LIBRARY

2 March 2009

On 24 January, 2009 hundreds of families were forcibly evicted from Dey Krahorm in the heart of Phnom Penh. In the month following the eviction, residents struggled with the poor living conditions at the Damnak Trayeoung relocation site while others mounted protests to demand proper compensation for their stolen land and destroyed houses. However, for three former Dey Krahrom residents the repercussions of their struggle to save their land now includes criminal convictions.

19 February 2009

750 ethnic minority families in Kratie Province, Cambodia are embroiled in a land dispute over farming land, that the provincial authorities say they have leased to a private company for a rubber plantation. In October 2008 the bulldozers came into clear the land and the villagers were there to stop them.

(Music courtesy of the Messengers Band)

8 February 2009

In the early morning hours of Saturday January 24, 2009 approximately 500 demolition workers escorted by 300 mixed police in full riot gear surrounded the community of Dey Krahorm. Their mission, to forcibly evict the approximately 400 families that were living on the disputed land in the heart of Phnom Penh.

At 6am the police armed with electric and steel batons, wooden sticks, tear gas, water cannons and guns moved towards the remaining Dey Khrahorm families who had erected barricades and stood defiantly in front of their houses. The police were able to brake through the villagers' lines and disburse them with the use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber projectiles.

30 January 2009

LICADHO once more calls upon the government and the 7NG company to urgently ensure adequate compensation for all the families who were brutally evicted from Dey Krahorm on January 24.

LICADHO is deeply concerned that 7NG continues to refuse to provide cash compensation to an estimated 144 evicted house owners, insisting that instead it will only provide some (and not all) of them with apartments at the Damnak Trayeoung relocation site outside of Phnom Penh city. 7NG has imposed a deadline of January 31 for 85 of the house owners to register to accept apartments or they will receive nothing at all.

"7NG needs to get serious about providing adequate compensation to these evicted home owners, instead of imposing arbitrary deadlines and issuing threats that these people will receive nothing," said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. "It is long overdue that 7NG starts to do the right thing, instead of continuing its thuggish behavior.

27 January 2009

This video is a compilation of footage captured by human rights monitors on January 24, 2009 during the violent eviction at Dey Krahorm. Video footage courtesy of Platapus, LICADHO, LICADHO Canada, Bridges Across Borders, and Karl Bille.

25 January 2009

On Saturday, January 24, 2009, hundreds of police and military police helped a private company into forcefully evicting Dey Krahorm community in central Phnom Penh.

24 January 2009

We strongly condemn the forced eviction of Dey Krahorm residents which began at 6 a.m. on Saturday 24 January, 2009. This was carried out by over 300 police officers and up to 500 breakers hired by the private company 7NG. It is yet another example of the violent evictions taking place across Cambodia which are in danger of destabilizing the country.

Today's eviction was marked by excessive use of force endangering the lives of Dey Krahorm residents, and resulting in over 18 injuries ‐ 5 of which were serious. It also saw the systematic destruction of private property, while the police and breakers hired by 7NG blocked attempts by human rights observers and the press to monitor and report on the event.

17 January 2009

LICADHO condemns the actions of military police officers who have committed violence, including shooting two people, while assisting a private company to unlawfully grab villagers' land in Kandal Stung district of Kandal province.

Over the past few days, police and military police have been deployed to help workers from the Heng Development Company to try to confiscate villagers' farmland - in violation of a 2006 court verdict which upheld the villagers' right to the land.

On Friday, January 16, two villagers were shot by military police during the community's attempts to prevent bulldozers owned by the company from encroaching on their land. According to a LICADHO doctor who saw the victims, one of the men was shot in the arm and also had bullet fragments removed from his stomach. The other suffered a deep wound from a bullet fragment which struck his waist. Both men, aged 23 and 28, remain hospitalized.

19 December 2008

The Borei Keila social land concession: the Government's commitment to housing Phnom Penh's urban poor - new apartments for families in exchange for land given to commercial developers. Borei Keila was the first of four social land concessions in Phnom Penh and was meant to be the model alternative to the eviction and off-site relocation of the city's urban poor. Now over 5 years later, only 3 out of 10 apartment buildings have been completed and only 30% of families have received their promised apartments while the remaining families continue to live in squalid conditions awaiting the construction and allocation of their apartments.

11 December 2008

In February 2007 the Municipality of Phnom Penh entered into a 99-year lease agreement for US$79 million for 133 hectares, including Boeung Kok lake and surrounding land, with a private developer, Shukaku Inc, owned by a ruling party senator. According to the government, the company will turn the area into "pleasant, trade, and service places for domestic and international tourists," including by filling in 90% of the lake.

On 26 August 2008 a company began filling the lake, which has worsened flooding and caused the destruction of some houses. The development will lead to the eviction of almost 4,000 families, despite many of the affected families having strong legal claims to the land under the Land Law.

4 December 2008

Open Letter by International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Regarding
the Forced Eviction of Residents of Boeung Kak Lake in the Phnom Penh Municipality.

We write to you to express our deep concerns about recent developments affecting residents of the
Boeung Kak Lake area in central Phnom Penh. Some residents near the lake have been forcibly evicted,
while others are facing eviction amid rising water levels, and threats and harassment.

