Photo: VOA Khmer, A Cambodian evictee stands by her hut in Preah Sihanouk Province. She is among 100 families that were evicted from a disputed land in April 2007.Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh
Fishermen in the coastal province of Koh Kong have accused a Chinese-owned company of forcefully evicting more than 1,000 families from their land and businesses to clear space for new development.
Union Development Group Co., Ltd, from China was granted a 99-year contract in 2008 to develop for tourism 36,000 hectares of coastal area in Koh Kong province’s Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts.
Villagers said they have been relocated 20 kilometers away to a site where access to the sea is limited.
"In the past we never faced any difficulty," a fishery community representative, Tith Tein, said Tuesday at a press conference in Phnom Penh.
Villagers complained that the new location lacks enough clean water, electricity, roads, schools and access to health care.
"If we want to go fishing at the sea, we have to spend money on gasoline," said Lim Song, a villager from Botum Sakor. "There, we can only hunt wild animals and grow vegetables."
Tens of thousands of Cambodians support themselves and their families by fishing, both freshwater and in the ocean, often using techniques little changed from 100 years ago.
A Cambodian human rights group condemned the land swap as lacking “transparency.”
"At the old location villagers’ living condition was good,” said an Adhoc rights group investigator Yi Sok San. "There were schools for their children but at the new location there is mainly forest, and no health care service and some areas are ridden by malaria."
However, provincial authorities said they are working on improving the recently settled area and each family has been given decent pieces of land for housing and farming, according to Sorn Dara, deputy governor for Koh Kong.
Villagers said they have been relocated 20 kilometers away to a site where access to the sea is limited.
"In the past we never faced any difficulty," a fishery community representative, Tith Tein, said Tuesday at a press conference in Phnom Penh.
Villagers complained that the new location lacks enough clean water, electricity, roads, schools and access to health care.
"If we want to go fishing at the sea, we have to spend money on gasoline," said Lim Song, a villager from Botum Sakor. "There, we can only hunt wild animals and grow vegetables."
Tens of thousands of Cambodians support themselves and their families by fishing, both freshwater and in the ocean, often using techniques little changed from 100 years ago.
A Cambodian human rights group condemned the land swap as lacking “transparency.”
"At the old location villagers’ living condition was good,” said an Adhoc rights group investigator Yi Sok San. "There were schools for their children but at the new location there is mainly forest, and no health care service and some areas are ridden by malaria."
However, provincial authorities said they are working on improving the recently settled area and each family has been given decent pieces of land for housing and farming, according to Sorn Dara, deputy governor for Koh Kong.
4 comments:
Why people want to continue to live in slum? New developement will help me people with better life...People want to live in this kind of hut shelter??
Eventually slum areas, riverside areas and shanty towns will need to develop and beautify according to the plan for social, national progress. It is very hard on all sides. The very unfortunate displaced families are the most traumatized one.
The developer and authority should have plans for those who move to new place, ensuring that their new living condition should meet their daily normal needed activity and business.
The willingness to work out a compromise solution is best between the developer and the displaced persons. The court should be fair and just if those above parties failed to reach agreement.
Fairness is the key word here. Exploitation should be avoided and condemned.
1 March 2012 8:25 AM, So in your opinions, about $600 for each families is all they need to beautify the country??
1 March 2012 9:57 AM,please read my 2nd paragraph:
"The developer and authority should have plans for those who move to new place, ensuring that their new living condition should meet their daily normal needed activity and business."
I certainly hope that you are not cynical.I lived abroad so I did not know how much each displaced family received from the developer and that is why I wanted the authority and developer make sure that the poor folks can survive in new place as they normally have had before or should even be better.
Not in a million years would I think or voice my opinion that $600 per family is what the developers have to spend to compensate each affected families.
Post a Comment