Women on the Land II
This week Amnesty International released a a report on land evictions and resistance and the effect it is having on Cambodian women. The report clearly illustrated the vocal and important role women play in the issue. In a lot of provinces it is the women who work the land while men travel to cities for work. Women are left on the front line to fight for their rights when police with guns turn up to burn their houses and steal their plots of land to hand over to massive corporations.
It was a sad week as Chea Dara Boeung Kak Lake resident, community representative, wife and mother of two, jumped off a bridge to her death after being informed for the final time that her house was to be demolished to make way for a road in the Shukaku Inc. development. She was one of the nine women who were detained by the police earlier this year at a community protest.
You can only push people so far before something breaks. Entire communities, families and lives are being destroyed in this country due to greed being perpetrated in the name of “development”. Land grabbing is so devastating as it not only leaves people homeless but it takes away their livelihoods, their jobs, their communities and for a lot of people who suffer health issues such as HIV, their access to vital medical care.
Radio Australia’s Liam Cochrane has done another great report on the continual fall out of the partially AusAID funded railway project.
