The municipality promised that new housings will be built for the residents (Photo: PS, Cambodge Soir)Thursday, March 22, 2007
By Sarah Oliveira
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial Translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French
In spite of a reassuring statement issued by the Phnom Penh municipality, the residents of Boeng Kak are still worried about the investment project planned for this area, and the uncertainties they will face for in place housing.
In the affair of the controversial development project for the Boeng Kak site, the statement issued by the Phnom Penh municipality on 14 March, which highlighted the positive aspects of this transaction, did not reassure the residents. The NGOs still remain on the alert. While the 99-year land concession of the area to the Sukaku Inc company was immediately denounced by the NGOs when it was first announced, the affair is now delegated to the background during the election campaign which is now in full swing.
“No relocation,” according to the municipality
The municipality denies any plan to evict the families currently living in this area, it indicated in its statement “that no relocation” was mentioned in the contract and that the company will “build in place housing for the residents.”
“In fact, the contract does not stipulate any eviction but compensations,” Chhit Vichea, a lawyer for the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), noted. “Nevertheless, we don’t have much more details,” he added. An anonymous Boeng Kak resident is voicing his concerns. He learnt last week through a document handed to him by a clerk from the city hall that his district will be turned into a tourist and commercial center. “I bought a plot here in 1993, and I built a two-story guesthouse. The municipality claims that housing will be built for us. But, if my family is relocated to the third floor, how can I earn a living? Maybe, they will build small apartments for us, and they will keep the vast lands for themselves,” he said with much doubt.
Keeping his anonymity, an old man noted that Asians not speaking Khmer, “maybe Chinese, Korean, or Japanese” came to visit the area yesterday morning to establish roads, and to count the number of houses. “If the municipality or a company tells us that my family can stay, we will stay. If they tell us to leave, we will leave. Protesting will not do anything because we will never be able to make them change their plans,” the man said. His neighbors share his resignation since they don’t have ownership titles. They bought their small plot of land from others who settled there at the end of the Khmer rouge regime, when people were able to return back to Phnom Penh.
Guarantees for compensations
Ou Vireak, the spokesman for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), said that he is pleased that the municipality published its statement, but he stressed that it is not sufficient. “The residents must receive a fair compensation, but there is no such guarantee for them until now,” he added. “During recent land disputes, we noted that this was never the case, and we fear that the same thing will happen again.”
Eng Chhay Eang, SRP MP and also vice-president of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), recalls that his party recently wrote to the government on this affair, but that it has not yet received any reply. He declared that if the government does not void this contract, or if it does not resolve the housing problem for the 4,000 families involved, in an acceptable manner, the SRP could pull itself out the NARLD.
In the affair of the controversial development project for the Boeng Kak site, the statement issued by the Phnom Penh municipality on 14 March, which highlighted the positive aspects of this transaction, did not reassure the residents. The NGOs still remain on the alert. While the 99-year land concession of the area to the Sukaku Inc company was immediately denounced by the NGOs when it was first announced, the affair is now delegated to the background during the election campaign which is now in full swing.
“No relocation,” according to the municipality
The municipality denies any plan to evict the families currently living in this area, it indicated in its statement “that no relocation” was mentioned in the contract and that the company will “build in place housing for the residents.”
“In fact, the contract does not stipulate any eviction but compensations,” Chhit Vichea, a lawyer for the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), noted. “Nevertheless, we don’t have much more details,” he added. An anonymous Boeng Kak resident is voicing his concerns. He learnt last week through a document handed to him by a clerk from the city hall that his district will be turned into a tourist and commercial center. “I bought a plot here in 1993, and I built a two-story guesthouse. The municipality claims that housing will be built for us. But, if my family is relocated to the third floor, how can I earn a living? Maybe, they will build small apartments for us, and they will keep the vast lands for themselves,” he said with much doubt.
Keeping his anonymity, an old man noted that Asians not speaking Khmer, “maybe Chinese, Korean, or Japanese” came to visit the area yesterday morning to establish roads, and to count the number of houses. “If the municipality or a company tells us that my family can stay, we will stay. If they tell us to leave, we will leave. Protesting will not do anything because we will never be able to make them change their plans,” the man said. His neighbors share his resignation since they don’t have ownership titles. They bought their small plot of land from others who settled there at the end of the Khmer rouge regime, when people were able to return back to Phnom Penh.
Guarantees for compensations
Ou Vireak, the spokesman for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), said that he is pleased that the municipality published its statement, but he stressed that it is not sufficient. “The residents must receive a fair compensation, but there is no such guarantee for them until now,” he added. “During recent land disputes, we noted that this was never the case, and we fear that the same thing will happen again.”
Eng Chhay Eang, SRP MP and also vice-president of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), recalls that his party recently wrote to the government on this affair, but that it has not yet received any reply. He declared that if the government does not void this contract, or if it does not resolve the housing problem for the 4,000 families involved, in an acceptable manner, the SRP could pull itself out the NARLD.
2 comments:
It's ironc that we never really care or mention to our own people that water attract lighting.
Someone, please do something and get our people to move their resident away from water as soon as possible.
Why don't you cover your mother's water well so you do not have to care about your daugter' water well get hit by lightning!
May be you Viet never care about your own mother, you mother curser son of hell!
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