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Mondulkiri provincial authorities allegedly forced Bunong indigenous residents to leave a disputed coffee plantation land after a seven-day deadline expired on October 24, with several villagers being briefly detained for questioning.
The residents said the coffee plantation project by Eysan Eco Zone Co., Ltd threatened their farmland, sacred forests and traditional livelihoods after the authorities granted the land to a private company without consultation.
One of the residents involved in the incident was Bunong Indigenous Pern Moh, who lives in Pu Teurt village. She said in a video that police and military police officers forcefully dragged her, hurting and causing her severe pain. She said she was “treated like a criminal”.
Moh said she had been farming on the land which had been left vacant after previous disputes with other companies, adding that provincial authorities had allocated the land to villagers for cultivation.
“I farm on the land that we previously protested against with regard to investment companies. The provincial governor [then] allocated the land to the people. We did not encroach the company’s land,” she said.
During the scuffle against the authorities, residents said force was used against them, including women. They were handcuffed and forced to put their thumbprints on documents.
One resident, who declined to be named for fear of arrest, said she was present when authorities came to demolish farm shelters built by villagers, witnessing the violence.
She said authorities summoned her for questioning around 10 a.m. and released her about 6 p.m. that day. Her release came with an undertaking that residents stop protesting over the land and refrain from speaking publicly about the issue.
But the incident has left her frightened. It was the first time she saw authorities using violence against unarmed residents who were defending their right on the land they had been cultivating, she said.
“They did not come to ask questions; they came to intimidate us. This is not how problems should be solved. They used violence. Some people were handcuffed. Others were injured when authorities pushed them,” she said.
Residents are concerned for their safety and are afraid to return to the site for fear of being detained.
She said other people do not want the development project, noting that the actions taken against them and resulting consequences were unacceptable. She hoped senior officials at the relevant ministries would reconsider the matter.
“Ordinary people have no power. We [have] suffered at the hands of previous companies [concessionaires], and now we are suffering again,” she said.
‘No arrest, only statement’
In a video recorded by residents and posted on Facebook on October 23, Mondulkiri Deputy Governor Chhak Meng Heang was filmed saying that the disputed site was part of the former Phnom Nam Lear area.
He said the land belongs to the state. About 3,000 hectares has been leased to Eysan Eco Zone for coffee cultivation to generate tax revenue as well as to protect Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.
He said residents should request land from the state if they needed it but they must first possess existing land before applying for registration.
Authorities could identify the land’s status by “examining tree stumps”, he said, adding that the residents were “fortunate not to have been arrested for clearing it”.
“If the villagers claimed that it was really their farmland, then they were fortunate that authorities did not arrest them when they cleared the land and planted crops,” he said a week ago.
Meng Heang urged residents to register their land through the provincial land management department. He said the Pu Teurt community’s recognition as a Bunong Indigenous community “cannot itself establish land rights”.
He gave residents seven days to dismantle their shelters, saying the state had already leased the land for coffee cultivation.
“If they had been arrested, they would already have been sent to prison,” he said.
Mondulkiri Deputy Governor Chan Rathana told CamboJA News that authorities did not detain residents in the latest incident, as alleged. He said district authorities had “merely called them in to prepare a report”.
When asked about possible solutions, the authorities’ position on the investment project and residents’ requests, Rathana said he could not speak to journalists without first obtaining permission from senior officials.
“I am only a deputy governor, but I want to clarify that there was no detention,” he said.
Stop the violence
Sreum Chhounh, head of the Indigenous Peoples Community Network, told CamboJA News that residents had been detained and taken to the Pechreada district office for questioning and required to sign an undertaking.
He said authorities should not have acted violently, as residents were exercising their right, calling for a resolution to the land dispute. He added that development carried out under such circumstances did not address the needs of Indigenous communities.
“When power is used to pursue development this way, we end up suffering injustice,” he said, adding that barring residents from speaking openly about the issue was a violation of rights.
“If this kind of development continues, it is a physical and psychological violation of people, as well as their freedom and right to survive, he said.
Chhounh shared that when Indigenous people lose traditional land, they lose more than their connection to it. Their livelihoods would be affected, leading to children dropping out of school, and communities losing their ability to protect the forests.
Chhounh said he cannot accept the authorities’ claim that residents encroached state land. Indigenous people are not migrants but have lived in the area for generations, maintaining their own language, religion, custom and tradition while using the land according to age-old practices.
He urged relevant authorities to consider the needs of residents, noting that the people had given officials the power to lead.
“I compel the authorities to think about the indigenous community and show compassion so they can continue to live here and pass their tradition to future generations. Please do not use the law or violence against the people who have nothing [but land to survive],” he said.
Hy Phalkun, director of Eysan Eco Zone, did not pick up the phone despite repeated calls by CamboJA News.
Residents last month accused Eysan Eco Zone of clearing their farmland, burial grounds and sacred forest, and sent a letter urging the provincial governor to halt development.
A few days later, the authorities organized a meeting and gave them a week to leave the land, declaring that the land had been granted to the company.
Indigenous groups in Cambodia have long struggled to obtain collective land titles, leaving them vulnerable to encroachment by development and commercial projects.
Not the first land dispute
Rath Thavy, an Adhoc provincial officer in Mondulkiri, told CamboJA News that the economic land concession to a private company for coffee cultivation did not take into account the rights of Indigenous people, whose life, culture, traditions and beliefs are connected to their land.
The government should consider their wellbeing when deciding development plans because indigenous communities are citizens and they should not be excluded or left behind.
“The land concession affects community land as well as some farmland. There was no prior information or thorough investigation to resolve the issue with residents before proceeding with development,” he said.
Thavy added that residents should be allowed to exercise their right to protest, as they were acting within their legal rights. Authorities should not detain them for questioning or force them to sign undertakings that threaten their freedom of expression about the problems they face.
He said such actions did not reflect the principle of “people’s suffering should be treated as the state’s suffering”.
The land dispute is not the first for Bunong residents in Pechreada district’s Bousra commune. In 2008, residents alleged that subsidiaries of Socfin Group forcibly cleared and seized their farms, burial grounds and sacred forests after the government awarded rubber concessions.
In 2015, a dispute with LKL Co. over the same land escalated into an armed confrontation, according to the villagers. Provincial authorities then terminated the company’s license, he said, and then-Mondulkiri Governor Svay Sam Eang handed 826 hectares to 152 community families.
Thavy called on authorities to review the dispute, investigate the facts and carefully consider both the legal circumstances and residents’ actual patterns of land use and occupation.
“If they defend their land and authorities detain them and make them sign undertakings, that amounts to intimidation and undermines their right to protest and make demands,” he said.