May Titthara and Aisha Down
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| Add caChildren from an ethnic minority walk to
school in Ratanakkiri province. KT/ Mai Vireak |
What used to be family-run cashew farms are now a rubber plantation while about 60 families in Lumphat district’s Batang commune say all they have to show for land that was once theirs are folders with summonses to police stations and the Ratanakkiri provincial court. These that date back more than a decade, during which they say “the company” nibbled away at their land till there was nothing left except the small plots of red soil their homes sit on.
“When people from ethnic minority groups are involved in land disputes with companies, we get jailed until they get the land,” explains Sven Vev, 43, at his home. His tone is matter of fact – as his two daughters play nearby.
Once he had to flee to the forest for two months after other residents of his village helped him escape a court before he was about to be jailed for protesting against rubber company DM Group, he recalls. All he did was say the land was his not the company’s, he says as he opens a folder containing summonses that date back a decade and begins flipping through them.
He says the documents will help him explain that he was not only battling a company, he was also up against a court. “The summonses are evidence to show my son and daughters, so they can know about the history of our land dispute, and how we lost to a company and the court,” he explains. “All we have left of our land is the summonses we got for trying to save it.”
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