Ongoing Brutal Evictions Are Among "Policies and Practices of The Past" Prohibited by The 1991 Paris Agreements on Cambodia

Suong Sophorn, a housing activist, can be seen held by his hair by
Hun Xen's violent cops. He was later beaten up some more (Licadho Video)

A bloodied Suong Sophorn is taken away by the cops (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Sam Rainsy's October 27, 2010 Letter to The Cambodia Daily

ONGOING BRUTAL EVICTIONS ARE AMONG "POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF THE PAST" PROHIBITED BY THE 1991 PARIS AGREEMENTS ON CAMBODIA

In your article titled “Lake Residents Ask Visiting UN Head to Stop Evictions” (October 26, page 29) you recalled, “Some 4,000 families were slated for eviction when [Phnom Penh] City Hall granted a 99-year lease for Boeng Kak lake and the surrounding villages to private developer Shukaku Inc in 2007.”

The plight of the Boeng Kak lake residents who are asking for help from UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, is only the latest tragedy in a long series of forced evictions both in Phnom Penh (Koh Pich, Sambok Chap, Dey Krahorm, Group 78, etc) and in the provinces where tens of thousands of poor and powerless farmers are victims of land confiscation and forced to leave their farms and homes.

Many strong and rightful arguments have been developed by land and housing rights groups who have come to the defense of the growing number of victims of forced evictions.

To my opinion, those citizens who have been, or are in the process of being, forcibly expelled from their homes, are entitled to ask for the intervention of Mr. Ba Ki-moon for another reason related to the Paris Agreements on Cambodia signed in 1991 with the participation of the United Nations.

In Part III dealing with “Human Rights,” Article 15 of the Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict stipulates, “Cambodia undertakes to take effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of the past shall never be allowed to return,” while “The other Signatories to this Agreement undertake to promote and encourage respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia […], in order, in particular, to prevent the recurrence of human rights abuses.”

The above-mentioned “policies and practices of the past” and past “human right abuses” are a diplomatic reference to crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge without naming any regime. Among those crimes, there were brutal expulsions of people from their homes with the victims being forced to move into hostile areas with no facilities whatsoever.

In 2010, after countless brutal evictions by the current government, there are many places on the outskirts of Phnom Penh which are reminiscent of some of the “policies and practices of the past.” One example is Andong village where some of the victims of recent land grabs have been inhumanly relocated, actually dumped.

The ongoing forced evictions in Cambodia, being similar to some of the Khmer Rouge practices, should not be tolerated by any signatories to the Paris Agreements who have committed themselves to defending human rights in Cambodia.

Sam Rainsy

Member of Parliament