 |
| Homeless children stand as members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) ride on their motorcycles during a local commune election campaign in Phnom Penh May 18, 2012. Cambodians will go to polls on June 3, 2012, to elect their local representatives called the commune councilors. A general election will be held next year. REUTERS/Samrang Pring |
Showing posts with label Homelessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homelessness. Show all posts
Saturday, May 26, 2012
CPP who? ... Aaah, the party of the rich and powerful ... land-grabbers?
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Homeless - Another "24 hrs" multimedia video by Nicolas Axelrod
24 hrs Homeless from Nicolas Axelrod on Vimeo.
September 4, 2010By Nicolas Axelrod
Ten years ago Soeurn had to leave her homeland of Prey Veng province for the capital because she could not earn a living in the countryside. Ever since then, she has been living near the public toilets in front of the Phnom Penh National Museum and works as a toilet sweeper.
Working as a sweeper, Soeurn also does laundry, cooks and sells drinks along the popular riverside where foreigners and locals gather in the evenings. With the help of her daughter Soeurn, she walks up and down the riverside in the afternoon with a plastic bag of canned drinks; her son is still too young to help, so he plays nearby.
Life is hard for Soeurn, she will start work at sun rise and after a short nap around lunch time will work through to mid-night and some times later. Though she can earn up to seven dollars a day, Soeurn not only provides for her children as well as her alcoholic husband, but also for another homeless lady and her two sons, ‘It doesn’t look good to eat when the neighbor’s children have no food’ she says.
The toilets attract many different kinds of people; customers are varied from passer-byes and occasional foreigners to homeless motor-taxi drivers and trishaw drivers. It is also a hangout for drug addicts. Soeurn has to keep her belongings in such a public space. ‘Often people try to steal stuff’, she says, but the manager of the toilets has a dog ‘he is aggressive and scares thieves’ and anybody who comes too close to her belongings.
In the evenings after work Soeurn and her family are allowed to sleep on the floor of the near by art shop that she also cleans every morning.
Working as a sweeper, Soeurn also does laundry, cooks and sells drinks along the popular riverside where foreigners and locals gather in the evenings. With the help of her daughter Soeurn, she walks up and down the riverside in the afternoon with a plastic bag of canned drinks; her son is still too young to help, so he plays nearby.
Life is hard for Soeurn, she will start work at sun rise and after a short nap around lunch time will work through to mid-night and some times later. Though she can earn up to seven dollars a day, Soeurn not only provides for her children as well as her alcoholic husband, but also for another homeless lady and her two sons, ‘It doesn’t look good to eat when the neighbor’s children have no food’ she says.
The toilets attract many different kinds of people; customers are varied from passer-byes and occasional foreigners to homeless motor-taxi drivers and trishaw drivers. It is also a hangout for drug addicts. Soeurn has to keep her belongings in such a public space. ‘Often people try to steal stuff’, she says, but the manager of the toilets has a dog ‘he is aggressive and scares thieves’ and anybody who comes too close to her belongings.
In the evenings after work Soeurn and her family are allowed to sleep on the floor of the near by art shop that she also cleans every morning.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
In Cambodia, Land Seizures Push Thousands of the Poor Into Homelessness
Houses in Andong (Photo: James Elliott)July 27, 2008
By SETH MYDANS The New York Times
ANDONG, Cambodia — When the monsoon rain pours through Mao Sein’s torn thatch roof, she pulls a straw sleeping mat over herself and her three small children and waits until it stops.
She and her children sit on a low table as floodwater rises, bringing with it the sewage that runs along the mud paths outside their shack.
Ms. Mao Sein, 34, was resettled by the government here in an empty field two years ago, when the police raided the squatters’ colony where she lived in Phnom Penh, the capital, 12 miles away.
She is a widow and a scavenger. The area where she lives has no clean water or electricity, no paved roads or permanent buildings. But there is land to live on, and that has drawn scores of new homeless families to settle here, squatting among the squatters.
With its shacks and its sewage, Andong looks very much like the refugee camps that were home to those who were forced from their homes by the brutal Communist Khmer Rouge three decades ago.
Like tens of thousands of people around the country, those living here are victims of what experts say has become the most serious human rights abuse in the country: land seizures that lead to evictions and homelessness.
“Expropriation of the land of Cambodia’s poor is reaching a disastrous level,” Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, a private monitoring group, said in December. “The courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm.”
With the economy on the rise, land is being seized for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, and in Phnom Penh, soaring land prices have touched off what one official called a frenzy of land grabs by the rich and powerful. The seizures can be violent, including late-night raids by the police and military. Sometimes, shanty neighborhoods burn down, apparently victims of arson.
“They came at 2 a.m.,” said Ku Srey, 37, who was evicted with Ms. Mao Sein and most of their neighbors in June 2006.
“They were vicious,” Ms. Ku Srey said of the police and soldiers who evicted her.
“They had electric batons” — and she imitated the sound made by the devices: “chk-chk-chk-chk.” She said, “They pushed us into trucks, they threw all our stuff into trucks and they brought us here.”
In a report in February, Amnesty International estimated that 150,000 people around the country were now at risk of forcible eviction as a result of land disputes, land seizures and new development projects.
These include 4,000 families who live around a lake in the center of Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak Lake, which is the city’s main catchment for monsoon rains and is being filled in for upscale development.
