Losing Ground - Human Rights Party.

Losing Ground
Killing Livestock & Livelihoods
Like many Cambodians with aspirations of upward
mobility, Teng Kav once dreamed of buying a car for
his family. But that was before he began a slow descent
into poverty after losing his farmland to the new sugar
plantation.
“I used to grow
watermelon, cashew nuts,
palm tree, mango, bamboo
and sweet tamarind on my
land,” said Mr. Kav, who
lives with his wife and
children in a wooden house
painted blue with a flower
box out front.
“My whole family worked
on the land, my wife and six
children. I grew rice to eat
and my family could earn
a minimum of $1,000 a
year. We had a field for our
buffalo and cow to graze. I
had more than 20 buffalo
and cow. Now I have only
seven or eight left.”
He explained that some
have been shot, and he had
to sell others to buy food,
and the prices the livestock
fetched were much lower
than they should have been.
He said his buffalo were so
thin he got only 500,000
riel ($125) for a buffalo that used to be worth 1.5
million riel ($375).The rest are dying of hunger and
will have to be sold, he said.
“In 2006 they shot my first cow. By the time I found
it, it already smelled bad. They shot two cows and
burned my cottage on December 8, 2006. The shooting
worsened in January. When [company employees]
were clearing our land the cow and buffalo wanted to
go where they always ate and drank. When the guards
saw them they shot our cows.”
“Now if we go to collect bamboo they stop us and
ask for money from us. If they catch our oxcart they
demand 60,000 riel
($15). They don’t allow
us to cut the thatch
for our roof. We need
firewood for cooking.
Normally, we go to
the forest, but now the
company catches us. We
need a lot of help. We
can tie the cow, but the
buffalo are strong, so
now my children have to
stay home from school
to look after them.
“Before the company
arrived I worked a lot
with my wife. We had
money to buy pens
and other things so the
children could go to
school. I thought in the
future my family could
buy a car and as I got
older my children could
harvest the fruit from
the orchard and sell it
in the market and make
a living. I had enough of everything: rice, land, buffalo
and cows. I could support my family without worry.
“I lived here since I married my wife in 1982. I went
into the forest and cut the trees to build my house.
Now I have a feeling in my heart that my children
will not have proper accommodations for life. Other
people here have the same problem.”
18 Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia