Report cites govt bias in land-dispute cases

Friday, 11 September 2009
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Mechanisms to resolve land disputes have been at best ineffective and at worst used as tools against those most vulnerable to rights abuses, rights groups said Thursday.

Speaking at the launch of a new report on land rights, Ny Chakrya, monitoring head for the rights group Adhoc, singled out the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes and the court system as "mechanisms that have not helped the affected people".

He said land-rights abuses were likely to continue, particularly in light of the government's use of the courts to silence protesters. "The courts have been used to solve land disputes by putting people who complain in prison," he said, noting that Adhoc knew of 150 people who were arrested in such disputes in 2008, as well as 50 so far in 2009.

Chiv Keng, president of Phnom Penh Municipal Court, dismissed the claim that the courts were being used by the government against the poor. He said those who complained about the court system were often "losers" in land disputes. "So, of course, they shout that the court is unjust," he said, "but we follow the law in reviewing land cases."

The event at the World Vision office in Phnom Penh marked the publication of "Losing Ground", a report from a coalition of local NGOs that reviews recent land disputes in the capital and in the provinces. It also marked the local launch of Amnesty International's Demand Dignity campaign.

In a statement, Amnesty said forced evictions were "one of the country's most serious human rights violations today.... The increasing number of land disputes, confiscations, and industrial and urban redevelopment projects hurt almost exclusively people living in poverty".

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Protest Poem

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at htttp://sacrava.blogspot.com)
based on an original photo by CHRAC

Evictions hit Cambodia's poor, group says

Villagers in northwest Cambodia set court documents on fire in protest over a land dispute.
Villagers in the south have been living in a ditch since they were forced to move, CHRAC says.

Story Highlights

• Cambodian human rights network releases report on forced evictions
• Amnesty: Evictions one of Cambodia's most serious human rights violations
• Groups: Mainly the rural poor affected; people intimidated, harassed
• Official: Government committed to finding best solutions; no forced evictions

Friday, September 11, 2009
By Miranda Leitsinger
CNN

Villagers march more than 300 kilometers from northwest Cambodia to ask the prime minister to save their homes from developers. Some 400 families in the country's south learn their farmland had been given to developers only when bulldozers arrive.

Such examples of forced evictions and land conflicts are cited by the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) in a report, "Losing Ground," released Thursday.

The report was a collection of voices from people rarely heard and "present a painful look into the lives of people affected by forced evictions and intimidation, mainly the rural poor," said CHRAC, a network of 21 non-governmental organizations.

"The voices in the report belong to Cambodians who have been or are facing eviction. Most have insisted that their names and photographs be used, believing that openness will bring justice and appropriate solutions," the group said, adding that such trust is "the springboard for the next stage of Cambodia's recovery from decades of civil strife."

An estimated 150,000 Cambodians live at risk of forced eviction, Amnesty International said in its 2008 report on the country. Read about AIDS patients who were resettled to an isolated area

Beng Hong Socheat Khemro, deputy director general of Cambodia's Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the government was committed to finding the best solutions for not just squatters, but the entire population, and that it is drafting legal guidelines on squatter resolution. He also said the government rejected the term forced evictions, saying that meant people were forced off land they legally owned.

He noted that various factors affect land use and ownership in the country: The 1970s ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime abolished all legal and regulatory documents regarding land, strong economic growth has contributed to demand for land, particularly in urban areas, and the pace of urbanization has stepped up in recent years.

"Many people illegally occupy land that does not belong to them," he said, later noting: "What has happened now with the resettlement, or the relocation, of people is the fact that the government is implementing the law."

"I am very sure that those who claim to be on the land before the legal land owner, most of them do not have any proof at all," he said. "Most of the cases that people -- illegal squatters, settlers -- have claimed that they have been on that land since, let's say 1979, are not true. If you study the legal development of Cambodia, you will understand, and not many people understand, including the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) themselves."

Amnesty said poor Cambodians share the plight of many impoverished people around the world. The group cited the forced evictions of thousands in Angola, violence and insecurity in Brazil's shantytowns, and social services denied to Roma in Italy.

"There are more than 200,000 such communities, home to 1 billion people around the world," the group said.

"In Cambodia for the last two years, Amnesty International has been focusing on forced evictions as one of the country's most serious human rights violations today," Amnesty said in a statement on CHRAC's report. "The increasing number of land disputes, land confiscations, and industrial and urban redevelopment projects hurt almost exclusively people living in poverty."

People fighting evictions "experience harassment at the hands of the authorities or people hired by private businesses. The rich and powerful are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system to silence communities taking a stand against land concessions or other opaque business deals affecting the land they live on or cultivate," Amnesty said.

CHRAC said development of Cambodia, recovering from the Khmer Rouge genocide and ensuing decades of conflict, "must not negatively affect" people's lives.

"Our communities are losing land and natural resources. These are the resources that people have depended on for generations," CHRAC said.

The report details evictions across the country.

One group of villagers walked from the rice bowl of Battambang in the northwest to Phnom Penh to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, seeking help in two long-running court fights with businessmen who claim to own a total of 200 hectares of their land.

"We didn't have enough money to get the bus to Phnom Penh. We had to walk. It was our last hope. We had to see Hun Sen or we would lose our land," said Chim Sarom, 45.

They delivered their letter, but Sarom said they were unsure whether he ever got it. She said authorities gave them money to go home and were told an official would visit them.