“If these communities are forced to move, it would be the most large-scale displacement of Cambodians since the times of the Khmer Rouge,” said Brittis Edman, a researcher with Amnesty International, which is based in London.
That, in a way, would bring history full circle.
Like other ailments of society — political and social violence, poverty and a culture of impunity for those with power — the land issues have roots in Cambodia’s tormented past of slaughter, civil war and social disruptions.
The brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which 1.7 million people are estimated to have died, began in 1975 with an evacuation of Phnom Penh, forcing millions of people into the countryside and emptying the city. It ended in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion, sending hundreds of thousands of refugees into Thailand.
Many of the refugees returned in the 1990s, joining a rootless population displaced by the Khmer Rouge and the decade of civil war that followed in the 1980s. Many ended their journeys in Phnom Penh, creating huge colonies of squatters.
Now, many of these people are being forced to move again, from Phnom Penh and from around the country, victims of the latest scourge of the poor: national prosperity.
Whichever way the winds of history blow, some people here say, life only gets worse for the poor. If it is not “pakdivat,” revolution, that is buffeting the poor, they say, it is “akdivat,” development.
The Cambodian economy has at last started to grow, at an estimated 9 percent last year. And Phnom Penh is starting to transform itself with modern buildings, modest malls and plans for skyscrapers. It is one of the last Asian capitals to begin to pave over its past.
From 1993 to 1999, Amnesty International said in its report in February, the government granted commercial development rights for about one-third of the country’s most productive land for commercial development to private companies.
In Phnom Penh from 1998 through 2003, the city government forced 11,000 families from their homes, the World Bank said in a statement quoted by Amnesty International.
Since then, the human rights group said, evictions have reportedly displaced at least 30,000 more families.
“One thing that is important to note is that the government is not only failing to protect the population, but we are also seeing that it is complicit in many of the forced evictions,” Ms. Edman, of Amnesty International, said.
The government responded to the group’s report through a statement issued by its embassy in London.
“Just to point out that Cambodia is not Zimbabwe,” the statement read. “Your researcher should also spend more time to examine cases of land and housing rights violations in this country, if she dares.”
Here in Andong, the people have adapted as best they can.
Little by little, they have made their dwellings home, some of them decorating their shacks with small flower pots. A few have gathered enough money to buy concrete and bricks to pave their floors and reinforce their walls.
But this home, like the ones they have known in the past, may only be temporary. The outskirts of Phnom Penh are only a few miles away. As the city continues to expand, aid workers say, the people here will probably be forced to move again.
She and her children sit on a low table as floodwater rises, bringing with it the sewage that runs along the mud paths outside their shack.
Ms. Mao Sein, 34, was resettled by the government here in an empty field two years ago, when the police raided the squatters’ colony where she lived in Phnom Penh, the capital, 12 miles away.
She is a widow and a scavenger. The area where she lives has no clean water or electricity, no paved roads or permanent buildings. But there is land to live on, and that has drawn scores of new homeless families to settle here, squatting among the squatters.
With its shacks and its sewage, Andong looks very much like the refugee camps that were home to those who were forced from their homes by the brutal Communist Khmer Rouge three decades ago.
Like tens of thousands of people around the country, those living here are victims of what experts say has become the most serious human rights abuse in the country: land seizures that lead to evictions and homelessness.
“Expropriation of the land of Cambodia’s poor is reaching a disastrous level,” Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, a private monitoring group, said in December. “The courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm.”
With the economy on the rise, land is being seized for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, and in Phnom Penh, soaring land prices have touched off what one official called a frenzy of land grabs by the rich and powerful. The seizures can be violent, including late-night raids by the police and military. Sometimes, shanty neighborhoods burn down, apparently victims of arson.
“They came at 2 a.m.,” said Ku Srey, 37, who was evicted with Ms. Mao Sein and most of their neighbors in June 2006.
“They were vicious,” Ms. Ku Srey said of the police and soldiers who evicted her.
“They had electric batons” — and she imitated the sound made by the devices: “chk-chk-chk-chk.” She said, “They pushed us into trucks, they threw all our stuff into trucks and they brought us here.”
In a report in February, Amnesty International estimated that 150,000 people around the country were now at risk of forcible eviction as a result of land disputes, land seizures and new development projects.
These include 4,000 families who live around a lake in the center of Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak Lake, which is the city’s main catchment for monsoon rains and is being filled in for upscale development.
“If these communities are forced to move, it would be the most large-scale displacement of Cambodians since the times of the Khmer Rouge,” said Brittis Edman, a researcher with Amnesty International, which is based in London.
That, in a way, would bring history full circle.
Like other ailments of society — political and social violence, poverty and a culture of impunity for those with power — the land issues have roots in Cambodia’s tormented past of slaughter, civil war and social disruptions.
The brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, during which 1.7 million people are estimated to have died, began in 1975 with an evacuation of Phnom Penh, forcing millions of people into the countryside and emptying the city. It ended in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge was driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion, sending hundreds of thousands of refugees into Thailand.
Many of the refugees returned in the 1990s, joining a rootless population displaced by the Khmer Rouge and the decade of civil war that followed in the 1980s. Many ended their journeys in Phnom Penh, creating huge colonies of squatters.
