Michael Kirk (1996):
The Dynamics of Land Tenure and Land Management in Cambodia:

3. The Position of Stakeholders involved in the Privatization Process of the Country

12. The official objective for the (re-)construction of land registration can be outlined in the following way: legal security for citizens by re-defining property rights in land so as to strengthen the build-up of the "civil society"; stemming the flow of thus far uncontrollable land speculation by using political instruments; to increase the willingness of domestic and foreign entrepreneurs to invest by being able to offer secure negotiable legal titles to land.

13. In Cambodia, there is quite open discussion that at the same time, those powerful pressure groups which push forward these demands for processes of lobbying and legislation, also pursue their own vested interests. Legally questionable land appropriation carried out by returning Cambodian entrepreneurs (with foreign passports) or foreign investors, people high up in the military, politicians and top officials in the time between 1989 and 1994 are now being belatedly sanctioned through land registration. This goes not only for the spectacular cases in the towns, but also more especially in rural areas.

14. Top Cambodian officials talk at the same time frankly about "land laundry". The GTZ project, and likewise that of the municipal Registry Office, is per force involved in these controversial processes, since they can only be made possible and urged on through the development project. On the other hand, these vested interests of the political and economic elite now offer a guarantee that the development project enters into strategic coalitions with top officials to achieve its objective ("The Registry Office is improved in quantity and quality") in order to reduce possible bureaucratic hurdles at the subordinate level, or to lift blockades, and to drive the enforcement of better legal framework conditions forward.

15. As a leading principle of all land tenure decisions in Cambodia, the basic rule, that restitution claims dating from before 1979 are not generally recognized by the State, still exists. Keeping to this strict regulation is made all the easier by the fact that all Registry Office documents dating up to 1975 were destroyed during the Pol Pot regime of terror. Consequently there is no more "written memory" in the country upon which plaintiffs can draw in court.

16. As it is, the jurisdiction cannot properly enter into its role as arbitrator because there are not enough positions for judges, above all in rural areas. Most of the judges have been trained in a system where the separation of powers and independence from the State and the Party are unknown. The latest legislation has not been sufficiently disseminated in the provinces, or is scarcely available in written form, and as well, deep insecurities and a lack of experience characterize the picture of the legal system. A special plan of the "International Human Rights Law Group", the "Cambodian Court Training Program" has begun with both basic and further training schemes. The experience of this group in land conflicts, out-of-court solutions and the enforcement of interests are already being informally used and evaluated by the GTZ project, and an intensive collaboration between the two in the future is imaginable (see Para.5).

17. Land speculation and land conflicts are not only a problem in the capital. In other cities, and in the village context, high officials, military people and private investors acquire land which could be used for agriculture without checking the existing property rights. (There is, for example, the case of the efforts of foreign investors to turn the harbor town of Sihanoukville into a type of special economic zone so that it is not subject to Cambodian land and tax legislation.) How much land has undergone a change of usage, and what effect this has on agricultural production is very probably unknown. In out-of-the-way provinces, military people grab valuable agricultural land in great style, without the circumstances and legitimacy of the appropriation of the land being made public.

18. Although the feverish redistribution of land most strikingly involves properties and buildings in and around Phnom Penh, and on plantation land, various positions of interest going right up to massive conflicts, are also characteristic of every day life, both within and between villages. Thanks to the multiple forced resettlement of local populations, the spontaneous return of broken-up families to their home villages, and the return of refugees from Thailand, permanent demands for the transfer back of former dwellings and fields are directed towards the local authorities. These authorities are overloaded many times and expect solutions and backing from the Land Titles Department.

19. The reallocation of land to family units began in the period of time after 1979. With the dissolution of production cooperatives and the increased return to family farms since about 1985, the redistribution of land to families has been done very schematically and without considering soil quality, yield potential, the actual division and supply of labor, and equipping households with agricultural machinery so that complaints are raised, and conflicts break out in the course of the registration process. Because of this, registration comes to a standstill, and conflicts can carry on for years.

20. In view of the legal insecurity which still exists, the lack of dissemination of laws from the State and a weak jurisdiction, a plan to construct a nationwide land registry will be confronted again and again with unresolved land questions and smoldering land conflicts at the local level. At the same time, officials - for want of alternative institutions - have to take over the difficult role of the "honest broker" in order to make extra-legal solutions possible, and to provide clarification for bogged-down disputes. In order to lighten the workload, a set of activities should be fostered early (see Para.5).