Brittis Edman posed with the residents of Dei Krohome during her visit to Cambodia in February.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, April 4, 2008, -- Police, government officials and a private company have been trying to evict a group of poor residents in the urban Cambodian community of Dei Krohome, according to resident Touch Ratha.
Sitting in a wooden house, Ratha recounted a tale of intimidation, secrecy and the blurring of lines between state and corporate entities. Ratha's story is an increasingly common one in Cambodia, which is experiencing an unprecedented property boom that is literally changing the landscape of this impoverished country. It is also resulting in forced and -- according to housing and human rights groups -- unlawful evictions.
Many families have already left Dei Krohome, which means "Red Earth" in the Khmer language. They have accepted the company's offer of relocation to alternative land on the outskirts of Phnom Penh to avoid the campaign of harassment that Ratha says the company is undertaking.
"I said no to them because it is too far," she said of the relocation. "I want to live here near schools, electricity, fresh water and business opportunities. If I have to leave here, I will fall into poverty."
New offices and apartment stores overlook Dei Krohome, which is situated on prime riverside real estate in Phnom Penh.
It also abuts a block of flats designed by renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann in the 1960s that is now in serious need of refurbishment. Lines of laundry hang from the apartments, and the scorch marks of a past fire still scar the buildings.
"If they move on the Dei Krohome community, a lot of people think this building will be next," said Bunn Rachana, a project officer with the Housing Rights Task Force who is familiar with the case.
While reports of land grabbing date back to the 1980s, the current spike in forced evictions is unprecedented: it is the result of a real estate boom and an explosion in property speculation.
Many local and foreign observers believe the boom, which commenced in 2002, was partly kick-started with money repatriated by various Khmer business interests keen to escape increased scrutiny by international banks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Now it has taken a life of its own," one foreign observer said. "There is a lot of Asian money here, as well as a lot of investment, both domestic and international."
"We are even starting to see high risk, high return investment now coming into Cambodia post the sub-prime crisis in the United States. You can now measure increases in land prices in Phnom Penh and other major urban centers on a monthly basis," he added.
In February, Amnesty International released a report estimating that approximately 150,000 Cambodians currently face the threat of eviction from their homes -- "a modest estimate" according to Brittis Edman, a London-based Amnesty International researcher.
Although the report focused on rural areas where people are being evicted to make way for large-scale tourism and agricultural developments, it clearly states the problem is also happening in urban areas.
"It is not government policy because it is not written down anywhere, but it is becoming the practice of developers that if they want a piece of land and they are prepared to disregard the rules and procedures laid down, they can do it," Edman said. "This was not the case in the '90s."
The report also highlighted cases in which human rights defenders and land rights activists have been intimidated and arrested by the very people who are supposed to protect them: police and members of the armed forces.
"The Cambodian authorities are failing to protect -- in law and practice -- the population against forced evictions," it stated. "Government representatives are often actively involved in or fail to act when laws are applied selectively or bypassed altogether."
Echoing concerns expressed by local housing rights activists, Amnesty International said there is a marked increase in using the court system to silence activists.
There were more than 100 cases in 2007 of activists being accused, charged and sometimes convicted of incursion on private property.
"The element of collusion between state parties who claim land and authorities undermines any kind of protection that affected communities may have," Edman said.
"I consider the work we do to be dangerous," added Yeng Virak, executive director of the Community Legal Education Center, which represents local people in several high profile land cases. "Our people have been threatened and intimidated. NGOs have been accused of inciting people to use the legal process, which frankly I would think is funny, if it were not so serious."
The Cambodian government has denied that forced evictions are occurring.
At a recent donor meeting, Chhann Saphan, secretary of the ministry of land management, said persons evicted from land in Phnom Penh had been occupying it illegally.
Many Dei Krohome residents have been in the community since the 1980s. The government originally promised them a "social inclusion concession" under which a private company would get part of their land for commercial development in return for building new housing for the community.
Instead, the deal was changed and the residents were told to give up all of Dei Krohome to a private company, the 7NG Group, and accept new apartments 20 kilometers away on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The residents claim they were never asked nor did they agree to alternative housing away from their community and say a handful of community representatives signed a contract without their knowledge or consent.
Dei Krohome now resembles a battlefield. The houses of those who remain are interspersed with empty spaces where the homes of those who have chosen to leave once stood.
