Losing Ground - Human Rights Party.

Losing Ground
The sales to the Siem Reap town businesspeople occurred
about two weeks prior to the shootings, investigators say.
The Chi Kraeng farmers, who comprise 175 families,
cleared the land in the late 1980s, have been farming it since
then, and say it has been stolen from them. Since March 22
the land has been under guard by armed soldiers and police,
and residents of their villages say they have faced daily
harassment from police.
Visiting the Prime Minister
After crossing the border into Kompong Thom the farmers
regrouped, pooled their money, and travelled by minivantaxis
(6,000 riel, or $1.50 per person) to ADHOC's Phnom
Penh office. After thumb printing the complaint they tried
to deliver it in person to Prime Minister Hun Sen at his
estate about 30 minutes from the city’s center, in Kandal
province. They arrived at the entrance of the lane leading to
the estate at about 5pm on March 26.
One of human rights investigators accompanying them
noted: “This is the best time to arrive”. He explained that
people are more likely to get help when they arrive late in
the day, hungry and with no money.
“How can we live without our land? If I lose my land I
cannot live,” said Mr. Ban Yi outside Hun Sen’s compound.
The 50-year-old farmer said his two hectares yield six tons
of rice. (Yields on the land are 50 percent higher than the
national average of 2 tons per hectare and because the rice
is a dry season crop it can be sold when prices are rising,
farmers say.)
As is common in rural Cambodia, farmers are often heavily
in debt by the time their rice is ready to harvest, mainly
from borrowing to buy seeds and fertilizer. If they cannot
harvest they are often driven to moneylenders who charge
crippling interest rates.
Their heavy debts and their inability to repay them helped
fuel the Chi Kraeng farmers’ desperation for immediate
intervention from the prime minister, they said. “Hun Sen
does not know about this dispute, but by coming here he
will find out. He will solve our problem. I know people
come here to tell Hun Sen about their problems and he
solves them. He will solve ours,” Mr. Yi said.
Another human rights investigator said it was the farmers’
decision to petition the prime minister for personal and
immediate intervention. “Hun Sen is like god to the people.
They believe that if he knew what was happening he
would solve their problems,” he explained. “They get their
information from state TV, which always shows Hun Sen
solving problems. They never hear about all the problems he
doesn’t solve,” he added.
These photos of two farmers
hospitalized after the
crackdown have been widely
circulated throughout Chi
Kraeng commune. Police
tried to prevent taking of
the photos and later tried to
confiscate them.
Left: Mr. Loun Mein, 29,
was shot in both legs.
Right: Mr. Duey Khom,
33, was shot in the right
buttock and beaten on the
left side of his head.
Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia
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