Losing Ground - Human Rights Party.

Losing Ground
resident who had taken photos of the land clearing activities,
was murdered by three chops of an ax to the back of the
neck.
An In was “an activist,” explained his older brother An
Leoun. “He took photos of the people’s land when the
bulldozers came.”
Mr. Leoun said he submitted a complaint about the murder
to the court, but nothing came of it.
The commune chief, when asked about the murder,
mentioned a range of possible motives. He said it was
possible the farmer was killed by an “enemy” or that he could
have fallen victim to “magic” or “sickness.”
After three years, events are taking a toll on the families.
“Our people’s lives are miserable now. We have very little
food from day to day. It is very hard for us to get vegetables
to eat. If I go to my land to find fruit I am not allowed in.
[Guards] tell me if I do it they will accuse me of trying to
burn their sugar cane,” said one resident who lives on a dirt
road back from the highway in Chouk Village.
Rin Souphan, 41, who lives in Chikor Village, said he used
to earn $1,000 a year and could live off his land where he
grew cashew nuts and jackfruit. He could send his children
to school. “The living was enough.” Now every morning he
and his wife mix coconut, water and flour to make a tray of
small cakes they sell for a few hundred riel each, earning
$1.25 if people buy all of them.
“It is difficult now and we are scared,” he said.
Koh Kong’s Tycoon
According to media reports the Cambodian
senator’s companies have the following holdings or
licenses in Koh Kong province:
Sand mining license to dredge sand, which is
exported to Singapore.
Casino hotel on the border of Koh Kong and
Thailand.
Koh Kong Special Economic Zone, which
is reportedly about to get its first factory, an
assembly plant for South Korean automobile maker
Hyundai.
His foreign partners in the sugar cane factory
and plantation are Thai company Koh Kaen Sugar
Industry Public Co. Ltd, and Taiwanese partner Ve
Wong Corp.
He is well known in ruling party circles and is
a contributor to causes. For example, on March
16 when the head of the Cambodian Red Cross
made a red carpet visit to its Koh Kong office TV
reports showed the senator giving her a $30,000
donation.
Opposite page: A notice from
the commune council warning
farmers that livestock that stray on
to “company land” will be seized and
fines will have to be paid to retrieve
them.
Left: Kong Song, a village
spokesman in Sre Ambel District,
says “we need someone to help us
very soon.”
Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia
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