While many residents are nervous about talking to the media, Ratha agreed to discuss the lack of information provided by 7NG Group, as well as the company's efforts to intimidate the remaining families. She said the company has hired hooligans to make trouble and provoke residents, and has brought in bulldozers to knock down buildings.
Housing rights NGOs say the company is also resorting to legal action against a number of the residents, accusing them of various crimes.
A 7NG Group site office and showroom is situated around the corner from Dei Krohome. Security guards sit outside the office. A company representative said no one was available who could comment on the community's claims.
Given the determination of the community to stay, the 7NG Group recently changed tactics and offered to buy them out for $5,000 to $7,000 each.
"The residents believe this is nowhere near enough, given that land prices are currently running at between $5,000 and $6,000 per square meter and, at some places, up to $15,000," said the Housing Rights Task Force's Rachana.
Cambodia's land laws have gone through radically different regimes, and they have not kept pace with the decades of war and dislocation resulting in massive movements of people.
While many Cambodians live on land they clearly own, many others do not have clear title to their land. It is these grey areas that are the target of the current spate of land grabbing.
A new land law that was introduced in 2001 was hailed as a step forward, but it has yet to be fully implemented. Specifically, the most progressive aspects require the issuing of sub-decrees that are yet to be passed. Other aspects of the law, such as strict limits on the granting of land concessions larger than 10,000 hectares, have been ignored.
The upshot is that land ownership in Cambodia, already unequal, is getting worse. A recent World Bank report put the figure of landless rural poor at more than half a million and growing in 2007.
The situation is so serious that many say it could result in wider unrest. "Failure to open honest dialogue with the people, and to find fair solutions for them which respect the law and their land rights, will only worsen the situation and leader to broader civil unrest," said Naly Pilorge, director of a local human rights NGO called LICADHO.
Recently LICADHO joined several NGOs to call for a moratorium on involuntary evictions until the implementation of a strict legislative framework for resettlement rights.
Even Prime Minister Hun Sen appears to be taking notice. He has personally intervened in one dispute and threatened to dissolve the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes, seen by many as a lame duck, for its lack of activity.
Observers expect to see more action from the prime minister in the lead-up to national elections in July, but few believe there will be fundamental changes.
Sitting in a wooden house, Ratha recounted a tale of intimidation, secrecy and the blurring of lines between state and corporate entities. Ratha's story is an increasingly common one in Cambodia, which is experiencing an unprecedented property boom that is literally changing the landscape of this impoverished country. It is also resulting in forced and -- according to housing and human rights groups -- unlawful evictions.
Many families have already left Dei Krohome, which means "Red Earth" in the Khmer language. They have accepted the company's offer of relocation to alternative land on the outskirts of Phnom Penh to avoid the campaign of harassment that Ratha says the company is undertaking.
"I said no to them because it is too far," she said of the relocation. "I want to live here near schools, electricity, fresh water and business opportunities. If I have to leave here, I will fall into poverty."
New offices and apartment stores overlook Dei Krohome, which is situated on prime riverside real estate in Phnom Penh.
It also abuts a block of flats designed by renowned Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann in the 1960s that is now in serious need of refurbishment. Lines of laundry hang from the apartments, and the scorch marks of a past fire still scar the buildings.
"If they move on the Dei Krohome community, a lot of people think this building will be next," said Bunn Rachana, a project officer with the Housing Rights Task Force who is familiar with the case.
While reports of land grabbing date back to the 1980s, the current spike in forced evictions is unprecedented: it is the result of a real estate boom and an explosion in property speculation.
Many local and foreign observers believe the boom, which commenced in 2002, was partly kick-started with money repatriated by various Khmer business interests keen to escape increased scrutiny by international banks after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Now it has taken a life of its own," one foreign observer said. "There is a lot of Asian money here, as well as a lot of investment, both domestic and international."
"We are even starting to see high risk, high return investment now coming into Cambodia post the sub-prime crisis in the United States. You can now measure increases in land prices in Phnom Penh and other major urban centers on a monthly basis," he added.
In February, Amnesty International released a report estimating that approximately 150,000 Cambodians currently face the threat of eviction from their homes -- "a modest estimate" according to Brittis Edman, a London-based Amnesty International researcher.
