Showing posts with label Land eviction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Land eviction. Show all posts
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Saturday, July 30, 2011
TOR SOU! (Struggle!)
Dear Countrymen and Friends,
I hope you will find the slide show informative and educational.
Sincerely,
Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.
You are cordially invited to review my new PowerPoint, “TOR SOU!” (Struggle!),” accompanied by a Khmer song performed by the Messenger Band. The photos require no explanation.
I hope you will find the slide show informative and educational.
Sincerely,
Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVVweQUT2L8&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Microeconomy
Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)Friday, March 06, 2009
VC soldiers get the same treatment from Hanoi as handicap Cambodian soldiers are being treated by Hun Sen's regime - So much for serving the commies!
Vietnam war invalids protest to keep land
Fri, 06 Mar 2009
DPA
Fri, 06 Mar 2009
DPA
Hanoi - Some 100 war invalids faced off against police and soldiers Friday in central Hanoi to prevent their collective's land from being seized by a state-owned parking lot company. Members of the July 27 Invalids Collective said they had been granted use of the 300-square-metre plot in 1996 to park the three-wheeled vehicles invalids in Vietnam typically drive, and to earn money washing and repairing motorbikes.
The Hanoi Parking Exploitation Company, which runs a parking lot next to the lot, was awarded the plot in 2005. An appeal by the invalid group was rejected by district authorities in January, and scores of police and soldiers arrived Friday to enforce the order.
Nguyen Nhu Khoa, 62, who sustained brain, spine and leg injuries from shelling during the Battle of Hue in 1972, said the invalids needed the land to support themselves and their families. Khoa said group members earned an average of about 1 million dong (60 dollars) a month.
"We use this land to make a little money, but they want to seize it," Khoa said. "They should support us, because we are the ones who sacrificed our bodies to protect them, to protect this regime."
Organized protests are rare in Vietnam's Communist system. Protests over land disputes, however, occur periodically, particularly as urban land values have skyrocketed in recent years.
The price of land in downtown Hanoi has risen to thousands of dollars per square metre.
Police and soldiers at the protest site declined to comment on the situation.
The invalids' group does not have an official land use certificate for the plot. In a January 8 letter, the head of the district People's Committee, the local governing body, said that the plot belonged to the Hanoi city Transportation Department and the district had no authority over it.
Officials in the People's Committee and the Transportation Department could not be reached for a response.
Regardless of the legal merits, members of the invalid group were bitter.
"The authorities want to push us off this land because we do not have the money to bribe them," said Nguyen Xuan Hung, 50, wounded during Vietnam's 1978-9 war against Cambodia.
The Hanoi Parking Exploitation Company, which runs a parking lot next to the lot, was awarded the plot in 2005. An appeal by the invalid group was rejected by district authorities in January, and scores of police and soldiers arrived Friday to enforce the order.
Nguyen Nhu Khoa, 62, who sustained brain, spine and leg injuries from shelling during the Battle of Hue in 1972, said the invalids needed the land to support themselves and their families. Khoa said group members earned an average of about 1 million dong (60 dollars) a month.
"We use this land to make a little money, but they want to seize it," Khoa said. "They should support us, because we are the ones who sacrificed our bodies to protect them, to protect this regime."
Organized protests are rare in Vietnam's Communist system. Protests over land disputes, however, occur periodically, particularly as urban land values have skyrocketed in recent years.
The price of land in downtown Hanoi has risen to thousands of dollars per square metre.
Police and soldiers at the protest site declined to comment on the situation.
The invalids' group does not have an official land use certificate for the plot. In a January 8 letter, the head of the district People's Committee, the local governing body, said that the plot belonged to the Hanoi city Transportation Department and the district had no authority over it.
Officials in the People's Committee and the Transportation Department could not be reached for a response.
Regardless of the legal merits, members of the invalid group were bitter.
"The authorities want to push us off this land because we do not have the money to bribe them," said Nguyen Xuan Hung, 50, wounded during Vietnam's 1978-9 war against Cambodia.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tourism’s dark side: Cambodian villagers displaced in favor of development
According to the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, police burned down 60 homes as they forcibly evicted these Cambodian villagers. (Photo: Licadho)June 28, 2008
By Milo Anderson
Northwest Asian Weekly
The white sands of Otres Beach sit two miles south of Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It’s less crowded than the larger beaches closer to downtown. Tourists from Europe, Australia and the United States, along with Cambodians on vacation, come to enjoy the sun and the warm ocean and the small, open-air, thatched-roof bars and restaurants that line the sand. At night, Roman candles and Christmas lights reflect off the black water.
Relaxing in beach chairs facing the ocean, the tourists’ backs are turned to the red dirt road that connects them to downtown Sihanoukville, and the tiny shacks beside the road which house the evicted villagers of Spean Chhes.
On April 20, 2007, 150 soldiers and police armed with machine guns, electric batons and tear gas came to Spean Chhes, burned or demolished all the villagers’ houses, cut down their coconut and jackfruit trees and arrested several who resisted.
Of the 100 families that lived there, 80 remain by the side of the road, within sight of the concrete barrier surrounding the site of their old village and a few hundred feet from the tourists on Otres Beach. They have nowhere else to go.
The evictions in Spean Chhes are one example of a widespread problem in Cambodia. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) has documented dozens of cases of land grabbing by wealthy, well-connected individuals and companies throughout the country.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a long history of violence and famine. In the past two decades it has become a major recipient of international aid money and has developed a tourism and garment industry alongside the traditional subsistence agriculture still practiced in much of the country. Economic development has raised land prices.
Manfred Hornung, a monitoring consultant with LICADHO, said it’s easy to see why Spean Chhes, located next to an attractive tourist destination, was targeted for development. “It’s prime real estate.”
According to Horm Theurn, who cleared land for a farm in Spean Chhes 15 years ago with her family, when the police and soldiers came to demolish the village they said, “It’s your fault because before when we offered you money, you didn’t take it. Now we take the land for free.”
She said she has no idea what will happen to her and the other families. She said they want to return to their land, but they are afraid they will be shot.
Villagers were also worried about their relatives in prison. Fourteen men were charged for fighting the police and soldiers with slingshots, rocks and glass bottles. One man escaped arrest, five were acquitted, one who used a machete was sentenced to four months and the remaining seven men were given the lightest sentences possible.
But when the prosecutor appealed their convictions, the men had to stay in jail awaiting their new trial. After intense lobbying by LICADHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the appeals court finally heard the case on April 3, and the men were released a week later.
Hornung said the criminal cases against the villagers were meant to intimidate them and distract them from pursuing a civil case to get their land back, and it’s a pattern he sees in other land disputes. “The government is very successful in keeping people busy getting out of prison,” he said.
According to a 2001 land law, if someone has possessed land uncontested for five or more years before the law was passed, they have the right to claim ownership before a cadastral commission.
However, according to Hornung, no court or commission has ever addressed the issue of land ownership in Spean Chhes. And since residents were not allowed to remove their possessions before their houses were destroyed, they lost documents that may have proved how long they lived there.
“We don’t talk about the rule of law in this office,” Hornung said. “It’s just practicalities.”
The governor of Sihanoukville, Say Hak, who organized the eviction, could not be reached for comment. The information officer for Cambodia’s National Authority for Resolution of Land Disputes, Chum Bun Rong, was unable to say who resolved the question of ownership of the land, or how they reached that conclusion. He also didn’t know what the government plans to do about the villagers living by the road.
The humanitarian organization M’Lop Tapang provides basic medical assistance to the evicted villagers. Setha Thouch, a team leader with M’Lop Tapang, said the children have been hardest hit by the evictions.
During the summer rainy season, Thouch said, the ditches fill with water and many children develop skin diseases. In the dry winter months, cars, trucks and tourists riding in tuk-tuks — small three-wheel taxis — create clouds of red dust that cover everything. Respiratory diseases are common, he said.
Hornung said the unwillingness of Cambodia’s leaders to respect their own laws undercuts the mission of aid agencies.
