‘Viable’ Boeung Kak option floated

An aerial view of the filled-in Boeung Kak lake in April. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post

https://www.box.com/s/dc78b16b2c03a1556b77

Tuesday, 03 July 2012
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

More than enough vacant plots exist within Boeung Kak lake’s 12.44-hectare concession area to house those denied land permits, a new NGO report says.

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut claims to have found “a viable and practical” solution for households excluded from the unmarked land the prime minister promised the community in August – and residents and other NGOs have welcomed it.

According to Outside the Lines: Households Excluded From 12.44Ha Boeung Kak Concession, the NGO has mapped the area based on boundaries outlined in the relevant sub-decree.

“We identified 70 households that appear to be excluded from the concession area, as well as 401 vacated plots within the 12.44 hectares,” STT programs coordinator Ee Sarom said. “Our report shows it would be eminently possible to allocate land for the excluded households within the concession.”

The report states that the 401 plots make up 17 per cent of the concession.

“[This] indicates households excluded from the 12.44 [hectare] concession could be given a vacant plot within it,” it states.

End the Land Dispute: Viable Solution for Excluded Boeung Kak Households

https://www.box.com/s/dc78b16b2c03a1556b77

Press Release
Released by Joint Organizations

July 2, 2012 - Outside the Lines, a new report by local urban NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), proposes a viable and practical solution for the households excluded from the 12.44Ha concession in Boeung Kak. The report shows that the households arbitrarily excluded from the 12.44Ha concession could easily be included in the concession zone, by allowing some households to move inside the area as well as through a small revision of the concession’s boundaries.

On Aug. 11 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed Sub-Decree No. 183, awarding 12.44Ha of the Boeung Kak lake area to the community. This marked a major victory for remaining households in the community, who had been fighting for their land since 2007, when 133Ha of the natural lake were leased for 99-years to Shukaku Inc., owned by CPP senator Lao Meng Khin, under dubious circumstances.

Yet the victory was bittersweet. Some 85% of the community, representing over 3,500 households, had already been forcibly displaced from the area. In addition, not all homes of those remaining in the area were included in the 12.44Ha concession, while rumours abounded that plots within the concession had been awarded to Lao Meng Khin.

In early 2012, at the request of, and together with, the Boeung Kak community, STT undertook to map the boundaries of the 12.44Ha together with any empty plots within that area. STT also mapped the location of households seemingly excluded from the concession.

The results of the mapping efforts indicate that households excluded from the 12.44Ha concession could be given a vacant plot within it, from the perspective of land availability.

“Through our surveying activities, we identified 70 households that appear to be excluded from the concession area, as well as 401 vacated plots within the 12.44Ha,” said Ee Sarom, Programmes Coordinator at STT. “Although results are indicative rather than absolute given the level of accuracy of the map, our report shows that it would be eminently possible to allocate land for the excluded households within the concession.”

Suspended NGO is back

A woman cycles by the new office for NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut yesterday in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Will Baxter)

Monday, 02 January 2012
Bridget Di Certo
The Phnom Penh Post

The controversial suspension of local urban land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut expired yesterday, and the group said it will be business as usual from now on.

STT was suspended from operating for five months in early August after releasing a report in July that was critical of Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project, which is being funded by the Asia Development Bank and AusAID.

“As far as we are concerned, we are back in business,” STT adviser Hallan Goad told the Post yesterday. “The notice we got from the Ministry of Interior was that there was a five-month suspension, and the five months expires today.”

NGOs lobby to stop Cambodia implementing new law

The Cambodian government is pushing ahead with a new law to govern thousands of local and international NGOs which will allow it to shut them down at will. NGOs are lobbying the Australian Government to help stop the law from being implemented. The plea for help comes as the Cambodian government targets NGOs who have been advocating on behalf of people being moved to make way for a railway project that's partly funded by AusAID and run by Australian company Toll Holdings.

September 27, 2011

Zoe Daniel

ABC News (Australia)

Source: PM | Duration: 5min 44sec

MARK COLVIN: The Cambodian government is pushing ahead with a new law to govern thousands of local and international non government organisations, NGOs, which would allow it to shut them down at will.

