LICADHO fears an imminent forced eviction of the Dey Krahorm community in Phnom Penh, and urges the Phnom Penh Municipality and the 7NG company to cancel any such plans.

According to information received from several sources, authorities were planning to use a large number of police and military police to conduct an eviction of Dey Krahorm early this morning. The plan was called off at the last minute, because information about it had leaked, but may have only been delayed until later this week or next week.

LICADHO is deeply concerned that the authorities are considering an eviction, and believes there is no legal basis for such action. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has yet to rule on a lawsuit filed by Dey Krahorm families to assert their land rights, and any eviction ordered prior to a court ruling would be arbitrary and unlawful.

In addition, the 7NG company itself has publicly stated in the past that at least some of the families remaining at Dey Krahorm are lawfully there. Therefore, the company is obliged to seek a negotiated settlement with these families - not an eviction - if it wishes to have their land.

Several days ago, according to villagers, 7NG increased the price it is offering to the Dey Krahorm homeowners to purchase their land. While LICADHO is pleased at this sign of the company’s willingness to renew negotiations with the villagers, it is regrettable that eviction plans are apparently being considered at the same time.

Earlier this month, after 7NG workers and police provoked confrontations with residents by attempting to install roadblocks around Dey Krahorm, a municipal official said that the municipality would facilitate renewed negotiations between the two sides to try to find a settlement to the land dispute.

LICADHO urges:

- The Phnom Penh Municipality should give a public assurance that it is not considering ordering a forced eviction of Dey Krahorm.

- If the municipality is not willing to do this, it should publicly clarify what it considers the legal status of the remaining Dey Krahorm families to be, and on what legal basis an eviction would be justified.

- 7NG should continue negotiations with the remaining families at Dey Krahorm, and refrain from any actions which would raise doubt about its sincerity in these negotiations.

- As a sign of their good faith, and in the interests of showing transparency and fairness, 7NG and the community should permit independent third parties to be observers to the negotiation process.

LICADHO continues to hope that 7NG, the Phnom Penh Municipality, and senior levels of the Royal Government of Cambodia will recognize that another forced mass eviction in Phnom Penh is not in their best interests, or those of the residents affected.

The government’s declaration of Dey Krahorm as a social land concession in 2003 was supposed to be a model housing project which would allow commercial development of the area while also fully respecting the land and property rights of the poor villagers living there. Only a negotiated settlement - not a mass eviction - will achieve this objective, and ensure that the project truly benefits the poor Cambodian citizens it was intended to.

For background information on the Dey Krahorm land case, see
http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports.php?perm=115

For more information, please contact:
▪ Kek Galabru, LICADHO President, 012 802506

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer