Thursday, December 31, 2009

Many Forced Evictions on Horizon: Groups

Forced eviction in Dey Krahorm (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 December 2009

Man Chhouen, a deputy governor of Phnom Penh, denied families were unhappy when evicted from their homes, saying they are generally glad to move to a new area. (sic!) [KI-Media Note: Let's evict Mr. Man Chhoeun out of his house and let's see if he is glad!]
Dozens of urban poor communities in the capital are facing the prospect of evictions with little compensation, a broad coalition of rights groups and housing advocates said Wednesday.

Phnom Penh has approximately 410 communities of poor families inside its eight districts, and of those, 74 are facing imminent eviction, the coalition told reporters.

The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, the Housing Rights Task Force and the NGO Forum jointly expressed deep concern that the communities, which have already received notification from the government, will not be properly paid for moving.

The coalition said it worried that notified families will not be able to find jobs, afford new homes or properly educate their children when they are removed from the city.

The municipality often gives reasons of development when evicting families, Ny Chakrya, a lead investigator for the rights group Adhoc, told reporters.

The problem will be exacerbated with the passage of the Law on Expropriation, which passed through the National Assembly on Tuesday, because it tightens controls on people who occupy land without title, he said.

Man Chhouen, a deputy governor of Phnom Penh, denied families were unhappy when evicted from their homes, saying they are generally glad to move to a new area.

“The government guarantees that all legal possessors will have equal access to the titling system,” he said.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cambodians are not stupid. If the governemnet compensates them US$1,000 for their properties, and if they knew they can get US$2,000 from the deal, why should they settle for less?

Anonymous said...

Ah chubby Man Chhoeun always twists storry for his favor. He is the most corrupted city official. When the corruption law pass, he the one should be investigate first.

Anonymous said...

May be this is a fore-shadow of
all poor Cambodians people being
evicted out of their country by
their good neighbor from the east.

Could this be a prophetic picture
of what will happen to all Khmer
people in the future?

Anonymous said...

now you can see the real picture that why the last name dog HUN tell to the family dog HUN do not do anything to the people to late now. all of us saw and hear by the tv. video and more every day.we are can hearing from samrainsy party and human right party too.

Anonymous said...

you know how it is in cambodia, people will rush to the opportunity to claim benefit even those who never lived there in the first place. it's the local thing, you know. or it's the asian thing, i should say. if you understand khmer, you will know exactly what i'm saying here. it's almost like an insider job because all of a sudden, you see thousands of people claim the same plot of land, even though some of them never even live there! what do you say about that, huh?

Anonymous said...

what do you expect when you don't provide your people with adequate education, food, healthcare, infrastructure? don't deviate from the fact that military and govt are devious cheating f***ers who kill, beat, intimidate their own poeple in order to steal their land in PP for their own gain..trying to get a plot of land 45km in Ponya leu district on rocky soil with no access to water or elec is hardly 'opportunism'. It's called desperation.

Anonymous said...

Life is really good if you stay from all kind of troubles.

Anonymous said...

Three Stooges don't care...

Anonymous said...

people do care, if you approach them the right way, i'm sure. they're not that evil compare to the stupid KR regime, really! hey, it's been over 30 years since stupid KR was gone, so people grew and learned by now, so, you're bitching and arrogance won't help anything, really. this is not the dark ages, you know! for your information, the dark ages and the stone ages were a 300 to 1000 years ago because nowadays, the world and even cambodia have moved forward and a lot have improved for mankind and so forth. hello, wake up, people, don't be so evil and selfish, ok! embrace some god and god will help you and guide you.