Dey Kraham people who are facing with eviction and relocation (Photo: RFA)05 August 2006
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
A group of 400 families among the 1,645 families living in the Dey Kraham area in front of the Sambok Chap village in Phnom Penh city, are currently facing evictions and their relocation to the suburb of the city. During the morning of Saturday 05 August, the families who face relocation, have gathered to protest. They refuse to move out of their current location, and they are demanding the government to develop another area instead.
The protest took place while the authority and the 7NG company are collecting names for a lottery to designate people being moved to live in a new location where new houses have been built for them in Khan Dangkao, about 30 kilometers west of the city of Phnom Penh. The protesters claimed that there is no school there, and it will be too far for them to come to work.
Tith Sokuntheary is a 43-year-old woman who came to live in Dey Kraham since 1990, she protested to RFA that she is not registering her name nor does she participate in the lottery to be moved out: “I refuse to go because it is far from my children’ schools, far from the workplace.”
Another woman, Suon Sokhom, added: “I have four school-aged children, there will be no school for them, it’s too far, I don’t know what to do [there].”
Regarding this dispute, RFA interviewed with Sothea, an advisor of the 7NG company. She said that there are now 344 families who have voluntarily accepted to move out of Dey Kraham in Phnom Penh. The company is continuing to register more names: “I told them for example that they will have free electricity for 2 weeks [at the new location]. During the moving, they will not be able to cook, so the company will have cooked food for them over there. For clean water, we are now temporarily transporting water from the state water distribution to provide to them.”
Sothea indicated that the company has already built 380 homes already to receive the families which volunteer to go live at the new location. The company will continue building up to 1,500 houses for all the volunteering families.
She added that the 7NG company received the authorization from the government for the relocation of people in the Dey Kraham Area at a cost of US$15 million. The Dey Kraham area will be turned into a modern commercial development center.
Soeurn Yikou, a woman who lives in Dey Kraham, has volunteered to register her name [with the 7NG company] this Saturday, she is also in the lottery to be moved to the new location. She told RFA that the houses she will be relocated to is 4-meter-by-12-meter large: “Over there, it will be a place where we will no longer have to worry about being evicted anymore, and it is not too far from the city.”
Mrs. Pung Chhiv Kek, president of the human rights NGO Licadho, said that the building of new houses as an exchange is acceptable.
Last Sunday, Sam Rainsy, the opposition leader, warned that he will lead a mass protest if the government continues to evict poor people from the city of Phnom Penh and dump them without taking any responsibility, and causing them hardship.
The protest took place while the authority and the 7NG company are collecting names for a lottery to designate people being moved to live in a new location where new houses have been built for them in Khan Dangkao, about 30 kilometers west of the city of Phnom Penh. The protesters claimed that there is no school there, and it will be too far for them to come to work.
Tith Sokuntheary is a 43-year-old woman who came to live in Dey Kraham since 1990, she protested to RFA that she is not registering her name nor does she participate in the lottery to be moved out: “I refuse to go because it is far from my children’ schools, far from the workplace.”
Another woman, Suon Sokhom, added: “I have four school-aged children, there will be no school for them, it’s too far, I don’t know what to do [there].”
Regarding this dispute, RFA interviewed with Sothea, an advisor of the 7NG company. She said that there are now 344 families who have voluntarily accepted to move out of Dey Kraham in Phnom Penh. The company is continuing to register more names: “I told them for example that they will have free electricity for 2 weeks [at the new location]. During the moving, they will not be able to cook, so the company will have cooked food for them over there. For clean water, we are now temporarily transporting water from the state water distribution to provide to them.”
Sothea indicated that the company has already built 380 homes already to receive the families which volunteer to go live at the new location. The company will continue building up to 1,500 houses for all the volunteering families.
She added that the 7NG company received the authorization from the government for the relocation of people in the Dey Kraham Area at a cost of US$15 million. The Dey Kraham area will be turned into a modern commercial development center.
Soeurn Yikou, a woman who lives in Dey Kraham, has volunteered to register her name [with the 7NG company] this Saturday, she is also in the lottery to be moved to the new location. She told RFA that the houses she will be relocated to is 4-meter-by-12-meter large: “Over there, it will be a place where we will no longer have to worry about being evicted anymore, and it is not too far from the city.”
Mrs. Pung Chhiv Kek, president of the human rights NGO Licadho, said that the building of new houses as an exchange is acceptable.
Last Sunday, Sam Rainsy, the opposition leader, warned that he will lead a mass protest if the government continues to evict poor people from the city of Phnom Penh and dump them without taking any responsibility, and causing them hardship.
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