NGOs are lobbying the Australian Government to help stop Cambodia implementing a law which they say will restrict their activities and freedom of speech.

The Cambodian government is currently targeting NGOs which have been speaking up for people being moved to make way for a railway project which is partly funded by AusAID and run by the Australian company Toll Holdings.

South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reports.

ZOE DANIEL: Back in May residents living alongside a disused section of railway line in Phnom Penh told us how they were being treated by the Cambodian authorities if they rejected a few hundred dollars to move for its refurbishment.

ADB still puzzled by controversial letter

Friday, 23 September 2011
Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

The Asian Development Bank has still not been able to “definitively confirm” the authenticity of a letter claiming that consultants working for it urged the government to crack down on NGOs critical of a project it is funding, although the letter is allegedly signed by a member of its own board of governors.

“Despite ADB’s best efforts, it has not been able to definitively confirm the letter’s authenticity,” it told the Post yesterday in response to questions about the content of discussions it said it had with “the highest levels of government” about the letter.

The letter, allegedly from Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen, was leaked to news outlets earlier this week. It contains complaints from unnamed ADB consultants about NGOs critical of the resettlement impacts of the US$141 million railway rehabilitation project the ADB and AusAID are funding.

ADB denies meeting was critical of NGOs [-ADB in hot water???]

Thursday, 22 September 2011
Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

The Asian Development Bank yesterday acknowledged that a meeting at the Ministry of Economy and Finance referred to in a letter that calling for a crackdown on NGOs critical of a railway project it is funding occurred, but said that it made no criticism of NGOs at the meeting.

“The only thing ADB has communicated to the highest levels of government and all other stakeholders about NGOs – at this meeting and at all other times – is that ADB feels that NGOs involved with the railway project have provided useful information that has helped address the needs of people affected by the project,” it said yesterday.

The June 9 meeting between the ADB’s director general for Southeast Asia and finance ministry officials is pointed to as one of two background references in a June 17 letter calling for a crackdown on NGOs that had been critical of the railway project. The letter is allegedly from Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Cambodian Minister’s Letter Proposes Crackdown on NGOs

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
Voice of America

A letter signed by Cambodia's finance minister suggests the government should act against relief groups that have been advocating on behalf of displaced villagers.

The June 17 letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, obtained by VOA's Khmer service, suggests the government “nullify the eligibility” of the NGOs. It says the main goal of the groups is to cancel work on a major upgrade of Cambodia's railways that would link much of Southeast Asia to Kunming, China.

The letter says an unidentified consultant with the Asian Development Bank, which is backing the $146 million project, had asked the government to take immediate action against the NGOs.

NGO ban questioned

Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen allegedly approved a recommendation from Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon that foreign NGOs be banned from doing advocacy work in Cambodia, according to documents received late yesterday by the Post.

In an accompanying translation of the yet-to-be verified June 17 letter, he also agreed to a call for Cambodian NGOs that do advocacy not to have foreigners involved in them. The letter also includes a recommendation that the Council of Ministers speed up its review and implementation of the draft law on associations and NGOs.

The recommendations followed sharp criticism from NGOs of the resett-lement impacts of the US$141 million railway rehabilitation project, which is funded by the Asian Development Bank and AusAID.

Hun Sen gave his approval to the recommendations on June 19, according to the copy of the documents. The letter had been photographed, apparently by a cell phone, is marked with the Finance Ministry’s stamp and is accompanied by what appears to be Hun Sen’s signature.

ADB denies requesting action against Cambodian NGOs

September 21, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The Asian Development Bank says it's found no evidence that one of its consultants asked the Cambodian authorities to take action against non-government organisations critical of resettlement conditions under an ADB-funded rail project.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael

Speaker: Nora Lindstrom, from Sahmakum Teang Tnaut; Peter Brimble, deputy country head of Asian Development Bank

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

CARMICHAEL: In his June 17 letter Finance Minister Keat Chhon asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to approve a number of actions.

The first was to prohibit foreigners and all foreign NGOs from advocacy work.

The second was for the government to speedily approve and implement the draft NGO Law - legislation the government says is necessary, but which many in civil society maintain is a legal noose with which to hang the sector.

And third he asked that other ministries take action to "nullify the eligibility" of several NGOs.

The NGOs involved have one thing in common: they monitor the living conditions of people forced to move in a project to upgrade the nation's decrepit railway. Around 4,000 families are affected.

STT blasts its suspension

Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

Land-Rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut yesterday called on authorities to “promptly and unconditionally” allow it to return to its work monitoring the rehabilitation of the country’s railways, following a report it said fully vindicated its claim that its August 2 suspension by the Ministry of Interior was politically motivated.

The report by news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur cited a June 17 letter from Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen in which an unidentified ADB consultant allegedly asked the government to take action against STT and NGO Bridges Across Borders Cambodia because the ADB was under pressure from them over its funding of the railway project.

A June 17 letter from the Ministry of Economy and Finance is referred to in the suspension letter sent to STT from the interior ministry, but the Post could not confirm its contents. STT, however, said yesterday, that the “letter was first shown to us, and parts of it read to us, during a meeting with the Ministry of Interior in July”. A spokesperson for STT said the letter was “also referred to in official meeting minutes from our meeting with the MoI”, but said its request for a copy of it had been denied. When asked to comment Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said STT’s suspension was “old news”. He also said it was not his responsibility to comment on any letter from a different ministry, but added that any NGO that wanted to work in Cambodia had to “act according to Cambodian law”.

Cambodian NGOs under the gun

Sep 20, 2011
By Sebastian Strangio
Asia Times Online

Keat Chhon cited an unnamed ADB consultant as saying the bank had come under "political pressure" from the two organizations, and asked the government to "take immediate action" to stem their activities. The minister also issued the following instructions for Hun Sen's approval: "Do not allow foreign NGOs to do advocacy work. Local NGOs who do advocacy work must not have foreigners involved or interfere."

PHNOM PENH -These are tough times for Cambodia's embattled non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As the government gears up to pass controversial legislation regulating the country's estimated 2,000 civil society groups, it has drawn strong criticism for a coordinated crackdown on land rights groups working on a foreign donor-funded railway renovation project.

On August 4, the Cambodian Ministry of Interior suspended the local organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), one of several involved with monitoring the resettlement of residents displaced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID-funded rail project. At first authorities claimed the suspension was due to inconsistencies in the group's paperwork, but soon tipped their hand.

"STT operated and incited people to oppose national development by the government in order to make the development partners suspend or stop the project," the ministry said in an August 14 statement.

The $141 million project will see the renovation of Cambodia's decrepit rail system and is set to impact around 4,000 poor families living along the tracks. But resettlement options for those affected have come under fire from STT and other land rights groups since May 2010, when two young children drowned at a resettlement site in Battambang province. STT has also accused the government of the "systematic downgrading" of land values along rail lines in a bid to short-change residents on compensation.

Asian Development Bank denies requesting action against NGOs

Sep 19, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - The Asian Development Bank on Monday dismissed accusations that one of its consultants asked Phnom Penh to act against groups monitoring one of its infrastructure development projects.

An internal investigation found 'no evidence' of any request for action against two rights groups that advocate for people affected by a 142-million-dollar railway rehabilitation project, ADB country head Putu Kamayana said.

His comments contradict a June 17 letter from Minister of Finance Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen, a copy of which the German Press Agency dpa has seen.

Keat Chhon wrote that an unidentified ADB consultant had asked the government to act against the groups STT and Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC).

In his letter, the minister asked Hun Sen to 'nullify (their) eligibility.'

'The ADB consultant has drawn the attention of the government officials to be careful with these NGOs, and requested the government take immediate action on this group of foreign NGOs because (the) ADB is also under political pressure caused by these NGOs,' he wrote.

NGO warnings: Rights envoy speaks out

Friday, 16 September 2011
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

NGO warnings

UN special rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi said yesterday he had spoken with the government regarding warnings issued to land-rights groups and the recent suspension of NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut.