18 November 2008

LICADHO calls for the immediate suspension of an ongoing violent eviction led by Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers in Kampot province which has seen numerous homes burned down and at least three people injured by beatings.

Since yesterday, armed soldiers from RCAF Infantry Brigade 31, along with police, military police and Forestry Administration officers, have been trying to evict approximately 300 families from land in Anlong Kraom village, Taken commune, Chhuk district of Kampot. They burned down about 130 wooden shacks belonging to the families yesterday, and most of the remaining 170 homes today. They have instructed all the families to leave the area by tonight.

The evicted families are not being offered any alternative land but simply being told to leave the area. The people whose houses were destroyed yesterday spent last night sleeping in the ashes of their burned homes.

18 November 2008

RCAF Brigade 31 led an armed group to forcefully evict 300 families in Ta Ken commune, Chhuk district, Kampot.

29 October 2008

The filing of criminal charges against nine community representatives from around Cambodia in the past week highlight the widespread misuse of the law against communities who try to defend themselves in land disputes, LICADHO said today.

"Community representatives continue to be arrested, charged and imprisoned because of their efforts to assist fellow villagers to protect their land," said LICADHO president Kek Galabru. "Frequently, there is no justification whatsoever for the charges against them - the law is simply misused as a weapon to try to intimidate their communities into giving up land."

In the past week, nine community representatives from three provinces have been arrested and charged by the courts, and six of them sent to prison for pre-trial detention.

8 October 2008

Tomorrow, in a mark of solidarity amongst all the communities that are faced with eviction, land alienation and ongoing harassment, community representatives from 11 provinces will publicly present their land complaints, after having formally delivered the complaints to the authorities in Phnom Penh.

“Not only is our land being given away, we are facing increasing intimidation and violence. The problem is getting worse. We have no choice but to gather together and have a combined voice”. Community representatives from across Cambodia, Mr Som Chaing (Preah Vihear province) Mr. Sarine Kait (Kratie province) Mr. Rajom Tweng (Ratanakiri province) Ms. Laon Ceevy (Pursat province)

"Systematic threats, violence and intimidation continue to be targeted against human rights defenders, especially those working on land issues. Only through genuine consultation and engagement of the affected communities will there be any resolution." Kek Galabru, President of the Cambodia League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO)

In June 2008, communities from 5 of the provinces that had filed complaints against land concessions and alleged land grabbings were subjected to harassment by local authorities, including restrictions on their movement and ability to hold meetings, and police threats preventing the delivery of complaints to authorities in Phnom Penh. There have also been reports of physical violence and other threats and intimidation targeting community representatives who organized the filing of complaints.

6 June 2008

On June 6, 2006, more than 1000 families were violently expelled from their homes in Sambok Chap village in inner city Phnom Penh. The residents were forced onto trucks and taken to be dumped in an open field at Andong, 22km from central Phnom Penh - their new 'home'. There was no shelter, electricity, running water, schools, health services or readily-available employment nearby.

Today 6 June 2008 marks the two year anniversary of the eviction, the site of their former homes in Sambok Chap - slated for commercial development by a private company - remains bare and unused, while the evictees continue to live in squalor at the Andong relocation site.

4 June 2008

In the past week the number of villagers coming to Phnom Penh to highlight land grievances shows the continuing dire situation of land-grabbing in Cambodia.

"People are still coming to Phnom Penh from all over the country, desperate for government officials to listen to their land problems and resolve them," said Kek Galabru, LICADHO's president. "This shows that land-grabbing is still rampant and that villagers are unable to get their grievances heard anywhere else."

Last week in just a short period of 48 hours, five groups of villagers from five provinces came to Phnom Penh because of unresolved land problems.

29 May 2008

The number of villagers coming to Phnom Penh to highlight land grievances - with people from five provinces arriving in the capital within the past 48 hours - shows the continuing dire situation of land-grabbing in Cambodia.

"People are still coming to Phnom Penh from all over the country, desperate for government officials to listen to their land problems and resolve them," said Kek Galabru, LICADHO’s president. "This shows that land-grabbing is still rampant and that villagers are unable to get their grievances heard anywhere else."

25 March 2008

Pring Pov, the Kep policeman who has been unlawfully detained for more than one month by the Ministry of Interior, was sent by police to Monivong Hospital yesterday. The Cambodia Human Rights and Development Organization (ADHOC) and the Cambodian League for Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (LICADHO) are deeply concerned for his health and once more call for his immediate release.

Pring Pov, a district police officer in Kep municipality, was arrested without court warrant on February 18, 2008, and has subsequently been detained in a cell by the Order Police at a Ministry of Interior compound in Phnom Penh. He has been beaten and kept in handcuffs for at least some of that time, according to credible information received by ADHOC and LICADHO.

11 March 2008

The Cambodian League for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (LICADHO) is gravely concerned by the unlawful detention and alleged torture of a man in the custody of the Ministry of Interior.

Mr Priep Pov, a Damnak Chang’aeur district policeman from Kep Municipality, was arrested without court warrant in Kep on February 18. Transferred to Phnom Penh on the same day, he has since been detained for three weeks at a compound used by the Ministry of Interior's Order Police and the Intervention Police units. He has been beaten and kept shackled with handcuffs by foot and hand for at least some of that time, and is in poor health, according to credible information received by LICADHO.