House-breakers, employed by local authorities, saw at a resident's house in the Sen Sok district of Phnom Penh on Monday. Residents of the area's Hanoi Road had been warned to leave, but many had not, instead staying to watch in shock as their homes were torn down. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)
A bulldozer tears down houses along Sen Sok district's Hanoi Road on Monday. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)Pleas fail to stop the Hanoi Road eviction
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Written by May Titthara and Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post
Roadside properties demolished by authorities in advance of road-widening project, with affected families calling on the municipality to provide them with fair compensation.
HOMES and fences belonging to residents of Teuk Thla and Phnom Penh Thmey communes in Sen Sok district were demolished by Phnom Penh authorities on Monday to make way for a road expansion project, with witnesses reporting that hundreds of armed police were deployed in the action.
Ten families comprising 40 people lost their homes along the Cambodia-Vietnam Frienship Highway - popularly known as Hanoi Road.
The demolition began after Sen Sok district Governor Khoung Sreng on March 6 told some residents living along the road that they had five days to remove their homes, fences and stalls. Residents did not move in time.
Oeum Reun, 53, whose house was demolished Monday morning, said she had lived there since 1979 and would go to Prime Minister Hun Sen's house to ask for his personal intervention.
"This is crueller than what Pol Pot's soldiers did to us - they mistreated me and then made me put my thumbprint on the form allowing them to demolish my house," she said.
Oeum Reun said she was not interested in being relocated to the four-by-eight metre site at Thnot Chrum that the municipality was offering. "I would rather die than live at Thnot Chrum. I want to live in this area."
The expansion plan requires a width of 22 metres for the road, 8 metres of which will be for drainage infrastructure.
Sek Sovanna, a lawyer for the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), which has been representing the residents, filed an injunction with the Municipal Court last month seeking to halt the construction and has also filed complaints to City Hall. But she said CLEC has yet to receive any response.
"The authorities wrote to them in 2004. Since then the residents have tried asking the authorities to negotiate, but they kept quiet until the end of 2008," she said.
"If they had expanded the road to the width they said in 2004, it wouldn't affect the villagers - back then they said it would be widened by 8 metres along the 4-kilometre length. Now they have turned up and said it must be widened to 30 metres."
Sek Sovanna said the authorities were obliged to pay compensation since the residents were living there legally.
She added that in 2004 there were 90 families, but more than half had left since they did not dare stand up to the authorities.
District Governor Khuong Sreng told the Post Monday that the authorities could not delay the project simply because residents had failed to move and said most would get no compensation.
"They have to respect our notice. This is for development, and City Hall has a policy only to speak to those whose entire houses are affected," he said. And because the expansion project "affected only one or two complete houses", the authorities had offered those people a plot of land each in Thnot Chrum village.
He said that other affected families had lost fences and pavement area and therefore would not be entitled to compensation.
"They have big houses and villas," he said.
No compensation
Resident Prum Navy, 38, said her 14-metre house had lost 12 metres of its length to the project.
"My house has just 2 metres left - how can I live?" she asked. "I would like compensation from the authorities to buy a new house, but they say they have no plan to provide any compensation."
She said of the 10 families that had lost their property, just one had been compensated.
"The authorities came to demolish our houses with rage - they came to tell us on Friday and gave us just three days. And today they have come and destroyed them," she said.
"We are poor people and we don't have power like them. So they can do anything to us."
Chen Ton, 60, watched as her house lost 12 metres of its length, leaving her with just 2.5 metres of living space. She said the authorities showed no pity for the poor.
"We don't deny that the authorities need to develop, but they should know how this affects us. We are humans, not animals," she said.
"They use their power to destroy our houses. We have asked them about compensation since 2004, but they never spoke with us."
Resident Tey Narin told reporters that none of the residents dared to confront the police and the authorities and simply left their houses and fences to be demolished: "No one dares to protest - we fear being arrested," he said.
HOMES and fences belonging to residents of Teuk Thla and Phnom Penh Thmey communes in Sen Sok district were demolished by Phnom Penh authorities on Monday to make way for a road expansion project, with witnesses reporting that hundreds of armed police were deployed in the action.
Ten families comprising 40 people lost their homes along the Cambodia-Vietnam Frienship Highway - popularly known as Hanoi Road.
The demolition began after Sen Sok district Governor Khoung Sreng on March 6 told some residents living along the road that they had five days to remove their homes, fences and stalls. Residents did not move in time.
Oeum Reun, 53, whose house was demolished Monday morning, said she had lived there since 1979 and would go to Prime Minister Hun Sen's house to ask for his personal intervention.
"This is crueller than what Pol Pot's soldiers did to us - they mistreated me and then made me put my thumbprint on the form allowing them to demolish my house," she said.
"If they want to kill me I don't care because my house has been ... demolished.""It's up to them - if they want to kill me, I don't care because my house has been completely demolished."
