A baby evicted from Borei Keila died while several others fall ill due to lack of shelters

Borei Keila residents protest against the jailing of other residents (Photo: Sochivy, RFA)

15 May 2012
By Tin Zakariya
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

A baby evicted from Borei Keila died and several others face fever, cold disease and diarrhea due to lack of proper shelters.

A baby evicted from Borei Keila died at Kuntha Bopha hospital in the afternoon of 14 May in Phnom Penh due to fever, diarrhea and lack of proper nutrition.

Mrs. Khuon Toeun, the mother of the baby who died, indicated that her son was 9-month old and he fell ill when she went to protest to demand compensation from the [Phan Imex] company in Phnom Penh city. In order to ask for government intervention, she had to take along her baby who had to face heat and rain.

The Borei Keila baby died after Hun Xen announced that during his leadership at the next legislative mandate, he will not let anybody die from hunger.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Khuon Toeun recounted in tears that her son, when he was alive, did not have a shelter to live in, nor did he have anything to eat other than her milk. Therefore, when she has nothing to eat, she did not have any milk to feed her son either. She said that as her son fell gravely ill, she took him to the Kuntha Bopha hospital for care and he stayed there for one month until he passed away.

She recounted in great sadness that her son was her first child and after his death, she had to give his body the hospital for incineration because she cannot bring him back to Borei Keila as she has no shelter nor does she have any money to give him a burial.

Mrs. Khuon Toeun said that on 15 May 2012, she went to beg for money from the Veal Vong commune chief to provide a funeral for her son, but instead, the [black-hearted] commune chief told her to go beg money from the political party she belongs to. [In general, CPP officials indiscriminately designate protesters as belonging to the opposition].

Clash between Borey Keila residents and the cops on 03 January 2012

Clash between residents and the cops in Borey Keila (File photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

FYI:

Earlier this morning 3 January 2012, the policemen and the villagers of the Borey Keila were fighting each other, it seems as land war.

Some police and the residents are injured and now the police are mobilizing more forces in order to demolish their households today but the residents are determined to die to protect their housings and benefit.

Journalists and some NGO human rights are there for monitoring and write up the story of the conflict.

Secretariat
--
Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF)
HRTF:#2A, St.271, Sangkat Beoung
Tompun, Khan Chamcar Morn
Phnom Penh.
Evictions Hotline: (855) 068 470 480
Tel/Fax: (855) 023 996 531
Email: sd@hrtfcambodia.org
Website: www.hrtfcambodia.org
--------------------------------------------------------
HRTF is the coalition of local and international organizations that working to Prevent Force Eviction and Promote Housing Rights in Cambodia.

Broken promise spurs protest

Thirty-seven-year old Borei Keila resident Kin Thyda, who has already received replacement housing, yesterday visits members of her family who have not received compensation or a unit in one of the eight apartment buildings constructed by the Phanimex company. Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Saor Sreypav, 36, a Borei Keila resident who is still awaiting replacement housing, looks out over the community yesterday. Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

Another chapter in the long-running land dispute between development firm Phanimex Company and the Borei Keila community unfolded yesterday as 70 residents once again called on the district governor and Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene on their behalf.

At the heart of the dispute is a broken promise that has left 384 families without a home. In 2003, Phanimex told villagers being displaced by their development site that they would build 10 apartment buildings to house them on two hectares in Borei Keila. Eight years later, residents are still waiting on the final two buildings.

“The residents protest to demand only the houses that the company promised to give us, but if the company does not give us homes, we will develop on the site. Don’t kick us out from this place,” said community resident Sor Sorn. “We are so scared that we will be moved to another place that is far from the capital.”

Housing Demonstrators Broken Up Before Premier’s House

Borei Keila

The residents had gathered to represent more than 380 families who are worried they will not have new homes built under a 2003 development deal on 14 hectares of land.

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Some protesters had torn clothes and fell to the ground.”

Police on Wednesday dispersed some 50 protesters from in front of the prime minister’s Kandal province residence who had gathered to demonstrate over concerns they could lose their homes to a Phnom Penh development project.

One woman was injured after several dozen police and military police pushed the group out of the street, witnesses said.

The residents had gathered to represent more than 380 families who are worried they will not have new homes built under a 2003 development deal on 14 hectares of land. The original plan called for a development company to develop 4.6 hectares of land in the area, including 2 hectares of apartments for those already living there.

Hor Chinda, a 31-year-old demonstrator who said she was beaten on the legs and chest, said she was calling on Hun Sen to help residents receive housing.

Bun Rany to receive UN award for reducing HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination ... while her husband regime is promoting just the opposite

HIV patient Touch Sokhak, 45, speaks to reporters about the inadequate facilities of his families home at the Tuol Sambo relocation site on Friday. (Photo by: Rick Valenzuela)

Cambodian first lady Bun Rany attends last year’s World AIDS Day celebrations in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

AIDS award spurs questions

Monday, 16 November 2009
Robbie Corey Boulet
The Phnom Penh Post

“This award is a slap in the face for Cambodians living with HIV and those most at risk, especially sex workers, homeless people and people who use drugs” - Joe Amon, director of health and human rights for Human Rights Watch

A UN special envoy is scheduled to present first lady Bun Rany with an award recognising her role in combating HIV/AIDS and in reducing stigma and discrimination against people living with the disease, a move that has raised some eyebrows among human rights groups, one of which called it “a slap in the face”.

The Asia-Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and Development Award will be presented by Dr Nafis Sadik, the UN secretary general’s special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, during a ceremony Tuesday at the headquarters of the Cambodian Red Cross, which Bun Rany heads.

UNAIDS Country Director Tony Lisle said Sunday that the decision to present the award to Bun Rany had been prompted by her “very, very, very active” role in HIV/AIDS issues.

“Her focus has been very specific,” he said. “It’s been particularly focused on orphans and vulnerable children, the rights of people to access anti-retroviral therapy and also engaging communities at the local level in reducing stigma and discrimination.”

He added: “I know that in cases where children have been excluded from school, she’s intervened and sent very clear messages about the inappropriateness of exclusion on the basis of one’s HIV status,” he said.

The adult HIV prevalence rate stood at 0.9 percent in 2006, far below the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of 1.8 percent, though the baseline used to set that goal was later revised downward.

Award questionable: NGOs

This accomplishment aside, several human rights workers said the government’s record on HIV/AIDS issues was blemished at best.

“This award is a slap in the face for Cambodians living with HIV and those most at risk, especially sex workers, homeless people and people who use drugs,” said Joe Amon, director of health and human rights for Human Rights Watch. “Rather than uncritical praise, UNAIDS should be speaking out about this government’s discrimination, stigmatisation and neglect of Cambodia’s most marginalised communities.”

Amon cited this year’s Borei Keila eviction as an example of poor treatment of HIV/AIDS patients. City Hall forcibly relocated 40 HIV-affected Borei Keila families to the Tuol Sambo relocation site in June and July. Rights groups have regularly criticised conditions at the site, which have included a lack of food and oppressive heat.

