Pictures don't lie. Is Amnesty International concocting evidence «to manipulate facts, exaggerate the situation and invent reality in Cambodia» or are evictions as real as these pictures show?
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's government denied Thursday that it illegally evicts poor people from their land, accusing an international human rights group of concocting the allegation to get publicity.London-based Amnesty International has tried «to manipulate facts, exaggerate the situation and invent reality in Cambodia» in making such allegations, the Cambodia's Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.The statement called the allegations deplorable and accused Amnesty of trying «to make sound bites and grab headlines in the news without due regard for truth and reality in the country.On Monday, Amnesty released a report titled «Rights Razed _ Forced evictions in Cambodia» that examined cases of land and housing rights violations that have affected poor Cambodians in both rural and urban areas in recent years.It said at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country now live at risk of being forcibly evicted due to land disputes, land-grabbing and commercial development projects.Catherine Baber, director of the group's Asia-Pacific Program, accused the Cambodian authorities of failing to protect people's rights and being «instrumental in demolishing villages, setting homes ablaze and making poor people homeless without due process and at the behest of those who wield economic and political power.The victims, Amnesty said, have been ejected from their homes and land with little or no advance notice, no access to adequate alternative housing and no recourse to justice.The evictions are in «sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the government's pro-poor policies and in breach of international human rights laws and standards,» Amnesty said.The Foreign Ministry said the government, in trying to establish public and social order, has to remove illegal occupants from state land.The authorities have always given those evicted «advance notice with a spirit of great tolerance,» the ministry said, adding that «there is absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia.
Ministry said in a statement.The statement called the allegations deplorable and accused Amnesty of trying «to make sound bites and grab headlines in the news without due regard for truth and reality in the country.On Monday, Amnesty released a report titled «Rights Razed _ Forced evictions in Cambodia» that examined cases of land and housing rights violations that have affected poor Cambodians in both rural and urban areas in recent years.It said at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country now live at risk of being forcibly evicted due to land disputes, land-grabbing and commercial development projects.Catherine Baber, director of the group's Asia-Pacific Program, accused the Cambodian authorities of failing to protect people's rights and being «instrumental in demolishing villages, setting homes ablaze and making poor people homeless without due process and at the behest of those who wield economic and political power.The victims, Amnesty said, have been ejected from their homes and land with little or no advance notice, no access to adequate alternative housing and no recourse to justice.The evictions are in «sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the government's pro-poor policies and in breach of international human rights laws and standards,» Amnesty said.The Foreign Ministry said the government, in trying to establish public and social order, has to remove illegal occupants from state land.The authorities have always given those evicted «advance notice with a spirit of great tolerance,» the ministry said, adding that «there is absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia.
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