“They knew how to make a living there,” said Hornung. “Now they are slum dwellers. This is man-made. This is not the poverty in this country.”
For more information, visit the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights at www.licadho.org. A longer version of this report is available at www.nwasianweekly.com.
Milo Anderson recently graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in journalism. The last course he took was a study-abroad program looking at social work in Cambodia. After the class was finished, he stayed in Cambodia for an additional week and wrote this report. He can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
Relaxing in beach chairs facing the ocean, the tourists’ backs are turned to the red dirt road that connects them to downtown Sihanoukville, and the tiny shacks beside the road which house the evicted villagers of Spean Chhes.
On April 20, 2007, 150 soldiers and police armed with machine guns, electric batons and tear gas came to Spean Chhes, burned or demolished all the villagers’ houses, cut down their coconut and jackfruit trees and arrested several who resisted.
Of the 100 families that lived there, 80 remain by the side of the road, within sight of the concrete barrier surrounding the site of their old village and a few hundred feet from the tourists on Otres Beach. They have nowhere else to go.
The evictions in Spean Chhes are one example of a widespread problem in Cambodia. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) has documented dozens of cases of land grabbing by wealthy, well-connected individuals and companies throughout the country.
Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a long history of violence and famine. In the past two decades it has become a major recipient of international aid money and has developed a tourism and garment industry alongside the traditional subsistence agriculture still practiced in much of the country. Economic development has raised land prices.
Manfred Hornung, a monitoring consultant with LICADHO, said it’s easy to see why Spean Chhes, located next to an attractive tourist destination, was targeted for development. “It’s prime real estate.”
According to Horm Theurn, who cleared land for a farm in Spean Chhes 15 years ago with her family, when the police and soldiers came to demolish the village they said, “It’s your fault because before when we offered you money, you didn’t take it. Now we take the land for free.”
She said she has no idea what will happen to her and the other families. She said they want to return to their land, but they are afraid they will be shot.
Villagers were also worried about their relatives in prison. Fourteen men were charged for fighting the police and soldiers with slingshots, rocks and glass bottles. One man escaped arrest, five were acquitted, one who used a machete was sentenced to four months and the remaining seven men were given the lightest sentences possible.
But when the prosecutor appealed their convictions, the men had to stay in jail awaiting their new trial. After intense lobbying by LICADHO and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the appeals court finally heard the case on April 3, and the men were released a week later.
Hornung said the criminal cases against the villagers were meant to intimidate them and distract them from pursuing a civil case to get their land back, and it’s a pattern he sees in other land disputes. “The government is very successful in keeping people busy getting out of prison,” he said.
According to a 2001 land law, if someone has possessed land uncontested for five or more years before the law was passed, they have the right to claim ownership before a cadastral commission.
However, according to Hornung, no court or commission has ever addressed the issue of land ownership in Spean Chhes. And since residents were not allowed to remove their possessions before their houses were destroyed, they lost documents that may have proved how long they lived there.
“We don’t talk about the rule of law in this office,” Hornung said. “It’s just practicalities.”
The governor of Sihanoukville, Say Hak, who organized the eviction, could not be reached for comment. The information officer for Cambodia’s National Authority for Resolution of Land Disputes, Chum Bun Rong, was unable to say who resolved the question of ownership of the land, or how they reached that conclusion. He also didn’t know what the government plans to do about the villagers living by the road.
The humanitarian organization M’Lop Tapang provides basic medical assistance to the evicted villagers. Setha Thouch, a team leader with M’Lop Tapang, said the children have been hardest hit by the evictions.
During the summer rainy season, Thouch said, the ditches fill with water and many children develop skin diseases. In the dry winter months, cars, trucks and tourists riding in tuk-tuks — small three-wheel taxis — create clouds of red dust that cover everything. Respiratory diseases are common, he said.
Hornung said the unwillingness of Cambodia’s leaders to respect their own laws undercuts the mission of aid agencies.
“They knew how to make a living there,” said Hornung. “Now they are slum dwellers. This is man-made. This is not the poverty in this country.”
For more information, visit the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights at www.licadho.org. A longer version of this report is available at www.nwasianweekly.com.
Milo Anderson recently graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in journalism. The last course he took was a study-abroad program looking at social work in Cambodia. After the class was finished, he stayed in Cambodia for an additional week and wrote this report. He can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Many Evictees Can't Vote: Monitors
By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
11 June 2008
"I will go to vote, to choose the prime minister, so that he sees all kinds of people and knows someone who has difficulty or lives under suppression" - Chim Rem, evictee from Sambok Chap[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the second in a two-part series examining the worries of the urban displaced.]
Although politicians and officials say they are seeking votes from the urban displaced, they may face one problem: many displaced are no longer eligible to vote.
As many as 150,000 residents of Phnom Penh could face eviction in the path of development in Phnom Penh. But many of them will not be among the 720,000 voters registered in Phnom Penh.
But the Committee for Free and Fair Elections and the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections both say the displacement has put voting out of reach this year for many.
Some who were registered at their old neighborhoods in Phnom Penh have not been able to register in their new locations, officials from both organizations said.
Nevertheless, parties hope they can convince those who do vote that they will act to solve many of the problems the evictees face.
Cambodian People's Party lawmaker Chiem Yeap said his party's candidates will seek to explain to resettled residents reasons they were moved.
"Some people say the rich put pressure on the poor," he told VOA Khmer. "It is not like that. The CPP always wants achievement and winning in a valuable manner, and we want our citizens to understand that and vote for us."
Many forced evictions have led to displaced communities far from the capital and its jobs, schools and infrastructure. Critics say eviction plans rarely compensate people fairly, but city officials maintain the evictees are squatters on state land.
CPP candidates for Phnom Penh will seek to inform potential voters of the party's future measures, to help build houses, roads, schools and hospitals, and provide them with clean water and electricity, Chiem Yeap said.
The displaced could receive help from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, which seeks to raise the living conditions in these settlements to the standards enjoyed by city dwellers, Phnom Penh candidate Yim Sovann said.
Lu Laysreng, first deputy president of Funcinpec and Minister of Rural Development, called the urban displaced the patient in the hospital that needed treatment soonest.
No matter the policies, the urban displaced are looking for leadership to bring them out of poverty, voters like Chim Rem, who was ousted from his Sparrow's Nest home on the Tonle Bassac and now lives in a resettlement village 20 kilometers from the capital.
"I will go to vote, to choose the prime minister, so that he sees all kinds of people and knows someone who has difficulty or lives under suppression," he said.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
City Candidates Eye Urban Displaced
Sambok Chap residents evicted by the authoritySam Rainsy visiting the former residents of Sambok Chap in Andoung village
By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
10 June 2008
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the first in a two-part series examining the worries of the urban displaced.]
On a road thick with swirling dust, at dusk, a group of villagers walked home for the day. One of them was Heang Chansei, a 45-year-old mother of two and part of an increasing number of Phnom Penh's urban displaced. She was evicted with 1,500 others in 2006 from the Sparrow's Nest squatter neighborhood of Phnom Penh, along the Tonle Bassac river, moved here 20 kilometers outside the capital, to Andong Thmei village, Dangkao district.
"In the capital, it was easy for us to earn money, and we don't know what kind of businesses we should make here," she said.
In the Sparrow's Nest, she earned a living by selling fresh water clams to city residents. Now, she does the same thing, but her profits are cut in half by the high costs of transport, $5 per day, to ride into town.
Development projects in Phnom Penh have ousted entire communities of squatters, people like Heang Chansei, who now find themselves in makeshift neighborhoods outside the capital, far from jobs, schools and clean water. Phnom Penh has nearly 600 such communities, with 150,000 facing possible displacement.
Top officials and party candidates competing in July's general election say the problem will be a main focus during their campaigns.
Critics say these communities can be evicted with little advanced warning, and are often not properly compensated. But government officials say they are taking up state land and need to be moved.