Though she was less critical of the decision to give the award, Pung Chhiv Kek, founder of the rights group Licadho, said she hoped it would prompt Bun Rany to take action in preventing Borei Keila-style evictions in the future.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to her that recently, there have been some families that have HIV/AIDS, and the government put them in a special place,” she said. “I hope that she will do something so that these people have the possibility to live with the rest of the population. It’s a kind of discrimination.”

In response to civil society criticism, Lisle said he agreed that Tuol Sambo was “a big mistake”, but he argued that the award was justified.

Tuol Sambo, he said, “does not in any way take away from Cambodia’s excellent track record in reducing stigma and discrimination.”

Did Hun Sen avoid visiting the evictees in Tuol Sambo on purpose?

Srey Leak, 10, a member of one of many evicted families, stands in her house in Toul Sambo, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh September 7, 2009, while her parents work as garbage collectors near the capital. Cambodia said on Monday it had pulled out of a World Bank project aimed at settling land disputes, raising further concern about forced evictions in the impoverished Southeast Asian country. Prime Minister Hun Sen said the World Bank's administrative procedures were too complicated and Cambodia no longer wished to be part of the project. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Dang Saren, 12, a member of one of many evicted families, plays with his neighbour in Toul Sambo, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh September 7, 2009, while his father works as a taxi driver in the capital. Cambodia said on Monday it had pulled out of a World Bank project aimed at settling land disputes, raising further concern about forced evictions in the impoverished Southeast Asian country. Prime Minister Hun Sen said the World Bank's administrative procedures were too complicated and Cambodia no longer wished to be part of the project. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Dang Saren, 12, a member of one of many evicted families, plays with his neighbour in Toul Sambo, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh September 7, 2009, while his father works as a taxi driver in the capital. Cambodia said on Monday it had pulled out of a World Bank project aimed at settling land disputes, raising further concern about forced evictions in the impoverished Southeast Asian country. Prime Minister Hun Sen said the World Bank's administrative procedures were too complicated and Cambodia no longer wished to be part of the project. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Situation grim at Tuol Sambo [-Where's Bun Rany's Red Cross in this time of need?]

HIV patient Touch Sokhak, 45, speaks to reporters about the inadequate facilities of his families home at the Tuol Sambo relocation site on Friday. (Photo by: Rick Valenzuela)
A man sleeps as his son plays within their home at the Tuol Sambo relocation site on Friday. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Monday, 31 August 2009
Chhay Channyda and Robbie Corey-Boulet
The Phnom Penh Post

"These families [at tuol sambo] are in dire need of basic assistance."

THE lack of food at a controversial resettlement site that is home to more than 60 HIV-positive individuals is "potentially life-threatening", a new report has warned.

The joint field report from four HIV/AIDS NGOs was released Friday, the same day that the heads of the National Aids Authority (NAA) and UNAIDS Cambodia visited Dangkor district's Tuol Sambo village for the first time.

City Hall forcibly relocated 20 HIV-affected families to Tuol Sambo following their June eviction from the Borei Keila community in central Phnom Penh. About 20 more Borei Keila families were sent there in July.

Residents at Tuol Sambo have complained that their 3.5-metre-by-4.5-metre green metal sheds - which are smaller than those required for emergency refugee camps - become oppressively hot during the day. On Friday, a broken water pump had rendered a local well unusable, meaning that residents looking for drinking water needed to buy water jugs at 1,200 riels (US$0.29) each.

The lack of resources described in the joint field report was borne out by interviews. Touch Sokhak, 45, who is HIV-positive, said his family did not have enough food or drinking water, adding that the heat made it difficult to store his medicine.

"We face a lot of difficulties living here, but the main problem is that it is too hot," he said. "It makes my health get worse because I do not sleep enough."

Tak Dina, 30, described the discrimination she faced at the site, another concern raised in the report.

The former restaurant worker said her efforts to sell cold drinks in the village had been unsuccessful because no one would buy from her.

"Here we cannot sell," she said. "If I sell drinks, no one will come to buy because they are disgusted with HIV-positive people. Other villagers have an easy time recognising us because we are different from them, and because we live in these green houses."

Jason Barber, a monitoring consultant for the rights group Licadho, said conditions at the site had become "grimmer and grimmer" in recent weeks.

"I think the people are expecting to see some results from this visit, and I think they will judge the government and UN agencies on their actions rather than their words here," Barber said. "It's one thing to express concern. It's another thing to meaningfully provide some assistance."

Coordinating aid

Residents and NGO workers described a diffuse humanitarian assistance effort.

There are currently at least 11 NGOs providing various forms of assistance, from food to medical treatment to education, said Oum Vicheth, a home-care officer at the Centre of Hope, which has operated a weekly mobile clinic at the site.

UNAIDS Country Director Tony Lisle said Sunday that the purpose of the visit was "to get an immediate overview of the current situation in respect of the community's needs", adding that he would meet this week with stakeholders and the NAA to discuss ways "to better coordinate the response".

While Lisle said the aid effort had been "reasonably well-coordinated" and that NGOs had been "exceptionally flexible", he noted that there was room for improvement.

"I think, again, we need to emphasise national leadership," Lisle said. "The NAA will lead on coordination."

NAA Secretary-General Teng Kunthy said Friday that his organisation had devised a plan to improve conditions at the site, though the specific efforts he mentioned hinged on NGOs.

"We have acknowledged that the shelters are hot and narrow, but Caritas will help improve their living," he said, referring to the Catholic charity Caritas Cambodia.

He also said Caritas would construct a pipe system that would bring water to the individual dwellings. Kim Rattana, executive director of Caritas, said the pipe system would be completed in mid-September.

Both Lisle and Christophe Peschoux, the Cambodia representative of the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern that NGOs were being forced to pick up the pieces of a poorly executed eviction, arguing that the municipality had not taken steps to properly set up the site before moving families there. City Hall could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

Peschoux said he believed NGOs risked inadvertently condoning future evictions by providing humanitarian assistance, though he said they did not have the luxury of retreating "behind nice principles" and refusing to help the evictees.

"In this case, humanitarian agencies are facing a dilemma," he said. "We are opposed to forced evictions by principle because they are inhumane and increase poverty and social distress.... At the same time, the eviction has taken place and these families are in dire need of basic assistance."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JAMES O'TOOLE

AIDS patients struggle in isolated Cambodian town

Many Cambodian AIDS patients and their families have been relocated to this community outside Tuol Sambo.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By Miranda Leitsinger

TUOL SAMBO, Cambodia (CNN) -- Van Thy says the government evicted her from her home in the Cambodian capital and trucked her and others out to a town an hour away where she now lives in a hot green metal shed with no running water and dim prospects.

Before the move, she had a job as a dishwasher, but now the 36-year-old woman is unemployed, penniless and her health has taken a turn for the worse. She has AIDS like many of the others in the 40 AIDS-affected families that were resettled here.

"We were called for a meeting and when I got there, a lot of trucks were already prepared. There was no meeting. They told us to prepare our stuff for moving out," she said, her voice trembling as she detailed her departure from the Phnom Penh shantytown she called home for nine years. "Everybody cried the day we left."