Now, many of these people are being forced to move again, from Phnom Penh and from around the country, victims of the latest scourge of the poor: national prosperity.
Whichever way the winds of history blow, some people here say, life only gets worse for the poor. If it is not “pakdivat,” revolution, that is buffeting the poor, they say, it is “akdivat,” development.
The Cambodian economy has at last started to grow, at an estimated 9 percent last year. And Phnom Penh is starting to transform itself with modern buildings, modest malls and plans for skyscrapers. It is one of the last Asian capitals to begin to pave over its past.
From 1993 to 1999, Amnesty International said in its report in February, the government granted commercial development rights for about one-third of the country’s most productive land for commercial development to private companies.
In Phnom Penh from 1998 through 2003, the city government forced 11,000 families from their homes, the World Bank said in a statement quoted by Amnesty International.
Since then, the human rights group said, evictions have reportedly displaced at least 30,000 more families.
“One thing that is important to note is that the government is not only failing to protect the population, but we are also seeing that it is complicit in many of the forced evictions,” Ms. Edman, of Amnesty International, said.
The government responded to the group’s report through a statement issued by its embassy in London.
“Just to point out that Cambodia is not Zimbabwe,” the statement read. “Your researcher should also spend more time to examine cases of land and housing rights violations in this country, if she dares.”
Here in Andong, the people have adapted as best they can.
Little by little, they have made their dwellings home, some of them decorating their shacks with small flower pots. A few have gathered enough money to buy concrete and bricks to pave their floors and reinforce their walls.
But this home, like the ones they have known in the past, may only be temporary. The outskirts of Phnom Penh are only a few miles away. As the city continues to expand, aid workers say, the people here will probably be forced to move again.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Development leaves Cambodians homeless
June 25, 2008 By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth Pacific Daily News (Guam)
My June 11 column referenced The Guardian's Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark's "Country for Sale," which stated that "almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months." It also referred to Business Week's Susan Postlewaite's "Real Estate Boom in Cambodia's capital," in which she observed this boom "has led to widespread evictions of people" from their homes and land to accommodate development projects.
If you Google "land-grabbing in Cambodia" you'll see volumes written on the topic, from newspaper articles to columns and reports by human rights groups. Watch videos and listen to the voices of Cambodian evictees, even on YouTube.
They reveal how the poor, the underprivileged in Cambodia suffer unspeakable pain and hardship. After all, what's life anywhere when a person's home and land are dismantled and bulldozed without discussion, and one is beaten and kicked and faces jail for not moving out?
Radio Free Asia's "China's Growing Presence in Cambodia," published on its Web site May 28, takes the issue of land-grabbing to a higher level, alleging high officials' involvement. The Web site also recorded 29 land-grabbing cases in January and February alone.
Amnesty International's "Forced Evictions in Cambodia: Homes Razed, Lives in Ruins," published Feb. 11, states "forced evictions are one of the most widespread human rights violations affecting Cambodians in both rural and urban areas." It asserts, "At least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being forcibly evicted in the wake of land disputes, land grabbing and development projects."
"In sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the (Cambodian) government's pro-poor policies and in breach of international human rights laws and standards," the Amnesty International article states, "thousands of people, particularly those living in poverty, have been forcibly evicted from their homes and lands."
On June 12, a Hong Kong-based regional non-governmental organization that monitors and lobbies human rights issues in Asia, The Asian Human Rights Commission, posted an online petition, "End Land Grabbing in Cambodia," and urges "the public to join" the petition, which can be read at http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/landgrabbing.
The online petition is addressed to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. It expresses signers' deep concerns "about the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian people who have been, and who are known to live in fear of being evicted as a result of development projects, land disputes and land-grabbing." It asks the premier to "immediately end the suffering and fears ... by halting all evictions, ... and by suspending all land concessions for development projects that affect people's homes and lands."
I don't know if the petition will move the 55-year-old Cambodian ruler to comply, nor do I know if it will incite the world community to help the Cambodian poor and end the land-grabbing.
Action needed
I used to recite to my students at the University of Guam Edmund Burke's words: "All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." And I write often in this space that unless one takes action, one cannot expect anything to happen the way one wishes. I have discussed the problem of "free riders" who expected "others" to act for the common good.
So I added my name on the AHRC petition, and my computer screen showed that it was sent electronically to the prime minister's cabinet.
Six days before the AHRC's petition, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) put online, complete with photos, "Two Years After their Eviction from the Center of Phnom Penh, Villagers are Still Living in Squalor." It was about the June 6, 2006, eviction of more than 1,000 families from their homes in Sambok Chap village in inner-city Phnom Penh by "police and military police armed with guns, tear gas, batons and riot shields."
"The residents were forced onto trucks and taken to be dumped in an open field at Andong, 22 kilometers from central Phnom Penh -- their new 'home'," reads the text. "There was no shelter, electricity, running water, schools, health services or readily available employment nearby."
June 6, 2008, marked the two-year anniversary of the eviction.
"The site of their former homes in Sambok Chap -- slated for commercial development by a private company -- remains bare and unused, while the evictees continue to live in squalor at the Andong relocation site," Licadho stated.
