Indigenous
Minority Affairs
(i)
Introduction
Indigenous
minority communities in Cambodia are traditionally located in Kratie, Mondolkiri,
Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Kompong Thom, Koh Kong, Pursat, Kompong Speu and
Sihanoukville. The majority of Indigenous minority people live in the largely
forested areas of the north and north-eastern part of the country.
Several
international instruments have been developed with the specific aim to protect
the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities. The government also formed the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) for
Highland Peoples Development in 1994. This body developed a General Policy for
Highland Peoples Development in 1997. This document is still in draft form.
In addition to this, the NPRS contains a number of brief points with regard to
Indigenous minority people:
Ethnic
minorities are disadvantaged due to lack of representation at the management
and legislative levels, and because of language barriers. (p.iii)
Lack
of access to law and rights is a serious issue, since the poor are not able
to understand the law, unaware of their rights and vulnerable to
exploitation. (p.iii)
Historically,
the ethnic minorities are not included in any policy decision-making and
development process. They are therefore in many ways inferior in the society
in terms of status, position and living standards (p.123).
However,
little is understood about the ethnic minorities in Cambodia by the
majority, and by national decision-makers (p.123).
(ii)
Key Issues
Land
Rights:
Numerous land studies have shown that indigenous minority people operate a
well-developed land allocation and land management system that relies on
communal decision making through traditional structures. Individual land titling
and land sales bypass this system threatening the collective nature of
indigenous minority communities and can create much poverty.
Provincial
governments in Ratanakiri and other provinces have been working with partner
organisations on programs to promote land security through community based
natural resource management. In Ratanakiri, this has resulted in provincial
recognition of many community natural resource management areas. This is a
positive step for initial land security.
In
2001, the government passed a new Land Law that contains provisions for
indigenous minority communities to gain title to their land, either in the form
of individual titles or as a communal title. In this law an indigenous
communities land can be defined as residential land, agricultural land and land
kept in reserve as part of the traditional rotational cultivation system.
Sub-decrees
that define the requirements for legal recognition of communal land ownership
have yet to be written. Therefore, the drafting of this sub-decree should be
encouraged. In the process of developing this sub-decree, there needs to be
comprehensive analysis in order to give full benefit to the indigenous minority
communities in terms of sustainability of the utilisation and management of land
and natural resources. The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and
Construction has already implemented a pilot project in order to register
indigenous community land. A national task force was created which continues to
work on the pilot project. The task force is supported by a consultation forum,
in which the members of the forum can provide input and positive recommendations
as well as raise important issues in order to facilitate the legal process in
communal land registration.
In
order to inform the development of these legal instruments, three pilot communal
land titling projects are being undertaken (two in Ratanakiri and one in
Mondulkiri). These need to be monitored closely to ensure that bureaucratic
constraints and vested interest do not strangle the process.
Despite
these initiatives, land alienation remains an alarming and growing problem. Of
particular concern are a proliferation of “land concessions” issued by the
government in provinces like Kompong Thom, Stung Treng and Kratie. These land
concessions aim at establishing industrial agricultural plantations like rubber
and cashew nut. They remove native forest and reduce indigenous minority people
into positions of subservience and poverty, their natural resources being
removed from their management and use.
Also
of concern is the continuing growth of land “sales” that involve
misinformation, coercion, threats, bribes to officials and other illegal
mechanisms.
Information
about basic human rights, land rights and contract procedures is an urgent
need.
This
information needs to be delivered in indigenous languages with the active
involvement of indigenous minority people and indigenous minority
organisations.
This
needs to be supported by independent legal representation in land cadastral
commission and court processes.
Forestry
issue:
Like all communities using forest for livelihood support in Cambodia, indigenous
minority people do not have secure management rights for the forest areas they
traditionally use and manage. Land alienation means that indigenous minority
people have to shift their agricultural areas into forest areas. They are then
blamed for forest clearing. Forest concessions intimidate indigenous minority
communities and deprive these communities of developing their own secure and
sustainable livelihood support.
Indigenous
minority people are not entitled to extract timber for sawing, even by hand,
“because this is not customary use”. Indigenous minority people are
establishing community regulations to protect forest and feel discriminated
against by the “customary use” provisions of the forest law and its
interpretation.
A
Sub-decree on Community Forestry has been delayed for years and this may offer
more scope for indigenous minority people’s management and use. There is a
strong need to carefully monitor this to ensure that the sub-decree actually
serves the needs of poor communities.
It
is imperative that the community forestry sub-decree implementation includes
community traditional management rights in mature forest and forest
concessions, not just degraded forest.
Many
areas of forest, especially spirit forest, burial forests and small areas of
forest amongst agricultural land need to be included in communal land
titling if indigenous land management and culture is to be protected.
Excluding these forest areas will also have the effect of drastically
slowing the mapping processes required for communal land, reducing land
security for the majority of indigenous minority people.
Education: Education reforms in Cambodia, in general, progress slowly. In
the area of education for indigenous minority people a number of positive but
also some disturbing trends occur. One positive aspect has been the support for
developing bi-lingual education that promotes the development of literacy in
indigenous languages as a bridge to Khmer literacy. NGOs are working in close
cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to create a model
for bi-lingual education in formal education.
Non-Formal
Education (NFE) — both bilingual and monolingual — continues to produce
positive results, possibly reinforced by the deficiencies within the formal
education system. This form of education remains literacy based and has had much
success, as indigenous minority communities have been given the flexibility to
manage classes at the time most suited to their seasonal and daily lives.
Another feature of the NFE has been indigenous minority people have been the
teachers and have been able to use indigenous languages to support Khmer
literacy.
