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Mari Haraldsson
Battambang Province, Cambodia
Parliament Member Mu Sochua

On my first day at the office in Phnom Penh one of the staff members came in and asked me to report on a case of land-grabbing that she witnessed on her way to work that morning. At 8 am a woman and her family woke up to over one hundred police officers surrounding her home in Phom Penh Commune Sen Sok District. Suddenly a group of workers broke into her home and started demolishing the house.

There are three families occupying three separate houses situated next to each other. Each of the three houses has now been destroyed—without warning, without legal permission. Spending time here in Cambodia for the past 2 months has made it clear that ‘legal permission’ has little authority—in fact, it is often completely disregarded by the authority figures.
The owner of one of the houses is a vendor, and her husband is a teacher. They have lived in the house since 1992, when they purchased the land. She has been involved with an unfinished court case regarding the property; however, the court ordered protection over her house, ensuring that no one would destroy or take over her home for the time being.

Not only was she given no warning of the eviction, but now her home has collapsed as well. As she answered reporters about her situation, her house was being torn down behind her. She asks the government, “Why didn’t you inform us before destroying our house?”

Five people in the house protested the action and tried to stop it. All of them have now been arrested. This is only one of many cases of illegal forced evictions happening in the area.

My first reaction was to ask: if the court explicitly did not allow for the destruction of these houses, how could this have happened?

That question now seems so naïve.

State violence against women is a continuation of war in time of peace. As Sochua said when we discussed this, “When the court system is colluding with the state to maintain the culture of impunity, the entire system of governance has collapsed. We need to report and tell the truth. Empowerment of victims is to not let the injustice be untold.”

More recently, in Battambang, I was taken to see a public space that has been grabbed by a CPP village chief. Among several rice paddies and farmland there is a small pond from which the farmers pump water. The pond has been set aside as public property—for everyone to use freely. The village chief, however, has decided to build a fence around it to keep farmers from accessing the water. He has been using it for him and his family, and is currently looking for the highest bidder to sell the pond to. Since he is a CPP leader, and thus a part of the majority, the SRP leaders in the district are unable to do anything. His crime is being supported and protected by the other CPP members.

We had a meeting for all the opposition party leaders of the district to try and figure out how to solve this problem. The impoverished farmers are unable to properly tend their crops because of this situation and it is negatively impacting their livelihood in a very tangible, direct way.

After much discussion and visiting the site, the leaders have decided to write up a report to the national leaders with the hope that there will be an appropriate response. CPP members are the majority at the national level too, of course. After all, they are the ruling party.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Unfortunately, it is overwhelming how much of this is happening at various degrees of severity all over the country. Again, the violators are the ones who are supposed to, who have even been elected to, protect these people and their basic rights.

On a brighter note, the land-grabbing case I wrote about in my first post has been resolved!!! I spoke with Sochua over dinner a few nights ago and she said that the farmers have not contacted her or reported any issues since we went to the police officer and had that “trial.” The resolutions they came to have actually been enforced so far, which is extremely encouraging.
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Unfortunately I have fallen ill and must return to the States to see a doctor. I have met with all of the leaders, however, and we have made plans so that I will be able to continue my work while I’m in New York. Thank God for skype and 3G USBs! I will still give leadership trainings with a translator.

There are many stories left to share, so I will be keeping up with this blog. I took a break while I was bedridden with a 104.5 fever, but now I’m feeling well enough to document what has been happening here. I fly home on Wednesday and I will start my medical tests on Thursday. Hopefully they will all go well! I look forward to good health. I will definitely write about the experience of being a privileged foreigner with access to healthcare—it has been a truly mind-boggling experience, one that has been humbling, confusing, and significant for my personal growth.

Take good care,
Mari

Mari Haraldsson
Battambang Province, Cambodia
Member of the Parliament, Mu Sochua

In my previous post I spoke a bit about the issue of land-grabbing here in Cambodia—a serious issue that is further complicating the lives of many helpless farmers in the region. It was once again a topic on the agenda at a recent SRP leader’s meeting.

After the meeting, at which party leaders at all levels throughout the province were present, a man and a woman dressed in army attire showed up at the office. The man looked extremely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I had seen his face before.

He invited all of the leaders to lunch, and personally asked me to join as well. As we were waiting for our meal I started to ask him questions about his life. It turns out that man I was talking to was Aki Ra, one of CNN’s “Heroes.” In mid-May, when I first arrived in Cambodia, I visited several museums; Aki Ra’s landmine museum/orphanage was one of them.

