The Scramble for Cambodia - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 185

Two decades after the great scramble for Cambodia began, an environment of desperation
and alienation now grips some rural areas. Frustrated by the inability of authorities to re-
solve land disputes fairly, some people have begun taking matters into their own hands.
In March 2010 violence erupted in Kampong Speu when police moved to enforce a Su-
preme Court eviction order and villagers fought back with stones and bamboo clubs. The
following year at least 11 people were injured when a 300-strong force of police and mil-
itary police arrived again to evict the residents. During the ensuing melee, a villager was
shot and an officer beaten unconscious. 47 By the time Heng Chantha was killed in Broma
village in May 2012, violent standoffs over land had become an almost monthly occur-
rence.
So far, such outbreaks of unrest have remained localized, but wider community activist
networks have been established to oppose the great Cambodian land-grab. In 2000, villa-
gers from Prey Lang forest formed the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN), which
shared information on forestry crimes and promoted cooperation between communities in
the area. Today the network mobilizes campaigns against forest crimes, confronts illegal
loggers, and destroys logging equipment found on forest patrols. In August 2011 PLCN
activists made global headlines when they dressed up like characters from the hit film
Avatar in order to draw attention to Prey Lang's plight. In Phnom Penh, the media-savvy
protestors from Boeung Kak and Borei Keila began demonstrating with and on behalf of
other communities affected by land-grabs. This dawning consciousness fostered and fed
off an increasing sense that land-grabs and deforestation were systemic—that city dwell-
ers and rural folk were all victims of the same political forces.
As a son of the soil, Hun Sen has always been aware of the dangers posed by rural dis-
content. In 2005 he warned government officials that land seizures could spark a “farm-
ers' revolution,” and two years later he declared a “war” on land-grabbing. 48 But as with
illegal logging, the prime minister's pronouncements have had little effect. The govern-
ment continued to issue ELCs on a massive scale. In 2011 it leased out 751,882 hec-
tares—more than in any year since the ELC program began. Two-thirds of these conces-
sions were in protected areas, since most of the country's agricultural land was already
taken. 49
As discontent mounted, Hun Sen was eventually forced to act. In May 2012 he an-
nounced a moratorium on the granting of new ELCs and a review of all existing conces-
sions. He launched a military-style land titling drive led by a troupe of paid students—the
“Heroic Samdech Techo Volunteer Youth”—drawn from pro-CPP youth organizations.
Clad in army fatigues, the students fanned out across the country measuring out plots of
land and issuing titles for local people. Hun Sen presented many of the deeds in person,
choppering around the country with the usual ceremony. Sometimes he intervened per-
sonally to “save” people's land. After a violent land seizure in Sihanoukville in March