An animated Mann Chhoeun (R) speaking (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)Deputy governor faults land-grabbing report as biased, un-Cambodian
Monday, 08 June 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post
Licadho says government can't continue to hide evictions beneath the banner of development.
PHNOM Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun has criticised a recent land rights report by the advocacy group Licadho, calling it biased and un-Cambodian.
"I think that NGO is not Khmer, and I want to tell them that no one loves Khmer [more] than Khmer," he told the Post.
"You come from outside, so you don't understand Khmer people, and when we didn't have food to eat, you were not with us. So you should look at our achievements and what we have done," he said.
In the report "Land Grabbing and Poverty in Cambodia: The Myth of Development", released Saturday, Licadho accuses the government of using development as a way of legitimising forced evictions.
The evictions, the group said, were really just an "orgy of land-grabbing by powerful individuals".
"Evictions and land-grabbing are not helping to develop Cambodia - they are simply causing more poverty and hardship," Licadho President Kek Galabru said in a press statement.
"A few rich and powerful individuals and companies benefit by becoming richer and stronger, while the health and welfare of countless Cambodians becomes weaker and weaker," she added.
Policy of denial
Land evictees have become the latest target in a government campaign to either deny evictions or to absolve those responsible, with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong reportedly telling an audience in Lowell, Massachusetts, in April that evictees were "professional squatters".
But, Licadho warned that the government was ignoring criticisms "at its peril".
"The Cambodian authorities seem chronically unable - or unwilling - to respect their own laws.... Such willful disregard of the problems facing the country does no favours to the Cambodian people and, in the long run, will do no favours to the Cambodian authorities."
Nevertheless, Mann Chhoeun on Sunday reasserted his commitment to development in response to the report.
"Our country is more developed, and investors and other people come to see and admire our city very much," he said. "If we were bad, we would not see our city develop like today."
PHNOM Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun has criticised a recent land rights report by the advocacy group Licadho, calling it biased and un-Cambodian.
"I think that NGO is not Khmer, and I want to tell them that no one loves Khmer [more] than Khmer," he told the Post.
"You come from outside, so you don't understand Khmer people, and when we didn't have food to eat, you were not with us. So you should look at our achievements and what we have done," he said.
In the report "Land Grabbing and Poverty in Cambodia: The Myth of Development", released Saturday, Licadho accuses the government of using development as a way of legitimising forced evictions.
The evictions, the group said, were really just an "orgy of land-grabbing by powerful individuals".
"Evictions and land-grabbing are not helping to develop Cambodia - they are simply causing more poverty and hardship," Licadho President Kek Galabru said in a press statement.
"A few rich and powerful individuals and companies benefit by becoming richer and stronger, while the health and welfare of countless Cambodians becomes weaker and weaker," she added.
Policy of denial
Land evictees have become the latest target in a government campaign to either deny evictions or to absolve those responsible, with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong reportedly telling an audience in Lowell, Massachusetts, in April that evictees were "professional squatters".
But, Licadho warned that the government was ignoring criticisms "at its peril".
"The Cambodian authorities seem chronically unable - or unwilling - to respect their own laws.... Such willful disregard of the problems facing the country does no favours to the Cambodian people and, in the long run, will do no favours to the Cambodian authorities."
Nevertheless, Mann Chhoeun on Sunday reasserted his commitment to development in response to the report.
"Our country is more developed, and investors and other people come to see and admire our city very much," he said. "If we were bad, we would not see our city develop like today."
14 comments:
What is your achievement Mann Chhoeun? Rob land from poor people?
Mann Chhoeun! I do not know about your past and I hope that you, at least went to "enfantain" in Cambodia instead of get PhD from Hanoi like Hun Xen!
And go to ask your boss Hun Xen, Heng Sam Rim of how mutch he love Khmer in 1975!
Killed the Sick khmer in the hospital so they not sick any more?
So now you move people out of their dirty houses so they need not to have drty house any more1
Khmer love khmer the way your no brain lobsters do! May ligtning strike the evils like your tugs!
Is Maan Choeurn the same shit like Kong Kim the PhD with no school from Hanoi?
Did Maan Chhoeurn know that Cambodian Government bags foreign aids every single year in order to survive?
ah mann chhoeun , people are still hungry after 30 years of liberation and some of them even have died by starvation because you and your government evicted them from their home , what the hell are you talking about ?
Bull shit
We must send complain to ICC about this Robber Man Chhoeurn !!
PPU
Hey Guys! you dare to criticize man chhoeurn, don't you afraid that man chhoeurn will sue you????????????????????????
This is Cambodia and khmer.
Screw ah "Choy Marai" PPU!
Mann Chhoeun,
Ah chh'kaer ban see ach yuon, proeung lit kh'det ah Hun Sen, Mafia prime minister Viet puppet for a whole mlife.
One day you'll be destroyed. It's very near Khmetraitor of Cambodia and her people.
I hate that Man Chhoeun guy. Ever hear him speak? The guy is fanatical, ingorant and loves to twist logic around. He also disrespects others when they speak and has a habit of not speaking in proper government etiquet. He talks to others as if they are little kids or dogs.
These are the kinds of people ah sva Samdach Ach Maha Achow Maciet Hun Sen puts into public office under the CPP banner....a bunch of uneducated Khmer Rouge.
Don't forget he get the job, because he pay money, so he want to get back his investment.
Wherever you see PPU, just say -
Just screw ah PPU's mother formely known as "Ph.D from Hanoi"! It's that simple!
licadho are khmer, you ignorant man
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