"No government official ever came to our village. If we have to, maybe we will walk again," she said.

Powerful ‘Abusing’ Justice System: Amnesty

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
10 September 2009

Cambodia’s poor and powerless are increasingly living in fear, as “the rich and powerful” abuse the criminal justice system, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The prominent rights group issued a report Thursday that examines land-grabs in Cambodia, a continuing problem that observers warn could destabilize the country.

“The rich and the powerful in Cambodia are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system,” said Andrew Syed, Dignity Campaign Coordinator for Amnesty International, at a launching for the report, “Losing Ground.”

The report describes different places where land disputes have occurred: in the provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang, Pursat, Kampong Chnang, Koh Kong, Kratie and in Phnom Penh.

He referred the threats against communities that have taken a stand to file complaints against land concessions or contracts without transparency, which affect the land on which they are living or farming.

Cambodia is facing a chronic problem of land disputes.

According to Ny Chakrya, head of investigation at the rights group Adhoc, since 2006, around 20,000 Cambodian families have been affected by land disputes, and villagers have lost between 24,000 and 94,000 hectares of land.

“Certain institutions, like judicial institutions, are using their rights to settle land dispute cases by using arrests [of villagers] to push them to abandon their complaints,” he said.

According to Adhoc, 150 villagers were arrested in land disputes in 2008, with 50 arrested so far this year.

Ang Vong Vathana, Minister of Justice, could not be reached for comment, but Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the abuse of the courts by the rich or powerful was “only an accusation.”

Losing Ground - A report published by the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC)

Click here to download the report (PDF)

Poem posted by the protesters:
We, the villagers, sit in despair because we lost our lands and waters.
The Ly Yong Phat Company is the cursed thief, it robbed all our lands and waters.

With a good leadership, the people are rich and plentiful.
When the leadership is greedy, the people are destroyed and ruined.

[KI-Media note: CPP Tycoon-Senator Ly Yong Phat is a crony of Hun Xen]

Police fire teargas during the forced eviction of Dey Krahom in January 2009
Injured farmers were tied to poles after being shot and beaten on March 22, 2009 in a violent crackdown in Chi Kraeng commune, Siem Reap province

Demand Dignity for victims of land disputes and evictions

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI index: ASA 23/018/2009

10 September 2009

Demand Dignity for victims of land disputes and evictions

Today Amnesty International is introducing its new global Demand Dignity campaign in Cambodia, to mark the launch of "Losing Ground", a book by and about communities affected by forced evictions and land disputes.

The Demand Dignity campaign underlines that poverty is the world's worst human rights crisis. Human rights abuses drive and deepen poverty. People living in poverty are excluded from the societies they live in, denied a say in processes that determine their own futures, and face violence and insecurity.

Respect for human rights demands inclusion and requires the recognition that everyone has the right to live in dignity, and the right to food, water, basic healthcare, education and shelter.

The Demand Dignity campaign draws attention to communities living in neighbourhoods defined as slums and the many human rights violations they face. There are more than 200,000 such communities, home to one billion people around the world.

In Angola, forced evictions have deprived thousands of families of their homes. Kenyan slum residents are excluded from planning processes that affect them and have limited access to basic services. People in Brazilian favelas, in particular women, face violence and insecurity. In Italy, the Roma, an ethnic minority group, are denied access to national health and other social services.

In Cambodia for the last two years Amnesty International has been focusing on forced evictions as one of the country's most serious human rights violations today. The increasing number of land disputes; land confiscations; and industrial and urban redevelopment projects hurt almost exclusively people living in poverty.

Affected communities, including defenders of the right to housing, experience harassment at the hands of the authorities or people hired by private businesses. The rich and powerful are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system to silence communities taking a stand against land concessions or other opaque business deals affecting the land they live on or cultivate. Many poor and marginalized communities are living in fear from the institutions created to protect them, in particular the police and the courts. However, as public space for discussing forced evictions is shrinking, grassroots activists are increasingly coming together to raise common concerns.

In Cambodia and elsewhere, people living in poverty need to be able to engage in the processes that determine their future and Demand Dignity seeks to promote the space for the poor to tell their stories. Across the world, it brings together human rights activists who campaign against injustice and exclusion:in Spain, over 17,000 people have signed an Amnesty petition to the Cambodian authorities against forced evictions in Cambodia; in Australia, Amnesty members called on their own government to use their influence as a donor and development partner to stop the forced eviction of Group 78; on 30 May 2009, youth activists gathered in four cities in the Philippines calling on the Cambodian authorities to end forced evictions, and young Amnesty members in Canada have drawn hundreds of colourful houses with messages of solidarity for the Spean Ches community forcibly evicted in April 2007.

Amnesty International has joined together with a network of Cambodian communities at risk and victims of forced eviction. Their stories, some of which are published in "Losing Ground", show how people living in poverty are routinely excluded from decisions affecting them. But the book also demonstrates how affected communities are connecting with each other and making their voices heard more loudly.

While introducing the Demand Dignity campaign in Cambodia, Amnesty International is repeating its calls for an end to forced evictions and is asking others to join our call. We are also urging the Royal Government of Cambodia to introduce a moratorium on mass evictions until the legal framework and policies to protect the population against forced evictions are in place.

We urge the Cambodian government to ensure the safety of housing rights defenders -- including the courageous people who have come forward with their experiences in "Losing Ground" -- so they are able to act freely, without intimidation, harassment or violence in their work to campaign for housing rights.

END