Licadho refers to Sambok Chap as "just one case in a wider pattern of rapid, unregulated and often illegal development across Cambodia. ... It is exacerbated by a culture of corruption and impunity and, all too often, by an international donor community which turns a blind eye to such abuses."
Yet, in less than four weeks this international donor community can be expected to congratulate the region's longest-serving premier for his forthcoming July 27 election victory, to continue his reign, which Agence France Presse says he vowed publicly to keep until he turns 90.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
If you Google "land-grabbing in Cambodia" you'll see volumes written on the topic, from newspaper articles to columns and reports by human rights groups. Watch videos and listen to the voices of Cambodian evictees, even on YouTube.
They reveal how the poor, the underprivileged in Cambodia suffer unspeakable pain and hardship. After all, what's life anywhere when a person's home and land are dismantled and bulldozed without discussion, and one is beaten and kicked and faces jail for not moving out?
Radio Free Asia's "China's Growing Presence in Cambodia," published on its Web site May 28, takes the issue of land-grabbing to a higher level, alleging high officials' involvement. The Web site also recorded 29 land-grabbing cases in January and February alone.
Amnesty International's "Forced Evictions in Cambodia: Homes Razed, Lives in Ruins," published Feb. 11, states "forced evictions are one of the most widespread human rights violations affecting Cambodians in both rural and urban areas." It asserts, "At least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being forcibly evicted in the wake of land disputes, land grabbing and development projects."
"In sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the (Cambodian) government's pro-poor policies and in breach of international human rights laws and standards," the Amnesty International article states, "thousands of people, particularly those living in poverty, have been forcibly evicted from their homes and lands."
On June 12, a Hong Kong-based regional non-governmental organization that monitors and lobbies human rights issues in Asia, The Asian Human Rights Commission, posted an online petition, "End Land Grabbing in Cambodia," and urges "the public to join" the petition, which can be read at http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/landgrabbing.
The online petition is addressed to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. It expresses signers' deep concerns "about the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian people who have been, and who are known to live in fear of being evicted as a result of development projects, land disputes and land-grabbing." It asks the premier to "immediately end the suffering and fears ... by halting all evictions, ... and by suspending all land concessions for development projects that affect people's homes and lands."
I don't know if the petition will move the 55-year-old Cambodian ruler to comply, nor do I know if it will incite the world community to help the Cambodian poor and end the land-grabbing.
Action needed
I used to recite to my students at the University of Guam Edmund Burke's words: "All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." And I write often in this space that unless one takes action, one cannot expect anything to happen the way one wishes. I have discussed the problem of "free riders" who expected "others" to act for the common good.
So I added my name on the AHRC petition, and my computer screen showed that it was sent electronically to the prime minister's cabinet.
Six days before the AHRC's petition, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) put online, complete with photos, "Two Years After their Eviction from the Center of Phnom Penh, Villagers are Still Living in Squalor." It was about the June 6, 2006, eviction of more than 1,000 families from their homes in Sambok Chap village in inner-city Phnom Penh by "police and military police armed with guns, tear gas, batons and riot shields."
"The residents were forced onto trucks and taken to be dumped in an open field at Andong, 22 kilometers from central Phnom Penh -- their new 'home'," reads the text. "There was no shelter, electricity, running water, schools, health services or readily available employment nearby."
June 6, 2008, marked the two-year anniversary of the eviction.
"The site of their former homes in Sambok Chap -- slated for commercial development by a private company -- remains bare and unused, while the evictees continue to live in squalor at the Andong relocation site," Licadho stated.
Licadho refers to Sambok Chap as "just one case in a wider pattern of rapid, unregulated and often illegal development across Cambodia. ... It is exacerbated by a culture of corruption and impunity and, all too often, by an international donor community which turns a blind eye to such abuses."
Yet, in less than four weeks this international donor community can be expected to congratulate the region's longest-serving premier for his forthcoming July 27 election victory, to continue his reign, which Agence France Presse says he vowed publicly to keep until he turns 90.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
Monday, May 12, 2008
HRP concerned about land price increase
Monday, May 12, 2008Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
The HRP expressed its concerns that future generations of children of civil servants, soldiers, police officers, workers and the majority of poor people will face homelessness because of the skyrocketing price increase of lands and housings, whereas salary remains low, thereby (a larger number of people) will not have enough money to buy houses. Because of its concerns, the HRP issued a statement at the end of last week, calling the government to provide government housing at low rent, or to sell affordable housing where civil servants and poor workers can pay off their debt to buy these houses according to their salary. The Mekong Times indicated that this call was made at a time when the HRP views that the price of land in Phnom Penh currently increases from $1,000 to about $2,000 per square-meter. Row houses now cost between $40,000 and $90,000. The HRP concerns were considered as untrue by Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman. Khieu Kanharith said that this statement was raised because (the HRP) does not know the actual situation in Cambodia. He said that (the HRP) is far worse than the people.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Impoverished Face Homelessness: HRP
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 May 2008
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 May 2008
The Human Rights Party on Friday issued a strong condemnation of rapidly rising land prices, which threatens to push out many Phnom Penh residents.
Land in Phnom Penh costs between $1,000 to $2,000 per square meter, and houses can cost up to $90,000, the party said in a statement.
Keo Remy, vice president of the party, said the government should construct affordable housing to help insulate residents from the high prices.
