Group 78 injunction rejected

Community representative Lim Sambo (second from right) collects documents ahead of Monday's hearing. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Written by Chrann Chamroeun
The Phnom Penh Post

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court Monday rejected an injunction request filed by residents of Group 78 against their eviction in another blow to the tiny community situated on a strip of land along the Tonle Bassac river that is slated for development.

"Our injunction was rejected on the grounds that the court has no jurisdiction to intervene to prohibit City Hall's order, as well as deny the public benefits served by the construction of a road on land where [Group 78 members] are living illegally," said a lawyer for the residents, Yin Savath.

He added that community members intended to appeal the decision, as they had sufficient evidence to prove that the land belongs to them.

"We will file an appeal to halt construction activity until a final resolution is reached, as it has yet to be [ruled upon] whether either City Hall or the 70 households have legal ownership of the land," he said.

Yin Savath and two other lawyers appeared in court with four community representatives, none of whom were called upon by Judge Duch Kimsean to testify, Yin Savath said, adding that he was disappointed the community was not able to give its side of the story in court.

In an eviction letter dated April 20, Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema told residents they were living on land that belonged to the city and a local developer.

The community was given 15 days to vacate the land and accept a government compensation package.

But the National Assembly's Committee on Human Rights issued an order to Kep Chuktema on May 5 to conduct an official investigation into the dispute, following a request by Group 78 members to overturn the eviction notice.

A report from the inquiry has yet to be drafted, Yin Savath said.

French school evicts Cambodian locals [-Did the French learn eviction from Hun Sen and his cronies? Bravo la France?!?!]

The existing residents say they have nowhere to go
Limsreang and his family face eviction after living in their home for 30 years
"It's a horrible feeling because they say they're doing this for us - for us the students" - Raimondo Pictet, student at the lycee and protester

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

San Limsreang knew it was over when the "green screen of death" arrived.

These corrugated metal fences are a common sight in Phnom Penh, encircling communities destined for eviction.

At least two dozen police accompanied the workmen sent by City Hall as they dug holes, banged in fence-posts and erected the screen in front of the grocery stalls and coffee shops at the rear of the Lycee Rene Descartes.

Limsreang and his neighbours looked on fearfully as their homes were cut off from the street. They knew all too well what usually happens to communities marked in such a manner.

The 68-year-old had been hoping for a peaceful retirement after a varied working life.

He had worked as a banker, a vet and a civil servant - and for 30 years his ever-expanding family made their home on the fourth floor of a building behind what is now one of Cambodia's elite schools.

Now the Lycee Rene Descartes wants to expand.

And along with its landlord, the French embassy, it has asked the local authorities to clear Limsreang's building so that it can be used for the school.

The lycee insists that the building belonged to the school before the Khmer Rouge arrived in 1975; now it is merely taking back its rightful property.

The residents, however, say they were ordered to live behind the lycee after Vietnamese-backed forces ousted Pol Pot's government in 1979.

Labelled 'squatters'

"We wanted to go back my old house but other people were occupying it," Limsreang says.

"After 1979 everyone ended up living in different houses. At that time all the houses belonged to the government - that's why we had to do that."

The new regime did not allow much flexibility. As well as being directed to live in the building behind the lycee, many were told to work in the school which took over the site.

Later the residents took jobs with the local government or the civil service.

They lived rent-free, but were officially registered by the authorities, and took their right to live in their homes for granted.

That turned out to be overly-optimistic. When peace returned to Cambodia in the 1990s, so did the Lycee Rene Descartes.

At first the school co-existed with the residents, but an expanding demand inspired the lycee to seek the removal of the community.

"This site belonging to the embassy must go back to the school," says Pierre Olivieri, the co-ordinator of a parents' committee pressing for the move.

"We're the only French school in the world with a squat - even nations at war like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan don't have that.

"It's not good for the image of France or Cambodia."

The residents resent being labelled as "squatters", and they were unwilling to leave for the compensation on offer - a few thousand dollars and a plot of undeveloped land on a reclaimed lake on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Limsreang says that City Hall made a series of threats to evict his community - and said it would give them nothing if they did not accept the terms.