Oeum Reun said she was not interested in being relocated to the four-by-eight metre site at Thnot Chrum that the municipality was offering. "I would rather die than live at Thnot Chrum. I want to live in this area."
The expansion plan requires a width of 22 metres for the road, 8 metres of which will be for drainage infrastructure.
Sek Sovanna, a lawyer for the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), which has been representing the residents, filed an injunction with the Municipal Court last month seeking to halt the construction and has also filed complaints to City Hall. But she said CLEC has yet to receive any response.
"The authorities wrote to them in 2004. Since then the residents have tried asking the authorities to negotiate, but they kept quiet until the end of 2008," she said.
"If they had expanded the road to the width they said in 2004, it wouldn't affect the villagers - back then they said it would be widened by 8 metres along the 4-kilometre length. Now they have turned up and said it must be widened to 30 metres."
Sek Sovanna said the authorities were obliged to pay compensation since the residents were living there legally.
She added that in 2004 there were 90 families, but more than half had left since they did not dare stand up to the authorities.
District Governor Khuong Sreng told the Post Monday that the authorities could not delay the project simply because residents had failed to move and said most would get no compensation.
"They have to respect our notice. This is for development, and City Hall has a policy only to speak to those whose entire houses are affected," he said. And because the expansion project "affected only one or two complete houses", the authorities had offered those people a plot of land each in Thnot Chrum village.
He said that other affected families had lost fences and pavement area and therefore would not be entitled to compensation.
"They have big houses and villas," he said.
No compensation
Resident Prum Navy, 38, said her 14-metre house had lost 12 metres of its length to the project.
"My house has just 2 metres left - how can I live?" she asked. "I would like compensation from the authorities to buy a new house, but they say they have no plan to provide any compensation."
She said of the 10 families that had lost their property, just one had been compensated.
"The authorities came to demolish our houses with rage - they came to tell us on Friday and gave us just three days. And today they have come and destroyed them," she said.
"We are poor people and we don't have power like them. So they can do anything to us."
Chen Ton, 60, watched as her house lost 12 metres of its length, leaving her with just 2.5 metres of living space. She said the authorities showed no pity for the poor.
"We don't deny that the authorities need to develop, but they should know how this affects us. We are humans, not animals," she said.
"They use their power to destroy our houses. We have asked them about compensation since 2004, but they never spoke with us."
Resident Tey Narin told reporters that none of the residents dared to confront the police and the authorities and simply left their houses and fences to be demolished: "No one dares to protest - we fear being arrested," he said.
9 comments:
Good for you! Because you voted for HUN SEN.
If you continue to vote for HUN SEN in the future he will do more harm to you. Wake up Khmer people!!!
Khmen/Thai,
We will go into Khao Penh and make our Bangkok Street or Bangkok Road too.
Why bother to evict pouk Ah Scam Rainxy's supporters. Just run them over with an 18 wheelers.
Hun Sen,
You, your wife, your sons, your daughters, your brother, and your stupid ass retarded nephew are gonna be wiped out from the face of this earth within the next 5 years. You are so blind to see that there are behind the scenes conspiracies to take you out. It's only a matte of time until everything is put into place. Hun Sen, that is where you failed.
the problem is people are living dangerously too close to the roadways. so, naturally when there are increased in traffic flow etc... you will have no accident. so, this is why the city gov't is telling people to relocate. plus, keep in mind too that population of the city is steadily increasing and thus a demand for beautification of the cityscape, and so on. so, it's not safe to live right almost in the middle of a busy roadway or something. people have gotten to undertand this. this is just one example. and it is wrong and ignore to blame on redevelopment for this kind of eviction. cambodia must redeveloped, like it or not, it's not for unruly people to say. it is the job for the wise and experiencec authority to decide. we are tring to be a civil society. cambodia cannot afford to stay chaotic forever, you know. the war is over and it is now time to redevelop our cities and country. god bless cambodia.
i'm more scare of getting run over by unruly driver on cambodian roadways than have the rule of laws in place in cambodia.
Have you ever experienced traffic in Cambodia? It is quite scary if you aren't used to it and even if you are used to it, it still is dreadful. The roads can be so congested and yet you have helmet-less individuals speeding on their motorbikes, SUVs not taking into consideration of other commuters, and people dodging in and out of the road. It's quite chaotic! hahaha it's worst than Saigon and Bangkok.
Hectic traffic is a sign of a well developed area.
4:12am,
Not necessarily. Hectic traffic can also be a sign of bad urban planning. The infrastructure of Phnom Penh today still persist on the development and planning of a 1960-1970 Phnom Penh which had a population of no more than half a million. Phnom Penh is still slowly playing the catch up game with development and planning since the period from 1970-1993, no grand plan was devised. At least at the moment there is a lot of research and planning for urban development in Phnom Penh that would last for the next 10-15 years. Even at the current capacity, a lot of the research is inadequate and heavily relies on foreign assistance.
Fair enough, 4:58!
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