Massive relocation diplaces Phnom Penh's poor

February 27, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

As the price of land has soared in Cambodia in recent years, tens of thousands of urban and rural poor have been evicted from their land and their homes.

Human rights groups and civil society say that - despite the passing of a Land Law in 2001 - the situation continues to worsen as the powerful indulge in a scramble for land at the expense of the poor.

Robert Carmichael
Speakers: "Channy", Village Six evictee; Kek Galabru, founder of human rights group Licadho; Peter Jipp, land special with the World Bank in Phnom Penh

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

CARMICHAEL: Phnom Penh has changed markedly over the past decade. Where there were once large slums providing homes and work for tens of thousands of people in central locations, there are now tracts of fenced off, empty land, or freshly-painted modern buildings. It's all part of what the municipality calls its 'beautification' programme - but it has come at a price, often paid by the poorest. I am standing at Village Six in the north of Phnom Penh. It's part of the latest threatened area - a low to middle-income suburb surrounding the city's Boeung Kak Lake. Last year, in a multi-million dollar land deal that local human rights groups say was crafted illegally, a powerful politician was granted the right to fill in the lake and develop the land on and around it.

The Boeung Kak lake development will see 30,000 people evicted in the coming months in what will be one of South-East Asia's largest land evictions in decades. Some families have lived in the area since the Khmer Rouge were driven out of power in 1979. One of the residents faced with eviction is Channy. She is using a false name for fear of retribution. Channy moved here in 1990 and has raised a family in her home - a respectable two-storey building, tiled and well maintained. She says the municipality and the company haven't bothered to come and discuss the development with residents. Instead, they heard about it through the media.

She is angry that the compensation offered is so meagre - around eight thousand US dollars per house, no matter what its real value. Channy says that residents aren't being greedy - they simply want a fair deal.

CHANNY: What we can accept is this: We have to get the price that our houses are worth on the open market. The government and the company have to do this exchange for a reasonable price so we can buy another house in the city, not twenty kilometres outside the city in the countryside.

CARMICHAEL: Amnesty International says at least 150,000 people are at risk of eviction in Cambodia - that's 1 per cent of the population. Dr Kek Galabru is the founder of human rights group Licadho. She says the Boeung Kak Lake case is the latest in a long line of land grabs and evictions that generally target the poor and powerless.

She says the problem is getting worse.

GALABRU: I don't think this is better - we don't see the sign. Because we see the number of the victims that come to us, come from the province. Everywhere.

CARMICHAEL: The World Bank is involved in a program to issue land title documents. The Bank's land specialist, Peter Jipp, says almost 1 million land title documents have already been distributed to people across the country. The target is to issue 1.5 million land titles before the program closes at the end of this year.

JIPP: This is really the first time since the Khmer Rouge that formal titles are being issued. And there have already been almost a million titles that have been issued to land owners in Cambodia under the program. I would have to say that this is a very significant step for Cambodians to have formal title. This is a long process and with almost a million titles having been issued there still are another 11 million parcels out there that need to be titled, so there is still a long way to go.

CARMICHAEL: But while legal title may be important, the courts that were specially-created to hear land disputes are widely seen to have failed. Licadho's Dr Kek Galabru.

GALABRU: It didn't work because most of the people who are in the conflicts - you know, the ones that want to grab the land of the poor - they have power. And in Cambodia if you have power and you have money, you always win.

CARMICHAEL: For its part the government denies accusations that it is working against its own poverty alleviation strategy. Information Minister Khieu Kanharith acknowledges there have been high-profile cases where things have gone wrong, but maintains that the situation is not as bad as is sometimes painted. That is cold comfort to Channy and her neighbours at Village Six - they stand little chance of resisting eviction in the coming months.

The only certainty is that Channy and her family will soon be forced to leave their home, which will then be demolished to make way for offices and expensive houses. At that point she will become just the latest in a long line of powerless Cambodians who have been evicted in the country's unending scramble for land.