As Cambodia emerges from the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide and decades of conflict, evictions for development purposes have become a hot issue, with rights groups and upset villagers living on desirable land launching protests in recent years. But what sets the families apart at Tuol Sambo is that they have AIDS.

"The problems that this community face are not unlike problems that people face throughout the country," said Kathleen O'Keefe, an independent consultant focusing on HIV/AIDS and land issues.

"What has made these problems extreme is that they have been isolated and treated as a community" and their relocation has added "additional problems, like real health risks of many immune compromised people living far too close together. This place would be a health risk to healthy people."

This is the second relocation for many of these families. They had been living in a shantytown in the Cambodian capital, an area called Borei Keila that was across the street from a hospital where they received medical care and where they could find jobs to earn $1.25 or $1.50 a day.

O'Keefe said they had lived dispersed throughout the community but were forced to move into one building there in 2007 when the area started to undergo development.

"They were segregated into a green building, which very quickly became known as the ... AIDS village," O'Keefe said. "This AIDS colony in Tuol Sambo is the second time they are being even further isolated ... it's been an extremely traumatic situation for them."

O'Keefe said most of the families that were moved to Tuol Sambo told her they have lost their jobs, their health is worsening due to a lack of clean water and food, and they face discrimination from their new neighbors because of their illness.

"We feel very ashamed to go outside, they look like they discriminating against us," Van Thy said.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said those who were relocated got a plot of land, a house and $275. He also noted they were provided rice, electricity and said, "when the water supply can be connected to this area, then we can connect it for these people."

Mann Chhoeun said the people were illegally squatting in the Phnom Penh shantytown, but they were not forcefully evicted.

"They proposed to go ... because living in that area (their previous shantytown) they had floods and they have no proper business to do in there, so that's why they proposed to us to go there," he said. "They think that when they go there (to Tuol Sambo), they can own the land, they can own a house and they can make some business or something like that."

He also said he did not believe there was discrimination in the area, "but there is some feeling when they (people) learn that someone has been living with HIV/AIDS."

Van Thy said her new home has brought many challenges and a recent blood test showed that her CD4 count -- a marker of decreased immune function that is often used to demonstrate how well anti-HIV drugs are working, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- had gone down.

She said the doctor told her she needed to eat more, but she said having little money means eating less: "It means that my health is getting worse," she said.

The water in their new home is from a well and is undrinkable unless it is boiled or purified.

"We are patients, we need some clean water," she said. "They said the water cannot be drunk, just for using to wash clothes and things like that."

Another man, Chheang Toma, takes the temperature inside his green shed at noon every day. On average, it is 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) but one time spiked up to 50 Celsius (122).

"This area is very difficult," he said. "I am always sick and I always have a headache. The weather is so hot even my son has gone to the clinic two times already."

Fact Box
HIV/AIDS in Cambodia

• The estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS 67,000
• Vulnerable groups: Entertainment workers, men having sex with men, injection drug users

SOURCE: National AIDS Authority of Cambodia

Home care specialist, Oum Vicheth, has been working with this community since 1998 and holds a clinic at Tuol Sambo once a week. He said the move "has strongly affected them."

"This is a long-term effect, not a short-term one, because medicine alone cannot help them. It combines with other factors like food, eating enough, sleeping enough, and a good environment, so all this can help make their health stable," he said.

"The problem is right now that what these people are facing is about their food, about their sleep and about the heat. It's very hot. Sometimes this affects the quality of the medicine they keep."

Chheang Toma said his son, who is in first grade, heard that parents of local children told them not to play with him because he has HIV.

"He just told me that he wanted to play with those children but when they saw him they just run away," he said. "I know right now some parents they just learning and understand about us, and they start to tolerate, but some others keep us in isolation -- like they still look at us, treating us very bad by not coming very close and not making friends with us."

Oum Vicheth said he was providing health care to the villagers as a way to bring them closer to the group and they have held meetings with them about how HIV is contracted.

"There was very little thought given to integrating the community into the larger resettlement area of Tuol Sambo," said Tony Lisle, the UNAIDS country coordinator for Cambodia. "By basically settling the community in one contiguous place it opens the community up to discrimination."

The UN team in Cambodia also "was disappointed that the relocation was carried out before the site was made habitable" and monitors would visit the site in late August, Lisle said.

Tang Kunthy, secretary-general of the Cambodian government's National AIDS Authority, said the Tuol Sambo group's worries were about the housing, not their health care, since he said they still had good access to treatment, including home-based care, medicine and the help of charities.

He said the housing situation could not be changed overnight, but it would improve "step by step," and he also noted Tuol Sambo was an area the municipality wants to develop.

"The municipality has a plan for the future," he said. "I asked the government to explain to them (the Toul Sambo residents), to provide more information to them."

He also noted there was "no serious discrimination" in Cambodia against people with HIV/AIDS, but that the AIDS authority would try to ensure any such problems did not arise in the future.

Back at Tuol Sambo, people think of the future and how they will make ends meet.

One man in the community who has AIDS lost one job in the move but still has part-time work. He said things have improved with their new neighbors.

"When we first arrived here, the villagers around the area just said look at AIDS people living here and so they did not allow their children or relatives to come and play in this area and they don't talk to us. But now after seeing the home care specialist," things seem to be getting better with them, he said.

Still, he and his friends from the old shantytown are not happy with their new lives.

"We are living with disappointment," he said.

Cambodian government accused of creating 'Aids colony'

Open letter from human rights groups condemns 'life-threatening' conditions at settlement outside Phnom Penh

Tuesday 28 July 2009
Justin McCurry
Guardian (UK)

Aids campaigners and human rights groups today accused the Cambodian government of herding HIV-affected families into an "Aids colony" outside the capital, Phnom Penh.

In an open letter to the country's prime minister, Hun Sen, and the health minister, Mam Bunheng, more than 100 international and domestic pressure groups said they were deeply disturbed by the "life-threatening" conditions in the settlement.

Forty families are forced to live in sheet-metal sheds without running water or proper sanitation.

The government has spent the past two months moving people with HIV/Aids from the Borei Keila district of Phnom Penh to Tuol Sambo, a flood-prone area 15 miles (25km) away.

"By bundling people living with HIV together in second-rate housing, far from medical facilities, support services and jobs, the government has created a de facto Aids colony," Shiba Phurailatpam, of the Asia-Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/Aids, said.

Rebecca Schleifer, a Human Rights Watch spokeswoman, said conditions at Tuol Sambo posed "serious risks" to people who were already vulnerable to illness.

"People living with HIV have compromised immune systems and are especially vulnerable," she added. "For them, these substandard conditions can mean a death sentence or a ticket to a hospital."

According to Médecins sans Frontières, conditions at Tuol Sambo do not meet the minimum international standards for temporary housing.

The families were evicted from Borei Keila to make way for a commercial development, which was reportedly granted government approval on the understanding that the developer would place the residents, including those with HIV/Aids, into new housing.

The evictions continued despite protests from UN agencies, and the campaigners' letter said: "We have reason to fear that relocations of HIV-affected families are continuing even as we sign this letter."

They urged the government to stop moving families to Tuol Sambo, urgently improve living conditions there and ensure that people with HIV have access to antiretroviral drugs.