“I have raised the suspension of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut and the warnings given to other human-rights NGOs working in the land sector in Cambodia,” he said.

Subedi added that he had also expressed concern that a draft law on associations and NGOs could restrict civil society.

NGOs appeal to Cambodian govt over rail settlement project

September 7, 2011 14:48:31
ABC Radio Australia

This week four non-governmental organisations working on the rail resettlement issue in Cambodia have been forced to defend their work.

The group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut was suspended by the Cambodian government, with two groups - Bridges Across Borders and Umbrella Organisation - receiving warnings.

They have all put their names to a media statement, including the Housing Rights Task Force.

The groups stress that they're not against development or this rail project, but say the people affected by the resettlement are "increasingly scared and fear that without the work of the NGOs monitoring the project, safeguard violations will remain unaddressed."

They say the suspension of STT and the warnings to others are likely to be detrimental to the project itself.

The four groups are appealing to the Cambodian government, Asian Development Bank and AusAID to fully implement their projects and policies.

This includes adhering to the ADB's Involuntary Resettlement Policy, which aims to resettle people in the same or better circumstances that they left.

Speaker: Liam Cochrane

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

Railway project in ADB’s sights

Tuesday, 06 September 2011 15:02
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

The Asian Development Bank said yesterday problems with a railway rehabilitation project – funded by the bank and AusAID – identified by a local NGO that was suspended by the government last month “may require further investigation or analysis”.

Last month, the government suspended the operations of local NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, which released a report in July that was critical of the project.

“In monitoring the implementation of resettlement under the project, STT identified issues and procedures that could be improved and, in some cases, may require further investigation or analysis,” Asian Development Bank country director Putu Kamayana said in an email yesterday.

He added that ADB reviews “have found that the living allowance set forth under the original Resettlement Plan is now insufficient due to rising food prices in recent years”.

Land rights acrimony in AusAID Asian project

September 06, 2011
Rebecca Puddy
The Australian

A TAXPAYER-FUNDED development project is mired in controversy after the Cambodian government launched a crackdown against land rights organisations critical of the compulsory resettlement of families.

The Cambodian government has cautioned a small group of foreign organisations against stirring up unrest among those being forced off their land and has banned land rights organisation Sahmakum Teang Tnaut from operating for five months.

AusAID first assistant director general Richard Moore told The Australian the agency was concerned and had co-written a strongly-worded letter with the Asian Development Bank to the Cambodian government on August 17.

AusAID has contributed $US21.5 million ($20.3m) towards the $US141m project to renovate Cambodia's decrepit rail system, with the Asian Development Bank providing $US84m in concessional loans.

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) - Press Release

http://www.box.net/shared/cg04on8vfbyc0r66tm6f

One in 10 a victim of evictions

Thursday, 30 April 2009
Written by Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

Local housing rights group claims 120,000 affected since 1990

AT least one in 10 Phnom Penh residents has been displaced or evicted from their home since private land ownership was reinstated two decades ago, a local housing rights advocacy group said Wednesday.

In a report issued Wednesday, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut estimates that 23,831 families - totalling around 120,000 people, or 10 percent of the city's population - have been the victims of land evictions since 1990.

The report also claims the figures, which were gathered from government and NGO sources in addition to the group's own studies, violated articles of the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Cambodia is a signatory.

According to the report, 2001 was the most active year for land evictions, witnessing the removal of 6,358 families, followed by 2006, which saw large-scale evictions from the Dey Krahorm and Sambok Chab communities.

Conservative figures

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut adviser Hallam Goad said the total was reached by counting households that were evicted and then multiplying by five - an estimate of the average number of members in each family.

But he said the report was still a work in progress and that the figures quoted were conservative. "No one has a complete list of all the evictions, and I'm sure there are a number of cases we have missed out on," he said Wednesday, adding that the figures also omit besieged urban communities currently facing eviction threats.

"The only direction these numbers are likely to go is up," he said.