Fearing the worst, some families signed the deal and moved out.

The only ray of hope for the residents was the support of some of the students at the Lycee.

'Regularly criticised'

A student demonstration before Khmer New Year in April brought much-needed publicity to the community's plight.

"It's a horrible feeling because they say they're doing this for us - for us the students," says a 17-year-old protester, Raimondo Pictet.

"For security reasons and for our well-being, these people are being evicted. Well they're human beings too - and they also have a well-being.

They have children who are also going to school - and if they're evicted they won't be able to finish their school year."

Raimondo's efforts have not been appreciated universally.

He says he has been insulted by some students' parents, and a local newspaper published a disparaging comment from the school principal.

But the residents behind the lycee say they are grateful for the students' involvement.

"I'm really excited that teenage students understand about human rights," says Limsreang, before he is interrupted by his son Vichet, a medical student.

"Yes, but it's not good for the French government. Maybe they don't give a damn about human rights issues in Cambodia.

"But we're living here legitimately, and we want to leave here with a fair amount of compensation. We don't want to get rich or anything."

The French embassy did not respond to several requests for an interview.

After weeks of pressure, the remaining residents have now agreed to go.

They say they are sympathetic to the needs of the school, but frightened that their relocation might turn into another forced eviction in which they could lose everything.

Evictions dominate UN review agenda

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Written by Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

"It really drives home the point ... Cambodia has lots of legislation, good legislation, but it is not being implemented."

A UN body has asked the Cambodian government to account for continuing human rights violations, including the recent and pending evictions of poor communities in Phnom Penh.

During a review session Tuesday in Geneva, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights requested that the government detail what it was doing to ensure the rights of evictees, a civil society representative present at the session said.

According to the representative, the committee asked specifically about the situation at Boeung Kak lake, Dey Krahorm, Borei Keila and other poor urban communities where thousands of people have been recently uprooted by development projects.

The 18-member committee is tasked with reviewing countries' adherence to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which Cambodia ratified in 1992.

"We all know that the question of land, housing [and] evictions has enormous implications on other economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education and health," said committee member Zdislaw Kedzia, adding that the compensation offered to evictees had so far been "unfair and unjust".

Virginia Bonoan-Dandan, from the Philippines, said she had visited the municipality's eviction relocation site at Andong village, in Phnom Penh's Dangkor district, describing the "sub-human conditions" at the site.

"I was shocked to see the people [at Andong] drinking from a dirty pond.... The children had boils; their skin was infected," she said.

"It really drives home the point ... Cambodia has lots of legislation, good legislation, but it is not being implemented."

Article 11 of the ICESCR recognises the universal right "to an adequate standard of living ... including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions".

Sun Suon, Cambodia's ambassador to the United Nations and lone delegate at the session, responded by saying the government was trying to address land issues and that he would forward the committee's recommendations to Phnom Penh.

"The prime minister has acknowledged this problem, and he has called for land grabbers to be brought to justice," he told the committee.

But he also said the issue of land evictions had become a "political issue" requiring "further elaboration".

"Every year we have a meeting with donors and we discuss this issue, and we believe that this is the approach to dealing with [it]," he said.

The government's initial report to the committee, submitted in early January, claims Dey Krahorm and Borei Keila had been slated for a "land-sharing project" as part of an attempt to "improve 100 poor communities within five years".

"These projects help the communities to build houses on their legally owned land," the report said of the two communities.

"They can also request some more land which is left from sharing and some financial supports for house building."

A fortnight after the report was submitted, more than 100 families living at Dey Krahorm were violently evicted from their homes by police and officials working for local developer 7NG.

Residents at Borei Keila, including several dozen suffering from HIV/Aids, are also facing eviction.

The staggering story of Srey, spurned by the Cambodian capital

Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 24/01/2009: Tools used by hired workers to destroy Dey Krohom (Photo: John Vink/ Magnum)

11-05-2009
By Anne-Laure Porée
Ka-set

During the last eviction, Srey lost everything. She could not even save a pan. She feels humiliated, angry, desperate, sick and tired. So tired. She cannot sleep anymore. And she has lost hope. What can she reconstruct on these ashes? Tears are all she has left.

While, here and there in the capital of Cambodia, hundreds of families anxiously expect to be displaced by local authorities, we have met a woman whose history speaks volumes about the daily lives of poor people, who are undesirable in the city centre, subject to the tricks of officials and quarter (sangkat) chiefs, as well as the effects of the property boom. The story of Srey (an alias used to protect her and her family), who was evicted four times from the centre of Phnom Penh, is however not a typical one. She shares her cry of despair so that people like her be treated with dignity first. Scrutiny of the distressing itinerary of this family mother.

Evicted from land opposite Koh Pich island

Srey grew up in the province of Prey Veng in a family of farmers. She moved to Phnom Penh in 1988, where her husband who was in the military was assigned a post. They settled on a free plot of land near the Embassy of Russia, opposite the island of Koh Pich. There, Srey grew vegetables in her garden and earned enough to feed her family. But one day, while she accompanied her daughter to the hospital, the Thai company who had become the new owner of the land occupied by Srey and other families expelled the people living there in exchange for a compensation of 2,000 dollars.

Click to Read More...

Lycee residents ask for reprieve

Rattana, 17, tears down the remains of a ground-floor home in the community next to the Lycee Rene Descartes. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Monday, 11 May 2009
Written by May Titthara and Christopher Shay
The Phnom Penh Post

Families living near the French school plead with authorities for a bit more time.

IN San Lim Soreng's home on the fourth floor of the Lycee Francais Rene Descartes building, residents urged students and members of the French community to ask the French embassy for more time in their homes.

The residents urged the largely French audience to ask the French embassy to extend their eviction deadline, at least until their children's school year is finished at the end of July.

Last week, the remaining three families in the 30-year-old community agreed to government compensation.

Many families, however, have not had time to construct new homes and do not want to pull their students from school before the year is out.

Raimondo Pictet, 17, a student at the Lycee Francais Rene Descartes, said the event was designed for people to "say goodbye to the people who have lived next to us" and as an opportunity for people "to ask questions to the people who live here directly".

"I have signed the agreement for compensation already, but they put the deadline for us to go on Friday. I would like to tell French people about our situation and ask them to ask the French ambassador to intervene and help us delay our deadline until my child's school holiday," In Daravuth said.

In 2001, the French and Cambodian governments signed an agreement regarding land. In return for 1,000,000 French francs (about US$205,000), Cambodia transferred land and occupied apartments to the French secondary school, according to documents received by the Post.

"Now, we have to start our lives again like after the Khmer Rouge in 1979.... They report to the French embassy that residents are happy to get their compensation, but in fact we agreed to it with tears," resident Meak Sina said with tears in her eyes.

Forced evictions contravene human rights standards, UN expert tells Cambodia [... but Hun Sen couldn't care less]

Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing

Source: UN News Centre

6 May 2009 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today expressed her extreme concern about the threatened eviction of nearly 100 families in Phnom Penh, and called on the Cambodian authorities to halt this practice pending a review of current policies.

Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said she has observed “an increase in forced evictions through Cambodia accompanied by a systematic lack of due process” since she took up her post one year ago.

In a statement issued today, she said she has reminded the Cambodian authorities that “the pattern of evictions, affecting many of the poor, in the country – and the apparent lack of due process in that regard – suggests they may be tolerating, or even perpetrating, the forced evictions prohibited by international human rights standards.”

“Forced evictions constitute a grave breach of human rights. Large-scale evictions can only be carried out in exceptional circumstances and with full respect for the due process requirements set by international human rights standards,” she stated.

Ms. Rolnik expressed alarm in particular about the possible imminent eviction of the “Group 78” residents – between 66 to 86 families residing in Tonle Basak commune, in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district, who have been involved in a legal battle since 2004 over ownership of their land.

They “seem to have a strong case in claiming authorities should recognize their possession rights to the land being disputed and demanding just and fair compensation for the possible loss of their land,” said the Special Rapporteur.

She urged the competent authorities not to implement the “administrative measures” (which in the past have lead to forced evictions) threatened in the last notice transmitted to Group 78 residents, stressing that they are entitled to have full legal review of their ownership claims in accordance with Cambodian legislation.

“It is only on the basis of this review that negotiations must take place with the affected community, to ensure fair compensation and adequate alternatives if their relocation is necessary,” she stated.

Ms. Rolnik reiterated her call for a moratorium on all group evictions in Cambodia, especially when residents have pursued claims before administrative or judicial bodies, until the policies and actions of the authorities can be brought fully into line with international human rights obligations.

Like all UN Special Rapporteurs, Ms. Rolnik reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in an independent and unpaid capacity.

Cambodia's poor fight for their homes

Despite 'good' law to protect needy landowners, developers gain increasing amounts of property

May 06, 2009
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER
Toronto Star (Ontario, Canada)

In a rundown enclave of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, hundreds of poor people can't sleep at night. They're afraid to go to work in the morning for fear their homes will be gone when they return.

Today the clock has run out for the community of 150 families, slated to become the latest victims of clearance projects that have rolled across Cambodia since its land became a prize for developers.

The 26-year-old community is to be evacuated, according to a notice from the municipality dated yesterday. Although residents are appealing, they have seen the dire results of other forced eviction orders, which human rights groups say are contrary to Cambodian law.

A recent clearance in the community of Dey Krahorm left the majority of families homeless after some 250 police and contractors for the company claiming to own the land arrived in the early hours, drove out the residents with threats and tear gas and levelled the village.

Now the Phnom Penh community – known as Group 78 – is facing a similar fate.

"The authorities have offered them compensation of $5,000 (U.S.) and a plot of land, without shelters, 20 kilometres outside the city where there are very limited job opportunities," said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher, who is monitoring the eviction site.

"There is no clean water supply, no electricity or sanitation," she said in an email to the Star, adding the residents turned down the offer – "to travel to the city from their current work places would cost them more than their expected daily earnings."

Human rights groups say the community has a strong claim to ownership under a 2001 land law passed after genocide and civil war left many Cambodians landless. The Khmer Rouge destroyed public documents, so few had papers to prove ownership. But in 2003, the government brought in a "social land concession plan" to give the poor more secure land tenure.

In spite of fines and jail terms for those who violate the land laws, developers have managed to take over increasing amounts of farm and urban land. In some cases they have made deals with corrupt community leaders to seize the land, pushing the residents out to remote areas without shelter or transportation.

"Cambodia's land law is good," said Mekh Sokhan of the NGO Forum on Cambodia in the newsletter of the Danish charity DanChurchAid. "But the law is not implemented by the authorities."

In Phnom Penh, highrises have sprung up in the last five years with hotels, condos and restaurants sprouting from the once devastated landscape. Prices have doubled, and in spite of the economic meltdown, the wealthy continue to boost the real estate market.

Residents brace for evictions

Residents of the Rene Descartes community destroy their businesses in compliance with a City Hall eviction notice. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Written by May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

ONE community facing eviction on Tuesday watched its deadline pass quietly and heard they will have a chance in court to defend their claims to the land, while another had their businesses shut down by authorities, in what residents say is an attempt to force them to accept the government's relocation terms.

Daun Penh district authorities put up additional fences around the community living next to the Lycee Francais Rene Descartes, Cambodia's oldest international school, blocking access to ground-floor businesses.

Residents of Group 78, however, saw their eviction deadline come and go, and even received a court date when they will have a chance to present evidence explaining that they should be allowed to stay.

"Now, we have a court warrant to show our evidence to them on May 18 at 8am. It is a good chance for us," said Lim Sambo, a Group 78 representative.

Yin Savat, a lawyer for the Community for Legal Education Centre, said the court warrant should put off a forced eviction until after the decision.

"According to the law, City Hall cannot implement their eviction letter because we have filed a complaint to the Court already to cancel it," he said.

"I have a court warrant. If tomorrow they come to pull our houses down, it means they did not respect to the law."