Local officials said they were aware of the concerns over the settlement and were trying to improve conditions.

"We are trying to find clean water for them," Phnom Penh's deputy governor, Mann Chhoeun, told the Phnom Penh Post, adding that plans had been made to distribute free medicine via the Centre of Hope mission.

In 2008, according to UNAids, an estimated 67,200 adults and 3,800 children in Cambodia were living with HIV/Aids.

'Aids colony' disturbing

Over the past two months the government has evicted the families from Phnom Penh to live in metal sheds without running water or adequate sanitation at Tuol Sambo (left) (PHOTO: AP)

July 28, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - AIDS campaigners and rights groups protested on Tuesday at Cambodia's shunting of sufferers of the virus into an insanitary 'Aids colony' outside the capital.

Over 100 international and domestic pressure groups told Prime Minister Hun Sen and Health Minister Mam Bunheng in a letter they were 'deeply disturbed' by the government's treatment of 40 HIV-affected families.

Over the past two months the government has evicted the families from Phnom Penh to live in metal sheds without running water or adequate sanitation at Tuol Sambo, an area 25km from the capital, it said.

'By bundling people living with HIV together into second-rate housing, far from medical facilities, support services and jobs, the government has created a de facto AIDS colony,' said Shiba Phurailatpam, of the Asia-Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, in a statement issued by the groups.

Rebecca Schleifer of New York-based Human Rights Watch said: 'The housing conditions in Tuol Sambo pose serious health risks for families living there.

'People living with HIV have compromised immune systems and are especially vulnerable. For them, these substandard conditions can mean a death sentence or a ticket to a hospital,' she added.

The Cambodian government has faced mounting criticism of forced evictions throughout the country at the hands of the army and police, which a recent human rights report said has affected more than 250,000 people.

Evictions for development purposes have increased in Cambodia as land prices have risen over the past few years. Critics say the practice is fuelling poverty.

People Living With HIV/AIDS Living in Fear of Forced Eviction

Video by Licadho

Over 30 families living with HIV/AIDS in the "green shed" at the Borei Keila social land concession are facing the prospect of eviction.

The Borei Keila social land concession was meant to be a government sponsored land exchange whereby land was given to land developers in exchange for them building apartments for existing families living on the land.

The land concession has been ongoing for the past 5 years with the apartment allocation process rife with allegations of corruption and unfair practices.

The families living in the temporary "green shed" have been waiting for apartments to be allocated to them for the past 2 years, but they are now faced with the prospect of being evicted again to the Toul Sambo relocation site 20km outside of Phnom Penh.

At Toul Sambo there is inadequate housing, no clean water and is far from any markets, schools, employment opportunities and most importantly medical facilities.

Open Letter to the Government of Cambodia Regarding the Treatment of HIV-affected Families from the Community of Borei Keila

July 27, 2009
Source: Human Rights Watch

H.E. Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
No. 38, Russian Federation Boulevard
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia

H.E. Mam Bunheng
Minister of Health
No 151-153 Kampuchea Krom Boulevard
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia

Your Excellencies,

The Royal Government of Cambodia has won international recognition for its efforts to provide prevention, treatment, care and support for people living with HIV. However, we the under-signed individuals and organizations write to you now to express our deep concern about the discriminatory and potentially life-threatening treatment of HIV-affected families from the community of Borei Keila in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

On June 18, 2009, 20 HIV-affected families were evicted from Borei Keila and sent to Tuol Sambo, a remote resettlement site created by the government on the outskirts of the city. This eviction took place despite repeated appeals to the government, including from United Nations agencies, more than 18 local and international organizations, and a national network of people affected by HIV.

We have reason to fear that relocations of HIV-affected families are continuing even as we sign this letter.

We are deeply disturbed by the Cambodian authorities' creation of a de facto AIDS colony at Tuol Sambo. Located in a desolate, flood-prone field in a semi-rural area 25 kilometers from Phnom Penh, Tuol Sambo is far away from the jobs, medical facilities, and support services that had been available to Borei Keila residents in the city.

The housing conditions at Tuol Sambo are grossly inadequate in terms of size, fire safety, and sanitation. Residents are crowded into poorly ventilated metal sheds that are baking hot in the daytime. There are no kitchens and no running water in the sheds, which are flanked by open sewers, and only one public well to service the evicted families. According to Medecins Sans Frontieres, these conditions do not meet international minimum standards for temporary emergency housing.

While other homeless people from Phnom Penh are slated for relocation to brick houses at an adjacent site at Tuol Sambo, the HIV-affected families from Borei Keila have been placed in a separate settlement with inferior housing, distinguished by green corrugated metal roofing and walls. Even before the evictees were resettled there, local people referred to the green sheds as "the AIDS village."

The Borei Keila evictions were carried out to make way for a commercial development, which was granted government approval in 2003 with the understanding that the developer would build new housing on site for residents displaced by the project.

With a few exceptions, the HIV-affected families thus far displaced by the development have not been screened for eligibility for the on-site housing - unlike other families who are not affected by HIV. After waiting for two years, the authorities have now acknowledged that at least 11 HIV-affected families previously slated to be sent to Tuol Sambo are in fact eligible for new on-site housing at Borei Keila. To date, however, they remain in Borei Keila and have not yet been provided new housing.

For the other families evicted to Tuol Sambo, the Ministry of Health has reportedly given assurances that antiretroviral (ARV) medication and opportunistic infection treatment will be available to them. It is not clear, however, that the ministry has a sound long-term plan to ensure this. Since the eviction, the government has not directly provided services but has relied instead on nongovernmental organizations to ensure continued access to medicines, for example by paying transportation costs for the evictees to come to hospitals in the city.

In addition, there has been no consideration of the impact on health of the poor living conditions at Tuol Sambo and the lack of income-generating opportunities there. The living conditions at Tuol Sambo pose serious health risks, particularly to people with compromised immune systems. The risk to those people living with HIV can be life threatening. Residents report that the heat in the poorly ventilated metal sheds is so intense that they are usually unable to remain in their rooms during the afternoon and they are afraid that their ARV medication will deteriorate in the heat.

We take this opportunity to state our opposition to the segregation or isolation of people living with HIV, as such policies promote stigmatization and further discrimination and may seriously jeopardize their access to necessary prevention, care, treatment, and support services.

Furthermore, we recognize that people living with HIV need more than just medicines to survive. They need a continuum of care that addresses the psychological, legal, social, and economic consequences of living with HIV, and assures adequate shelter, nutrition, income generation, and access to education and other essential services.

