Boeung Kak residents appeal to UN for help

Friday, 22 October 2010
Will Baxter
The Phnom Penh Post

A GROUP of residents of the Boeung Kak lakeside and civil society representatives sent a letter to the United Nations and 13 foreign embassies in Phnom Penh yesterday, asking them to pressure the government to stop forced evictions in the area. “We call upon the international community to condemn this development aggression and implore the Royal Government of Cambodia to uphold its citizens’ rights,” the letter says. Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said the group hoped to raise the issue with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during his visit to the Kingdom this month.

Crackdown on Boeung Kak Lake protesters by Nom Benh cops

Report by Khe Sonorng, Radio Free Asia
Video by Uon Chhin
Photo by Khe Sonorng

"Boeung Kak, Boeung Kam" a Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea

Lake Area Evictees Protest at City Hall [-Lao Meng Khin's Shukaku pay residents about 10% of actual land price]

By Seng Ratana, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 September 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

More than 100 people from the Boeung Kak lake area of Phnom Penh protested in front of Phnom Penh City Hall Monday, claiming development of the area was continuing before they had been properly compensated for living.

The residents said the Shukaku, Inc., development company had already begun filling the lake, starting from April.

Protester Huon Sopha, 42, said if the company continues to fill the lake, its rising water level will cause her house to collapse. Shukaku must stop filling the lake, she said, as most people living around it disagreed with a municipal moving policy.

Only about 400 of a total 4,000 families around the lake have accepted a company buyout of $8,000 per family to leave.

Thon Yon, a 60-year-old lake resident, said Monday she would not accept $8,000. Her house should be compensated according to current real estate prices, between $60,000 and $70,000, she said.

Shukaku was not taking into account the current prices or the size of each house, she said.

In April 2007, Phnom Penh signed an agreement with Shukaku to develop 43 hectares of land around the lake, in a 99-year lease worth $79 million.

In April 2008, Shukaku began filling the 90-hectare lake, and residents said earlier this year they feared they would be moved off their land after July's election.

Critics have also said the city's drainage will be affected by the filling of the lake, and people who depend on the lake's water lilies for their livelihood will be affected. Both Amnesty International and the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions have urged the project be stopped to ensure the rights of the residents, calling the project "in breach of both Cambodian and international law."

Soun Rindy, Phnom Penh Municipality chief of cabinet, said Monday the request of the protesters was under consideration.

Shukaku representatives could not be reached for comment.

Pen Raingsey, who works for the non-government group Resettlement Action Network, said Monday the city and the developer should not give only one choice to the lake residents, many of whom are legal residents and should get proper compensation for their eviction.

A representative of the lake residents, Ros Polrith, said city officials had not provided an immediate resolution but had promised to respond next week.

Lake residents want justice [-A Khmer Rouge-style forced eviction in the work?]

Residents watch as a pipe begins pumping sand and water into the lake. The reclamation process is expected to take more than a year to complete. (Photo: RICK VALENZUELA)

Thursday, 28 August 2008
Written by Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

"THIS MAY BE THE BEGINNING OF THE BIGGEST FORCED EVICTION IN POST-WAR CAMBODIA."

A lawyer representing Boeung Kak villagers will challenge the filling of the lake by private developers and demand fair compensation for the displaced

RESIDENTS at Boeung Kak plan to file a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court over what they say is the illegal filling of the natural lake by private developers.

"I will file with the court on behalf of residents and demand acceptable compensation," said the residents' lawyer, Choung Choungy, at a news conference Wednesday attended by about 100 lake residents.

"There had been no compensation when workers started filling the lake," said Noun Thol, 33, a representative of the lake residents. "I'm afraid that houses near the sand pump could fall down."

Toch Sophany, 48, lives in Village 4 in Srah Chak commune. She settled in Boeung Kak in 1979 and makes her living growing vegetables and lotus flowers.

"My business will be destroyed," she said. "Boeung Kak is our business." She said villagers would not accept houses and cash to abandon the area.

Municipal officials agreed Monday to pay an additional US$500 to lake residents who accepted compensation of a new house and $8,000 in cash.

"I will not take [the deal]. I want fair compensation," Toch Sophany said, adding that fair compensation would be at least $30,000.


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Pa Socheatvong, deputy governor of Phnom Penh, told the Post on Wednesday that the municipality has three options for lake residents: a new house, a cash settlement or on-site upgrading of existing properties.

"This is our policy," he said. "If they refuse to accept the first two options, they must wait for development to finish."

Pa Socheatvong said residents would not be endangered by current development work. "Residents can move their houses away from the pump to areas that have more water."

Amnesty International and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) on Wednesday issued a statement condemning the filling of the lake.

"In the absence of proper plans, compensation and adequate alternative housing for at least 3,000 affected families, the filling of the lake should be immediately halted. Otherwise, this may be the beginning of the biggest forced eviction in postwar Cambodia," said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher, in the statement.

"If the government wishes to develop Boeung Kak, they should do so through a legal process, with the participation of communities that live around the lake," said Dan Nicholson, Coordinator of COHRE's Asia and Pacific Programme.

Amnesty International and COHRE said the agreement between City Hall and Shukaku Inc breached domestic law, and "no environmental impact assessment has been made public".

Puth Sorithy, director of the Environmental Impact Department at the Ministry of Environment, said last week in a meeting with 450 lakeside families at City Hall that Boeung Kak is not a healthy place for people to live.

"I felt sick from the smell when I visited," he told the villagers. "Our EIA balances natural and social environment issues. If there is no EIA, the company could not pump sand into the lake."

Lake Residents Request Money for Move

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 August 2008

Hundreds of residents of the Boeung Kak lake area met with Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema in a conference room at City Hall Monday to request compensation for moving to make way for a massive development project.

About 450 residents asked the city for $13,000 each in order to move from the area, which is slated for the development of commercial, residential and entertainment property.

City officials and developers have made plans for commercial buildings, supermarkets, a meeting hall, an entertainment center, night clubs, hotels, a university, a hospital and residences on the site where now sits a wide pond full of water lilies encircled by makeshift homes of the poor.

Residents have complained in the past they were not being given enough money to move away from the development site, but the city maintains most people living along the lakeside, in makeshift wooden homes, are there illegally.

Some residents have requested new housing on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, in Dangkao district, while others are seeking payment.

Kep Chuktema told the crowd of residents he would take their monetary request under consideration, requesting cooperation from the developer, Shukaku, Inc.

A Shukaku representative was present at the meeting, but declined to speak to the crowd. Shukaku has a 99-year lease with the government, for an estimated $79 million project.

One plan for the development would require filling in the lake.