Meanwhile, across the city near the Lycee Francais Rene Descartes, 37 families say they are being squeezed out of their homes and have no power to fight back.

The district deputy governor said the eviction deadline for the community has been extended to May 15, but residents say authorities have closed down the community's businesses.

In Daravuth, a resident of the Descartes community, said "[District authorities] said they will allow us to live inside the fences, but we cannot do business. We will only have a small gate to go in and out," said In Daravuth, a resident of the Descartes community.

He said the community still wanted to negotiate with City Hall, even though authorities said they had ceased discussions on April 29.

"I do not react to the authorities because they have guns and power. We're simple people. We can only stand and watch them do anything they want," In Daravuth said.

Kem Vichet, a village representative, said that the new green fences were just a tactic to force the community to accept the government's relocation terms.

"They did this to force us to accept their compensation because we are impoverished," he said, adding that now they can only "wait for an intervention from the French embassy".

Sok Penh Vuth, Daun Penh district deputy governor, said, "We just came to put a fence to close this area. We did not use violence against them.

"They can live inside their house," he said, "but I hope everything will be finished by this week. There are only 10 families [who have not agreed to relocation terms] left."

Sok Penh Vuth denied that the residents were being compelled to take the money and leave.

"We do not force them to take the compensation. They volunteer to take it, and now City Hall is thinking about their demands for more money," he said.

Chan Soveth, a monitor at the rights group Adhoc, disagrees and warned that a forced eviction could become violent.

"First, they [the authorities] put the fences surrounding the area. Later on, they will stop them from entering and cut off the electricity, and then the violence comes," he said.

The government says it will pay US$10,000, $7,000 or $5,000 to each family living near the Lycee Francais Rene Descartes depending on how long they have been on the land, as well as supply a 4-metre-by-8-metre empty lot in Thnot Chrum village, Boeung Tumpum commune - an area that residents say is often flooded.

Last month, housing rights group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut said about 120,000 people had been displaced or evicted in the last two decades ago, working out to about one in 10 residents of Phnom Penh.

City's eviction deadline for Group 78 arrives

Group 78 resident Hnueng, a coconut seller, and her daughter outside their house on Monday. Residents are facing forced eviction at the hands of the Phnom Penh Municipality, which says they are living on a public road. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)
The Group 78 community in Tonle Bassac commune could face eviction beginning Tuesday. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Tuesday, 05 May 2009
Written by May Titthara and Sebastian Stragio
The Phnom Penh Post

But May 5 deadline brings determination to remain at the site.

AHEAD of their May 5 eviction deadline, residents at the city's besieged Group 78 community say they are worried about an impending forced eviction but remain confident of their legal rights to the strip of land in Tonle Bassac commune.

"I am a little bit worried about the situation in the area after tomorrow's deadline because I heard City Hall will kick me out to the outskirts of the city," said resident Lim Likean, 64.

An eviction letter signed by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema on April 20 said the 70 families were living on a public road and on land owned by Sour Srun Enterprises, a local developer, giving residents 15 days to accept compensation and vacate their properties.

After this time, it said authorities would take unspecified "administrative measures", and that City Hall would bear no responsibility for any property lost.

Community representative Lim Sambo said he was also worried but was "depending on the law" to solve the dispute peacefully.

"Tomorrow if the authorities come to enforce their eviction letter ... I will not fight back. I will go out from my house with empty hands because I don't want to have an argument," he said.

He added that commune officials had set up a table at the site Monday, encouraging people to sign forms accepting the municipality's compensation package. City Hall has offered residents US$5,000 cash and a 5-metre-by-12-metre plot of land in the city's Dangkor district in exchange for moving out ahead of Tuesday's deadline.

Scared of expulsion

Lim Sambo said nine out of the community's 70 families had taken the cash and land package out of fear they will meet a similar fate to the nearby Dey Krahorm community, forcibly evicted in January. But other residents said they would ignore compensation offers and hold out to the end.

"I WILL GO OUT FROM MY HOUSE WITH EMPTY HANDS BECAUSE I DON'T WANT [TO ARGUE]."