In light of the above, we request the Royal Cambodian Government to:

• Cease moving HIV-affected families to the Tuol Sambo relocation site;
• Improve conditions at Tuol Sambo site so that they meet minimum standards for adequate shelter, sanitation, and clean water;
• Ensure full access to quality medical services, including antiretroviral treatment, treatment of opportunistic infections, as well as primary health care and home-based care;
• Work with relevant agencies and consult with the families already at Tuol Sambo to address immediate and long-term concerns regarding housing, health, safety, employment, and reintegration into society in a manner that protects their rights and livelihoods;
• Employ a transparent and fair screening process to determine eligibility for on-site housing at Borei Keila, and grant eligible families the housing immediately (including the 11 HIV-affected families already approved by the authorities); for those found ineligible, authorities should provide other adequate housing.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Organizations:

ACCES
Marseilles, France

ACT UP Philadelphia
United States

Action SIDA Comoros
Union of Comoros

AIDS Action Now!
Toronto, Canada

AIDS Action
United States

The AIDS Consortium
South Africa

AIDS Law project
South Africa

AIDS Project Los Angeles
United States

AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
Namibia

All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
Ukraine

Alliance for Holistic and Sustainable Development of Communities
India

American Jewish World Service
United States

Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice
Russia

Asia Catalyst
United States

Asian Harm Reduction Network
Thailand

Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations
Malaysia

Asia Pacific Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS
Thailand

Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers
Malaysia

ASUD
France

Balance
Mexico

BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights
Nigeria

Blood Ties Four Directions Centre
Yukon, Canada

Bolivian Network of People with HIV/AIDS
Bolivia

Brazilian Drug Policy Center - Psicotropicus
Brazil

British Columbia Persons with AIDS Society
Canada

Canadian Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Canada

Canadian Harm Reduction Network
Canada

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Canada

Canadian Treatment Action Council
Canada

Center for Reproductive Rights
United States

Center for Health Policy and Innovation.
United States

Centre for Human Rights
Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria
South Africa

Children Education Society
Tanzania
中国北京爱之方舟感染者信息支持组织
[in English: China Beijing Ark of Love Infected Persons Information Support Organization]
China

The Secretariat of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV and AIDS
Thailand

Comision Internacional de los Derechos Humanos para Gays y Lesbianas
[in English: International Commission of Human Rights for Gays and Lesbians]
Argentina

Consejo Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Organizaciones No Gubermentales con Servicio en VIH/SIDA
[in English: Latin American and Caribbean Council of AIDS Service Organizations]

Cultura Joven
[in English: Youth Culture]
Mexico

East Europe and Central Asia Union of PWH Organizations

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Egypt

Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research
United States

Fundación Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer
[in English: Foundation for Women's Studies]
Spain

Fundación Argentina Pro Ayuda al Niño con Sida
[in English: Argentinian Foundation for the Support of Children with AIDS]
Argentina

GESTOS - Soropositividade, Comunicação y Gênero
[in English: GESTOS - Soropositivity, Communications and Gender
Brazil

Global Action for Children
United States

Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
United States

Global Effort for Women against AIDS
Uganda

Global Forum on MSM and HIV
United States

Global Network of People Living with HIV

Global Welfare Association
Cameroon

Gram Bharati Samiti
[in English: Society for Rural Development]
India

Grassroots Movement for Health and Development
Malawi

Grupo Esperanza y Vida
[in English: Hope and Life Group]
Uruguay

Grupo de Mujeres de Argentina
[in English: Women's Forum of Argentina]
Argentina

Health Equity and Law Clinic
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Canada

Health GAP (Global Access Project)
United States

Hepatitis, AIDS, Research Trust
United States

HIV&AIDS Legal Services Alliance
Los Angeles, CA, United States

Hong Guang Alliance
China

Human Rights Watch
United States

Intercambios Asociación Civil
Buenos Aires, Argentina

International AIDS Women's Caucus
Argentina

International Center for Advancement of Addiction Treatment
United States

Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development
Canada

International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
United Kingdom

International Council of AIDS Service Organizations
Canada

International Drug Policy Consortium
United Kingdom

International Harm Reduction Association
United Kingdom

International HIV/AIDS Alliance
United Kingdom

International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine
Ukraine

International Network of People Who Use Drugs

International Nursing Harm Reduction Network

International Transport Workers' Federation
United Kingdom

International Treatment Preparedness Coalition
Thailand(Secretariat)

International Women's Health Coalition
United States

INTILLA Asociación Civil
Argentina

Jamaica AIDS Support for Life
Jamaica

Japanese Network of People Living with HIV
Japan

Lawyers Collective
India

Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat
[in English: Community Legal Aid Institute]
Indonesia

La Liga Colombiana de Lucha contra el Sida
[in English: Colombian Alliance to Fight AIDS]
Colombia

LIGA Bonaerense de Diversidad Sexual
[in English: Bonaerense Alliance for Sexual Diversity]
Argentina

Malaysian AIDS Council
Malaysia

Movimiento Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Mujeres Positivas
[in English: Latin America and Caribbean Movement of Positive Women]
Uruguay

National Council of Churches in India
India

National MSM and HIV Policy Advocacy & Human Rights Task Force
India

Naz Foundation
India

Networking Aids Community of South Africa
South Africa

Oasis de San Juan de Dios
Mexico

People's Health Movement USA
United States

Physicians for Human Rights
United States

Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group
Malaysia

Positive Women Incorporated
New Zealand

Prevenir es Cuidar
[in English: To Prevent is To Cure]
Argentina

Protection Enfant SIDA
[in English: Protection of Children with AIDS]
Democratic Republic of Congo

PROYECTO SOL
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Raks Thai Foundation
Thailand

Recovering Nepal
Nepal

Release
United Kingdom

Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha
India

Senderos Asociación Mutual
Colombia

Sex Workers Concern Group
Hong Kong

Sidaction
France

Society for Women Against AIDS in Africa
Senegal

Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service
South Africa

Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group
Thailand

Treatment Action Campaign
South Africa

Union Alernative Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia

United Belize Advocacy Movement
Belize

Urban Health Research Initiative
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Vikas Adhyayan Kendra's
[in English: Center for Development Studies]
Mumbai, India

WITNESS
United States

Women and Law in Southern Africa
Zambia

World Aids Campaign
South Africa

Yayasan Kesehatan Bali
[in English: The Bali Health Foundation]
Indonesia

Youth RISE International
Canada

Individuals:

Tomoko Ako
Associate Professor, Waseda University
Japan

Professor Brook K. Baker
Northeastern U. School of Law, Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy
United States

Chris Beyrer MD MPH
Director, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
United States

Dr. Graciela Biagini
University of Buenos Aires
Argentina

Alan Brotherton

R. Douglas Bruce MD MA MSc
Assistant Professor, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Scholar, Yale University School of Medicine
United States

Wendy Chapkis
Professor, Sociology and Women & Gender Studies, University of Southern Maine
United States

Slyvia Chirawu
National Coordinator, WLSA Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

Joanne Csete
Associate professor, Clinical Population and Family Health, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
United States

Chris Curry MD PhD

Nancy M. Doctor
Attorney at Law
Berkeley, California, United States

Yu Fangqiang
China

Dhan Raj Ghimire
National Coordinator, Children at Risk Network
Nepal

Dr. Rajesh Gopal MD
Joint Director, Gujarat State AIDS Control Society
India

Sofia Gruskin JD MIA
Director, Program on International Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health
United States

Mauro Guarinieri
Senior International Consultant, Global Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS

Christina T. Holder JD
Uriel and Caroline Bauer Human Rights Fellow, Cardozo School of Law
United States

