Violent land eviction leaves poor villagers homeless, starving

The forced eviction was carried out by a mixed group of about 100 RCAF Brigade 31 soldiers, forestry officers, environment officers, police and military police. Most of them were armed with handguns or AK-47s. (Photo: Licadho)

Friday, 21 November 2008
Written by CHEANG SOKHA
The Phnom Penh Post

Hundreds rousted by RCAF soldiers in Kampot are in dire need of shelter, rights monitors say, as the government says illegal squatters must go

HUNDREDS of families whose homes were torched and dismantled earlier this week in a violent land eviction near Bokor National Park say they have been left starving and without anywhere to go, local villagers told the Post Thursday.

Up to 300 houses in Anglong Krom, in Kampot's Taken commune, were destroyed during the eviction Monday and Tuesday by RCAF soldiers from Brigade 31, who have been involved in earlier evictions in the same area, villagers said.

Six villagers were injured - three of them severely - while clashing with the troops as their properties were ransacked, rights monitors say.

"IF WE HAD A CHOICE WE WOULD NOT STAY HERE.... WE ARE LIVING IN FEAR."

Hem Da, whose home was torched to the ground, said that villagers were now sleeping under the open air without shelter or food, while being threatened with arrest from soldiers in the area.

"We have nowhere else to go, so we might as well die here," Hem Da said.

"Most of the villagers here are starving, as their food supplies have run out."

Hem Da said that on Thursday, an environmental police officer from Bokor National Park arrived and ordered villagers to leave within three days.

"If we had a choice we would not stay here," he said. "We are living in fear under the watch of soldiers."

Am Sam Ath, a monitor for human rights NGO Licadho, said that on Thursday his organisation took rice and fish to the villagers.

"The violent eviction by the armed forces is an abuse of human rights," he told the Post while on his way to the site. "These people are very poor, so the destruction of their homes means they are now even poorer."

Am Sam Ath added that even those villagers living illegally on the land should have been informed before their eviction so that they could prepare themselves.

"[The government] should come to investigate how these people are living," he said. "Then look at the possibility of relocating them instead of kicking them out with nothing."

More evictions to come

Chey Uterith, the director of Bokor National Park, said that the army had evicted 192 families and that among those, only 83 owned the homes they were living in. He added that villagers from three other locations nearby will also be evicted in the near future.

"The villagers were not living there legally," he told the Post on Thursday. "We will figure out how many families really deserve new land and will try to provide concessions for them."

A military official in Brigade 31 told the Post that the number of illegal homes being built had increased, and that soldiers were now guarding the area against the squatters.

Security forces in Cambodia forcibly evict 300 families

Villagers' possessions and animals strewn around burning cottages; villagers reported armed forces looted belongings, including chickens, during the 2-day-long forced eviction. (All photos: Licadho)
LICADHO briefly gained access to site on first night of eviction and saw dozens of freshly-burnt houses while families, including children, were sleeping next to still-smoking ashes.
The forced eviction was carried out by a mixed group of about 100 RCAF Brigade 31 soldiers, forestry officers, environment officers, police and military police. Most of them were armed with handguns or AK-47s.
When LICADHO was officially allowed to enter the area in the late afternoon on the second day of the eviction, military soldiers had been ordered out of the site; the few remaining soldiers disappeared into surrounding forest or quickly removed their military shirts as NGOs arrived.

20 November 2008
Amnesty International

Security forces in Kampot Province, southern Cambodia this week forcibly evicted around 300 families and burnt their homes to the ground.

Around 100 soldiers, police, military police and Forestry Administration officials took part in the forced eviction in Anlong Krom village in the Chhuk District.

The largest group present belonged to Brigade 31 of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. It has been reported that they were carrying firearms including AK47s and handguns.

Around 130 houses, mostly thatched huts built with straw and leaves, were burnt down on 17 November, leaving homeless families spending the night in the open. Many slept on the ashes of their homes. The security forces burnt down the remaining 170 houses the following day.

“The immediate priority is for authorities to provide emergency relief, including adequate shelter, food, clean water and medical assistance to the homeless families from Anlong Krom village. Then the government needs to ensure they have access to adequate alternative accommodation and compensation, and conduct a full inquiry into how they lost their homes,” said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher.

Amnesty International has learnt that members of the mixed force beat and kicked many of the villagers. Three people had to be taken to hospital for their injuries.

