The Goethe Institute runs an arts hub in Phnom Penh called the Meta House, screening free films and documentaries about relevant social issues pretty much every day of the week. They have a café, and sell T-shirts hand-painted by Khmer locals, as a way of raising money. It's a beautiful space with a beautiful mission.
Last night the topic was land rights, and featured a series of short documentaries about how private companies have been taking farmland for exports in sugarcane, at the expense of the residents -- in life, in housing, and without any compensation whatsoever except violence.
I didn't think I was that interested - I don't know anything about land rights, I don't really deal with politics -- but then I went, and discovered that it wasn't about politics, or land rights.
The audience was primarily Khmer people, which surprised me. Women and children, mostly, but with people of all ages, including the conspicuous monk with an iPad. There were many people in T-shirts saying "Free the 15, stop the violence." They were handing out lotus flowers to everyone.
The place was packed to the gills, people crowding in from all sides. It started late, but nobody left, and then the films began. The first two covered a particular incident around the Boeung Kok lake, where 5000 families were evicted, and their homes destroyed -- all in the name of development. The residents fought back. During one particular protest, 13 women were arrested, the police turning violent.
The pictures on the screen -- police dragging away a kicking older woman like a dead body. The Khmer audience clucked and chattered, pointing, and suddenly I thought, they must know these people. These are their lives, their friends, their land.
The women were sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, in a sham of a trial. Defense lawyers were not given time to prepare and defense witnesses were forbidden. The two public defenders assigned to the case walked out of the coutroom, and were summarily arrested.
But that wasn't the end; the community rallied around. The children, the friends. Free the 15 became a movement, peaceful protests everywhere, people lighting candles, making shirts. The lotus flower was their symbol. A month later, with international and national protests streaming in, the women were allowed an appeal.
Over 5000 people gathered outside the courtroom. When it was announced that the women would be released, the celebration was unmatched. The film showed them riding back to their communities in prison jumpsuits, people standing on the street to welcome them, to cheer them. A man half-naked on a bicycle riding by, whooping it up with sheer joy.
Let's just say, I clapped with blurry eyes.
It wasn't about land rights, it was about people, about stunningly courageous and compassionate people, about coming together and fighting for what's human, and decent. It was about seeing what happens in the name of development -- most of this madness has been done until the EU Everything But Arms initiative. Good ideas, but in practice they pave the way for private companies to screw over the locals in the name of progress.
I came here as an outsider, and there is nothing I can do to become Khmer. But I am learning, and opening my eyes to what I -- and many of the so-called developed, civilized countries -- never wanted to see, or hear about. Development is a good thing, right?
I'll have to dedicate another blog post to how my own vision for my work here has drastically changed over the course of the three weeks I've been here.
But in the meantime, I want to say: the 15 may be free, but thousands more are imprisoned, because they have lost everything; their land, their livelihood, their homes, the only thing they have to hold onto. Free the 15, until every one is free.
Stop the violence.
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