Children of government workers and those who work in restaurants and hotels or as motorcycle taxi drivers, unable to afford a house or apartment, were all facing “homelessness,” he said.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith called the statement “unfair.”
“The HRP does not know the real situation, but the people know the situation more clearly than HRP,” he said.
Adhoc rights investigator Ny Chkrya said he “completely” supported the idea of housing.
Land in Phnom Penh costs between $1,000 to $2,000 per square meter, and houses can cost up to $90,000, the party said in a statement.
Keo Remy, vice president of the party, said the government should construct affordable housing to help insulate residents from the high prices.
Children of government workers and those who work in restaurants and hotels or as motorcycle taxi drivers, unable to afford a house or apartment, were all facing “homelessness,” he said.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith called the statement “unfair.”
“The HRP does not know the real situation, but the people know the situation more clearly than HRP,” he said.
Adhoc rights investigator Ny Chkrya said he “completely” supported the idea of housing.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Cambodia: Forced evictions must end
Several homes belonging to the villagers were burnt down in Preah Vihear province (Photo: Sav Yuth, RFA)
A monk shows the grave of a woman killed during the clash in Preah Vihear province (Photo: Sav Yuth, RFA)
The authority forces patrolling the clash area in Preah Vihear province (Photo: Sav Yuth, RFA)AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 23/008/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 226
22 November 2007
Two people dead, many injured and thousands homeless: two recent forced evictions demonstrate the urgent need for the Cambodian authorities to immediately end this practice. Forced evictions are driving an increasing number of Cambodians from their homes or lands without consultations, due process of law, legal or other protection, and without consideration of adequate alternatives.
Deadly price for land
On 15 November 2007 two people were shot dead by security forces during a forced eviction in the remote northern Preah Vihear province. The victims, one man and one woman, belonged to a group of 317 families -- over 1,500 people1 -- evicted by more than 200 armed police, military police and soldiers. Toeun Chheng, 29, was shot in the chest at point blank range as she was protecting her four children during the eviction. Witnesses told human rights investigators that a member of the security forces stole a necklace and other valuables from her as she lay bleeding on the ground. She later died in a health clinic. According to accounts provided to Amnesty International, the other casualty, Oeun Eng, 31, was shot dead during the course of the eviction.
According to accounts given to local human rights workers, the security forces had not issued any warnings before opening fire on this group of very poor families, most of whom were day labourers.
At least six other evictees were reportedly injured, five by gun shots, one by beatings. Two are reportedly seriously injured and are being treated at the provincial hospital.
The authorities arrested at least twelve people during and after the eviction, including two of the injured, who were transferred from a health clinic to police custody. Three other persons were reportedly arrested on 14 November. All 15 have been sent to Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh.
The 317 families had recently arrived from other parts of Cambodia and settled on unutilised land in Sra Em village, Kantuot commune, near the Preah Vihear temples -- a growing tourist attraction -- and the Thai border. Local authorities had decided they could not stay on the land, but after a stand-off which led to a negotiated agreement, the families were allowed to stay on a temporary basis.
International human rights law requires that evictions be carried out only as a last resort, and only following adequate notice and consultation with those affected. Amnesty International is concerned that in this case the eviction was carried out without adequate due process. The eviction reportedly took place in breach of an agreement between local authorities and the families, which stated that the families could remain on the land on a temporary basis until a suitable resolution had been found. This agreement had been reached and signed following a stand-off between the villagers and the authorities on 9
November, when police had moved in at night in an attempt to arrest two community leaders.2 On 11 November the Choam Khsan district governor had reportedly offered two vaguely described alternative locations which the community declined. In doing so, community leaders said that in order to agree to the relocation they needed to be informed about the precise geographic location of the land.
They also required access to water, schooling for the children and other basic infrastructure. Four days later and without any prior notification, security forces showed an announcement from the provincial administration, stating the community had to leave. The implementation of the eviction followed immediately and included the burning of houses.
Most of the families have now left the province following the violent forced eviction. Around 40 families who have lost most of their belongings lack the means to leave, and have been stranded on a roadside where they currently lack even emergency shelter, food, water and security, a major concern in this remote area.
Turning families homeless -- Phnom Penh
In a pre-dawn operation on 2 November 2007, 300 members of the security forces forcibly evicted and demolished the entire village of Chong Chruoy on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, using excavators and hired workers to demolish the homes of the 132 families living there. Human rights activists and journalists were blocked from monitoring the incident.
The basis for evicting the village was a written announcement issued by the district authority on 30 August 2007 stating that the reason for the eviction was “to eliminate disorder in the society, to protect environment, sanitation and public health, and to promote the municipality's beauty.”3 The villagers were, according to the announcement, given five days to clear the area. However, no action was taken and no new information was provided until security forces moved in on 2 November. According to the authorities the village is located on state land; however, this assumption, disputed by villagers who claim ownership to the land, has reportedly not been heard by the competent authorities.
Immediately following the demolition, trucks took some families to a resettlement site, and within two days all villagers had been forcibly relocated to Trapeang Anchanh village in Dangkor district, an area that lacks basic infrastructure such as shelter, clean water, sanitation, medical facilities or schools and is prone to flooding. According to information provided to Amnesty International this relocation was not a negotiated settlement, but a forced solution which had not been preceded by any meaningful consultation.