"I will not move out or accept City Hall's compensation because the eviction letter said all residents living on Sour Srun's land and the public road must move out in 15 days, but they did not mention the residents in Group 78. So it doesn't concern us," said Lim Likean.

On Wednesday, the community's lawyers filed a complaint at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court requesting a delay of the eviction deadline.

But Sourng Sophea, a lawyer at the Community Legal Education Centre, said all involved parties had been summoned to court May 18, leaving Group 78 families open to eviction in the meantime.

"We asked the court to postpone the eviction, but [they] said they had no time to look at the case. We are very worried about [an eviction] because the court's procedures are very slow," he said.

Fiona Cochaud, first secretary of the Australian embassy, said she was aware of the plight of the community, which sits next door to the country's new embassy compound, but said it was "not appropriate" for the Australian government to comment on specific land dispute cases.

But she said the embassy had "encouraged local authorities and citizens to work together to find mutually acceptable, equitable ways to resolve issues relating to land disputes".

Tonle Bassac commune Chief Khat Narith said he would "comply with City Hall's orders" but that he did not know what would happen after Tuesday's deadline.

Mann Chhoeun, the deputy governor, could not be reached for comment Monday, but according to municipal timetables, he is to chair a meeting of the Urban Poor Development Fund at 8am today.

At the meeting, the fund is scheduled to procure 50 million riels (US$12,124) from Sour Srun Enterprises to help shift residents from Group 78 to the relocation site at Dangkor district's Trapaing Anhchanh village.

Phnom Penh land dispute unresolved [-Will the Aussie embassy just sit and watch the eviction taking place?]

May 5, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The latest deadline for the removal of a group of 70 families resisting eviction in central Phnom Penh appears to have passed without incident.

The city government had offered the residents $US5,000 cash and a plot of land on the outskirts of the city in exchange for their moving out.

But so far, fewer than 10 of the families are reported to have taken up the offer.

Sebastian Strangio, from the Phnom Penh Post, says those that remain appear to be holding out for a better deal.

"They have occupied this land, some of them since the early 1980s. And according to the land laws that Cambodia has, they have a right to claim possession of this land," he said.

The disputed land is adjacent to Australia's new embassy compound.

The Post quotes an embassy spokeswoman as saying that while it's "not appropriate" to comment on specific land disputes, the embassy does encourage local authorities and citizens "to work together to find mutually acceptable, equitable" solutions to such issues.

Phnom Penh residents battle eviction

May 5, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

A community of around 70 families in Phnom Penh face eviction today as the deadline expires for them to leave a strip of land next to the new Australian Embassy which is under construction.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Lim Ly Kien, Village representative; Amnesty's country specialist Brittis Edman; Daniel King, a lawyer working on behalf of the G78 community

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CARMICHAEL: I'm standing at G78, a small strip of mainly low-income housing in what has become valuable real estate in Phnom Penh. On one side of a beaten earth road are several dozen homes that make up the community known as G78. Most homes here are built of corrugated iron, some are of wood. On the other side of the road is a high white fence, boarding off the Australian Embassy building that is under construction. The Embassy isn't yet finished, but it is taking shape. The palm trees are planted. Even the flagpoles are up.

But G78's residents are no longer welcome here. The municipality wants their land, and has said they will be evicted today - May 5th. But because it has offered very low compensation, the residents decided to hold out. Illegal evictions are a too-common tale in Cambodia - the weak being ridden roughshod over by the powerful. So although many of G78's residents have lived here more than a decade and have legal rights under local and international law, there is a good chance that by the time you hear this they will have been driven away by armed police, and their homes demolished.

Amnesty International has been watching the G78 case. Amnesty's country specialist Brittis Edman says the residents want to be treated fairly.

EDMAN: They would be prepared to leave - if they have to - should they be provided with adequate alternative housing and/or compensation which is fair and just and paid in advance.

CARMICHAEL: Three hundred metres down the road - past food-stalls, homes and small shops - is the house of village representative, 66-year-old Lim Ly Kien. Lim Ly Kien bought the land and built his house in 1996. It is a fine house - a double-storey wooden home on stilts, with the dark wooden planks sanded and polished. He says residents wrote a letter to the Australian government last year asking that it intervene with the municipality to work out an agreement.

