guide
Since 2001, the Cambodian government has granted at least a million hectares of land to foreign investors and elites through its controversial scheme of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs). According to a 2015 report by Forest Trends, a Washington DC-based international NGO that works towards conservation through environmental finance, 80% of this leased land falls within the boundaries of protected forest, but those protections do not hinder agro-businesses from clearing thousands of hectares of forest. When this land is already occupied by local communities, disputes quickly flare up.

Three forest rangers were killed in Mondulkiri early last year in a showdown with loggers near the Vietnam border.

One of the three was a young Bunong man with two young children. For Briv, another forest guide, his young counterpart’s untimely death defending the very forest to which Bunong identity is inextricably linked highlights how logging is literally putting his people’s survival at risk.

The Bunong have found themselves at the crossroads of intense international interest in such natural resources – cornering them into bargaining just to remain on land they have lived on for millennia.

“If there is no forest,” says Briv, “there are no more Bunong.” He predicts the forest will be gone in a century – suggesting a precarious future for his people.
...
The Bunong, also known as the Phnong, number approximately 50,000 and represent the largest indigenous group living in Cambodia’s northeastern Mondulkiri province. Their culture is based on an interdependent relationship with the forest, as seen in their belief that objects in nature – mountains, water, animals and of course forests – all carry spirits that retaliate when disrespected, even bringing illness and other misfortunes to communities.

The Bunong belief system decrees that certain sacred pockets of wilderness, called spirit forests, must never be cut. The lives of animals such as elephants and gibbons are seen as equal to those of humans – they must never be hunted or eaten.
More here: https://southeastasiaglobe.com/uprooted/
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Indigenous Communities Want More Transparency Around Mining Projects
Hun Sirivadh
Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:37 pm

Indigenous community representatives told a forum on extractive industries on Friday that they were concerned about the effects mining projects in their areas could have on their health and livelihoods, and asked that they be better informed by companies and the government.

The forum, held in Phnom Penh under the topic “Toward Responsible Mineral Development in Cambodia,” gathered participants from government, civil society, the private sector and local communities.

Romas Mam, an indigenous Jaray representative from Ratanakiri province’s O’Yadaw district, said in his area an Indian firm was exploring for gold but it had not held any discussions with people in his community.

He had heard they would develop roads, a hospital and wells for clean water, but nothing had eventuated.

“I’m scared of chemical substances,” Mam added.

Tun Chheng, from Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district, where he said a Chinese firm was also seeking gold, spoke of his concerns about protecting natural landmarks sacred to his Kuy people.

“There is ancestral heritage in the area — indigenous people have worshipped, practiced their traditions passed down from ancestors,” Chheng said. “They could destroy the traditions of the indigenous Kuy.”

The villagers did not know the names of the companies operating in their areas, but licensees in their areas include Indian firm Mesco Gold, which is exploring for gold in Ratanakiri’s O’Yadaw, while Chinese investors in Delcom have said they envision an industrial hub centered around mining in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng, according to The Cambodia Daily.

Priscilla Ngero, interim country director for Oxfam in Cambodia, said the government should have a mechanism in place to inform people about mining projects in their areas and prevent disputes between companies and communities.

“A question that needs to be answered is how Cambodia can use ‘free and prior informed consent’ as a tool to prevent or minimize conflicts between mining companies and communities living in and adjacent to mining sites,” Ngero said.

According to a government report summarizing developments in extractive industries from 2013 to 2017, 492 licenses for mineral exploration were granted to 43 companies over those five years covering 7,643 square kilometres.

Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem told the forum that there was currently no law requiring prior consent from local communities.
https://vodenglish.news/indigenous-comm ... -projects/
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Mondulkiri community objects to land demarcation
Long Kimmarita | Publication date 12 December 2019 | 23:36 ICT

Representatives of the indigenous community in Mondulkiri province on Wednesday submitted three petitions to voice their objection against the planting of stone markers around the Doh Kramom mountain area by provincial officials last week.

However, provincial officials said the case is still under review.

A petition was submitted to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts while two others were submitted to the provincial governor and the provincial Department of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

All petitions expressed their opposition to the setting of stone markers around the area from December 5-6, which was witnessed by some members of the indigenous community and representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

Located in the province’s Sen Monorom town, Doh Kramom mountain is home to the Cultural Centre for Indigenous People. A government directive issued in 2004 designated 102ha from the foot of the mountain to the top for the centre.