T. Jayashree
Independent Film maker
Bangalore, India

Ralf Jürgens
Consultant HIV/AIDS, Health, Policy and Human Rights

Thomas Kerr PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Canada

Alana Klein
Faculty of Law, McGill University
Canada

A. Marston
United Kingdom

Laura McGrew
United States

Nicholas mbae Njeru
Kenya

Alice M. Miller JD

David B. Olson
Barrister and Solicitor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Nancy Ordover

Nicholas Bartlett
University of California, San Francisco
United States

Edith Pilkington
United States

Sophie Pinkham

Supattra Pisetpattanakul
Executive Officer, AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific
Thailand

Oswaldo Rada
Colombia

Mindy Jane Roseman JD PhD
Lecturer on Law, Academic Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
United States

Mahesh Sharma
Executive Board Member, HIV/AIDS and STI Control Board
Kathmandu, Nepal

Daniel Tarantola MD
Professor of Health and Human Rights, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Australia

Isaac Tita
Réseau Africain des Personnes Vivant avec le VIH/SIDA- Afrique Centrale
[In English: African Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS - Central Africa]
Cameroon

Carole S. Vance PhD MPH
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
United States

Christine S. Waters
Staff Attorney, Legal Services of Central New York, Inc.
United States

Stan Wong
Singapore

Tian Xi
China

cc: Lok Chumteav Bun Rany Hun Sen
President, Cambodian Red Cross

Dr. Mean Chhi Vun,
Director, NCHADS, Cambodia

H.E. Teng Kunthy
Secretary General, Cambodia National Aids Authority

H.E. Kep Chuktema
Phnom Penh Municipal Governor

Douglas Broderick
UN Resident Coordinator, Cambodia

Tony Lisle
Country Coordinator, UNAIDS Cambodia

Michael O'Leary
Country Representative, World Health Organization Cambodia

Christophe Peschoux
Country Representative, Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Amnesty International Condemns Cambodian Government's Eviction of 20 Families Living with HIV/AIDS

Source: Amnesty International

Families Relocated to "AIDS Village" with No Electricity, Clean Water or Sanitation, Reports Human Rights Organization

WASHINGTON - June 18 - Amnesty International has condemned the Phnom Penh authorities for evicting 20 families living with HIV/AIDS from their homes in Borei Keila this morning. They have been moved outside of the city to a resettlement site, Tuol Sambo, where there is no clean water or electricity and limited access to medical services.

“Tuol Sambo is grossly inadequate and the authorities are well aware of this,” said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International’s Cambodia researcher. “It is often referred to as ‘the AIDS village’ and the inhabitants live with no access to clean water, electricity or proper sanitation.”

“The site’s long distance from the city hampers access to health services and jobs, adding to the risks. The families have urgent humanitarian needs, including clean water, larger living space, access to medical services and food supplies. There is a real risk that the health of the evicted families will deteriorate there.”

Tuol Sambo is in a semi-rural area where the housing is built from green metal sheets. When Amnesty International visited the site in April 2009, it was perceived by villagers in the vicinity as a center for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The affected families have expressed fears that they will face further discrimination and stigmatization because of their HIV status if forced to live in this separate, distinct enclave. Prejudice against these families may be exacerbated by their poverty and lack of job opportunities.

When evicted, the families were compensated with inadequate re-housing in Tuol Sambo and 50 kilograms of rice, soy sauce, fish sauce, water jars and 250 U.S. dollars from the Municipality of Phnom Penh and the Ministry of Tourism. Last Friday, they were coerced into the move and told that anyone who disagreed would not receive compensation.

“It's unacceptable that the authorities didn’t explore other alternatives before deciding to evict these 20 vulnerable families,” said Edman. “Tuol Sambo shouldn’t have been an option.”

Background

Borei Keila is a large poor urban community which the government designated as a social land concession for residential development in 2003. The Borei Keila concession was intended to be a land-sharing arrangement between a private developer, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and residents. The agreement gave the developer 2.6 hectares of land for commercial development, in exchange for constructing new housing for the original residents on two hectares of the land. The remainder, consisting of 10 hectares, was to be returned to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

In March 2007, the Municipality of Phnom Penh resettled the families who lived in Borei Keila against their will and reportedly with force, in temporary shelters built mostly out of corrugated metal sheets. The authorities told them that they would stay there for a few months only, to pave way for the construction of a number of residential multi-storey houses.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

###

We are people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights. Our purpose is to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. We investigate and expose abuses, educate and mobilize the public, and help transform societies to create a safer, more just world.

Borei Keila eviction

A Cambodian man, right, watches a man who carries belongings before being transported to a new location, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, June 18, 2009. Cambodian authorities on Thursday evicted 20 families afflicted with HIV and AIDS from their homes in Phnom Penh, forcing them to move to a tiny settlement on the capital's outskirts in an action critics charge is discriminatory. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
A Cambodian boy, left, stands next to his family's household belongings before being evicted to a new location, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, June 18, 2009. Cambodian authorities on Thursday evicted 20 families afflicted with HIV and AIDS from their homes in Phnom Penh, forcing them to move to the tiny settlement on the capital's outskirts in an action critics charge is discriminatory. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian authorities evict HIV-affected families [in Borei Keila]

Thursday, June 18, 2009
By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian authorities on Thursday evicted 20 families afflicted with HIV from their homes in the capital, forcing them to move to a tiny settlement on its outskirts in an action critics called discriminatory.

The evictions from the Borei Keila community came after several months of strong protests by the families, who complained that they would be without basic services, have no means of income and lose access to medical treatment at the new location.

Human rights groups charged that the evictions amounted to segregation. Amnesty International said the housing at the new site at Tuol Sambo, 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Phnom Penh, is made from distinct green metal sheets, and local residents call it the "AIDS Village."

"It is tragic that the government has chosen to create a permanent AIDS colony where people will face great stigma and discrimination," Naly Pilorge, director of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, said in a statement.

She said the relocation site lacks clean drinking water, electricity and proper medical services.

Officials say they evicted the families because they had illegally settled on state land where the government now wants to build new offices for the Ministry of Tourism.

The evictions were carried out Thursday without force after a week of negotiations. About 50 police stood guard, helping the families to collect their belongings.

Sok Srey Nath, 45, said she and her husband and 10-year-old twin sons are all HIV-positive, and decided to move to the new location because they were not in a position to battle the authorities.

"I have no choice, if I don't leave I would lose my property and the offer of new land from the authorities," said the mother of five. "I really don't want to leave my current house because this location is near the market, easy for me and my family to earn money and close to the health center."

The plot of land given her family at the new location is 11 feet (3.5 meters) by 15 feet (4.5 meters), she said.

Residents not infected with HIV have also been evicted from Borei Keila, but some have been resettled in apartments. The 20 families evicted Thursday were not given that option.

Amnesty International said the families would lose their livelihoods because most have been working as scavengers or porters in the city.

The London-based group said an estimated 23,000 Cambodians, most living in poverty, were evicted from their homes last year, and another 150,000 are at risk of being forcibly evicted due to land disputes, land-grabbing and commercial development projects.

Human rights groups have described the evictions are a major social problem that could hurt the Southeast Asian country's stability.

