Eviction Watch

Kong Yu, Rattanikiri Province

In 2004, Commune authorities in Kong Yu Commune, Ratanakiri province repeatedly asked local Jarai indigenous people to sell their land on behalf of Keat Kolney, the sister of the Senior Minister of the Ministry of Economics and Finance and the wife of the Undersecretary of State for Land Management. They refused. The authorities then lied to the villagers informing them that they had no right to the land because it was the property of the state and its expropriation was necessary to provide land to demobilized soldiers. After agreeing to donate 50 hectares for the soldiers, a celebration was held in which the authorities procured large amounts of alcohol and had people thumbprint a paper listing the names of the villagers. Villagers later learned that this deal gave the well-known individual the land, not demobilized soldiers, and the transaction involved 500 hectares of communal land, not the previously “agreed” 50 hectares. Moreover, these contracts signed were back-dated to before the passage of the 2001 Land Law. Keat Kolney has cleared the forest on the land and begun planting rubber trees.

The Jarai villagers have filed a criminal complaint against Keat Kolney at the Rattankikiri Court, but the Prosecutor has thus far refused to investigate. In light of this roadblock, their community leaders have come to Phnom Penh to try to meet with her husband and brother at the Ministry of Land Management and Ministry of Economics and Finance. Keat Kolney has responded by filing criminal complaints against the lawyers representing the Jarai community for inciting the villagers.

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