Aki Ra grew up as an orphan whose parents were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. He became a conscripted child soldier for the Khmer Rouge at the age of ten. After a few years, his life was threatened and he became a soldier for the Vietnamese. During the war, he planted thousands of landmines. This horrific experience has equipped him with an understanding that allows him to be a leader in demining here in Cambodia. Aki Ra has a team of twenty-five men and women who work laboriously every day in minefields across the nation. He founded “Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD),” which is the most efficient and well-respected independent organization of its kind in this country.

After a short conversation Aki Ra asked me to join his team for a night to walk the minefield and get an understanding of the type of work that they do. I gladly accepted his offer.

On the way to the minefield in Pailin (about 2 hours away from Battambang), I spent time getting to know Mac, Mike, and Kieran. Mac is an Australian Vietnam War veteran who discovered the work of Aki Ra a few years ago. He saw that Aki Ra and his team were using sticks and knives to do the work—they didn’t even have metal detectors. So, he and his friend “Bomber” did extensive fundraising in Australia to supply the team with some basic tools. They currently serve as supervisors of Aki Ra’s operation, visiting on a bi-annual basis. When back home, Mac spends his time fundraising to help strengthen and expand Aki Ra’s team.

Mike is a publicist/journalist from Australia who owns The Ideas Channel. He is here writing a book about landmines and asked Aki Ra if he could join. He is currently volunteering for the government landmine organization called CMAC to gather research for his book. Throughout our trip he made comparisons about Aki Ra’s operation and that of CMAC. It was interesting to listen to his comments considering the fact that I have gained some knowledge about the CPP during my time here. A lot of what he said about how CMAC is run aligned with the values and general tactics of the CPP that I have come to understand.

For instance, when Aki Ra was first demining on his own, he gathered hundreds of landmines and UXOs. He opened his own museum to showcase his work, share his story, and to inform Cambodians about the nation’s history. When members of the CPP who work for CMAC discovered his endeavor, they threatened him, destroyed his museum, (forcing him to relocate 25 kilometers away from the tourist area in Siem Reap), and stole all of his “killed” landmines and UXOs. (When a landmine is discovered and safely removed the deminers say that it has been “killed.”)

Aki Ra’s stolen objects are now on display at the war museum in Siem Reap, which is run by the CPP.

Despite resistance from the government to give Aki Ra a demining license, which prolonged the short process by 2 years, he has made efforts to join CMAC to combine his Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with theirs. Notwithstanding his solid reputation, efficiency, and hard work, CMAC has consistently denied his proposals, claiming their SOPs to be superior. According to Mike, CMAC workers are admiring, and a bit envious, of the work that Aki Ra is able to accomplish with his small team. Mike believes that a lot of it has to do with the lack of bureaucracy in Aki Ra’s operation. Whatever funding CSHD receives goes directly to pay the workers and to repair/obtain equipment, whereas Mike has a personal driver financed by CMAC.

Kieran, a commercial lawyer from London, also joined us. She met Mac in Siem Reap and decided to join him in his efforts to help Aki Ra’s team.
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We were all incredibly moved by Aki Ra’s work. When we arrived at the minefield, which is part of a high school, we washed up with the team by the water pump. We shared a meal and proceeded to spend the night on the ground outside, as there was no form of housing. The next morning at sunrise we woke up to put on the protective gear that the team wears when demining. We walked the paths, learned about the different signs they use to mark the territory, and even got to use the metal detectors—they’re a lot heavier than they look.

A lot of the minefields have been partially cleared by villagers who were former mine-planters during the war, or by explosions that occurred as farmers plowed their land. But because they are not able to use proper equipment, there is no guarantee that all the mines in the area have been removed.

Since most of the landmines that remain are planted under trees and bushes that have grown there over time, a lot of the work that the deminers do involves carefully removing thorny plants. The caution they take amounts to several hours spent on only a few meters of land before it can be properly examined and deemed safe.

The work they do is tedious, remarkably slow, and difficult. They wear thick clothing, boots, helmets with thick screens, and a heavy protective suit that covers their torsos. The temperature here in Cambodia is extremely hot—95-100 degrees Fahrenheit. All I was doing was walking, yet I was sweating profusely. To say that the work of a deminer is uncomfortable is certainly an understatement.

I spoke to a few of the women after they had worked, curious to understand what motivates them to do this strenuous work every day. “I want to help my country,” one woman said, “a people should not be afraid to walk on its land.”

