Gun-toting workers acting on behalf of a well-connected rubber firm have continued to clear the farmlands of a Jarai community in Ratanakiri province’s Andong Meas district, videos shared with CamboJA show.
Village residents from Andong Meas’s Tang Chea village say they have faced the clearance of their farmlands by the 7 Makara Phary company, which says it has rights to the land through a state-granted economic land concession it received more than a decade ago.
Recent videos from June 16 and shared by village residents of Nhang commune show the company continuing to clear residents’ farmland, destroying cashew and cassava trees.
After clearing multiple farms in mid-May, the company had resumed further land clearances last week, said one resident, Klann Sean.
“Things seemed quiet for a while, but recently they have expanded further, razing all trees and more farms,” villager Sean said. “Now those parts are filled with new rubber seedlings.”
The long-running conflict has continued to boil over as village residents say they have been forced to sell their land to the company at less than a quarter of market prices.
“I have pardoned all of you many times now,” says one man allegedly working for the company, in a video recording from June 16. “Please move out. I only beg you for this.”
Behind him another man wields a large gun, which appears to be an AK-47.
In another video from the same day, one family is seen complaining about their farmland being cleared. A company foreman, Lang Sreng, then tells the affected family they can get between $73 to $97 in compensation for the land. He also tells the farmers that they were at fault for cultivating the land without the company’s permission.
“If you do not agree, I will take away all this land because we have the land concession title,” Sreng says in the video.
Reached by phone, company foreman Lang Sreng confirmed he was the person filmed in the videos but denied the company had used guns to intimidate villagers. The company was only clearing land it had a legal right to develop, he added.
“We only clear our land,” Sreng said. “We have never done that to the villagers. They are just saying this.”
He confirmed that the company had provided 400,000 riels, around $97, to one family after clearing their land.
“We thought that there’s no problems,” Sreng said.
The family which lost the half hectare of land on June 16 could not be reached for comment. 7 Makara Phary received its ELC to develop rubber on 8,655 hectares in 2011 with a 50 year lease.
The company and its chairman, Kim Sophary, are both under sanction by the US government for their connection to Kun Kim, a retired senior four star general and the former Royal Cambodian Armed Forces chief of staff. Sophary is Kim’s daughter.
Kim has been accused of various human rights violations and was also placed under US sanction in 2019, in part for his role in using his soldiers to “intimidate, demolish, and clear-out land” for Chinese state-owned firms operating in Cambodia.
Ratanakiri Governor Nhem Sam oeun said on Thursday the conflict between the community and the company has been a long-standing problem.
“The people go to clear more land, one after the other. The story is like this,” Samoeurn said. “I am not biased towards any side.”
He said he had received no request from village residents to intervene in the dispute.
During the May clearings, Nhang commune chief Heam Sam Orn said he wrote a report about the incident and sent it to his superiors.
Speaking to CamboJA on Thursday, he said he had also spoken to Andong Meas district governor Meas Sareth on Wednesday about the issue, adding that the matter was not in his control.
“We only help people settle between both sides, and after that it is beyond our capacity,” Sam Orn said.
“The district level knows about this, but they always refer it to the commune instead.”
Sam Orn added that he had heard about the June 16 clearings from one villager but did not intervene.
CamboJA could not reach Meas Sareth on Thursday.