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong acknowledged the citizens of Andong Thmei were living in difficult circumstances, but he said the government cannot resolve all issues for all evictees, though it has been able to provide clean water, electricity and schools to other displaced communities.
"However, they can own legal land now and that is better than where they lived on illegal land," he said.
Outspoken opposition lawmaker Son Chhay, of the Sam Rainsy Party, criticized such evictions, saying the residents are severely under-compensated, getting a mere fraction of the worth of land that can fetch up to $2,000 per square meter.
Srei Sothea, director of the 7NG company, tasked with developing the cleared land, disputed the figure. "The company has spent millions of dollars for construction of apartments, and it has not sold one square meter of land," he said of another development, in a neighborhood called Red Earth.
Sale or no, facilities or no, residents say they will vote for those who can change their lot, and politicians hope they can capitalize on this on Election Day.
On a road thick with swirling dust, at dusk, a group of villagers walked home for the day. One of them was Heang Chansei, a 45-year-old mother of two and part of an increasing number of Phnom Penh's urban displaced. She was evicted with 1,500 others in 2006 from the Sparrow's Nest squatter neighborhood of Phnom Penh, along the Tonle Bassac river, moved here 20 kilometers outside the capital, to Andong Thmei village, Dangkao district.
"In the capital, it was easy for us to earn money, and we don't know what kind of businesses we should make here," she said.
In the Sparrow's Nest, she earned a living by selling fresh water clams to city residents. Now, she does the same thing, but her profits are cut in half by the high costs of transport, $5 per day, to ride into town.
Development projects in Phnom Penh have ousted entire communities of squatters, people like Heang Chansei, who now find themselves in makeshift neighborhoods outside the capital, far from jobs, schools and clean water. Phnom Penh has nearly 600 such communities, with 150,000 facing possible displacement.
Top officials and party candidates competing in July's general election say the problem will be a main focus during their campaigns.
Critics say these communities can be evicted with little advanced warning, and are often not properly compensated. But government officials say they are taking up state land and need to be moved.
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong acknowledged the citizens of Andong Thmei were living in difficult circumstances, but he said the government cannot resolve all issues for all evictees, though it has been able to provide clean water, electricity and schools to other displaced communities.
"However, they can own legal land now and that is better than where they lived on illegal land," he said.
Outspoken opposition lawmaker Son Chhay, of the Sam Rainsy Party, criticized such evictions, saying the residents are severely under-compensated, getting a mere fraction of the worth of land that can fetch up to $2,000 per square meter.
Srei Sothea, director of the 7NG company, tasked with developing the cleared land, disputed the figure. "The company has spent millions of dollars for construction of apartments, and it has not sold one square meter of land," he said of another development, in a neighborhood called Red Earth.
Sale or no, facilities or no, residents say they will vote for those who can change their lot, and politicians hope they can capitalize on this on Election Day.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Pailin Evictions Lead to Brief Detention
By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 June 2008
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 June 2008
Fifteen residents of Pailin were briefly detained Thursday evening during forced evictions that came without compensation, rights workers and residents said.
The evictions took place in Stung Trong commune, Salakrao district, under municipal authority.
Among those detained, five were women, rights workers said. As they were being transported in a makeshift vehicle to the Salakrao police headquarters for questioning, the vehicle broke down, and police released the residents, rights workers said.
The evictions continued Friday, but no violence was reported.
"Regarding this detention, it is a mistake of the police, because it is a kind of threat for the people," Chhuon Makara, a local rights investigator for Adhoc, said.
Pailin Deputy Governor Mei Meak said the authorities were undertaking the evictions under Pailin court warrant and said the evictees had grabbed the land of the state.
The evictions took place in Stung Trong commune, Salakrao district, under municipal authority.
Among those detained, five were women, rights workers said. As they were being transported in a makeshift vehicle to the Salakrao police headquarters for questioning, the vehicle broke down, and police released the residents, rights workers said.
The evictions continued Friday, but no violence was reported.
"Regarding this detention, it is a mistake of the police, because it is a kind of threat for the people," Chhuon Makara, a local rights investigator for Adhoc, said.
Pailin Deputy Governor Mei Meak said the authorities were undertaking the evictions under Pailin court warrant and said the evictees had grabbed the land of the state.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Residents, City at Impasse Over Lake Land
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 April 2008
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 April 2008
[Editor's note: In the weeks leading into national polls, VOA Khmer will explore a wide number of election issues. The "Election Issues 2008" series will air stories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a related "Hello VOA" guest on Thursday. This is the first in a two-part series examining the development of Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake.]
On a recent evening, small groups of residents of the Boeung Kak lake area sat chatting, as the still, stagnant water stirred below their makeshift wooden homes. A slight stench rose from the lake, as looks of concerns crossed the brows of several in one group.
They were worried, they said, about losing their land and their homes without proper compensation from the government in a municipal development deal that will affect thousands of people.
Var Ieng Leang, a 56-year-old with grey hair, was one of them.
"Frankly, I suffer from worry and disappointment," she told VOA Khmer. "I cannot sleep well, or eat well, because I think of the land price for the development. I don't know what the government has calculated about the price of our land, with the market land price or not."
Var Ieng Leang, with many others, would like to see the government compensate her $1,500 per square meter, the market price for land in the capital now.
She is holding out for the money, at odds with the municipal government, which is offering a fixed price for homes in the area.
The municipal government is leasing the land to development company Shukaku, Inc., for 99 years, at $0.60 per square meter per year, according to a copy of the lease agreement obtained by VOA Khmer. That's about $798,000 per year for 133 hectares, for a total lease of about $79 million.
The agreement is to develop the lake area into a center of trade, culture, tourism, residence and entertainment, including strong security and a high measure of safety, according to the lease agreement.
The government has issued three choices for residents of this shabby neighborhood: stay in place once the development is finished; move into a residence on the outskirts of the city; or receive monetary compensation for leaving.
It is the third option that has many residents vexed.
The fixed price of land is far below market price, they say.
The development will affect more than a thousand homes jutting over the water of the lake over 103 hectares and another thousand perched on shore over 30 hectares.
There are 4,252 families living around the lake. Many of these residents support the development, but they say they have not had clear communication from city officials over compensation and other options.
"If the government pays the government-regulated price to us, it is not right," said Leang Eng, 45, told VOA Khmer, "because it will destroy the government's policy of poverty reduction."
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong told VOA Khmer that the market price is not acceptable to the city.
"But we must find the middle way to solve this problem, because Boeung Kak belongs to the government," he said. "However, we respect the people's right to live, and the development will not cause people's development to be lost."
Soeng Bunna, director of the Bunna Realty Group, said the market price for legal land in Phnom Penh is between $800 to $2,500 per square meter and is especially high in residential areas near the water.
A 2007 report by the NGO Forum on Cambodia said that even if all of the $79 million is used to compensate the families, each family would only receive an average of $18,588, or about $400 per square meter, well below the current market price.
It is not clear how the government will pay that much to the families on top of investing in infrastructure. For now, the development site is quiet, but residents say they worry that after the elections, forced evictions will occur.
On a recent evening, small groups of residents of the Boeung Kak lake area sat chatting, as the still, stagnant water stirred below their makeshift wooden homes. A slight stench rose from the lake, as looks of concerns crossed the brows of several in one group.
They were worried, they said, about losing their land and their homes without proper compensation from the government in a municipal development deal that will affect thousands of people.
Var Ieng Leang, a 56-year-old with grey hair, was one of them.
"Frankly, I suffer from worry and disappointment," she told VOA Khmer. "I cannot sleep well, or eat well, because I think of the land price for the development. I don't know what the government has calculated about the price of our land, with the market land price or not."
Var Ieng Leang, with many others, would like to see the government compensate her $1,500 per square meter, the market price for land in the capital now.
She is holding out for the money, at odds with the municipal government, which is offering a fixed price for homes in the area.
