Scavengers atop a sprawling, 100-acre garbage dump in Phnom Penh. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are threatened with forced eviction as the government ramps up development in the country's cities, the human rights group Amnesty International said MondayMonday • February 11, 2008
AFP
Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians are threatened with forced eviction as the government ramps up development in the country's cities, the human rights group Amnesty International said Monday.
"In sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the government's pro-poor policies ... thousands of people, particularly those living in poverty, have been forcibly evicted from their homes and lands," the group said.
"At least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being forcibly evicted," Amnesty added at the launch of its new report, "Rights Razed -- Forced evictions in Cambodia."
As Cambodia experiences spiralling land prices -- the result of unprecedented economic growth -- the country's poor are being increasingly pushed aside to make way for multi-million-dollar development schemes.
In the capital Phnom Penh and other urban centres, this has resulted in thousands of families being made homeless, or forced to move to squalid relocation sites outside the cities.
Amnesty called these evictions "one of the most widespread human rights violations affecting Cambodians in both rural and urban areas."
Land disputes have sparked some of the worst violence suffered by Cambodia since the end of its protracted civil war a decade ago.
At least two people were seriously injured in clashes over land late last month as workers for a development company squared off with villagers in a Phnom Penh slum that is slated for demolition.
Late last year, at least one person was killed and a foreign tourist taken hostage for several hours during an ongoing property dispute in northern Cambodia.
The United Nations has repeatedly raised the alarm over rising land disputes, with several rights envoys warning that these could de-stabilise the country.
"In sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the government's pro-poor policies ... thousands of people, particularly those living in poverty, have been forcibly evicted from their homes and lands," the group said.
"At least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being forcibly evicted," Amnesty added at the launch of its new report, "Rights Razed -- Forced evictions in Cambodia."
As Cambodia experiences spiralling land prices -- the result of unprecedented economic growth -- the country's poor are being increasingly pushed aside to make way for multi-million-dollar development schemes.
In the capital Phnom Penh and other urban centres, this has resulted in thousands of families being made homeless, or forced to move to squalid relocation sites outside the cities.
Amnesty called these evictions "one of the most widespread human rights violations affecting Cambodians in both rural and urban areas."
Land disputes have sparked some of the worst violence suffered by Cambodia since the end of its protracted civil war a decade ago.
At least two people were seriously injured in clashes over land late last month as workers for a development company squared off with villagers in a Phnom Penh slum that is slated for demolition.
Late last year, at least one person was killed and a foreign tourist taken hostage for several hours during an ongoing property dispute in northern Cambodia.
The United Nations has repeatedly raised the alarm over rising land disputes, with several rights envoys warning that these could de-stabilise the country.
1 comment:
Although one can only feel sorry for the plight of the poor who are being evicted, the big question is whether or not the government should clean up slums and develop the land or let the squatters live in unhygienic and unsanitary conditions. Naturally, the people need to be compensated adequately and be relocated to a place where they can carve out a living. Most of these people have no work to begin with, one should remember. This is a truly difficult question. AI does good work but they need to see the full context of events, as only a developed country is able to guarantee full human rights.
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