According to a U.N. estimate last year, some 75,000 Cambodians are living with HIV, down from 120,000 in 2002, and the disease's prevalence among adults has fallen in the same period from 1.4 percent to 0.8 percent. The rate is still among the highest in South and Southeast Asia, surpassed only by neighboring Thailand with an estimated 1.4 percent.

Evictees cry foul over homes

Borei Keila resident Horm Oun checks out the homes at Tuol Sambo, to which she could be relocated this week. (Photo by: CHRISTOPHER SHAY)

Monday, 15 June 2009
Written by CHRISTOPHER SHAY AND KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA
The Phnom Penh Post

District officials deceived the HIV community of Borei Keila into thumbprinting an agreement to vacate homes, residents claim

MEMBERS of the Borei Keila community, where more than 30 families with HIV-positive members are facing eviction, say they were duped by district authorities Friday into agreeing to leave their neighbourhood near Olympic Stadium in exchange for larger homes at a relocation site outside the city.

"The authorities are cheating. When we agreed to thumbprint, the authorities told us they would remove the dividers to make two houses into one house," said resident Sok Sinethe.

But Horm Oun, another Borei Keila resident, said, "Lim Seda [the deputy chief of Prampi Makara district] told us after we gave our thumbprints we cannot make two houses into one".

"I felt hopeless when I heard this," she said.

The chief officer of the district's development programme, Sok Ath, said the Borei Keila residents were mistaken.

"We did not make promises or threaten them for their thumbprints. We only agreed to take their request for larger homes to City Hall for a decision," he said, adding that they would also ask City Hall that instead of buying two tuk-tuks to ferry people into the city for work, that it give each family US$250.

Sao Vanna, the chief of the HIV community, who does not live with the families facing eviction, said 20 families will be moved to Tuol Sambo perhaps as early as today.

Sao Vanna, who will set up an office at Tuol Sambo, blamed NGOs for the conditions at the relocation site.

"Before, City Hall had plans to construct 4-metre-by-12-metre homes and called upon the NGOs to fund the construction and infrastructure, but without NGO funding ... City Hall did not have enough money," he said.

But on Sunday during a visit to Tuol Sambo - about an hour's tuk-tuk ride away from Borei Keila - residents said that it was clear the municipality could do more to support them.

Ten paces from the green metal shelters that will house the families, workers are building brick homes for families from Russey Keo who lost their houses after a riverbank collapse. According to a construction worker, the Russey Keo homes will be 4 metres by 8 metres, almost double the floor space of the HIV community's homes, which are 3.5 metres by 4.8 metres.

"Why does the municipality make small houses for us and big homes for others?" Sok Sineth asked.

Residents also fear that their community, which is already known as "the AIDS village", will face discrimination.

Resident Touch Chhay Ran said when she visited Tuol Sambo last month she overheard local villagers insulting the Borei Keila community, giving her fears that she will need to endure discrimination on a daily basis.

"They said they were afraid that their community would catch AIDS from us, turning all of Tuol Sambo into ‘the AIDS village'," she said.

Forced Eviction Coming at Borei Keila

Licadho's Video

Over 30 families living with HIV/AIDS in the "green shed" at the Borei Keila social land concession are facing the prospect of eviction. The families living in the temporary "green shed" have been waiting for new apartments to be allocated to them for the past 2 years, but they are now faced with the prospect of being evicted to the Toul Sambo relocation site 20km outside of Phnom Penh. At Toul Sambo there is inadeuqate housing, no clean water and is far from any markets, schools, employment opportunities and most importantly medical facilities.

Borei Keila -- lives at risk

Source: Amnesty International USA

"I want Prime Minister Hun Sen and [his wife] Bun Rany to know that we are living in misery so that they can help and intervene, because we have no one else. We also want to live." - Community member living with HIV and facing forced eviction

Around 32 Phnom Penh families living with HIV-AIDS are facing imminent forced eviction from Borei Keila in central Phnom Penh to a resettlement site without water, electricity and medical services. The families, who now live in temporary shelters, have protested at the planned resettlement to Tuol Sambo, some 25 kilometres from the city, where they would have no means of income and lose access to adequate health services.

Living conditions at Tuol Sambo pose a great health risk while transport costs to continue anti-retroviral treatment and access to medical services in the city would be prohibitive. So far, their protests to the authorities have been unsuccessful.

"They have told us that we will have to leave early May", said Seang Vy, 32, who is blind from opportunistic disease as a result of HIV.

Seang Vy told Amnesty International that members of all the families have visited Tuol Sambo to see the site for themselves; her mother went to check it on her behalf. They describe the housing as cramped, unstable and lacking basic services, but fear the distance to medical facilities the most.

"I wonder if they want us to move there so that we die more quickly. If we get sick at night, there is no means of transportation," she said.

And if they get sick during the day, they may not be able to afford a motorcycle taxi to travel to a clinic. All 32 families have at least one member who requires anti-retroviral treatment, a life-saving treatment provided through government- and NGO-supported programs. However, many have opportunistic infections.

The resettlement site

The housing at the resettlement site in Dangkor district is made of green metal sheets and looks distinct from the other homes in the semi-rural area. When Amnesty International visited the site in April 2009, villagers in the vicinity already referred to it as "the AIDS-village". Seang Vy and the other village representatives expressed strong fears that they will face further discrimination and stigmatization because of their HIV status if forced to live in this separate, distinct enclave. Stigmatization may be further perpetuated by their poverty and lack of job opportunities.

"We are afraid that [in Tuol Sambo] we won't be able to sell anything we might produce, and we won't be able to touch meat or fruit when we go to the market. That's not the case in the city, where people have many ways of living and don't have such ideas", said Thy, 35, a mother of two.

The resettlement housing does not meet minimal standards for emergency shelter with respect to size, fire safety and sanitation, according to Medecins Sans Frontiers, which surveyed the site in 2008 when construction had first begun. The buildings are too close together for safety and ventilation, while the land and the buildings are unstable. The living space is not sufficient for an average family and there is no privacy as the metal sheets separating the flats are only partial.

Tuol Sambo has no clean water supply and only a very rudimentary sanitation system. The housing is made of corrugated metal which makes the inside space very hot, while the outside space between the rows of housing is almost non-existent.

"There is no land to plant even a banana tree," said Seang Vy.

Most of the 32 families are living in severe poverty and would sink even deeper into poverty if they are forcibly evicted to Tuol Sambo.

The housing at the resettlement site at Tuol Sambo is far from adequate: it is cramped and lacks basic amenities, including clean water supply.

Currently they make a living as scavengers or porters in a market near to Borei Keila or as day labourers, earning daily wages of between 6,000 and 10,000 riels (approx 1.50-2.5 USD). A one-way trip from Tuol Sambo to their current work places costs an estimated 15,000 riels, so the forced eviction would effectively deprive them of their means to earn a living.

Thy and her husband, both of them living with HIV, struggle to earn an income due to health problems. She has had to give up her work as a fruit-seller a year ago, and they rely on what her husband can earn as a motorcycle taxi driver. It would be very difficult for him to earn enough driving a taxi in the semi-rural village of Tuol Sambo.

