Cambodian child deaths linked to Australian aid agency

Drowning victims ... Hut Heap, 13, and her brother Hut Hoeub, 9, died four days after they and their families were forcibly resettled.

November 2, 2010
ABC Radio Australia

Calls are growing for an investigation into a Cambodian resettlment site, after two children died.

The children, aged nine and 13, were found dead in a pond near Battambang in western Cambodia. Their deaths come just days after their family and 50 others were forced out of their homes and moved to a resettlement site so that work could begin on a railway project. That project is partly financed by the Australian government aid agency Aus AID and operated by Melbourne firm Toll Holdings, with its local partner, Cambodia's Royal Group of Companies. Now Cambodian aid group Bridges Across Borders is calling for an investigation into the site and the Australian government's role.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speakers: Dr Natalie Bugalski, Australian human rights lawyer

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

LAM: Can you tell us first of all what are the circumstances surrounding the children's deaths?

BUGALSKI: Well the young families were moved to the resettlement site to make way for the re-facilitation of the tracks in Battambang. And four days after the families were resettled, the two children, brother and sister, aged nine and 13, went to the pond to collect water for basic household chores and to bathe. And they have to do this because pumped water is not installed at the site. So people are needing to track through a muddy rice field to access water from the pond, which by the way is full of chemicals used for growing rice and has caused skin diseases and other illnesses. So on this occasion in late May, the children went to collect water and never returned, and their bodies were sadly found at the bottom of the pond.

LAM: So are you saying then that the children's deaths are directly related to the resettlement, because one might argue that children drown in ponds in Cambodia all the time?

BUGALSKI: Well in our interview with the brother in the community they were saying that the children would not have had reason to go to the pond to access water if piped water had been supplied at the resettlement site. And really it's just a deplorable situation that people would be forced to resettle to make way for this track project and the conditions of that site were so inadequate that there weren't even basic services for water and electricity.

LAM: Well people must be fairly desperate to try and access water in a pond that's contaminated by chemicals as you say. Can you tell us about the conditions of the resettlement site in Battambang?

BUGALSKI: Sure. We were quite aghast really at the conditions there, we went to visit a few weeks ago. People are living in very basic houses, they got very little compensation for their houses on the tracks, and dismantled their houses and rebuilt them but in worse condition in a lot of cases on the site, on very small plots of land. And they were forced to move quite far away from their livelihoods and jobs. So this has mean that already poor families have been thrust deeper into poverty and had to go in many cases into significant debt just to survive.

LAM: And Natalie the railway project that we're speaking about of course has an AusAid connection. Do you know if AusAid carried out any assessment of the site before the families were relocated?

BUGALSKI: As far as we're aware the Australian government, AusAid has been completely negligent in supervising and monitoring what's happening with Australian aid money. We don't think they have been hands on at all in checking to see if the site was ready for families to move there. Had they checked I'm sure families would not have been moved to that site. And really the Australian government we think should be carrying out a thorough human rights impact assessment before agreeing to give aid to these sorts of projects.

LAM: Have you made any representation to AusAid and indeed has there been a response?

BUGALSKI: We have contacted AusAid twice in the last few weeks since we've found out about the death of the children and the conditions and we've not received any response to our letters.

LAM: And what do you hope to see happen now?

BUGALSKI: Well we hope that very, very promptly conditions are improved at the site, reparations are paid, direct reparations to the grieving family of the lost children and livelihood support is given to the families and their situation is remedied as soon as possible.

LAM: Resettlement of course has been a long running issue in Cambodia. Do you think if the children had not died perhaps the displaced people's rights might still be ignored?

BUGALSKI: Absolutely, it's very sad I think that it takes the death of two children to bring this to the attention of the institutions who really should be monitoring and supervising these sorts of projects so that these things don't happen.