Borei Keila Evictions, Cambodia

     The United Nations defines forced evictions as “the involuntary removal of persons from their homes or land, directly or indirectly attributable to the State” and are prohibited under international law.  Amnesty International has been dismayed by continuing forced evictions across Cambodia, together with repressive actions taken against those who oppose these evictions.  Most recently, 24 women and 6 children forcibly evicted from the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh were arrested on 11 January during a peaceful protest. They are being arbitrarily detained, and are at risk of ill-treatment.  Another 8 (possibly more) were arrested the previous week during the course of the eviction itself.

     The 30 women and children were among a group protesting peacefully in Phnom Penh against the detention of around eight people arrested during the forced eviction of Borei Keila on 3 January 2012. The women and children were arrested and taken to Prey Speu Social Affairs Center in Phnom Penh. The Center is used by the authorities to arbitrarily detain homeless people, drug users, and sex workers rounded up from the streets. Human rights NGOs have previously reported that detainees there have been subjected to abuses including rape, murder, and threats of violence. No human rights monitors have been able to visit the 30 women and children in the Center.
      On 3 January, the homes of around 300 families living in Borei Keila were destroyed by workers from a construction company which had acquired some of the land in 2003. Human rights monitors and media reported that security forces who were present used tear gas and rubber bullets against the residents, and rocks, logs and bottles were thrown during clashes. More than 64 people were reportedly injured. At least eight of the residents were arrested, and remain in detention. The charges against them are not known. Most of those evicted have been moved to two separate sites. Conditions at one site, Srah Po, 45 kilometres from Phnom Penh, are reportedly poor, with no adequate sanitation or housing. Some families have only received a plot of land and are living under tarpaulins, others have not been given anything. Many lost their possessions when their homes were destroyed.

      Forced evictions can have catastrophic effects for people who already live in poverty. In Cambodia and elsewhere, they result not only in people losing their homes, neighborhoods and personal possessions, but also their social networks and the break-up of communities.  People are often left homeless or relocated to remote areas. In both these situations, people may also no longer be able to access sources of clean drinking water, food, sanitation, work, health, and education.

     Amnesty International urges the government of Cambodia to take steps to ensure that legal rights are upheld for the residents of Borei Keila and other contested properties.  In particular, we ask that the government take steps to:

•            Immediately release the 30 peaceful women and children protesters who were detained on 11 January and are now being detained at Prey Speu Social Affairs Center;
•            Conduct a full and independent investigation into the forced eviction of some 300 families living at Borei Keila, Phnom Penh on 3 January, including into why the eviction took place, and the apparent excessive use of force by security forces;
•            Release the (at least) eight villagers who were arrested on 3 January, pending further investigations;
•            Suspend and prosecute those members of the security forces responsible for excessive use of force in the eviction of Borei Keila;
•            Ensure adequate compensation and suitable alternative accommodation that meets international standards for all those forcibly evicted to be provided with for adequate housing.
•            Prevent further forced evictions in Cambodia, in accordance with international law.  

What can you do?  

Use the points listed above to write to:

Prime Minister Hun Sen

Prime Minister’s Office

Phnom Penh

Cambodia

Fax: + 855 23 212 490/+855 23 880 624

mfaicasean@bigpond.com.kh

pressocm@gmail.com

Click here for the most current Urgent Action on these evictions.

Cambodia: Eviction and Resistance -- Five Women Tell Their Stories

Sophal
Part two of a five part series

     Sophal was 11 years old when, in 1990, her family bought a plot of land in Dey Krahorm, built a house and moved in.  In the years that followed, the village and Phnom Penh changed dramatically around her.  The Paris Agreements, aimed at ending decades of internal conflict, were signed in 1991 and soon afterwards the city saw an influx of foreigners working for the UN and a myriad of development organizations.  The city centre experienced rapid urbanization, as Cambodians sought to be a part of the new era of economic development.
     Sophal grew up feeling optimistic about life and had dreams of becoming a professional seamstress.  When she was old enough she began to run a small business as a manicurist and tailor from her home, which meant that people living around the village often dropped by.  She married a young man from the village, Sokha.
     By the mid-2000's, Dey Krahorm was under threat.  The Municipality of Phnom Penh, in conjunction with companies, was systematically razing old housing communities around the Tonle Bassac area to make way for luxurious buildings.  The families who had settled or bought land in Dey Krahorm and the surrounding villages were sitting on some of the most valuable real estate in Phnom Penh.  As land prices rose exponentially, businesspeople and government officials set their sights on these "untoward" villages. 
    No formal land titles had been issued to the approximately 800 households in Dey Krahorm, although many had been recognized through documentation issued by local authorities over the years. Sophal and her husband eventually learned that a company called 7NG had been granted title to their house in December 2006.  In 2005, 7NG had already begun its overtures to community leaders in Dey Krahorm to swap the land for houses build on cheap property at Damnak Trayoung, on the outskirts of the city.  Residents were pressured to either move to a flat in Damnak Trayoung or agree to an alternative offer of US $8,000 in compensation. 
     Though hundreds of the 800 original families dismantled their houses and left, Sophal's family did not agree.  She knew that she would have lost all the employment connected to her house, and that there would be no income.  For those families like Sophal's that made the decision to reject the offer, the company threats turned into violence.
     "Sometimes the company came at night," recalls Sophal.  "They came at night to pull down the houses...they handcuffed people, and broke their heads...people wearing military boots kicked people.  I saw this directly." 
    