However, representatives of the indigenous community last week said the planting of markers was only carried out on 85ha of land.

“Members of the indigenous community would like to announce their stance against the planting of boundary markers, No 42 to 50. The markers were not planted properly by the specialist officials and so failed to protect the centre completely,” the petition said.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... emarcation

Back story to the article above:
Bunong families petition PM
Khorn Savi | Publication date 04 July 2019 | 08:52 ICT
Four villagers representing more than 1,800 Bunong ethnic families who are embroiled in a territorial spat in Mondulkiri province petitioned two ministries and Prime Minister HE on Wednesday.

They want the authorities to push the local authority to revoke the private ownership of a portion of state-owned land around Doh Kramom Mountain.

Nan Dany, one of the villagers from Sen Monorom town, said he and three others from Koh Nhek, O’Raing and Pech Chreada districts sought intervention from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, as well as HE’s cabinet, in an attempt to reverse the provincial administration’s decision which saw 15 out of 102ha of state-owned land granted to private entities.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... etition-pm
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Mondulkiri, 7 Feb 2020
Mondulkiri officials ‘cleared forest’
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

Post by SternAAlbifrons »

I am not sure if most of us realise just how raw guts brave these individuals and 'civil society' organisations really are.
Sticking their necks right out on the flimsiest limbs to shout out their lonely cry of challenge for all the world to hear
- here.

again and again and again
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 2:43 am Mondulkiri, 7 Feb 2020
Mondulkiri officials ‘cleared forest’
The struggle continues for the Bunong villagers, who allege that the man who represented them in land claims against Mondulkiri officials has now stolen much of the land conceded to them and sold it off illegally .

Poor families claim land concession sold to others
Khouth Sophak Chakrya | Publication date 04 March 2020 | 23:53 ICT

A group of 160 poor families from the Bunong indigenous community in Mondulkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have filed a complaint against their representative, accusing him of selling land earmarked for them as part of a social land concession.

Community member Kroeung Tola told The Post on Wednesday that the 160 families were entitled to 2,400ha to be divided between them as stated in a sub-decree in 2012, but as of now, most of the poor families had not received their plots.

He claimed that community representative Sos Milen plundered the 2,400ha and began selling it off to other residents and civil servants from other areas who were not included in the list of approved families by the sub-decree.

“After receiving 2,400ha from the relevant authorities, Sos Milen, who represents the 160 poor families, took a large portion of their land to sell to residents and civil servants who came from other areas for $500 to $ 1,500 per hectare,” he said.

He said distributing or selling the land concessions to residents outside the area who were not approved to receive it is illegal.

The community has now taken the case to the Mondulkiri Provincial Court, intending to have it intervene and have the land returned to its rightful recipients.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... old-others
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Re: Cambodia's Indigenous Peoples ask for help

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Indigenous People Protest Over Farmland in Keo Seima Sanctuary
4 min read
Khan Leakhena
Wed May 6, 2020 9:03 pm

More than 200 indigenous people in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district protested on Tuesday for access to farmland inside a wildlife sanctuary, which the Environment Ministry banned them from last month, citing conservation laws.

Bun Nat, a representative of the protesters, said 250 ethnic minority Bunong and Kuy people gathered at the Keo Seima District Hall to call on officials to allow them to use land that some say they have farmed for more than five years.

Nat said the farmland is the sole source of income for indigenous people in O Am and Orona villages in Sre Khtum commune, so cutting them off from the land prevents them from earning any money.

“We are farmers so if they don’t allow us to farm and benefit from growing cassava, what do we have to eat?” he told VOD. “Some people borrow money from microfinance institutions for farming, and now they are not allowed to do so, so what do they have to pay the bank?”

Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said the villagers were banned from farming the disputed land because it was in a protected area.

He said the ministry did not recognize any claims to land acquired through illegal clearing and encroachment and asked people to stop building huts within state forests.

Authorities would take legal actions against offenders, and those who needed land should apply for social land concessions through local officials, Pheaktra added.

San Sokhom, another protester, said residents of the villages had farmed the land since 2013, but it was only in April that authorities ordered them to abandon the area. Sokhom said that he and his peers asked commune and district authorities for a solution twice, and decided to demonstrate in front of the district hall after receiving no response.
Full article: https://vodenglish.news/indigenous-peop ... sanctuary/
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