Phnom Penh: 800 Threatened with Unlawful Eviction

What is affected

	Housing private
	Land Social/public

Type of violation

Forced eviction
Dispossession/confiscation

Date

01 February 2005

Region

A [ Asia ]

Country

Cambodia

Location

Monivong Community1

Affected persons

	Total 800
	Men 0
	Women 0
	Children 0

Proposed solution

The Royal Government should be urged, pressured, and assisted by all parties to tackle this problem head-on in order to reverse current trends, and to vigorously implement policies and programmes that will promote and protect the right to land tenure secu

Details

COHRE- Cambodia 1006.doc

Development

Forced eviction

Costs

Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies)

	State
	TNC
	The Royal Group, which is financed by major international companies such as ANZ Bank and Millicom International Cellular S.A

Brief narrative

UN Investigator Calls for Halt to Forcible Evictions in Cambodia, Iran Geneva, 29 June 2006A U.N. special investigator on Adequate Housing says the forcible evictions of tens of thousands of poor, ethnic minorities in Cambodia and Iran is a human rights crisis. The investigator is calling on the international community to condemn these violations which target the poor and vulnerable and to press these governments to stop their land grabs. U.N. special investigator, Miloon Kothari, calls land grabbing and land-swapping a persistent problem throughout Cambodia. He says it is particularly marked in the capital, Phnom Penh, where prime land is confiscated and given to developers to create, what he calls, playgrounds for the rich. He says the most recent evictions occurred on June 7. At that time, he says some 2,000 families were brutally thrown out of their homes in the Bassac area of Phnom Penh. He says the area was sealed off while police violently removed the inhabitants to another place where conditions are very bad and life threatening. Shortly after that, he says, he was informed that more evictions were imminent in the Monivong Hospital area. We just heard this morning that the eviction is beginning in the Monivong Hospital area, he said. And, again the same strategies followed where the area is cordoned off. At about three o’clock in the morning today, 150 policemen equipped with automatic rifles, guns, electric batons, tear gas blocked off the roads to the hospital… The intention is to evict 168 families with very little compensation. Kothari is calling for a moratorium on all evictions....http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-06/2006-06-29-voa26.cfm?CFID=132973562&CFTOKEN=40306496Former King Intervenes in Monivong Community Eviction Ratana Seng, Phnom Penh, 04/07/2006 Ex King Norodom Sihanouk intervenes in the Monoving community residents’ eviction by the Ministry of Interior, whose houses will be demolished by Wednesday. In a message to Royal Palace official Kong Sam Ol, posted in his personal website, the former monarch appeals to the government to find justice for the people who live in a community for destitute people who have been there for almost 20 years. Government spokesman and minister of information Khieu Kanharith says that he does not know about the whole situation yet. He says that he has not received any document or message from the Royal Palace. He says that the Phnom Penh city hall arranges for a new place in Ang Snuol town, Kandal province for those residents.About 118 families were ordered by Chief of National Police Hok Lundi to vacate the premises and their houses be demolished by Wednesday July 5. The gates are closed, and electricity and water are shut off. NGO Licadho director Pung Chhiv Kek expresses her dismal at the governmnent’s use of violence on the people for the benefit of private companies for development. http://voanews.com/Khmer/archive/2006-07/2006-07-04-voa4.cfmNo further information or follow up from sources on record to indicate fate of this community.

Costs

€ 0

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