Cambodia drafts sub-decree for better resettlement in development projects [-100% boasting, 0% concrete action?]

Typical involuntary resettlement policy under Hun Sen's regime

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has started drafting a sub-decree on addressing social-economic impacts caused by the development projects on implementation of involuntary resettlement, a government official said here on Monday.

"In the current context of Cambodia, we are lacking legal norms and legislations to support resettlement implementation, including limited awareness of people on law and weak enforcement of land law and other regulations," said Chhorn Sopheap, deputy secretary general of the Supreme National Economic Council and director of the resettlement department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

"We continue to further revise the sub-decree to cover all important issues in conformity with other laws and regulations, and to ensure efficient implementation," he said in the opening remarks of the five-day regional workshop of involuntary resettlement implementation and management, which also attracted participants from Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia.

The government is preparing this crucial sub-decree as policy guidelines for a better resettlement implementation, he said.

The project implementation is even more difficult and complicated if a third party causes problems behind because resettlement implementation is not only related to socio-economic side of affected people but also sometimes related to people's mind, especially political issues, he said.

"There were some problems occurring during the project implementation due to lack of adequate policy measures as well as experience, but we have to maintain a balance between people's rights of interest and general or public interest represented by prerogatives of public power," he said.

"We believe that good resettlement can prevent impoverishment and poverty of the affected people by turning displacement into development opportunities," he added.

'Involuntary resettlement' law in the works: officials [-After countless number of illegal evictions?]

Illegal eviction: A legacy of the Hun Sen regime

Friday, 23 January 2009
Written by Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Legislation proposed to provide national framework for resettlement and compensation of families displaced by government development projects.

GOVERNMENT officials are working on a national mechanism to guide the compensation of those who lose land or housing to state development projects, saying that a draft expropriatory law is set to come before the National Assembly later this year.

"Cambodia's laws and policies do not adequately address resettlement issues," said Sim Samnang, deputy director of the Resettlement Department at the Ministry of Economy and Finance at a Wednesday workshop on involuntary resettlements. "There is a need for a national resettlement policy."

He said that the law, now under review by the Council of Ministers, will help guide resettlement and compensation for those affected by major development projects, including the Japanese government-funded reconstruction of National Route 1 into Phnom Penh.

Sim Samnang said that a lack of national regulatory framework for housing resettlements means authorities have so far followed international donors' standards on the issue of involuntary resettlement resulting from the road project.

Key highway

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided around US$80 million to expand a 56-kilometre stretch of National Route 1 linking Phnom Penh with a planned bridge over the Mekong at Neak Leung, according to a JICA presentation at Wednesday's workshop.

The construction, in its second phase, has affected 4,180 families so far, 285 of which have been resettled, the presentation showed, with phase three due to start next month.

Kazuhiro Yoneda, JICA's chief representative in Cambodia, said that during the study and implementation of the project, the problem of involuntary resettlements was a serious concern for officials.

"Involuntary resettlement becomes a bigger and bigger issue every day ... due to the weakness of the legal system," he said.

Nhean Leng, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Resettlement Committee, said around 8,000 roadside families would ultimately be affected by the road rehabilitation project, and that 4,000 had already been offered compensation, rejecting criticism.

"Law enforcement in Cambodia is still weak, so the majority of people do not understand our policy, which leads numbers of NGOs to incite people to file complaints," he said, adding that the law had been under consideration since 2006.

"In the near future, there will be a national mechanism to resolve socioeconomic impacts caused by government development projects."