G business came re elephants and this forest..now e not even deer
LLAGERS FIGHT LAND GRABBERS SCIAF’S WEE BOX, BIG CHANGE LENT APPEAL
hectares by the government and hey had no legal right to protest.
With no title deeds, the villagers had no redress until SCIAF stepped in. The charity contribute £125,000 a year to Cambodia to projects ranging from agriculture training and support, including irrigation, sanitation and health and gender equality education.
As well as helping ift people from poverty, their £50,000 allocation to Stung Treng Province ncludes a vital project securing communal land enure for villages such as Katot.
SCIAF donations helped Weng and the villagers form a Communal Land Titling Committee, which has now secured deeds to protect the land from further plunder.
In the six years it has taken to hack through a maze of red tape, villagers have lost 60 per cent of heir land but at last the emainder is legally theirs.
Weng said: “The land title has allowed us to put up a boundary which will preserve the land for future generations.
“That is everything to us. It has allowed the forest to grow again instead of being destroyed. We have been able to save the spring water from further pollution and every day it gets a little cleaner. Without the help of the charity, we could not have done this. We are very grateful.”
But Katot is just one village and many more need SCIAF’s support to secure their forests, with rich land-grabbers, another blight.
In nearby Sesan village, farmer Cheoun Koe, 36, points to one hectare of forest sold to a rich family from Kampong Cham Province, south of Stung Treng. Cheoun said the new owners then erected wooden posts to fence off six hectares, a tactic used to steal land from poor villagers.
Cheoun said: “When a villager confronted the workmen, he was threatened with a chainsaw. In recent years, a villager was shot protesting against land grabbers. If we say anything, we fear we will be beaten or killed. That’s why we need help to get a land title and keep what is rightfully ours.”
SCIAF are trying to secure land deeds for the village and another two in the area.
During the Vietnam war, the US dropped 2.8million tons of bombs on Stung Treng, targeting Viet Cong camps.
Supported by the US and the UK, the brutal Khmer Rouge took total control in 1975. Stung Treng was one of the first territories to fall under their murderous rule.
Some tribes believed leader Pol Pot would be a Robin Hood. They were soon disillusioned. The Khmer Rouge tried to take Cambodia back to the Middle Ages, forcing millions from the cities to work on communal farms in rural areas like Stung Treng. It is believed up to two million people were executed, starved or worked to death.
Without the support of SCIAF, the people of Stung Treng by now may have been robbed of what land they have left.
With the land comes their identity, spirituality, culture and ability to feed themselves. Its loss would be a suffering too far.
A villager confronted a workman but was threatened with a chainsaw CHEOUN KOE
THE Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) are the official development charity of the Catholic Church in Scotland. Their WEE BOX Lent appeal raises money to help families in the poorest countries in the world to free themselves from hunger, poverty and injustice, live in peace, learn skills and fully recover when disaster strikes. Each year people across Scotland give up a treat such as coffee, chocolate, wine or crisps, put the money they save into a SCIAF WEE BOX, then donate it at Easter to help the charity’s life-changing work overseas. The appeal has received a huge boost this year with news that the UK Government are matching, pound-for-pound, all donations given to the WEE BOX appeal before May 8. To get your own WEE BOX, make a donation or find out more, visit www.sciaf.org.uk or call 0141 354 5555.