The 132 homeless families, most of whom had reportedly lived at Chong Chruoy since the mid-nineties, have not been provided with any emergency assistance from the Cambodian authorities, including any shelter or construction materials at the resettlement site. However, following the eviction, a Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh told the press that the families would each receive a piece of land and a five-year interest-free loan so that they could re-build a house. So far, this has not materialised, so the families stay in tents and under tarpaulins provided by local non-governmental organisations.
The resettlement site, 20 kilometres from Phnom Penh, has also been used to relocate other families, who have been forcibly evicted in the past two years.
Background
Forced evictions are evictions that are carried out without adequate notice, consultation with those affected, without legal safeguards and without assurances of adequate alternative accommodation. As the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has clarified, forced evictions are “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.
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]”.
Forced evictions were recognised by the UN Commission on Human Rights to be a gross violation of a range of human rights including the right to adequate housing, which is protected in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
As a party to the ICESCR, and other international human rights treaties which prohibit forced eviction and related human rights violations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cambodia has an obligation to stop forced evictions and to protect the population from forced evictions.
Amnesty International urges the Cambodian government to end all forced evictions and declare and enforce 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.
Amnesty International also calls on the authorities to immediately ensure that all victims of forced evictions in Phnom Penh and Preah Vihear are provided with emergency relief including shelter, food, water and access to medical assistance. The authorities should also take timely, concrete and targeted steps to ensure they receive adequate reparation, including adequate alternative accommodation and compensation.
The organisation is concerned at reports of the excessive force used during the evictions, and in particular in Preah Vihear, and calls for a full, effective and independent inquiry, following which those responsible should be brought to justice.
_________
(1) Estimate based on the average Cambodian rural household size of 5.0 persons, according to Cambodia: Inter-Censal Population Survey 2004, the National Institute of Statistics/Ministry of Planning, 2004.
(2) Copy on file.
(3) Unofficial translation; copy on file.
Deadly price for land
On 15 November 2007 two people were shot dead by security forces during a forced eviction in the remote northern Preah Vihear province. The victims, one man and one woman, belonged to a group of 317 families -- over 1,500 people1 -- evicted by more than 200 armed police, military police and soldiers. Toeun Chheng, 29, was shot in the chest at point blank range as she was protecting her four children during the eviction. Witnesses told human rights investigators that a member of the security forces stole a necklace and other valuables from her as she lay bleeding on the ground. She later died in a health clinic. According to accounts provided to Amnesty International, the other casualty, Oeun Eng, 31, was shot dead during the course of the eviction.
According to accounts given to local human rights workers, the security forces had not issued any warnings before opening fire on this group of very poor families, most of whom were day labourers.
At least six other evictees were reportedly injured, five by gun shots, one by beatings. Two are reportedly seriously injured and are being treated at the provincial hospital.
The authorities arrested at least twelve people during and after the eviction, including two of the injured, who were transferred from a health clinic to police custody. Three other persons were reportedly arrested on 14 November. All 15 have been sent to Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh.
The 317 families had recently arrived from other parts of Cambodia and settled on unutilised land in Sra Em village, Kantuot commune, near the Preah Vihear temples -- a growing tourist attraction -- and the Thai border. Local authorities had decided they could not stay on the land, but after a stand-off which led to a negotiated agreement, the families were allowed to stay on a temporary basis.
International human rights law requires that evictions be carried out only as a last resort, and only following adequate notice and consultation with those affected. Amnesty International is concerned that in this case the eviction was carried out without adequate due process. The eviction reportedly took place in breach of an agreement between local authorities and the families, which stated that the families could remain on the land on a temporary basis until a suitable resolution had been found. This agreement had been reached and signed following a stand-off between the villagers and the authorities on 9
November, when police had moved in at night in an attempt to arrest two community leaders.2 On 11 November the Choam Khsan district governor had reportedly offered two vaguely described alternative locations which the community declined. In doing so, community leaders said that in order to agree to the relocation they needed to be informed about the precise geographic location of the land.
They also required access to water, schooling for the children and other basic infrastructure. Four days later and without any prior notification, security forces showed an announcement from the provincial administration, stating the community had to leave. The implementation of the eviction followed immediately and included the burning of houses.
Most of the families have now left the province following the violent forced eviction. Around 40 families who have lost most of their belongings lack the means to leave, and have been stranded on a roadside where they currently lack even emergency shelter, food, water and security, a major concern in this remote area.
Turning families homeless -- Phnom Penh
In a pre-dawn operation on 2 November 2007, 300 members of the security forces forcibly evicted and demolished the entire village of Chong Chruoy on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, using excavators and hired workers to demolish the homes of the 132 families living there. Human rights activists and journalists were blocked from monitoring the incident.
The basis for evicting the village was a written announcement issued by the district authority on 30 August 2007 stating that the reason for the eviction was “to eliminate disorder in the society, to protect environment, sanitation and public health, and to promote the municipality's beauty.”3 The villagers were, according to the announcement, given five days to clear the area. However, no action was taken and no new information was provided until security forces moved in on 2 November. According to the authorities the village is located on state land; however, this assumption, disputed by villagers who claim ownership to the land, has reportedly not been heard by the competent authorities.