The municipal government is leasing the land to development company Shukaku, Inc., for 99 years, at $0.60 per square meter per year, according to a copy of the lease agreement obtained by VOA Khmer. That's about $798,000 per year for 133 hectares, for a total lease of about $79 million.
The agreement is to develop the lake area into a center of trade, culture, tourism, residence and entertainment, including strong security and a high measure of safety, according to the lease agreement.
The government has issued three choices for residents of this shabby neighborhood: stay in place once the development is finished; move into a residence on the outskirts of the city; or receive monetary compensation for leaving.
It is the third option that has many residents vexed.
The fixed price of land is far below market price, they say.
The development will affect more than a thousand homes jutting over the water of the lake over 103 hectares and another thousand perched on shore over 30 hectares.
There are 4,252 families living around the lake. Many of these residents support the development, but they say they have not had clear communication from city officials over compensation and other options.
"If the government pays the government-regulated price to us, it is not right," said Leang Eng, 45, told VOA Khmer, "because it will destroy the government's policy of poverty reduction."
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong told VOA Khmer that the market price is not acceptable to the city.
"But we must find the middle way to solve this problem, because Boeung Kak belongs to the government," he said. "However, we respect the people's right to live, and the development will not cause people's development to be lost."
Soeng Bunna, director of the Bunna Realty Group, said the market price for legal land in Phnom Penh is between $800 to $2,500 per square meter and is especially high in residential areas near the water.
A 2007 report by the NGO Forum on Cambodia said that even if all of the $79 million is used to compensate the families, each family would only receive an average of $18,588, or about $400 per square meter, well below the current market price.
It is not clear how the government will pay that much to the families on top of investing in infrastructure. For now, the development site is quiet, but residents say they worry that after the elections, forced evictions will occur.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Cambodian development boom creating divisions
Monday, Feb 25, 2008
AFP, PHNOM PENH
AFP, PHNOM PENH
Amid the rotting trash, shards of bricks and floor tiles are the only evidence of the homes that once packed into the Cambodian capital's Dey Krahom neighborhood, which is slated for demolition.
But a few dozen families are refusing to leave this slum, located on a wedge of once worthless property that is now part of a multi-million-dollar development scheme.
Their standoff with authorities has put them on the front line of an increasingly violent conflict over land in Cambodia that has seen dozens killed and tens of thousands evicted from their homes over the past few years.
Impoverished Cambodia is in the midst of a building boom that has caused land prices to skyrocket across the country.
Realtors estimate that the cost of prime pieces of property in Phnom Penh can top US$3,000 per square meter, a six-fold increase from eight years ago.
Even the vast swathes of wasteland, where the city's poorest have lived for years in squalid camps, are up for grabs.
It is here, rights groups say, that the human cost of this development is being counted in the loss of homes and jobs.
"There is this unprecedented development boom in Phnom Penh, but on the other hand there's more lawlessness, more landlessness," said an activist with a legal aid organization that has worked extensively with the victims of landgrabbing.
"The people who are losing out are the poor people, despite the fact that they have certain rights," he said, not wanting to be named.
After years of complete breakdown, Cambodia's land titling system is in disarray and doubts over ownership -- in Dey Krahom and elsewhere -- are often at the heart of evictions.
While villagers often claim to have some legal title to their properties, developers and the government insist that most of these families are nothing more than squatters and say their removal is necessary as Cambodia lurches out of the chaos of the post-war years.
In their place, Cambodia's leaders -- trying to propel their battered country towards prosperity -- have envisioned vast complexes of modern office towers and luxury shopping, condominiums and public parks.
"There are absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier this month, responding to accusations by the rights group Amnesty International that the government was pushing people from their land illegally.
"Cambodia in some cases has to re-establish public and social order, such as in the case of turning the streets into market places, living on the sidewalks and in the parks, and illegally occupying state land," the ministry said.
Although many families in Dey Krahom have voluntarily left, taking a payout of several thousand dollars each from developers, others are holding out for more money and refusing to abandon their homes.
"We just want to get a fair price," said Keo Navann, an articulate woman in her early 40s who has emerged as a de facto spokesperson for those threatened with eviction.
Around her Dey Krahom is gradually disappearing -- large, litter-filled gaps fill the spaces in between the remaining shacks, which stand like lonely sentinels against the developer's construction equipment parked nearby.
"Developers are offering some people US$4,300 for their land, but this amount is not acceptable when they can sell it for US$3,000 a square meter," Keo Navann said.
The standoff turned dangerous last year when villagers in Dey Krahom clashed several times with police and security guards working for developers.
The violence escalated last month as security guards, escorting a bulldozer to Dey Krahom, began hurling rocks at residents trying to block their path to the village.
This strip of land fronting the Bassac River has been the scene of conflict in the past. Two years ago, authorities pushed thousands from slumland across the road from Dey Krahom.
The pre-dawn eviction to a remote resettlement site 22km away was one of the largest single forced moves from Phnom Penh since the communist Khmer Rouge evacuated the capital's population to the countryside after seizing power in 1975.
But a few dozen families are refusing to leave this slum, located on a wedge of once worthless property that is now part of a multi-million-dollar development scheme.
Their standoff with authorities has put them on the front line of an increasingly violent conflict over land in Cambodia that has seen dozens killed and tens of thousands evicted from their homes over the past few years.
Impoverished Cambodia is in the midst of a building boom that has caused land prices to skyrocket across the country.
Realtors estimate that the cost of prime pieces of property in Phnom Penh can top US$3,000 per square meter, a six-fold increase from eight years ago.
Even the vast swathes of wasteland, where the city's poorest have lived for years in squalid camps, are up for grabs.
It is here, rights groups say, that the human cost of this development is being counted in the loss of homes and jobs.
"There is this unprecedented development boom in Phnom Penh, but on the other hand there's more lawlessness, more landlessness," said an activist with a legal aid organization that has worked extensively with the victims of landgrabbing.
"The people who are losing out are the poor people, despite the fact that they have certain rights," he said, not wanting to be named.
After years of complete breakdown, Cambodia's land titling system is in disarray and doubts over ownership -- in Dey Krahom and elsewhere -- are often at the heart of evictions.
While villagers often claim to have some legal title to their properties, developers and the government insist that most of these families are nothing more than squatters and say their removal is necessary as Cambodia lurches out of the chaos of the post-war years.
In their place, Cambodia's leaders -- trying to propel their battered country towards prosperity -- have envisioned vast complexes of modern office towers and luxury shopping, condominiums and public parks.
"There are absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier this month, responding to accusations by the rights group Amnesty International that the government was pushing people from their land illegally.
"Cambodia in some cases has to re-establish public and social order, such as in the case of turning the streets into market places, living on the sidewalks and in the parks, and illegally occupying state land," the ministry said.
Although many families in Dey Krahom have voluntarily left, taking a payout of several thousand dollars each from developers, others are holding out for more money and refusing to abandon their homes.
"We just want to get a fair price," said Keo Navann, an articulate woman in her early 40s who has emerged as a de facto spokesperson for those threatened with eviction.
Around her Dey Krahom is gradually disappearing -- large, litter-filled gaps fill the spaces in between the remaining shacks, which stand like lonely sentinels against the developer's construction equipment parked nearby.
"Developers are offering some people US$4,300 for their land, but this amount is not acceptable when they can sell it for US$3,000 a square meter," Keo Navann said.
The standoff turned dangerous last year when villagers in Dey Krahom clashed several times with police and security guards working for developers.
The violence escalated last month as security guards, escorting a bulldozer to Dey Krahom, began hurling rocks at residents trying to block their path to the village.
This strip of land fronting the Bassac River has been the scene of conflict in the past. Two years ago, authorities pushed thousands from slumland across the road from Dey Krahom.