On
the less positive side, post literacy NFE materials and classes remain seriously
lacking. These classes would be to support people developing their literacy
skills past very basic Khmer literacy.
In
the formal education sector, many schools remain understaffed or non-functional.
In many cases, non-indigenous people are sent to teach in indigenous people’s
schools without adequate consideration of the practicalities of this. Isolation
from their families and culture, language problems and cross-cultural barriers
add to the huge absenteeism of teachers. In areas where there is no NFE little
or no effective education is available to indigenous minority people. This is
within an environment of very rapid social and economic change and there is a
very large danger that marginalisation will be further entrenched.
Health: Health indicators among indigenous minority people in Cambodia
are still among the worst in the country. Indigenous minority people continue to
report frequent incidents of corruption and abuse at the hands of non-indigenous
health staff. This has led to indigenous minority people being very untrusting
of the health system and less likely to follow its directions and services. Many
of the attempts to rectify this situation have been frustrated by inefficiency
in the public health system. Recent moves to outsource health services may offer
a short-term solution to this, but reform of the national health system will
also be required in the longer-term to develop health assistance responsive to
indigenous minority peoples’ needs.
Hydro
Electricity Dams:
In previous years extreme problems have been reported as a result of
hydro-electricity dams located on the Sesan River in Vietnam that flows through
Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces in the northeast of Cambodia. The dams have
resulted in deaths from flood and irregular river flows.
While
these problems continue, they are likely to be increased by more dams already
commenced or being planned in Vietnam. These dams are being built without
adequate assessment of past impacts, rectifying the problems or first conducting
serious future environmental and social impact assessments. International donor
agencies and multilateral banks continue to support and validate their
construction by supporting associated projects like power line construction. In
this way large international institutions like the Swedish International
Development Agency, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the
Vietnamese government, effectively undermine the lives of indigenous minority
people in northeast Cambodia. There are very strong local concerns that
large-scale industrial power generation and the model of industrial development
that it supports have profound and long-term negative impacts on the lives of
indigenous minority people.
Tourism:
The Cambodian, Laos and Vietnamese government have signed a “Triangle
Development Plan” which includes opening the northeastern provinces of
Cambodia up to rapid and large road access and extensive tourism development.
The Asian Development Bank has funded, via loans, the development of an
international airport in Ratanakiri under the guise that rapid economic and
tourism development will reduce property.
This
model, in relation to tourism, is however, based on the concept that indigenous
minority people will have access to and want tourism development. Without access
to education and training services it is unlikely that indigenous minority
people will be able to have a sufficient voice in tourism management nor access
to tourism incomes. In this context, tourism could further contribute to the
marginalisation of indigenous communities.
Tourism
development needs to be controlled and managed until barriers to sustainable
and equitable tourism development are removed. Current policies of rapid
expansion of tourism are misplaced and potentially highly destructive.
Decentralization:
Dependency or self-management: Much is made of the
decentralization processes now underway within the Cambodian Government which
intends to offer real opportunities for promoting indigenous peoples’
self-management. However, in many indigenous minority people’s areas much
money is being directed into ‘development’ without adequate support for true
community development and human development support. In many areas predominantly
non-indigenous minority people in government and NGO projects deliver sometimes
nationally or regionally designed projects in non-indigenous languages. In this
scenario, per diems and similar financial support are being used to acquire
participation in the activities of development agencies.
The
effects of this are starting to be seen in the form of dependency, loss of
community self-management and community disempowerment. Without indigenous
minority people being actively involved in their own development and without
local alternatives to the industrial development models now being promulgated
many severe social and economic problems can be expected to arise, as they have
in other indigenous communities in the world with similar conditions.
A
major review of the impacts on indigenous minority people from different
development approaches is required.
(iii)
Recommendations
The
government should as take steps towards adopting the General Policy for
Highland Peoples Development drafted by the IMC in 1997 soon as possible.
This is essential, as Cambodia needs a National Policy for allowing
indigenous minority peoples to guide their own development. The impediments
to ratifying this policy need to be identified and openly debated.
Many
development visions being implemented in indigenous minority people’s
areas are based on economic development models and not following the
self-determination principles of the Highland Peoples Development Policy
drafted by the IMC in 1997 nor international conventions related to
indigenous people’s rights. A careful review of development philosophies
and strategies needs to be undertaken to correct this situation.
Donors
have developed guidelines regarding the treatment of indigenous
communities or the impact of projects on indigenous communities. It is
important that the donors remind the different actors and the public that
these guidelines and operational directives exist and need to be followed.
In
accordance with their Operational Directive 4.20 the World Bank undertook an
Indigenous Upland Minorities Screening Study in Cambodia in 2002 as the WB
was preparing a loan for the Rural Investment and Local Governance Project
to support the Royal Government of Cambodia's expansion of the Seila
Program. It is also important that the contents of such studies will be
disseminated widely throughout the country and that the findings will be
taken into consideration when making development decisions in indigenous
minority peoples’ areas.
The
Minister of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction has started to
pilot communal land titles in three communities in Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri
provinces in 2003. Donors and NGOs need to play a prominent role in ensuring
that indigenous people’s rights to their ancestral lands are not
compromised in this process.
For more information on the issues raised in this paper, please contact:
NGO
Forum, Tel: 023 994 063, Email: ngoforum@ngoforum.org.kh
Non Timber Forest Products Project (NTFP), Tel: 075 974039, Email: ntfp@camintel.com
Health Unlimited Ratanakiri, Tel: 012 731396, Email: hurtk@camintel.com, RAMA@camintel.com
CARE
Ratanakiri, Tel: 075 974056, Email: care_rtk@camintel.com