Immediately following the demolition, trucks took some families to a resettlement site, and within two days all villagers had been forcibly relocated to Trapeang Anchanh village in Dangkor district, an area that lacks basic infrastructure such as shelter, clean water, sanitation, medical facilities or schools and is prone to flooding. According to information provided to Amnesty International this relocation was not a negotiated settlement, but a forced solution which had not been preceded by any meaningful consultation.
The 132 homeless families, most of whom had reportedly lived at Chong Chruoy since the mid-nineties, have not been provided with any emergency assistance from the Cambodian authorities, including any shelter or construction materials at the resettlement site. However, following the eviction, a Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh told the press that the families would each receive a piece of land and a five-year interest-free loan so that they could re-build a house. So far, this has not materialised, so the families stay in tents and under tarpaulins provided by local non-governmental organisations.
The resettlement site, 20 kilometres from Phnom Penh, has also been used to relocate other families, who have been forcibly evicted in the past two years.
Background
Forced evictions are evictions that are carried out without adequate notice, consultation with those affected, without legal safeguards and without assurances of adequate alternative accommodation. As the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has clarified, forced evictions are “the permanent or temporary removal against their will of individuals, families and/or communities from the homes and/or land which they occupy, without the provision of, and access to, appropriate forms of legal or other protection.
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]”.
Forced evictions were recognised by the UN Commission on Human Rights to be a gross violation of a range of human rights including the right to adequate housing, which is protected in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
As a party to the ICESCR, and other international human rights treaties which prohibit forced eviction and related human rights violations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cambodia has an obligation to stop forced evictions and to protect the population from forced evictions.
Amnesty International urges the Cambodian government to end all forced evictions and declare and enforce 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.
Amnesty International also calls on the authorities to immediately ensure that all victims of forced evictions in Phnom Penh and Preah Vihear are provided with emergency relief including shelter, food, water and access to medical assistance. The authorities should also take timely, concrete and targeted steps to ensure they receive adequate reparation, including adequate alternative accommodation and compensation.
The organisation is concerned at reports of the excessive force used during the evictions, and in particular in Preah Vihear, and calls for a full, effective and independent inquiry, following which those responsible should be brought to justice.
_________
(1) Estimate based on the average Cambodian rural household size of 5.0 persons, according to Cambodia: Inter-Censal Population Survey 2004, the National Institute of Statistics/Ministry of Planning, 2004.
(2) Copy on file.
(3) Unofficial translation; copy on file.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Mini Charity Marathon for Kids in Cambodia
Runners gearing up to race to raise money Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Seoul Times (South Korea)
If you haven't witnessed it yourself then you would have heard the story of a child with his or hands stretched out begging for money, pleading for help, longing for a bit of hope.
A common sight for tourists traveling in Asia and around the world.
The plight of children in poor countries is not something everyone has witnessed first hand. But for those who have, it's something they never forget.
In Cambodia, where half of the population is under 15, the story is no different.
Child prostitution, homelessness, poverty, a paedophile's playground, human trafficking are just some of the horrors faced everyday.
And something two well traveled women saw for themselves and never forgot.
Andrea Kvasnica and Emma Stringer got the chance to help those children they had seen being exploited, neglected and forgotten during a marathon of a fundraising stint at the weekend.
Andrea Kvansnica and Emma Stringer with co-worker Mr. Cho never forgot what they saw in Cambodia.
What started out as being a fun 10km run between friends turned into a mini-marathon of English teachers in Daegu raising 2.4million Won ($2,700 Canadian dollars) for children of Cambodia.
Along side the river on the morning of Saturday, June 9th, with a back drop of mountains, and below the roaring traffic overhead, 75 people ran, walked, cycled and rollerbladed all with a common cause. To support children of poverty.
"It was just supposed to be a small run with 10 friends, but more people heard about it and it just escalated from there," says Emma, originally from Leicester, England.
The two pals have lived in South Korea for three years and as keen athletes, running about five times a week, they wanted to do another long distance run having completed a half marathon in April.
"The way it works here is that as the season goes on so the distances get longer, but we only wanted to do a 10km so decided to organize our own," says Andrea, from Ottawa, Canada.
With the help and support of other friends they were able to organize the 10km and 5km mini-marathon in Daegu and from their experiences in the impoverished Southeast Asian country decided the children they had seen stuck in a plight of hopelessness would benefit from their hard work.
The two friends, who met in South Korea while working at a Hagwon in Daegu, traveled to Cambodia in October 2005 with the intention of staying for seven days.
But having experienced the plight of children and families there were forced to cut their holiday short. Something they never forgot.
"We were planning to be there for seven days, but everywhere we went it was like people were breathing devastation," recalls Andrea, 27.
Hearing stories from tuktuk drivers who had lost their family to genocide, murder and poverty and seeing first hand the immense problem of child exploitation by paeodophiles they were shocked by how it left them feeling. Were they also taking advantage of the people by being tourists? Were they feeding the corruption of the poor?
"It was really depressing and we felt really bad because we are mega rich compared to them. We were trying to have a vacation and we felt so guilty because we were rich and they weren't," adds Emma, 26.
Andrea says "To go and visit was really hard because every day you are reminded of how dire the situation is. It's in your face all the time. Any time anyone asks me where's the worst place I have been to, Cambodia always pops into my head. That was humans in their worse situation."