Although the report focused on rural areas where people are being evicted to make way for large-scale tourism and agricultural developments, it clearly states the problem is also happening in urban areas.
"It is not government policy because it is not written down anywhere, but it is becoming the practice of developers that if they want a piece of land and they are prepared to disregard the rules and procedures laid down, they can do it," Edman said. "This was not the case in the '90s."
The report also highlighted cases in which human rights defenders and land rights activists have been intimidated and arrested by the very people who are supposed to protect them: police and members of the armed forces.
"The Cambodian authorities are failing to protect -- in law and practice -- the population against forced evictions," it stated. "Government representatives are often actively involved in or fail to act when laws are applied selectively or bypassed altogether."
Echoing concerns expressed by local housing rights activists, Amnesty International said there is a marked increase in using the court system to silence activists.
There were more than 100 cases in 2007 of activists being accused, charged and sometimes convicted of incursion on private property.
"The element of collusion between state parties who claim land and authorities undermines any kind of protection that affected communities may have," Edman said.
"I consider the work we do to be dangerous," added Yeng Virak, executive director of the Community Legal Education Center, which represents local people in several high profile land cases. "Our people have been threatened and intimidated. NGOs have been accused of inciting people to use the legal process, which frankly I would think is funny, if it were not so serious."
The Cambodian government has denied that forced evictions are occurring.
At a recent donor meeting, Chhann Saphan, secretary of the ministry of land management, said persons evicted from land in Phnom Penh had been occupying it illegally.
Many Dei Krohome residents have been in the community since the 1980s. The government originally promised them a "social inclusion concession" under which a private company would get part of their land for commercial development in return for building new housing for the community.
Instead, the deal was changed and the residents were told to give up all of Dei Krohome to a private company, the 7NG Group, and accept new apartments 20 kilometers away on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The residents claim they were never asked nor did they agree to alternative housing away from their community and say a handful of community representatives signed a contract without their knowledge or consent.
Dei Krohome now resembles a battlefield. The houses of those who remain are interspersed with empty spaces where the homes of those who have chosen to leave once stood.
While many residents are nervous about talking to the media, Ratha agreed to discuss the lack of information provided by 7NG Group, as well as the company's efforts to intimidate the remaining families. She said the company has hired hooligans to make trouble and provoke residents, and has brought in bulldozers to knock down buildings.
Housing rights NGOs say the company is also resorting to legal action against a number of the residents, accusing them of various crimes.
A 7NG Group site office and showroom is situated around the corner from Dei Krohome. Security guards sit outside the office. A company representative said no one was available who could comment on the community's claims.
Given the determination of the community to stay, the 7NG Group recently changed tactics and offered to buy them out for $5,000 to $7,000 each.
"The residents believe this is nowhere near enough, given that land prices are currently running at between $5,000 and $6,000 per square meter and, at some places, up to $15,000," said the Housing Rights Task Force's Rachana.
Cambodia's land laws have gone through radically different regimes, and they have not kept pace with the decades of war and dislocation resulting in massive movements of people.
While many Cambodians live on land they clearly own, many others do not have clear title to their land. It is these grey areas that are the target of the current spate of land grabbing.
A new land law that was introduced in 2001 was hailed as a step forward, but it has yet to be fully implemented. Specifically, the most progressive aspects require the issuing of sub-decrees that are yet to be passed. Other aspects of the law, such as strict limits on the granting of land concessions larger than 10,000 hectares, have been ignored.
The upshot is that land ownership in Cambodia, already unequal, is getting worse. A recent World Bank report put the figure of landless rural poor at more than half a million and growing in 2007.
The situation is so serious that many say it could result in wider unrest. "Failure to open honest dialogue with the people, and to find fair solutions for them which respect the law and their land rights, will only worsen the situation and leader to broader civil unrest," said Naly Pilorge, director of a local human rights NGO called LICADHO.
Recently LICADHO joined several NGOs to call for a moratorium on involuntary evictions until the implementation of a strict legislative framework for resettlement rights.
Even Prime Minister Hun Sen appears to be taking notice. He has personally intervened in one dispute and threatened to dissolve the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes, seen by many as a lame duck, for its lack of activity.
Observers expect to see more action from the prime minister in the lead-up to national elections in July, but few believe there will be fundamental changes.
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