Thy and her husband Prum Pel are both in poor health and struggle to earn a living. Like the other 31 families they rely on access to medical services.

Borei Keila -- a social land concession

The families live within a large poor urban community, Borei Keila, which the government designated as a so-called social land concession for residential development in 2003. Poor, homeless families are the primary beneficiaries of social land concessions, according to the 2003 Sub-Decree on Social Land Concessions. In the case of Borei Keila social land concession it was intended to be implemented as a land-sharing arrangement between a private developer, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and residents. The agreement gave the developer 2.6 hectares of the land in Borei Keila for commercial development, in exchange for constructing new housing for the original over 1,700 residents on two hectares of the land. The remainder, consisting of 10 hectares, was to be returned to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.

In March 2007 the Municipality of Phnom Penh resettled the families, who lived in Borei Keila, against their will and reportedly with force, in the so-called Green Houses, temporary shelters built -- just like the resettlement site - of mostly green corrugated metal sheets. The authorities told them that they would stay there for a few months only, to pave way for the construction of a number of residential multi-storey houses. They agreed, hoping that at least those of them who had rented housing since at least 2000 would get flats in the new buildings, still under construction.

Many of the 32 families have lived in Borei Keila long enough to be eligible for flats in the new buildings, in accordance with a 2004 agreement between the Municipality and the community that affords housing entitlements to renter families residing in Borei Keila since the year 2000 or earlier. However, in an assessment process involving NGOs and the UN in March 2007, officials of the Municipality refused to assess the vast majority of cases involving HIV-affected families. Seang Vy, Thy and others believe that the authorities discriminated against them because of their HIV status. Instead of assessing them to determine eligibility for flats in the new buildings, the authorities decided to forcibly evict them.

On 27 April 2009, amid criticism against the imminent forced eviction, local officials - for the first time - publicly acknowledged to journalists that families who are eligible should receive apartments at Borei Keila. However, there appears to have been no decision to halt the planned forced eviction, nor have any representatives of the Prampi Makara District, mandated to conduct such vetting, started assessing the families' eligibility. Sun Srun, the District Governor, told the Cambodia Daily on 11 April 2009 that the families "must accept this offer" [of relocation].

Amnesty International believes that those who have been denied housing for which they are eligible, should immediately be given apartments at Borei Keila. Any family found ineligible, should be provided other adequate alternative housing with access to health services for anti-retroviral treatment and treatment and job opportunities.

Background

The last decade has seen a steady rise in the number of reported land disputes and land confiscations and evictions, including forced evictions, in Cambodia. Victims are almost exclusively marginalized people living in poverty, who are unable to obtain effective remedies. This rise is a result of the lack of the rule of law; a seriously delayed process of legal and judicial reform; and endemic corruption.

In 2008, Amnesty International received reports about 27 forced evictions, affecting an estimated 23,000 people. 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. An estimated 70,000 of these live in Phnom Penh.

HIV prevalence is reported to be declining in Cambodia, down from 1.2 percent of the adult population between 15 and 49 years in 2003 to 0.9 percent in June 2007, according to UNAIDS. The number of people living with HIV is estimated at 71,000.

As a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and other international human rights treaties, Cambodia has an obligation to stop forced evictions and to protect the population from forced evictions.

Forced evictions are evictions carried out without adequate notice, consultation with those affected, without legal safeguards and without assurances of adequate alternative accommodation. Whether they be 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.

Cambodia also has an obligation to ensure adequate provision of health care to all its citizens, including access to treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS. The International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and human rights also urge states to ensure universal access to HIV-related goods, services and information, and that they "not only be available, acceptable and of good quality, but within physical reach and affordable".

Cambodian health authorities, which have won international acclaim for their achievements in addressing HIV and AIDS, espouse an approach of "continuum of care" which seeks to address not only the medical issues but also social, psychological, legal, and economic consequences of living with HIV. The Cambodian 2002 Law on Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS provides that no one"shall be quarantined, placed in isolation or refused abode", or expulsed "due to the actual, perceived or suspected HIV/AIDS status of that person or his/her family members."1
----------
TAKE ACTION!

Write urgently to the Prime Minister:

• Calling on the authorities to protect the 32 families living at Borei Keila from forced eviction, and to immediately determine their eligibility for flats in the new buildings which are being built as part of the 2003 social land concession;
• Calling on the authorities to guarantee adequate alternative housing with security of tenure for those found to be ineligible, including access to health services for anti-retroviral treatment and treatment for HIV and AIDS related illnesses or opportunistic infections;
• Calling on the authorities to ensure that the families are not discriminated against because of their health status;
• Calling on the government to end all forced evictions as a matter of urgency.

Prime Minister Hun Sen
Office of the Prime Minister
#38 Russian Federation Blvd.
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of Cambodia
Salutation: Dear Samdech
Fax: + 855 23 36 0666
Email: cabinet1b@camnet.comk.kh

1 Law on the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS, 2002, (see e.g http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/laws/cambodia1.pdf)

Fifty Families of Borei Keila Community Face Eviction

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 December 2007

The Cambodian authorities evacuate about 50 families from among about 100 families from Borei Keila community, resulting in scuttle between the villagers and the authorities in charge Wednesday.

The authorities in charge and about 300 workers dismantle the people's homes without allowing reporters to go and report the event. Neither civil society officials are allowed to observe.

After rapid demolition of the villagers' houses by the department in charge, the Phnom Penh city hall uses several trucks to transport the villagers from their domiciles to the new site in Trapeang Anchanh village, Ang Snuol, Kandal province.

A female resident, Uk Dany expresses her displeasure:" And this morning I try to prevent them from demolishing my house; they handcuff me the whole morning. It is not good, because they clearly mistreat the people. They mistreat us, they force us to dismantle. We do not agree, and they use force. This morning there is scuttle, and (they) assault me using electric baton on the chest, until (I) fall down, using the baton to electrify (me)."

Human rights Ad Hoc investigation official, Ouch Leng says that the land to be given to the villagers is not for sure yet: "There is no land allocated for the people who are evicted this morning from Borei Keila. There is no land anywhere. There is just promise to give a 5 by 12 meter land. As for this land, the one for them to settle temporarily, has an owner. This morning, the owner has already protested."

Phnom Penh deputy mayor, Man Chhoeun says that the people will definitely get some land:" They have to have some land, because they are truly poor. They have to have some land, believe it. Whatever is said will be done. Do not worry. They have to have a 5x12 land for settlement."

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy's explanation

On Saturday 10 November 2007, KI-Media posted a video of the visit by opposition leader Sam Rainsy to the Borei Keila shanty town. Some of our readers were puzzled as to why he was so properly dressed up for this circumstance. We asked Mr. Sam Rainsy this question and this is his explanation:

"I had just participated at the national ceremony for the Independence Day at the Independence Monument (November 9). After the ceremony, while walking back to the nearby SRP headquarters where I had an appointment with the Italian Ambassador that afternoon, I met several poor people from Borei Keila who asked me to go visit their shanty town and to help them against policemen who threatened to evict them from their homes. I went there immediately, which explains my dress attire on that day."