This fear is one that I simply cannot understand. I come from a country that has experienced 200 consecutive years of peace (Sweden), and I live in the United States. To think that I would go to school and be scared to lose a limb is just so beyond my comprehension.

It was such an interesting experience to spend time with a man who is fighting for human rights in his country in such a hands-on way. The dedication and patience needed to demine daily are immense.

While we were there, the team found a Russian mortar and, later, a landmine. After only a few hours of being on the field, I witnessed its explosion. I find it difficult to explain what the experience was like, but I will say this:

Those mines were planted with the intention of permanently maiming, not killing, human beings. Those mines were unknowingly stepped on, only to explode ON a person—mutating their life forever. And there I was, knowing exactly when it would explode, awaiting and watching from a safe 20 meters away in my heavy helmet and protective suit.

The right to walk on land without fear of severe injury seems so inherent, so basic. Yet, here in Cambodia, it’s a right that is still not secure—particularly, for impoverished farmers.

Mari Haraldsson
Parliament Member Mu Sochua
Battambang Province, Cambodia

I came here as a detached tourist, really—seeking to learn about this land and its people, hoping to gain a better understanding of what “human rights” are. When I spent time in Phnom Penh I lived in a beautiful guesthouse, having daily access to an air conditioner, a closet, free wifi, a comfortable queen-sized bed, a packed refrigerator, running water, a toilet.

At the Strey Khmer office I reported on human rights injustices, such as unjust forced evictions occurring only a few kilometers away. I compiled documents about the corruption initiated and condoned by the current ruling party, focusing on issues pertaining to land rights and gender inequality. My writings were based on information I gathered from text written by other people.

Foreign feelings emerged as I began to have daily interactions with the flagrant wealth disparity in Phnom Penh. I cried tears over the phone, I wrote letters, emails, and blog entries to my friends and family; I did what I could to express my reaction to what I was experiencing.

But I didn’t change as a person.

I still went home every day to my extravagant living space; I still spent my days pursuing things for myself.

The greatest disparity I noticed recently was the disconnect between my thoughts/feelings and the way I had been using my resources. I felt at unrest in a new way as I faced my own hypocrisy. I was contemplating whether I should pay $200 to change my flight so I could arrive in New York a few days earlier. I felt that I needed more time to readjust to life in a developed and wealthy city before starting my fall classes.

A few hours later I had lunch with a new friend (whose story I’m not at liberty to share as it is very private and complicated), which served as a mirror for me—the complex and heartbreaking struggles of her life helped me realize that changes needed to be made: a.s.a.p. I knew the changes had to start with me.

After our conversation I immediately packed my belongings, asked for my security deposit, and decided to move out of my (what now seems) luxurious room, in which I was supposed to live until August 17th. My friend lives in a city slum and she has agreed to let me be her roommate from now on when I am in Phnom Penh. (Don’t worry, it’s safe, Sochua approved my proposal to move).

The next day, I took a five-hour trip north to Battambang Province. Sochua (a member of the parliament that I am interning for) wanted me to accompany her on a few visits to impoverished rural communities. I was supposed to stay (and only packed) for about a week, but plans have changed and I am now living and working in Battambang fulltime until August 1st.

I have fallen in love with the Cambodians and their simple lifestyle—surprisingly, I don’t mind squatting to use the restroom, sleeping on the floor, or showering in rainwater.

For now I would like to explain my fieldwork and the complex, corrupt, and disturbing political climate, which is directly impacting the state of “human rights” in this country.

The political situation in Cambodia has been improving step by step, every year.

Things were unspeakably horrible during the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot Regimes, during which human rights atrocities were pervasive and overt. Things improved when the current political system was implemented, but not by much.

Today there are three main political parties: the ruling party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the opposition party, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), and Funcinpec. There are about 5 parties (including the three mentioned) that work throughout the year, and then there are random parties that suddenly appear during the election period. What I have learned is that all the parties except for SRP are mere creations of the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his CPP party. In order to retain power and keep people from voting for SRP, they create fake parties and trick people into voting for them. Also, having multiple parties helps the ruling party maintain the façade that Cambodia is a democratic nation. As an SRP village leader said earlier today, “CPP and the other parties are one.”

Here in Battambang, the only buildings that are ‘developed’ or modern are those owned by CPP leaders and supporters, wealthy foreign businesses, and fancy hotels. The prime minister is at the top—the king is just a national figurehead. The way the government is set up is such that there are national parliamentary, provincial, district, communal, and the village leaders (in that order).

