12/20/2002

Mondolkiri is one of Cambodia’s most remote and least developed provinces. It is in the far northeast of the country, along the border with Vietnam, a 10-hour ride from the capital, Phnom Penh, over abysmal roads that are often impassable in the rainy season. Trucks sink up to their bellies in the mud. Malaria is rife.

It is this area that the Phnong hill people call home. Of the 40,000 people who inhabit the region, 90% are members of this ethnic minority. In the 1970s, many were forced from their homes by war. Some of those who survived chose to make their way across Cambodia into Thailand. Others were forced on their western exodus by Khmer Rouge troops fleeing the invading Vietnamese army. They would languish in refugee camps or in settlements controlled by the Khmer Rouge for almost 20 years.

In January 1999, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) initiated a program to repatriate all remaining Cambodian refugees still camped in Thailand. Among them were 3,000 Phnong who would be returning to the most isolated and difficult circumstances. Concerned for their survival, RI decided to track their return.

Loaded onto UNHCR trucks, the Phnong left Thailand for Cambodia. Though many had had little contact with the land they left, they were eager to reconnect and reestablish their old way of life. They were eager to reclaim a swath of land no one else seemed to want.

It soon became clear, however, that the journey home would not be a smooth one. Unprepared to handle the hazards of Mondolkiri’s roads; or the fact that a combination of war, Khmer Rouge policies, and slash-and-burn farming techniques had relocated many villages, UNHCR gave up the idea of returning the Phnong to their homes and began simply dropping them off along the roadsides near where their old villages had been. Frequently the drop off point was miles from any village. Even more frequently, the village no longer existed.

On the ground in Cambodia at the time, President Emeritus Lionel Rosenblatt and the legendary advocate and human rights worker Yvette Pierpoli saw what was happening and realized if no action was taken, the Phnong might once again find themselves in a crisis situation. Rosenblatt and Pierpoli turned an old school into a transfer center and began ferrying refugees from the school to remote outposts in a rented truck. The move would be just the beginning of RI’s involvement with the Phnong.

NGOs are widespread in Cambodia, but because of remoteness and hardships, not so in Mondolkiri. At the time of the 1999 repatriation, only Medecins du Monde operated in the province, and this was strictly in the health sector. Returning home, the Phnong found it virtually impossible to support themselves. Few had seeds or animals, and those who did have seeds found the ground too hard from 20 years of neglect to hoe with manpower alone. They called for outside assistance, but none was available.

Though the job fell beyond the realm of RI’s core focus on refugee advocacy, RI realized that in the absence of assistance NGOs, the organization had to provide some preliminary relief. In 1999 and 2000, RI gave out vegetable seeds and chickens to some of the most vulnerable families. Cattle and buffaloes from other parts of Cambodia and from Vietnam were brought in to help returnees clear and cultivate their land. When the UN World Food Program (WFP) threatened to pull out because delivery to such a remote area was not proving cost-effective, RI agreed to monitor both the distribution of rice and the food-for-work program. The continuation of WFP deliveries is one of the single most important humanitarian outcomes of RI’s advocacy, and will remain an on-going challenge for 2003. RI’s most profound and guiding objective, however, is to help the Phnong help themselves. Starting in autumn 2001, Cambodia Family Development Services (CFDS), under the leadership of Cambodian-American John Phay, opened an office in Mondolkiri to take up RI’s food distribution monitoring role and, even more significantly, to begin to chart grass roots development for some of the most vulnerable Phnong. Most of the CFDS staff in Mondolkiri is Phnong and they are gaining experience in economic development. In October 2002, RI brought a delegation of Phnong staff and community leaders to the neighboring province of Rattanakiri. None of the Phnong had ever been to the neighboring province and they learned about indigenous people’s activities from weaving to building better traps for the wild pigs that devastate their crops. Following the trip to Rattanakiri, the Phnong delegation compiled a list of economic development and educational goals for Mondolkiri. The document is the first of its kind for the Phnong, and its existence is an inspiration to both the Phnong people and those who want to help them.

RI continues to support the Phnong as they struggle to produce leaders and delineate a viable and self-sustaining future for themselves. As part of this mission, the organization has sponsored a number of human rights internships for Phnong students and is providing a full scholarship to Yun Mane, the first Phnong to ever attend law school in Cambodia. To read more about Mane, please visit the RI website tomorrow!