Ethnic Bunong villagers from Mondolkiri province who accuse local authorities of burning down their homes on land claimed by a rubber plantation vowed Tuesday to reclaim the land despite threats of arrest made against them.
At a press conference in Phnom Penh organized by the NGO Forum, four representatives of the villagers said that some 100 police, military police and soldiers set fire to their homes in Keo Seima district on Monday morning and stood guard as employees of the Benh Phoeuk 1 plantation used bulldozers to clear their farms.
Authorities accuse the Bunong families of squatting on land that was rightfully sold to the plantation, but the villagers say they have been farming the area for generations. They could not say exactly how much land was in dispute but claimed a total of 211 families had lost at least 5 hectares each to the plantation since it started clearing the area on December 4.
“I suffered when I saw the authorities pour gasoline on my house and set in on fire,” said Prop Sokha, one of the villagers who made the trip to Phnom Penh.
The four representatives who came to the capital said they were also threatened with arrest on Monday by a group of men—dressed as civilians and wearing masks—if they continued to protest against the plantation.
Yan Mao, however, said he would not be cowed.
“I will go back home tomorrow to resettle my land even though the authorities want to prevent us from rebuilding,” he said. “I will die on my land because this is the land of my ancestors.”
The villagers say they have neither private nor communal titles to the land but that local authorities have recorded their plots in their government-issued family books.
Keo Seima district police chief Sun Bunthoeun confirmed that about 100 officers were sent to dismantle the villagers’ homes, but denied that they were set on fire.
“We just removed the houses because they were built on the company’s land,” he said. “We cannot allow them to occupy the land because it belongs to the company.”
Mr. Bunthoeun also denied that authorities had anything to do with the alleged threat of arrest.
He declined to provide contact information for the owners of the plantation, who could not be reached Tuesday.
The NGO Forum said it was investigating the case.
