By Laurent Le Gouanvic
Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 04/10 2008: Borei Keila families with HIV/AIDS, who were to receive social housing, had lived under an eviction threat for two years
©John Vink/ Magnum
Despite repeated condemnations from civil society and international community, the list of victims of forced evictions in Cambodia has kept growing. In July, several removal operations took place in Phnom Penh. After the residents of Dey Krohom in central Phnom Penh, whose houses were smashed to dust in January, their neighbours in Group 78, located in the Tonle Bassac area, were forced to leave their homes on July 17th. Similarly, several dozen families in Borei Keila, the majority of which carry HIV/AIDS and require healthcare, were relocated in successive rounds to the outskirts of the Cambodian capital in unsatisfying conditions, according to local NGOs. Again, protests multiplied, whether from the World Bank, donor countries, international media or online networks, while authorities continue to turn a deaf ear.
Déjà-vu
A video, shot in the morning of July 17th in the area known as Group 78 in Phnom Penh, and broadcast on the website of Cambodian human rights organisation Licadho, leaves an impression of déjà-vu: the same dusk bluish light, the same noises of tearing down corrugated iron, the same images of dozens of young workers in red shirts and equipped with pickaxes and bars as during the eviction on January 24th of Dey Krohom residents. But this time, no cries or violence: most of the approximately sixty families of Group 78 resigned themselves to leave and dismantled themselves their wood and metal houses, before security forces and hired workers intervened. The previous day, according to Licadho, they had ended up accepting a compensation of 8,000 dollars, supposed to allow them to find new housing. In the morning of July 17th 2009, human rights activists who were present reported that only a few resisting families had not taken down their houses. After a few hours of negotiations, they yielded as well, for an ultimate compensation of 20,000 dollars, Licadho specified, except for one family who allegedly refused to leave until the end and therefore saw their house be torn down against their will.
A dispute that ends without violence
This last episode put an end to a dispute that started more than three years ago between this Phnom Penh community on one side and, on the other, the municipal authorities and private company Sour Srun, who was granted the area under a concession for a real estate project. The case did not end in violence, as the residents eventually received compensation, but it nonetheless “represents another violation of the basic human rights of the people of Cambodia,” according to Dan Nicholson, coordinator of NGO COHRE (Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions), quoted in a joint statement by several Cambodian organisations, published on the very day of Group 78’s eviction.
Voluntary… by force
Yet, the Municipality praised itself for not resorting to violence, alleging that Group 78 families left of their own free will and will receive food aid in addition to financial compensation. The fallacy of the argument was denounced by Yeng Virak, executive director of CLEC, who also signed the statement, together with NGO Housing Rights Task Force and the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR): “The authorities cannot claim that what happened at Group 78 this morning, and over the past months and years, was 'voluntary' on the part of the residents. The families of Group 78 were never given any real choice - they were just subjected to a campaign of intimidation and threats by the authorities, which lasted for years, in order to wear them down into submission.”
23,000 people evicted in 2008, according to Amnesty International
Amnesty International, who also condemned this eviction against these families, some of which had “started moving into the area on the riverfront in 1983,” stressed that the procedure should have respected the 2001 Land Law and the judicial overview it requires, instead of a simple administrative decision by the Municipality of Phnom Penh, who took into account neither the opinion of people concerned nor alternatives suggested so their basic rights be respected. For the London-based organisation, this was yet another such violation in Cambodia: “In 2008 alone, Amnesty International received reports about 27 forced evictions, affecting an estimated 23,000 people.” Its calls for a moratorium on all mass evictions have fallen on deaf ears.
Series of official condemnations
Also ignored were the requests from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, who had officially asked the Cambodian government on several occasions to prevent new evictions, particularly against Group 78.
Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 03/06/2009: Group 78 residents, neighbours of Dey Krohom, had gradually anticipated their upcoming eviction
©John Vink/ Magnum
Similarly, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission delegation, the German, Australian, Bulgarian, Danish, U.S. and British embassies, as well as the Swedish and Danish development agencies (SIDA and DANIDA), did not influence the Cambodian authorities, although they published, on July 16th, a joint statement calling the government of Cambodia “to stop forced evictions from disputed areas in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in the country until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place and a comprehensive resettlement policy is developed.”
Media and Internet
Also in July, British radio BBC World Service devoted a 25-minute broadcast to forced evictions in Cambodia. It highlighted, among others, the case of residents in the area of Boeung Kak lake, in the heart of Phnom Penh, which is currently being filled and progressively cleared of the shacks to make way for a large private real estate project.
On the network devoted to forced evictions in Cambodia on social networking website Facebook, petitions and calls have multiplied to denounce human rights violations and raise awareness with the widest audience possible.
Worse than refugee camps
Not only have these calls proved vain regarding the fate of Group 78 families, but they did not allow to stop other ongoing developments. Families living in temporary shelters for over two years – most of which carry HIV/AIDS and are taking antiretroviral medication – and waiting for social housing in Borei Keila district, in central Phnom Penh, were again moved to Tuol Sambo, a district located over twenty kilometres from city centre and devoid of running water or adequate sanitation. A first group of about twenty families had been brought there in June. A second group followed at the end of July. The organisation Human Rights Watch described how in the site, families live in metal sheds “that are baking hot in the daytime” and have only difficult access to the healthcare essential to their survival. Too crowded and hot, “flanked by open sewers” and provided with only one well, the substandard housing is reported “to not meet minimum international standards for even temporary emergency housing,” as stressed in an open letter signed by over a hundred international organisations working on health, HIV/AIDS and justice (Act-Up, AIDS…).
The same signatories also denounced the lack of transparency in the system of allocation of social housing in Borei Keila, which HIV-affected families applied for but were denied by the authorities. Several of them reportedly ended up having their request granted, but remain in uncertainty and have no written commitment for the time being.
Discrimination in addition?
Finally, the organisations expressed concern about possible discrimination against the families evicted from Borei Keila, while the Cambodian government has been praised for its efforts in the fight against AIDS and for a greater access to prevention and care. Adjacent to the site where they were relocated in Tuol Sambo, there are brick houses equipped with sanitation facilities which are intended for other “relocated” families. The unsanitary site where HIV-affected families were resettled was already called by neighbouring residents the “AIDS village.”
The situation, called by Licadho an “epidemic” of land-grabbing, remains very worrying in Phnom Penh, but also in remote areas in the Kingdom. The financial crisis does not seem to have dented the lust for land, despite a relative slowdown in speculation. It also failed, for the time being, to open the eyes and ears of the Cambodian authorities, who do not seem to hear the voices nor see the images that are now circulating internationally.
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