Every morning I have breakfast at a rusty, chicken-pen-for-humans-looking “coffee shop” that is located right next to Battambang’s supreme court. My breakfast consists of pork, rice, cucumbers, a fried egg, a probiotic pill, a multivitamin, and jasmine tea. I sit with leaders from the party and I am usually the only woman present (apart from the waitresses).

We start off the morning with jokes and discussions about how to affect change that will help the poorest of the poor—how to bring heady ideas of “human rights” to fruition. We make presentation plans and run different ideas by each other. During my first week here, I went to the SRP office to teach analytical/critical thinking, democratic leadership, some basic English, and how to report/blog to SRP leaders at all levels. The group was diverse in terms of background and ranking. One of my students was once a member of the Khmer Rouge.

For the past week I have gone on daily trips to different rural communes and villages to attend elected SRP leaders’ meetings. I travel with the President of SRP in Battambang Province, Chan Deth, and we both give speeches at the meetings to help strengthen and encourage their leadership. At the meetings I have the opportunity to learn about what the struggles are at the grassroots level as the leaders report on their slow progress and expose the difficulties that come with working as part of a corrupt government system.

So far I have met with village chiefs, provincial leaders, district councilors, communal deputies, and have spent time getting to know impoverished villagers from various locations. They have each warmly welcomed me into their homes and engaged in long conversations with me about Cambodia’s history and current political situation—they have shared the realities of a “democratic country” whose poor people are lacking basic human rights.

All of the elected SRP leaders do not receive enough pay to support themselves and their families, so they have a main job that is separate from the political work they do—and by the way, the SRP leaders that are not elected officials do all of their work, completely for free.

Since most (if not all) of them are farmers, I have seen the cultivation of mushrooms, fish in manmade ponds, custard apples, mangoes, lychee, star fruit, rice, and a whole bunch of different fruits and vegetables. It has been so amazing to see that the SRP leaders live lives that are nearly identical to the lives of the people they’re trying to help—they work in the fields and live in rusty, dusty, and discolored homes. CPP leaders, on the other hand, have houses that are modern and detached from their surroundings.

From these visits, as you could probably imagine, I have learned so much—about SRP, about Cambodia, about human rights, about life. Today I visited a former CPP spy and war general named Dtan See Panh, who is the current SRP 2nd deputy of Oh Dtah Ki Commune, which is in the Kgoo Muh Kguh District.
See Panh was one of the spies that CPP used to create the Funcinpec party, which is supposed to “stand for democracy in Cambodia” (like so many of the other CPP puppets). The corruption of the ruling party exists literally at every level throughout the whole nation. They are the ones that pass sound and just laws and yet, behind closed doors, break them.

The bigger problems have to do with land, healthcare, and education—all of which are basic human rights—that Sochua and the SRP team endeavor to reform. During the Khmer Rouge, the educated class (apart from a handful survivors), along with the nation’s doctors, was murdered first; then they started killing the poor. This has had severe consequences. Cambodia has had low quality healthcare ever since, and the education level of the people as a whole has also remained extremely low.

Currently all of the public schools and pagodas are run by the CPP. I have befriended a man who created an NGO and started a construction company after leaving his position as a high school teacher at a public school. When I asked him why he left his teaching job, he explained that all teachers are demanded to teach their students according to CPP standards. This meant that he lacked the freedom to teach the kids to think for themselves. Even worse, he was forced to teach them a false account of Cambodia’s history.

Furthermore, the land of the survivors was taken over by the government, and after the Pol Pot Regime, Cambodia came out with a new land law: Anyone who buys land and is able to live on it without any legal issues for at least 5 years has the right to keep their land.

Now, there are foreigners and CPP members, some of whom are also former members of the Khmer Rouge, who want to obtain arable and profitably situated land for their own purposes. So, they simply show up on their desired property, plow over the crops, and destroy the land, knowing that the farmers are too poor and uneducated to do anything about it. Afterwards, they force the poor farmers off of their land, claiming that it is now theirs. Again, government leaders from the ruling party are committing these crimes.

About a week ago I took a two-hour trip to a remote farm village to witness this exact situation first hand. With their damaged crops in hand I walked with the farmers as they showed me their once lush, currently ruined, land. These farmers were supporters of CPP, but out of desperation they called Sochua and asked her for help.

Side note: This is what all the SRP leaders (elected and not elected) do: they address people’s needs on the spot, for free, and they don’t try to bribe those people to vote for them. It has taken many years, but now SRP has gained some authority and trust of the people.