The pre-dawn eviction to a remote resettlement site 22km away was one of the largest single forced moves from Phnom Penh since the communist Khmer Rouge evacuated the capital's population to the countryside after seizing power in 1975.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Land dispute in Siem Reap district, Siem Reap province [… involving Tep Vong himself]
16 January 2008
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
On Tuesday 15 January, 23 families living next to Wat Reach Bo pagoda, located in Sala Kamroeuk commune, Siem Reap district, Siem Reap province, have again resisted from tearing down their homes and move out of their lands, for as long as the provincial authority want to turn their lands to the pagoda without providing them a proper compensation.
The resisting villagers said that they will not leave their place, and they would rather die on the spot when the authorities will bring in machineries to clear their lands and, as long as, the authority is only willing to give them a meager compensation. “If I leave here, I will be sleeping along the roadsides, therefore I am staying to protect my place, if they don’t give me a proper compensation, I will not leave. No compensation, then I’m not leaving, I’d rather die,” a villager said.
The villagers’ demonstration took place after the committee for the resolution of pagoda land dispute – set up by provincial authority – started to survey the lands and each house, on Tuesday morning.
However, Som Sambath, director of the Wat Reach Bo pagoda land dispute research group, said that his group came to survey the land size that affect the pagoda only. Regarding the resolution policy, he does not know anything about it.
Som Sambath said: “Whatever policy there is, I don’t know about it, this concerns H.E. the provincial governor.”
The land dispute between the villagers and monks in Wat Reach Bo pagoda intensified in 2006, when the authority arrested one of the villagers.
Tep Bun Chhay, the Siem Reap district governor, wrote a letter to the provincial governor on 02 July 2007, he recognized that the lands belonged to the pagoda prior to 1979, however, the villagers settled there since 1979, and they even have land ownership papers as well. The monks laid claim to these lands in 1995 only.
On 31 March 2006, Tep Vong, the Buddhist supreme patriarch, issued an announcement opposing the settlement by the villagers who refused to leave the lands or who demanded compensations.
Suos Narin, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights group, is concerned that violence may erupt when the authority will start to evict the villagers.
Suos Narin said: “The civil society wants the same solution provided by the Phnom Penh municipality: it evicts people out, but it builds houses in exchange for them.”
On 08 November 2007, CPP MP Sieng Nam attempted to find a resolution by compensating $3,000 to each family and providing a 4-meter-by 20-meter plot of land to families agreeing to move out.
At that time, 27 families agreed, and 23 others rejected because they believe that $3,000 cannot buy back a plot of land in the city for them to live on, due to the skyrocketing price of land.
The resisting villagers said that they will not leave their place, and they would rather die on the spot when the authorities will bring in machineries to clear their lands and, as long as, the authority is only willing to give them a meager compensation. “If I leave here, I will be sleeping along the roadsides, therefore I am staying to protect my place, if they don’t give me a proper compensation, I will not leave. No compensation, then I’m not leaving, I’d rather die,” a villager said.
The villagers’ demonstration took place after the committee for the resolution of pagoda land dispute – set up by provincial authority – started to survey the lands and each house, on Tuesday morning.
However, Som Sambath, director of the Wat Reach Bo pagoda land dispute research group, said that his group came to survey the land size that affect the pagoda only. Regarding the resolution policy, he does not know anything about it.
Som Sambath said: “Whatever policy there is, I don’t know about it, this concerns H.E. the provincial governor.”
The land dispute between the villagers and monks in Wat Reach Bo pagoda intensified in 2006, when the authority arrested one of the villagers.
Tep Bun Chhay, the Siem Reap district governor, wrote a letter to the provincial governor on 02 July 2007, he recognized that the lands belonged to the pagoda prior to 1979, however, the villagers settled there since 1979, and they even have land ownership papers as well. The monks laid claim to these lands in 1995 only.
On 31 March 2006, Tep Vong, the Buddhist supreme patriarch, issued an announcement opposing the settlement by the villagers who refused to leave the lands or who demanded compensations.
Suos Narin, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights group, is concerned that violence may erupt when the authority will start to evict the villagers.
Suos Narin said: “The civil society wants the same solution provided by the Phnom Penh municipality: it evicts people out, but it builds houses in exchange for them.”
On 08 November 2007, CPP MP Sieng Nam attempted to find a resolution by compensating $3,000 to each family and providing a 4-meter-by 20-meter plot of land to families agreeing to move out.
At that time, 27 families agreed, and 23 others rejected because they believe that $3,000 cannot buy back a plot of land in the city for them to live on, due to the skyrocketing price of land.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Forced Evictions Highlights Hazards of Urban Development
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
10 January 2008
Washington
10 January 2008
Recent clashes between residents of a Phnom Penh shanty neighborhood and a local construction company, along with the torching of the company's truck Tuesday, highlight some of the uncertainty Cambodia's urban poor live under.
More than 100 families are facing persecution and intimidation from city authorities and private business interests in the Red Earth neighborhood of Tonle Bassac commune, Chamkarmon district, said Am Samath, a monitor for the rights group Licadho.
The area is slated for development and the residents have been ordered to leave, leading to several clashes in recent weeks.
At least six people have been charged following a rock-throwing exchange on Tuesday, as residents worried the 7NG company from tearing down their homes, Am Samath said. At least one person was in Prey Sar prison as a result of clashes, which also led to the burning of a truck, he said, speaking as a guest Thursday on "Hello VOA."
Company officials have said they are caught between a city policy to move the people and the people's resistance to moving.
"We want only peaceful resolution and proper compensation," said Chan Vichet, a village representative who was also a guest on Thursday's show. "We do not want intimidation or problems."
He appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen to help the residents find a "reasonable exchange."
Since the truck was lighted on fire, said Loa Seyha, another resident on the show, parents have not allowed their children to go to school.
"We fear [authorities] will remove our homes," Loa Seyha said.
In 2005, 1,200 families were similarly removed from a Dankao District development site, and have since faced daily challenges far from city services, schools or jobs. Even now, the families have only informal land certificates, leading to worries they could be moved again.
The residents of the Red Earth neighborhood say they fear the same fate.
More than 100 families are facing persecution and intimidation from city authorities and private business interests in the Red Earth neighborhood of Tonle Bassac commune, Chamkarmon district, said Am Samath, a monitor for the rights group Licadho.
The area is slated for development and the residents have been ordered to leave, leading to several clashes in recent weeks.
At least six people have been charged following a rock-throwing exchange on Tuesday, as residents worried the 7NG company from tearing down their homes, Am Samath said. At least one person was in Prey Sar prison as a result of clashes, which also led to the burning of a truck, he said, speaking as a guest Thursday on "Hello VOA."
Company officials have said they are caught between a city policy to move the people and the people's resistance to moving.
"We want only peaceful resolution and proper compensation," said Chan Vichet, a village representative who was also a guest on Thursday's show. "We do not want intimidation or problems."
He appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen to help the residents find a "reasonable exchange."
Since the truck was lighted on fire, said Loa Seyha, another resident on the show, parents have not allowed their children to go to school.
"We fear [authorities] will remove our homes," Loa Seyha said.
In 2005, 1,200 families were similarly removed from a Dankao District development site, and have since faced daily challenges far from city services, schools or jobs. Even now, the families have only informal land certificates, leading to worries they could be moved again.
The residents of the Red Earth neighborhood say they fear the same fate.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Violent Land Disputes Flare Across Cambodia
Click on the FAO map of Cambodia to zoom in2007.12.27
Radio Free Asia
"The soldiers shot twice into the air to threaten the villagers. Almost 30 armed soldiers were mobilized. The soldiers stood guard and pointed at where should be bulldozed." - Resident of Anlong Krom villageBANTEAY MEANCHEY, Cambodia—Several hundred villagers here recently faced down armed police threatening deadly force in the midst of a dispute with the government, which wants to evict them.
Such scenes have echoed in violent clashes between villagers and authorities around Cambodia in recent weeks, in which at least eight people have been detained.
Villagers scuffled with police during a protest against their presence in northwestern Banteay Meanchey province’s Palelay village, after police began dismantling their homes by force Dec. 20, a spokesman for the protesters said.