Since their trip the pair have learnt more about the history and politics of the country and discovered the charity Children of Cambodia Fund who they chose to donate the money from the mini marathon to. The money will be used to help rescue children living on the dumps and tips of litter and rubbish everywhere because they have no families, no homes and no money.
The organization is trying to combat the problem with child prostitution by setting up orphanages and projects to get the children off the streets.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia with 85 percent of the population of 12.5 million people living in rural areas. There is a high infant mortality rate and the average life expectancy is 57 years old. During the notorious regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s around 1.5 million people lost their lives.
"Everywhere has poor places, we know, but it was a massive difference in Cambodia," says Emma.
Andrea adds: "The difference is that in other countries you can see there is some wealth and they can feed themselves and provide houses, but in Cambodia you just don't see it. Everyone is just suffering and the thing is there's no hope. They just don't have the means to move on. Their generation is stumped."
Since starting to organize the mini marathon six weeks ago, Andrea and Emma have realized they are not alone in their experience and know they will not be the last.
"A lot of people told us they had been or were about to go. Cambodia touches a lot of people's hearts from what they have heard or seen," adds Andrea.
The money raised far exceeded the two women's expectations and the support they say was amazing.
"We just want to say thank you to everyone who helped us and we hope it will be of some benefit to the children in Cambodia," Andrea says.
A common sight for tourists traveling in Asia and around the world.
The plight of children in poor countries is not something everyone has witnessed first hand. But for those who have, it's something they never forget.
In Cambodia, where half of the population is under 15, the story is no different.
Child prostitution, homelessness, poverty, a paedophile's playground, human trafficking are just some of the horrors faced everyday.
And something two well traveled women saw for themselves and never forgot.
Andrea Kvasnica and Emma Stringer got the chance to help those children they had seen being exploited, neglected and forgotten during a marathon of a fundraising stint at the weekend.
Andrea Kvansnica and Emma Stringer with co-worker Mr. Cho never forgot what they saw in Cambodia.What started out as being a fun 10km run between friends turned into a mini-marathon of English teachers in Daegu raising 2.4million Won ($2,700 Canadian dollars) for children of Cambodia.
Along side the river on the morning of Saturday, June 9th, with a back drop of mountains, and below the roaring traffic overhead, 75 people ran, walked, cycled and rollerbladed all with a common cause. To support children of poverty.
"It was just supposed to be a small run with 10 friends, but more people heard about it and it just escalated from there," says Emma, originally from Leicester, England.
The two pals have lived in South Korea for three years and as keen athletes, running about five times a week, they wanted to do another long distance run having completed a half marathon in April.
"The way it works here is that as the season goes on so the distances get longer, but we only wanted to do a 10km so decided to organize our own," says Andrea, from Ottawa, Canada.
With the help and support of other friends they were able to organize the 10km and 5km mini-marathon in Daegu and from their experiences in the impoverished Southeast Asian country decided the children they had seen stuck in a plight of hopelessness would benefit from their hard work.
The two friends, who met in South Korea while working at a Hagwon in Daegu, traveled to Cambodia in October 2005 with the intention of staying for seven days.
But having experienced the plight of children and families there were forced to cut their holiday short. Something they never forgot.
"We were planning to be there for seven days, but everywhere we went it was like people were breathing devastation," recalls Andrea, 27.
Hearing stories from tuktuk drivers who had lost their family to genocide, murder and poverty and seeing first hand the immense problem of child exploitation by paeodophiles they were shocked by how it left them feeling. Were they also taking advantage of the people by being tourists? Were they feeding the corruption of the poor?
"It was really depressing and we felt really bad because we are mega rich compared to them. We were trying to have a vacation and we felt so guilty because we were rich and they weren't," adds Emma, 26.
Andrea says "To go and visit was really hard because every day you are reminded of how dire the situation is. It's in your face all the time. Any time anyone asks me where's the worst place I have been to, Cambodia always pops into my head. That was humans in their worse situation."
Since their trip the pair have learnt more about the history and politics of the country and discovered the charity Children of Cambodia Fund who they chose to donate the money from the mini marathon to. The money will be used to help rescue children living on the dumps and tips of litter and rubbish everywhere because they have no families, no homes and no money.
The organization is trying to combat the problem with child prostitution by setting up orphanages and projects to get the children off the streets.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia with 85 percent of the population of 12.5 million people living in rural areas. There is a high infant mortality rate and the average life expectancy is 57 years old. During the notorious regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s around 1.5 million people lost their lives.
"Everywhere has poor places, we know, but it was a massive difference in Cambodia," says Emma.
Andrea adds: "The difference is that in other countries you can see there is some wealth and they can feed themselves and provide houses, but in Cambodia you just don't see it. Everyone is just suffering and the thing is there's no hope. They just don't have the means to move on. Their generation is stumped."
Since starting to organize the mini marathon six weeks ago, Andrea and Emma have realized they are not alone in their experience and know they will not be the last.
"A lot of people told us they had been or were about to go. Cambodia touches a lot of people's hearts from what they have heard or seen," adds Andrea.
The money raised far exceeded the two women's expectations and the support they say was amazing.
"We just want to say thank you to everyone who helped us and we hope it will be of some benefit to the children in Cambodia," Andrea says.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