Cambodia: Eviction and Resistance -- Five Women Tell Their Stories

Mai
Part one of a five part series*
     Mai was five months pregnant in October 2009 when she was arrested and thrown in jail.  She had travelled more than 250km from her homeland in the remote north-west province of Oddar Meanchey to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, to ask prime Minister Hun Sen to help her community get its land back.  For her efforts, she was accused of violating the Forestry Law and dumped behind bars.
     A few days earlier Mai had watched helplessly as her home and 118 other houses in her village, Bos, were bulldozed and burned to the ground by a force of some 150 police, military police, forestry administration officials and other individuals villagers believed to be company workers.  
     In 2008, Angkor Sugar Company was granted a concession over 6,500 hectares encompassing Mai's village.  Both the company and the authorities failed to give families living in the area adequate information about the concessions or the status of their rights to their housing and farmland. Families were not consulted about the company's plans or about how they would be affected  Ignoring the protests of local residents company workers reportedly began clearing the villagers' rice fields, including Mai's, to plant sugar cane soon after the concession was granted.  Mai explains that the workers kept the rice crop for themselves, which left Mai and her community without the staple food that the depended on to sustain them through the year ahead.  
     The first demolition of village housing occurred in April 2008 and was followed by a campaign of threats and intimidation designed to get the remaining families to leave.  Residents said that they were pressured to accept alternative land plots assigned to them by the authorities.  If the didn't, they were told they would receive nothing and be put under criminal investigation.  
     Mai was arrested in Phnom Penh after she attempted to flee from police  during the night.  Her husband escaped, and she has not heard from him since that night.  She has heard that he may be in Thailand, but no one can confirm his whereabouts.  She spent the next eight months behind bars, enduring a difficult pregnancy and birth, and struggled to nourish her newborn son despite a diet of dirty and nearly inedible rice.  When Mai was brought before a judge, she was told that she would be released if she signed an agreement to withdraw all claims to her land in Bos village and accepted replacement land. Mai signed the agreement and travelled back to Oddar Meanchey.  She never received the promised plot of land.
Hoy Mai spoke to Amnesty International on 17 March 2011.

*The full report will be available later this month.

Stop Evictions in Cambodia

     On the eve of World Habitat Day, gunshots were fired into the air of Boeung Kak Lake Village 22, in the heart of Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh. 

In February 2007, Shukaku Inc. paid $79 million for a 99-year lease of the lake and surrounding land, which was occupied by thousands of families, many of whom legally owned the property they inhabited.  The company – which is headed by Lao Meng Khin, a senator affiliated with the ruling party and chairman of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce – began filling in the lake in 2008.  After all, the 1-km² lake was situated on prime real estate.  No mind that it was essential to the livelihoods of many families who fished in the lake, or worked along the waterfront.  Or that for thousands of people it was home.  Or that the lake was both a beautiful space for all in the city – and key to preventing urban floods during the rainy season.  The lake is now being systematically filled in, and the surrounding residents removed to make way for high-end property development.  Some 4,000 families have already been evicted.  Compensation is in many cases far less than the value of their property. 

     The United Nations defines forced evictions as “the involuntary removal of persons from their homes or land, directly or indirectly attributable to the State.”  Those subject to forced evictions, as defined by the UN, have legitimate claims to the property in question and these claims are subverted by authorities without adequate compensation.  Evictions are widespread throughout the world, and in Cambodia have become especially widespread.  It’s not just Boeung Kak Lake.   All across Cambodia, poor people – and many who are not-so-poor, are having their homes and properties sold out from under them.  They are forcibly removed under threat of violence, and often end up in the direst of circumstances.  According to a recent article in The Guardian, 30,000 people are displaced by forced evictions annually in Cambodia.

     The good news is that international pressure can make a difference – and in a context where authorities intimidate (and worse) activists, journalists, and NGOs, support from Amnesty International and human rights supporters around the world is essential.  In August of this year, the World Bank suspended further lending after NGOs raised critical issues around the “development” of Boeung Kak Lake.  Please add your voice opposing forced evictions in Boeung Kak Lake and across Cambodia.