“They threatened the villagers and said that they would shoot at anyone who was opposed to them,” Touch Narin told RFA’s Khmer service. “They infringed our rights, so we protested in the night.”
Many villagers said they had protested on the night of Dec. 20 near where police were stationed, demanding the authorities pull them out of their village after they dismantled their houses and made death threats against them, he added.
“The soldiers are still acting up against the villagers. So both men and women, young and old, and students, shouted along the road, insisting the soldiers be pulled out immediately,” Touch Narin said.
Clashes in the south
In the south of the country, villagers in Kampot province said a group of 10-20 soldiers had beaten villagers who protested orders that their land be bulldozed for a plant nursery believed to be associated with prime minister Hun Sen.
“There was a conspiracy,” one resident of Anlong Krom villager in Chhouk district said. “Sim Chhaya and Chea Sarorn ordered the villagers’ land to be bulldozed and mobilized soldiers. The villagers called upon each other to stop their activities. They beat the villagers who came to stop them.”
“The soldiers shot twice into the air to threaten the villagers. Almost 30 armed soldiers were mobilized. The soldiers stood guard and pointed at where should be bulldozed,” the man said. Residents said the soldiers were deployed from the 31st Division, based in neighboring Kampong Speu province.
Chin Thavy, who was three months pregnant at the time of the Dec. 21 clash, suffered a miscarriage after trying to stop her niece from being beaten by soldiers, she said.
“They pushed me when I was helping my niece, who was being beaten during the brawl. And then I called for help. When I arrived home, I found out that I had suffered a miscarriage. During the brawl, there were as many as 20 or 30 soldiers surrounding us,” she said.
Soth Tum, 59, said he too was badly beaten in the incident.
Postponement likely
“They held my hands to the back. About four or five soldiers surrounded me. I couldn’t move and they beat me twice on my calf. They didn’t hit my head but just slapped from the back. Now everywhere on my body hurts.”
Local authorities say they are trying to mediate land disputes.
Banteay Meanchey provincial police chief Hun Hean, who the villagers said sent in the armed police, declined to comment and referred questions to the provincial deputy governor.
The Banteay Meanchy provincial deputy governor, Sok Sareth, said he would order the police not to harm the villagers, and would postpone development plans for fear of social unrest.
“As reported, I have ordered the postponement now that the people have got irritated. We will do bit by bit,” he said. “We will build houses for them to live in temporarily. If they get affected, we will wait a bit, and consider.”
Disputes over appropriation of land by the authorities for development are handled in Cambodia by the National Land Authority.
Man sent to prison
National Land Authority vice president Eng Chhai Eang said land disputes in Palelay’s Poipet commune were far more complicated than they seemed, adding that he would present the case to the National Land Dispute Authority for resolution.
But Cambodia’s rural residents tell a different story.
People living in Peam village in the southern province of Kandal say they fear arrest following the detention of a man who tried to protect his land during a dispute with the military top brass.
“Ngoy Hak, also a high-ranking military official, said he was in pursuit of me,” according to the uncle of Ly Hok Yeng, who was detained Dec. 15 by a truckload of soldiers without an arrest warrant and sent to Kandal provincial prison.
Ngoy Hak is a high-ranking military official in the capital, Phnom Penh, and Ly Hok Yeng was sent to jail over a 12-hectare plot of land, he added.
“They are still threatening that five more people [will be arrested],” he said.
Compensation promised
The head of Ly Hok Yeng’s commune, Tes Yen, said that a warrant for Ly Hok Yeng’s arrest had been issued but that he didn't know on what grounds.
Calls to Ngoy Hak’s office went unreturned Dec. 19, while Kandal provincial prosecutor Huot Vuthy was also unavailable for comment.
Sambuor Meas commune chief Tes Yen said: “He was in the group of so-called land brokers. Another group took the money in advance but he didn’t have the land for the buyer, so he was arrested.”
He added that on Dec. 20, Ngoy Hak would compensate the remaining 40 families who were also involved in the land dispute.
Local activists cited two land disputes in the area connected to the arrest.
Original reporting in Khmer by Seang Sophorn, Mayarith, and Mom Sophon. Translated by Makara Chea. RFA Khmer service director: Kem Sos. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Authority demolishes homes in Russei Keo [-More illegal and violent eviction]
Demolition in progress (Photo: Sophorn, RFA)
Demolition in progress (Photo: Sophorn, RFA)
Scene after the demolition (Photo: Sophorn, RFA)By Sophorn Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Villagers from Samaky village, Russei Keo commune, Phnom Penh city, claimed that that about 100 police officers armed with electric batons, axes, knives, crowbars and rifles, chased them out of their homes before demolishing their houses.
Saing Sithon, a Samaky villager, told RFA, in the open filed of his demolished home, in the morning of Wednesday 26 December, that he lived in this village since 1988, and he never had any problem. However, on Wednesday morning, the cops came with excavators to demolish his home and he was not offered any compensation in return.
Saing Sithon said: “They tore it down, they bulldozed it out, they brought an excavator to clear it out. During this demolition, the cops were wielding axes, knives, and they each had a pistol on their hips, they were all armed with guns, they had shields, and their guns. The district governor personally came, he threatened us to tear down our houses.”
Chan Samnang, the Russei Keo commune chief, indicated that 25 families in the village saw their homes demolished, and these families lived there since 1990. She claimed that she does not have the ability to help her constituents.
Moan Chhoeun, the deputy Phnom Penh city governor, said that he did not know about the demolition of the villagers’ homes. He said to contact the Russei Keo district governor instead. Kaub Sles, the deputy Russei Keo district governor, refused to comment on this issue.
According to Phnom Penh SRP MP Ho Vann, the action taken by the Russei Keo police force to demolish the villagers’ homes is tantamount to the destruction of private properties.
Ho Vann said: “They should complain (to the court) to ask for compensation because those who destroy the villagers’ properties must pay back damage compensation. The lawyers should prepare their complaints and bring them up to the court to punish those who illegally used force for one thing. Secondly, they must pay back true home values in compensation because this is a destruction of someone else’s property. I will write two letters, one will be sent out through the president of the National Assembly, and one to the Ministry of Interior which is responsible for this demolition. Next, I will send a letter to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, which was the former owner of this old dock, so that it finds an appropriate solution for its own workers.”
It is often observed that the authority evicts thousands of families out of Phnom Penh city while claiming that the land these people lived on either belong to the state, or are earmarked for development.
Saing Sithon, a Samaky villager, told RFA, in the open filed of his demolished home, in the morning of Wednesday 26 December, that he lived in this village since 1988, and he never had any problem. However, on Wednesday morning, the cops came with excavators to demolish his home and he was not offered any compensation in return.
Saing Sithon said: “They tore it down, they bulldozed it out, they brought an excavator to clear it out. During this demolition, the cops were wielding axes, knives, and they each had a pistol on their hips, they were all armed with guns, they had shields, and their guns. The district governor personally came, he threatened us to tear down our houses.”
Chan Samnang, the Russei Keo commune chief, indicated that 25 families in the village saw their homes demolished, and these families lived there since 1990. She claimed that she does not have the ability to help her constituents.
Moan Chhoeun, the deputy Phnom Penh city governor, said that he did not know about the demolition of the villagers’ homes. He said to contact the Russei Keo district governor instead. Kaub Sles, the deputy Russei Keo district governor, refused to comment on this issue.
According to Phnom Penh SRP MP Ho Vann, the action taken by the Russei Keo police force to demolish the villagers’ homes is tantamount to the destruction of private properties.
Ho Vann said: “They should complain (to the court) to ask for compensation because those who destroy the villagers’ properties must pay back damage compensation. The lawyers should prepare their complaints and bring them up to the court to punish those who illegally used force for one thing. Secondly, they must pay back true home values in compensation because this is a destruction of someone else’s property. I will write two letters, one will be sent out through the president of the National Assembly, and one to the Ministry of Interior which is responsible for this demolition. Next, I will send a letter to the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, which was the former owner of this old dock, so that it finds an appropriate solution for its own workers.”