We listened to their stories and then Sochua led us all to the local police station. She called both CPP and SRP leaders to join as she advocated for the farmers’ land rights and empowered the farmers to speak for themselves—to claim what is rightfully theirs. The farmers went up one by one as they pulled courage from Sochua’s presence.

The impoverished farmers in this situation were facing a particularly difficult circumstance because their previous land had been unlawfully taken in this manner once before. The land we walked on is land that has been specifically set apart by the government to provide land for those that have none—social concessions—as a result of the Khmer Rouge. This land still has active land mines, by the way, so we had to walk carefully along the trodden path and avoid going too far from it.

After a lengthy discussion with the farmers, as their barefoot family members filled the floor space of the small police station, Sochua helped them reach positive resolutions. It was one of the most important experiences of my life to date.

CPP is “land grabbing” all over the country. Most of the people that are doing this are former Khmer Rouge members that want to show their power by disempowering the poor. CPP has a handful of extremely effective strategies to maintain their power. First, CPP uses power to instill fear in the people. Here in Cambodia the different political parties put up large signs in different communities to advertise and show/create their support base. Until recently, communities were too afraid to allow SRP to put up signs because they would be threatened, even killed, by CPP members. Also, if their community had an SRP sign, their children would not be able to enter the public school system.

Today, thankfully, the threatening tactics have changed, but they still exist and hold power. Hun Sen has made every single village chief, police officer, and even several higher-up leaders, CPP leaders (and most of them are his relatives). This means that if a farmer has a problem and goes to the police, he is going to a member of the CPP for help, when really, the CPP members are the source of his problem. The absurd part is that when people have issues and ask for help, the CPP members charge them money—money that they do not have.

The situation has improved because SRP members now hold some seats, at all levels of the government. However, in every single village, commune, district, and province, there is an overwhelming CPP majority, so the SRP members are unable to impact any decisions. However, their presence allows them to help people on the ground, and every year SRP authority increases as people muster up courage to vote for them.

The thing is, SRP has the support of nearly all Cambodians—I have talked to people throughout Phnom Penh and all throughout this province that say the same thing: they believe in SRP and are even convinced that SRP is the only hope for Cambodian democracy. But they are too afraid to vote for them, get involved in politics, or show their support in visible ways.

Why?

The election process here is corrupt; it’s run by the CPP. They have a record of all registered voters—their names, information about their family, their address, etc. But they also keep track of who the person voted for. So, for instance, if a group of people from one community decides to vote for SRP, the CPP threatens them. First they go to their homes, and then they take certain rights away from them—such as access to CPP-run hospitals and schools. Today all children (that can afford to) are allowed to go to school—international pressure has had an impact in lessening certain human rights violations. However, voting for CPP guarantees impoverished farmers the provision of enough financial benefits and healthcare to get by.
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To call what I’ve been doing “international human rights work” might seem strange at first since the activities I’ve described seem primarily political.

Here in Cambodia, the attainment of human rights for all people—not just the wealthy or the supporters of CPP—which naturally involves poverty alleviation, is directly related to the work of the opposition party. SRP members and supporters are the leaders of human rights advocacy throughout the country, and their efforts do not go unnoticed. From impoverished villagers, to the educated and wealthy businessmen I have been introduced to, all of whom have been too scared to get involved with politics, associate the work of SRP with human rights.

For example, as Cambodia’s first woman seated as Minister of Women’s Affairs, Sochua negoitiated an agreeement with Thailand allowing Cambodian women trafficked as sex workers there to return to their home country in lieu of being jailed. As the author and defender of the Domestic Violence Law in the Cambodian Parliament, Sochua has served the women of her nation as an unrelenting advocate for the preservation and full practice of women’s rights.

Because of her hardwork, she has created and maintained significant relationships with policymakers and leaders worldwide. Her strong networks have allowed her the agency to expose the injustices occuring in Cambodia globally—serving as SRP’s “international diplomat” in many ways.
SRP is still severely lacking in financial support/stability and constantly faces threats from the ruling party; consequently, they achieve positive and sustainable results gradually. The attainment of SRP authority, trust, and respect among the people has taken decades of courage, fervor, and endurance; yet some of the smaller provinces still face significant discrimination.

Despite the seemingly limitless struggles of this nation, SRP and its people are determined to continue their persistent and diligent work until they reach their ultimate goal: ensuring that the fulfillment of human rights becomes the reality of life in Cambodia—for all of its people.
While most of you are just getting out of bed (if you’re in New York), I’m preparing for another lovely night on the floor.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found this interesting 🙂

Best, with a hug from Cambodia,
Mari