'Tears of Dey Krahom Villagers'

The title above is the title of the new song, composed by Dey Krahom villagers, to protest ongoing attempts to evict them from their valuable land int he heart of Phno Penh. The conflict over Dey Krahom (Sambok Chap) Commune has been going on for years at this point. It has involved violence and intimidation. The people of Dey Krahom are amazingly brave, however, and have banded together as a community to fight back.

I haven’t heard the song yet – still waiting for someone to post an mp3 or a version to youtube – but reported lyrics put me in mind of the proverb I posted a few weeks back, which inspired the title of my dissertation

. Those lyrics are:

“Why do rich people who have money, power, cars, land and villas… still want land from poor villager like us?”

An older video (with some unfortunate musical choices) is embedded below:

You can also read the Licadho report on the background to the Dey Krahom case by downloading this PDF here.

And a few good posts on the topic from DAS and Andy Brouwer.