It is often observed that the authority evicts thousands of families out of Phnom Penh city while claiming that the land these people lived on either belong to the state, or are earmarked for development.
Monday, December 24, 2007
A Misplaced Anger
Prof. Yash Ghai, UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia (Photo: AFP)Op-Ed by Jayakhmer
Posted at http://modernprogressivekhmer.blogspot.com
Chastising the UN special envoy over his comments about Cambodia’s current state of human rights issues does not solve the real problems.
The reality is that poor Khmer people are facing illegal forced evictions, and for many, their lands have been taking away. Their suffering is an urgent human rights issue that needs immediate resolution.
Who else is more appropriate than the UN Special Representative of Human Rights for Cambodia to discuss these issues when the government does not walk the talk? The failure to put a complete stop to land grabbing and illegal forced evictions are completely the government’s responsibility.
Mr.Yash Ghai, an Indian borne of Kenya, is a Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia. He was appointed to this post by the United Nation Secretary General Kofi Annan in November of 2005.
I know that good diplomacy requires that the issues should be discussed quietly behind closed door. On the other side of the same coin, I can certainly understand the special envoy’s position. His frustration over the lack of progress on this paramount issue must be tremendous that he made a choice to speak about the issue publicly.
It may play well into the notion of toughness by making speeches and personal attacks against Mr. Ghai, but ultimately, the Khmer people and the international community want to see the result.
The question is can the government’s intransigency and its toughness stop land grabbing and illegal forced evictions.
Now that the Cambodian government makes all the fuzz over the issues, it has no choice but to prove to the world of its effectiveness by ceasing completely of these illegal activities.
Otherwise, the Khmer people and the world will see the dispute between the government and the UN special envoy as a misplaced anger.
On top of that Mr. Ghai did not say any thing that has not been said before by others.
For example, in the August 2007 International Monetary Fund Article IV Consultation – staff report, it states, “Poor governance weakens the environment for broad-based development. Human and institutional capacity remains very weak, constraining the ability of the public sector to contribute to poverty reduction. Cambodia ranks very poorly on indicators of economic governance, hindering gains in external competitiveness. Corruption is endemic and human rights problems continue. Land grabbing and illegal loggings with damaging economic, social and environmental effects are widely reported.”
The Cambodian government may complaint over the behavior of the UN special envoy, but if what he did can shed some light and bring the world’s attention to this important human right issue on behalf of the poor Khmer whose desperate voice otherwise could not be heard, Mr. Ghai, perhaps, knows exactly what he is doing and not “human right tourist” after all.
The reality is that poor Khmer people are facing illegal forced evictions, and for many, their lands have been taking away. Their suffering is an urgent human rights issue that needs immediate resolution.
Who else is more appropriate than the UN Special Representative of Human Rights for Cambodia to discuss these issues when the government does not walk the talk? The failure to put a complete stop to land grabbing and illegal forced evictions are completely the government’s responsibility.
Mr.Yash Ghai, an Indian borne of Kenya, is a Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia. He was appointed to this post by the United Nation Secretary General Kofi Annan in November of 2005.
I know that good diplomacy requires that the issues should be discussed quietly behind closed door. On the other side of the same coin, I can certainly understand the special envoy’s position. His frustration over the lack of progress on this paramount issue must be tremendous that he made a choice to speak about the issue publicly.
It may play well into the notion of toughness by making speeches and personal attacks against Mr. Ghai, but ultimately, the Khmer people and the international community want to see the result.
The question is can the government’s intransigency and its toughness stop land grabbing and illegal forced evictions.
Now that the Cambodian government makes all the fuzz over the issues, it has no choice but to prove to the world of its effectiveness by ceasing completely of these illegal activities.
Otherwise, the Khmer people and the world will see the dispute between the government and the UN special envoy as a misplaced anger.
On top of that Mr. Ghai did not say any thing that has not been said before by others.
For example, in the August 2007 International Monetary Fund Article IV Consultation – staff report, it states, “Poor governance weakens the environment for broad-based development. Human and institutional capacity remains very weak, constraining the ability of the public sector to contribute to poverty reduction. Cambodia ranks very poorly on indicators of economic governance, hindering gains in external competitiveness. Corruption is endemic and human rights problems continue. Land grabbing and illegal loggings with damaging economic, social and environmental effects are widely reported.”
The Cambodian government may complaint over the behavior of the UN special envoy, but if what he did can shed some light and bring the world’s attention to this important human right issue on behalf of the poor Khmer whose desperate voice otherwise could not be heard, Mr. Ghai, perhaps, knows exactly what he is doing and not “human right tourist” after all.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Rights groups urge Cambodian leaders to meet UN envoy
UN special representative of the Secretary General for Human Rights in Cambodia Yash GhaiPHNOM PENH (AFP) — Five international human rights groups Tuesday urged the Cambodian government to meet with a UN special envoy and to stop denying the problems facing the country.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week he would never see UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai, following his scathing appraisal of the nation's judicial system.
Hun Sen called Yash Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer, "a long-term tourist" and said "every time he comes, he always causes trouble."
In a statement, five top rights groups called on Cambodia to engage with Ghai to resolve critical issues, including improving the judicial system and ending the nation's land grabs.
"Rather than publicly rebuking the UN, the Cambodian government should meet with Yash Ghai and start seriously working on the recommendations included in his report," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.
"There's no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia's poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm," Fernando said in a joint statement.
Human Rights Watch, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation against Torture also signed onto the statement.
Ghai ended a 10-day visit last week without obtaining a single meeting with any Cambodian officials.
Before leaving, Ghai said that Cambodia's judiciary has failed to provide justice, leaving the population in fear of going to court.
Ghai has repeatedly clashed with Cambodian leaders in the past due to his unusually blunt assessments of Cambodia's reform failures.
Hun Sen has never met Ghai, who was appointed as the UN rights envoy in November 2005.
The premier has called Ghai "stupid," "rude" and a "god without virtue."
Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week he would never see UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai, following his scathing appraisal of the nation's judicial system.
Hun Sen called Yash Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer, "a long-term tourist" and said "every time he comes, he always causes trouble."
In a statement, five top rights groups called on Cambodia to engage with Ghai to resolve critical issues, including improving the judicial system and ending the nation's land grabs.
"Rather than publicly rebuking the UN, the Cambodian government should meet with Yash Ghai and start seriously working on the recommendations included in his report," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.
"There's no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia's poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm," Fernando said in a joint statement.
Human Rights Watch, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation against Torture also signed onto the statement.
Ghai ended a 10-day visit last week without obtaining a single meeting with any Cambodian officials.
Before leaving, Ghai said that Cambodia's judiciary has failed to provide justice, leaving the population in fear of going to court.
Ghai has repeatedly clashed with Cambodian leaders in the past due to his unusually blunt assessments of Cambodia's reform failures.
Hun Sen has never met Ghai, who was appointed as the UN rights envoy in November 2005.
The premier has called Ghai "stupid," "rude" and a "god without virtue."
Lawmakers Protest Fence Around Poor Residents
SRP MPs standing shoulder to shoulder to prevent land eviction in Dey Kraham (Photo: SRP)By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 December 2007
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and other lawmakers from his party said they joined hands in a "human chain" to stop a company from erecting a fence around a group of impoverished Phnom Penh residents Monday.
A fence around the Dei Krahorm area of Tonle Bassac commune would imprison the residents, who are living on land the 7NG company plans to develop, the lawmakers said.
"We held hands [and] put our hands on each other's shoulders" to block construction, Sam Rainsy said. "We made a fence to protect the people."
7NG was attempting to erect a fence that included sheets of tin around the area, but the fence was not intended to harm the people, a company representative said.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Ho Van called the fence "very dangerous" and compared it to a "prison."
"So there is no right at all, that they build a fence to surround the people," he said.
