To reach Phum Thmey village along the Srepok river it takes a car ride on the wide road being carved through hills and forests by the Chinese to connect Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri, a bumpy ride on a side road, a river crossing with a ferry and a walk through the forest. It is remote. It is quiet. There is a sandy path leading between the houses, not even a road. The announcement of the death of Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge leader being tried at the ECCC (and now absolved of any wrongdoing because of his death) was heard on the radio. Not on TV as the village is not connected to the electrical network.
The banks of the river are steep. The water flows 5 or 6 meters lower than their edge. And yet, during rainy season the river can overflow dramatically, filling those 6 meters and climbing even higher, up to the roof of the small school, flooding a vast area and forcing the villagers to move away from the river, cultivate rice fields higher up, towards the forest. That is until recently. Because a concession was granted to a company there. The village is not allowed to use that land anymore. The villagers are trapped. Squeezed on a thin stretch between an overflowing river and a land concession.
This is the season when the villagers, mostly Lao, are waiting for the rains wich will allow rice planting, with nothing else to be worked on than building houses. So they build houses, tie together the straws to make new roofs, as if the future will hold nothing new, as if life can go on like it did for the last couple of centuries. But then maybe the construction of the Srepok3 dam a few kilometers upstream will regulate the flow of the river and prevent flooding in the area?
A few kilometers from Kbal Romea, the Phnong village which will be flooded by the Sesan2 dam, the Siv Guek Investment co. LTD has cleared a 90 hectares stretch of land in the forest, a small part of the 10,000 hectares of the concession granted by the Cambodian government. The company was bought by the Chinese HuaYue Group co. LTD in 2008. The company is into rubber. Lots of rubber. Like many other companies in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri.
So they plant rubber. Well, actually it is of course the workers who spend the day on the dusty field under the scorching heat doing that. Among the usual migrants from Prey Veng or Kandal province, several of the labourers are Phnong living in the area. The work opportunity for the local population is both a boon and a damnation. It brings in money but they are chopping away the forest their familes and ancestors have been depending on for centuries. I guess that for most of the young the mindset is ‘no looking back’ anyhow: anything in the short term that will help them move out of the forest is welcome.
The other big village besides Sre Kor (see here) which will be drowned by the 335 square kilometers of the reservoir of the Sesan2 dam which was approved by the Cambodian government recently is called Kbal Romea. It is a Phnong community, stretched out along a dirt road covered by big trees, with the river flowing on one side, and with its ricefields neatly aligned on the other. Not much activity going on at this time of the year though, besides a few houses distilling rice wine.
The 400 Megawatt Sesan2 dam project was subject to an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) done by Key Consultants Cambodia and if indeed it seems the initial report published in 2008 was in compliance with the standards of the Ministry of Environment, it appeared to be well below international standards, and had to be revised several times until it was finally approved in June 2010. The estimated cost of the 75 meter high and 7 kilometer long dam will be 816 million US$ and put nearly 3,000 people at work. One of the main stakeholders in the joint venture is Okhna Kith Meng’s Royal Group.
In 1989 I flew to Banlung with a helicopter (see here). As far as I remember there was nothing there: a few indigenous people’s longhouses, a hospital with one patient but no nurses or doctors, a school with plastic flowers on the teacher’s desk, a bunch of soldiers who must have reached the age of 16 the day before I arrived and a wooden house where the governor treated us to the best meal I had during my one-month-long stay in Cambodia, with roasted piglets and all. It lasted two of the precious three hours we were allowed to spend in the provincial capital before flying back…
In 2001 it was an airplane which took me up to the North East. There was one guesthouse, maybe two, indigenous people being tricked off their land and red dust. Lots of it.
Now in 2013, it is a bustling city with a few wide tarmac lanes where motorbikes drive way too fast. The tremendous development of Ratanakkiri province can best be felt in its capital. A chunk of the wealth generated by the sizeable investments in the agricultural sector and its thousands of hectares of land concessions has trickled back into the construction of rows of chinese compartments, into cars, motorbikes, consumer goods, karaoke’s. Clearly, there is money around. Banlung has transformed into a real small city when it was a speck of houses in a sea of dust. The atmosphere is all about development. No wonder that few people in the city question the plans to build no less than 7 dams on the 3 tributaries to the Mekong. They need the electricity to run their fans and TV sets, just like the people of Phnom Penh, whining about the power cuts. They will also pay much more to buy the fish they are eating. And they will impose a radical change in the way of life of those, mostly indigenous people, living along the targeted rivers.
But it was close…
Some 60 residents from Boeung Kak Lake (see here and here) were demonstrating for the release of their fellow land rights activist Yorm Bopha in front of the Ministry of Interior when a slightly smaller group of ‘motodup’ (moto-taxi drivers) showed up and staged a counter-demonstration in favour of their colleague who allegedly was beaten up by Yorm Bopha. The ‘motodup’ are affiliated to the CCDA, a union close to the ruling CPP. Physical violence was avoided when the Boeung Kak Lake women marched in front of the ‘motodup’ towards the Ministry of Justice.
So I turn my back for just a couple of days, working far from Phnom Penh on the ‘Three Rivers Dams’ project (see here) and then this happens: 1/ the authorities destroy the shacks of 12 Borei Keila families (see what they went through before that here). 2/ Mam Sonando goes free, albeit conditionally (see his trial here). 3/ Ieng Sary, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Khmer Rouge, one of the accused being tried at the ECCC passes away…
It doesn’t take much to miss an opportunity to follow-up on a story it seems… When the cat is gone the mice are dancing.
At least Ieng Sary didn’t die a free person.
And with his death the relevance of ’30 Years for a Trial’, my e-book about Duch’s trial (available at the iBookstore on iTunes here) just increased as the chances of seeing more Khmer Rouge leaders being sentenced has just taken another blow.
CAMBODIA. Kambol (Phnom Penh). 17/10/2008: Ieng Sary at public hearing of the reading of the decision on his Appeal against the Order of Provisional Detention at the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers at the Court of Cambodia).
All the photographs I took until now (well… the better ones only) about the ‘Three Rivers Dams’ project are available BIG in the latest update of my website at this link.
While you are reading this I will be on the road to Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng to continue working on the story. Do not expect too many posts during the coming days…
Members of the Boeung Kak Lake community react in front of the Municipality building to a statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a Thai newspaper that they were occupying the land they are living on illegally. They came with copies of documents proving their ownership and bullhorns. The levels of noise tolerance are being pushed higher each time.
And a reminder: ‘Quest for Land’ an application for the iPad about 11 years of land evictions is available on iTunes at this link.