At no time during the two days were villagers or human rights monitors shown any documentation providing for the legal basis for the eviction.

"There was no prior notice, no eviction order, no court decision. This eviction speaks volumes about the state of rule of law in Cambodia," said Brittis Edman.

According to human rights monitors, the local authorities claim that the village is an illegal settlement; poor farmers have settled on the land there, which they thought was vacant. Some families have told human rights workers they moved onto the land up to six years ago, while others have settled there more recently. Many of the settlers are believed to have been landless and the community in Anlong Krom was living in poverty.

At least 3,100 families, or approximately 15,000 people, have been affected by forced evictions in Cambodia so far this year. Some 150,000 Cambodians are known to be living at risk of forced eviction in the wake of land disputes, land grabbing, agro-industrial and urban redevelopment projects.

The Cambodian government has an obligation under international law to protect the population against forced evictions. Whether they are owners, renters or illegal settlers, everyone should possess a degree of security of tenure which guarantees legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other threats. The prohibition on forced evictions does not, however, apply to evictions carried out by force in accordance with the law and in conformity with international human rights law.

Amnesty International is urging the Cambodian authorities to end all forced evictions and declare and introduce a moratorium for all mass evictions until legislative and policy measures are in place to ensure that evictions are conducted only in full compliance with international human rights laws and standards.

Cambodian government accused of brutally evicting villagers

Wed, 19 Nov 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian human rights groups accused the government and military Wednesday of brutally evicting hundreds of families and torching their homes in a rural southern village early in the week. Rights monitors said at least three people were seriously injured by beatings when soldiers, police and forestry officials forcibly evicted up to 300 hundred families from the 20-hectare site Monday.

Authorities torched about 130 homes on Monday and another 170 on Tuesday in the second such eviction in the area this year, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights said in statement.

"The ownership of the land in question is unclear, but authorities claim that it is protected state forest. Some of the people living there say they have been there for several years, while others settled there more recently," the statement said.

The group said soldiers also blocked a road leading to the village in Kompot province Monday, preventing medical workers and rights groups from reaching the site.

"They used the armed forces to evict people. It was violent and brutal," Try Chhoun, provincial coordinator for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, told The Cambodia Daily.

Try Chhoun said soldiers and police told villagers they had stolen land belonging to Prime Minister Hun Sen and warned that the area would soon be occupied by disabled soldiers.

Bokor National Park Director Chey Ulterith, who administers national parks in the area, accused the villagers of trying to occupy and then sell state-owned land, and then repeat the process at another village, the newspaper reported.

Land ownership and "land-grabbing" has been a source of intense conflict over the past few years in Cambodia's provinces, where property values have skyrocketed.

Human rights groups have accused the government of leaving thousands of villagers homeless by seizing parcels of rich agricultural land to hand over to politically connected companies.

Villagers say troops torched 300 homes [-RCAF Brigade 31 should be sent to defend Cambodian border ... not torch down Cambodian homes]

Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Written by Cheang Sokha and Sebastian Strangio The Phnom Penh Post

Villagers living on disputed land near Bokor National Park violently evicted for the second time in six months, say human rights groups

HUNDREDS of families are homeless after their violent eviction from their village on the outskirts of Bokor National Park in Kampot province, according to local residents and rights groups.

Villagers from Anlong Krom, in Kampot's Taken commune, say hundreds of troops from RCAF's Brigade 31 arrived without warning Monday and Tuesday and set fire to 300 wooden homes belonging to the residents - the second eviction from the area this year.

In June 300 armed soldiers from Brigade 31 demolished the homes of 200 families, who fled to the nearby hamlet of Kbal Damrey.

Anlong Krom resident Hem Da said villagers gathered to protest Monday morning but were threatened with arrest by the soldiers.

"When villagers protested, [the soldiers] hurt them and threatened to arrest and imprison them," he said. Rights groups say six local villagers were injured - three seriously - as they protested the destruction of their property.

Hem Da added that no replacement housing has been provided to the affected residents. "They have not found a relocation site for us," he said. "We have nowhere to live."

The eviction came a day before four residents from a nearby village are scheduled to stand trial on charges of robbery and damaging private property in an earlier confrontation with Brigade 31 soldiers.

Nhek Chantha, 52, Vong Ma, 46, Moeu Sopheak, 19, and Noeu Kak-Kada, 18, were arrested in June for protesting the subdivision of land in Kbal Damrey village, needed to house the villagers evicted from Anlong Krom.