Residents earlier burned tires to protest the fence's construction.
7NG representative Srei Sothea said the lawmakers did not understand the fence, which was not meant to keep the people from going out.
Pum Sok Eng, a resident of the area, said many people had signed an agreement to leave but some had reneged.
A fence around the Dei Krahorm area of Tonle Bassac commune would imprison the residents, who are living on land the 7NG company plans to develop, the lawmakers said.
"We held hands [and] put our hands on each other's shoulders" to block construction, Sam Rainsy said. "We made a fence to protect the people."
7NG was attempting to erect a fence that included sheets of tin around the area, but the fence was not intended to harm the people, a company representative said.
Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Ho Van called the fence "very dangerous" and compared it to a "prison."
"So there is no right at all, that they build a fence to surround the people," he said.
Residents earlier burned tires to protest the fence's construction.
7NG representative Srei Sothea said the lawmakers did not understand the fence, which was not meant to keep the people from going out.
Pum Sok Eng, a resident of the area, said many people had signed an agreement to leave but some had reneged.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Human Rights Still Weak, UN Envoy Says [-Khieu Kanharith: "...development projects were not evicting people"]
By VOA Khmer, Reporters
Original reports from Phnom Penh & Siem Reap
10 December 2007
Original reports from Phnom Penh & Siem Reap
10 December 2007
Cambodians live in fear—of the state, swindlers, police and the courts—a UN special envoy said Monday, in the midst of a ten-day visit on International Human Rights Day.
Yash Ghai, the UN secretary-general's special human rights envoy to Cambodia, said tours of numerous communities across Cambodia demonstrated that the rights situation was getting worse.
To mark Rights Day, groups appealed to the government to halt land theft of the dispossessed and the arrests of protesters. A mass rally was held, and included the participation of Ghai and US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli.
Ghai called on people to celebrate "our common humanity and our common commitment to human rights and human dignity."
"I think it's very good sign that this march was allowed after all these years," Mussomeli said. "Things are getting a little better."
But the rights to property, freedom of expression and other basic rights have suffered in recent months, groups said.
"There is still a lack of necessary basic human rights, such as land rights, and freedom of expression," said Thun Saray, head of the rights group Adhoc.
Government officials told the Associated Press they refused to meet with Ghai, who has emerged as a sharp critique of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his policies.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said development projects were not evicting people.
"They prepared another place for the people," he said. "Now the problem is there are many people who know what places are to be developed."
Squatters who anticipate the rising value of land move in and take over, he said.
"When the authorities went, it was the people that used weapons—guns—against the authorities, who wear the king's seal," he said. "It is like this everywhere."
Meanwhile on Rights Day, labor leaders in Siem Reap say they were threatened for joining in marches on Monday.
Ken Chheng Lang, vice president of the Cambodian Construction Federation, said an anonymous caller claiming to be the provincial governor insinuated that the Federation's plans to submit a petition to the provincial governor could lead them to harm.
"I asked him who he was, where he was coming from. I asked him that," Ken Cheng Lang said. "He said, 'I am the provincial governor. You are strong? Come to my place right away. I am at the provincial hall, waiting to meet you. If you have any grief, come to meet with me, you don't have to do that. Your letter of information is big? How big is it, that letter of information.'"
Then the caller hung up.
Provincial Governor Sou Phirin said he had not called, and he would look into the allegations.
Yash Ghai, the UN secretary-general's special human rights envoy to Cambodia, said tours of numerous communities across Cambodia demonstrated that the rights situation was getting worse.
To mark Rights Day, groups appealed to the government to halt land theft of the dispossessed and the arrests of protesters. A mass rally was held, and included the participation of Ghai and US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli.
Ghai called on people to celebrate "our common humanity and our common commitment to human rights and human dignity."
"I think it's very good sign that this march was allowed after all these years," Mussomeli said. "Things are getting a little better."
But the rights to property, freedom of expression and other basic rights have suffered in recent months, groups said.
"There is still a lack of necessary basic human rights, such as land rights, and freedom of expression," said Thun Saray, head of the rights group Adhoc.
Government officials told the Associated Press they refused to meet with Ghai, who has emerged as a sharp critique of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his policies.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said development projects were not evicting people.
"They prepared another place for the people," he said. "Now the problem is there are many people who know what places are to be developed."
Squatters who anticipate the rising value of land move in and take over, he said.
"When the authorities went, it was the people that used weapons—guns—against the authorities, who wear the king's seal," he said. "It is like this everywhere."
Meanwhile on Rights Day, labor leaders in Siem Reap say they were threatened for joining in marches on Monday.
Ken Chheng Lang, vice president of the Cambodian Construction Federation, said an anonymous caller claiming to be the provincial governor insinuated that the Federation's plans to submit a petition to the provincial governor could lead them to harm.
"I asked him who he was, where he was coming from. I asked him that," Ken Cheng Lang said. "He said, 'I am the provincial governor. You are strong? Come to my place right away. I am at the provincial hall, waiting to meet you. If you have any grief, come to meet with me, you don't have to do that. Your letter of information is big? How big is it, that letter of information.'"
Then the caller hung up.
Provincial Governor Sou Phirin said he had not called, and he would look into the allegations.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Yash Ghai: Hun Sen's government instills a climate of "fear"
UN rights envoy lashes out at Cambodian government at rally
Mon, 10 Dec 2007
DPA
Mon, 10 Dec 2007
DPA
Phnom Penh - The UN special envoy for human rights in Cambodia on Monday chastised the Cambodian government's rights record at a rally in Phnom Penh that was called to mark International Human Rights Day. Yash Ghai, accompanied by members of 15 local human rights groups, told the gathering that fear still governed Cambodia.
"Fear - fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts - describes the plight of numerous communities and families in Cambodia as they do in many other parts of the world," he said in a speech.
"The lesson, therefore, is that the struggle for human rights and human dignity is unending as became so sharply and painfully obvious to me as I met the embattled communities in Dey Krahorm and the Group 78 villages," he added, referring to two communities where residents are involved in bitter land disputes and are faced with evictions.
"People threatened with eviction ... reminded me that the National Assembly sits only a few metres away from them and yet has long turned a blind eye to their suffering," the envoy said.
He urged Cambodia's people to be custodians of human rights and justice.
The government has refused to cooperate with Yash Ghai since soon after his 2005 appointment, claiming he refuses to acknowledge its progress on human rights in recent years.
Government representatives have refused to see him, and Prime Minister Hun Sen has said on state radio that he should return to his native Kenya and fix the problems there before "coming to lecture us in Cambodia."
Despite predictions in local media that the crowd at the rally might top 20,000 people, unofficial estimates by participants put figures at about 4,000, and police said 1,000 people at the most attended.
Yash Ghai was scheduled to give a press conference later Monday to end his current 10-day visit.
"Fear - fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts - describes the plight of numerous communities and families in Cambodia as they do in many other parts of the world," he said in a speech.
"The lesson, therefore, is that the struggle for human rights and human dignity is unending as became so sharply and painfully obvious to me as I met the embattled communities in Dey Krahorm and the Group 78 villages," he added, referring to two communities where residents are involved in bitter land disputes and are faced with evictions.
"People threatened with eviction ... reminded me that the National Assembly sits only a few metres away from them and yet has long turned a blind eye to their suffering," the envoy said.
He urged Cambodia's people to be custodians of human rights and justice.
The government has refused to cooperate with Yash Ghai since soon after his 2005 appointment, claiming he refuses to acknowledge its progress on human rights in recent years.
Government representatives have refused to see him, and Prime Minister Hun Sen has said on state radio that he should return to his native Kenya and fix the problems there before "coming to lecture us in Cambodia."
Despite predictions in local media that the crowd at the rally might top 20,000 people, unofficial estimates by participants put figures at about 4,000, and police said 1,000 people at the most attended.
Yash Ghai was scheduled to give a press conference later Monday to end his current 10-day visit.
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