KIEN: They said they would keep an eye on what the government and the Phnom Penh municipality are doing with regards to G78. And they told us they would intervene on the issue and try to do everything they could for G78 according to the law.

CARMICHAEL: Australia has been heavily involved in promoting good governance and the rule of law in Cambodia. So its previous responses to G78 - that it would not get involved in breaches of local and international law in individual cases, particularly one that is literally on its own doorstep - were widely criticized. Lim Ly Kien says that Australia - as a party to the 1991 Paris Accords that ended the war in Cambodia - is in a good position to remind Phnom Penh of its human rights obligations.

The Australian embassy declined a face-to-face meeting to discuss G78. In an emailed statement the deputy head of mission, Fiona Cochaud, says the embassy understood that the UN felt some residents had legitimate claims to their land.

Ms Cochaud wrote that due process, transparency and just compensation are all essential to the resettlement process. But she refused to comment specifically on G78 saying it was 'not appropriate'. She did not respond to questions emailed in response to her statement.

Daniel King is an Australian lawyer who works on behalf of the G78 residents. He says they have clear possessory rights to their land and homes. King says they have for years tried to get land title - the physical document that the government issues to people as the final step in the land ownership process - but the authorities had repeatedly rejected them.

KING: The reasons that the authorities have given for refusing title have been inconsistent and different. They have been issued with six eviction notices, the first one being for city beautification. But reasons have ranged from a road to a bridge. And now the latest eviction notice is that it is private company land and state land for roads. So there is not a clear reason why these people have been denied legal title.

CARMICHAEL: King says that an independent land appraisal carried out in March valued the site at fifteen million US dollars.

KING: The combined compensation policy of City Hall is less than 500,000 dollars.

CARMICHAEL: So the difference is fourteen and a half million dollars - where's that going?

KING: That's a good question - you should ask City Hall.

CARMICHAEL: We tried to do that, but neither the governor nor his deputy were available. Back at G78, Lim Ly Kien tells me his daughter married an Australian and has lived there since 2004. They've just had their first child. Lim Ly Kien and his wife travelled to Australia in 2005 for the wedding and spent two months there. And what does he think his house and land are worth? He says the wood alone cost ten thousand US dollars. And his piece of land is worth more than three hundred thousand dollars at the independent valuation.

His question by return: How would anyone feel about being offered six thousand US dollars compensation for something with a market value more than fifty times greater?

KIEN: If I were staying on land that belonged to the company, then I would not take one penny in compensation and I would leave. But the land belongs to me - I bought it according to the law.

CARMICHAEL: It remains to be seen what Lim Ly Kien's legal position or that of his neighbours is worth. What will become clear is whether the municipality uses different tactics to the head-cracking and intimidation that have characterised previous evictions in Phnom Penh.

Development Must Mean Compensation: Expert

Am Sam Ath, an investigator for Adhoc, on 'Hello VOA' Monday.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
10 April 2009

Evictions in Cambodia are not resolved at a scale equal to the development of Cambodian, a rights activist said Monday, at a time when yet another community in Phnom Penh is facing eviction.

Residents of Reak Reay say they are will be uprooted from their home in the Tonle Bassac commune of central Phnom Penh.

While “development is good,” authorities must also meet the needs of the people, said Am Sam Ath, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

“Residents wish that authorities will develop [further] by balancing the interest of the villagers with the interest of the company or state,” he said.

“We can see during each eviction people crying, and they don’t want to leave their location,” he said.

Out of 209 Reak Reay families, 150 have agreed to leave the site new construction for Canadia Bank.

Families bought the land from the military after 1999, and Cambodian law stipulates residency of property after possession of five years, he said. But since 2006, the families have been facing pressure to leave. More negotiations with the city are expected after the Khmer New Year.

“Article 44 of the constitution says that the property of someone can be withdrawn for the interest of the public, and the owner must have reasonable compensation,” he said.

