Arson Victim Says Police Are Source of Discouragement

Orlando Chan

Orlando Chan is one of the arson victims who told his stories to a Southern media house. Chan and other victims explained that they lived in the area for decades, cultivating the land and building their homes on it. Successive governments had promised to regularize their situation by acquiring the land from the private landowners, and giving them the opportunity to own it legally, but that never happened. The Chinese businessman claiming to own the property showed up in person, reportedly demanding twenty thousand dollars as payment in compensation, or they would have to move.

Orlando Chan, Arson Victim

“Yesterday we tried; the Police was informed about the incident. And what is unfortunate is that the people don’t feel that they have the full support of the Police. For example, yesterday we were on site; they were taking sights; one of the officers was writing down, itemizing what more or less got burnt. But my impression is that they are already trying – and we haven’t even gone to court – in making decisions; I was told by one of the officers that if we don’t have any legal papers saying that we own the land, we will not get justice. And this is very unfair, due to the fact that we are there since the eighties, and for a fact what is burnt is our property; we built it with our very own hands.”