Pressuring people to leave constitutes an abuse of human rights, he said. “Authorities must remain in a neutral stance and serve the interests of both residents and investors.”

Phnom Penh’s rapid development has left the outskirts—where many displaced families end up—without infrastructure.

“They cannot find jobs or school for their children,” he said. “They must come to Phnom Penh and rent a house to work a job.”

Lake Developers Want ‘Safety’ [-Is terrorism the new catchword to evict people from their homes?]

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
15 April 2008

The fear of terrorism and the ineffective control of foreign tourists, as well as internal migrants, are all driving the development of the Boeung Kak lake area, officials said recently.

The Cambodian government hopes to bring modern development to the area, to prevent chaotic settlement in the capital, officials said.

“We need to strengthen the security issue and develop modernization construction in Boeung Kak for easily monitoring security,” Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Pa Socheathvong told VOA Khmer. “There are many complicated security problems for those coming in and those going out, without good security control.”

Phnom Penh has leased the land to developer Shukaku, Inc., in a $79 million deal, but residents say they are not being paid a fair price to leave the lake homes.

“We knew terrorists have easily hidden in there, like CFF and JI terrorist leader Hambali,” he said, referring the Cambodian Freedom fighters and the leader of the Southeast Asian group Jemaah Islamiyah. “If we cannot properly control this area, it will create a security problem for Phnom Penh in the future.”

Members of the CFF came from the area to attack government forces in Phnom Penh in November 2000, and Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, reportedly stayed in the area prior to his arrest in Bangkok in 2003, following the 2002 Bali bombings carried out by JI.

Critics say city government and developers are neglecting the interests of Boeung Kak villagers as they move to clear the area of the makeshift homes jutting over the lake.

“Safety and people’s living are very important issues, but Boeung Kak development must provide for the very important interests of Boeung Kak villagers, or the people’s interest will be lost,” said Keo Remy, vice president of the Human Rights Party, which is competing in July’s general elections.

Be Pharum, Boeung Kak villager, said residents supported development.

“But we request that the government find a proper resolution for Boeung Kak villagers, to avoid the suffering with the development like people in Sambok Chap, Koh Pich…in Phnom Penh.”

Phan Sithan, coordinator of NGO Forum on Cambodia, acknowledged that the area was important for security.

“But the people’s living is also an important part of development,” he said.

The government must “seriously consider” the relationship between security and people’s livelihoods, he said.

Weigh Needs of Residents on Lake: Guest

Boeung Kak Lake

By Poch Reasey, VOA Khmer
Washington
04 April 2008

The government should work hard to ensure it is considering the needs of residents as it seeks to develop and improve Phnom Penh, a representative of a "housing rights" task force said Thursday.

Phnom Penh is enjoying a development boom, leading to a steady climb in property prices, but many residents say they are caught between government policies to develop and the need for fair prices for moving.

"Take Boeung Kak lake for an example," said Phann Sitha, coordinator for the Housing Rights Task Force, on "Hello VOA" Thursday. "The average income of the residents is at least $10 dollars a day. So when people heard that the area would be developed, they stood to lose that much money in income. Therefore I urge the government to make sure that after the development of the area, the residents will be able to make at least the same amount of money, if not more."

Boeung Kak residents told VOA Khmer in recent weeks they were not being paid a fair market price for their homes, which must be removed in a city development plan.

The city government has offered a regulated buy-out, but residents say this is far too low, and they fear they will be forcibly evicted following general elections in July.

Many Boeung Kak residents have lived around the lake since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, and some actually lived there under the regime, said Soeng Bunna, president and CEO of Bunna Reality Group, another guest on "Hello VOA" Thursday.

Some of them, however, just moved in, he said.

"I don’t have the specific number, but I know that some people have just moved to Boeung Kak in the last few years," he said. "Irregardless, it's up to the government, the development company and the people to talk about a specific amount of money the residents should be compensated. I understand that sometimes the area is very hard to develop and therefore the developer has to spend a lot of money."

The city has leased 133 hectares of land around the lake to Shukaku, Inc., in a 99-year-lease worth $79 million.