In the news: Rights groups are uncertain controversial Boeung Kak project will meet the standards of its own environmental report

 

Children at Boeung Kak.

 

 

From the Phnom Penh Post Article (21 November 2008)

Highlights: Local rights groups highlight flaws in Developer’s arguments, question environmental commitment.

“… SHUKAKU Inc, the local developer filling in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake as part of a commercial and housing development, has manipulated its own environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) to justify construction, say local housing rights groups.
“… housing rights advocates have dismissed the argument that filling in the lake constitutes effective environmental management. 

“It’s a completely false argument,” said Hallam Goad, advisor to housing rights advocacy group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut. 

“The lake is polluted, for sure – partly through human effluent and partly through other kinds of waste materials – but you need to clean the lake, not fill it in.”

Goad also criticised sections of the report that claim the development “will not cause negative impacts to infrastructure systems”, or that it “will improve the traffic system in Phnom Penh” and attract up to US$2 billion worth of investment. 

“All I can see is that the $2 billion is the value of the real estate they will create by filling in the lake, which will go straight into their own pockets. In comparison to the key open space in the city, it doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.

In the News: Phnom Penh Resident Speaks Out in Editorial, “National Geographic Right about Phnom Penh”

From a Phnom Penh Post Ediorial by Moeun Cheean Nariddh (10/4/2008)

“In the article “Phnom Penh rated the second-worst city in the world to visit”, October 22, we feel like this rating by the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations is very correct as far as current development is concerned.

Personally, my family is now badly affected by the double problems caused by the city development, particularly the filling of Boeung Kak.

First, the filling of the lake has disturbed the grave of my eldest sister who was buried on a tiny island in the middle of the lake after she died as a baby some 60 years ago.

Second, the dumping of sewage water from the lake has flooded my and other people’s houses and schools in Russey Keo district. The sewage water brings human faeces, rotting rats and swarms of mosquito eggs into our houses.

One of my neighbours had to hire a crane to lift his car out of the house, because he could not drive through the deep sewage.

One of my sons has not been able to go to school since Monday due to the flooding.”

Actually, we favor any kind of development, but it should be done in a fair and sustainable manner.

Our houses would not be flooded if the developers pumped the sewage water from Boeung Kak slowly until the dry season comes in the next few weeks

To improve the next National Geographic rating, there should be a more sustainable and fair plan to develop Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia.

In the News: Radio Free Asia, Voice of Residents’ Eviction Fears

From the Article: “Lake Families Fear Eviction” (Radio Free Asia: 2008-11-06)

“I’m very worried. Under the Pol Pot regime we lost everything. Under the Lon Nol era, we also lost. Since 1979, we’ve had only what we have now, and if we lose this we will be finished. We don’t have anything to depend on,” Ros Sem said.

Some 4,000 families now live around Boeung Kak Lake, which is Phnom Penh’s main catchment for monsoon rain. This includes several hundred residents living on the lake in houses supported by stilts, many of them in disrepair.

Many have had their water supply shut off since September and some wonder if this is part of a bid to force them out, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Boeung Kak, Source: RFA

“We fear losing our homes, and we fear there will be violence,” said one, who asked not to be named. “[According to the law], anyone who has lived on the land for five years or so will be granted a legal title.”

“We haven’t received a title but we have suffered emotionally. We have voted for [these officials] through all four elections and they should be considerate towards us.”

In the News: Radio Free Asia Features Boeung Kak in Excellent Online Slideshow

Click Here to Visit the RFA website and view the sideshow.

In the News: 200 Residents Protest, take letter to South Korean Embassy

“Around 200 residents from among the 4,000 families that live at the Boeng Kak region in Srah Chak, Daun Penh, came on the morning or 27 October 2008 to protest in front of the South Korean Embassy in Cambodia, to ask the Korean ambassador to intervene with the Shukaku Inc. company to stop dredging sand to fill the Boeng Kak Lake, and to solve the compensation for houses and land of the residents through market prices.

“A letter of the Boeng Kak residents at Srah Chak, Daun Penh, Phnom Penh, on 24 October 2008, to the Korean ambassador in Cambodia, stated their concerns over their eviction from the Boeng Kak region.

“In the letter asking for an intervention by the South Korean ambassador in Cambodia, all residents at the Boeng Kak region said that they have lived in this area starting between 1979 and 1982, and they are recognized by the local authorities, having family books, residence cards, birth certificates, identification cards, house numbers, defined residential groups, villages, communes, and districts; furthermore, residents at the Boeng Kak region have access to clean water and electricity, and they have jobs such as working at guesthouses, shops, cosmetics, car maintenance, garments shops, hairdressers, washing and ironing shops, hardware shops etc.”

The letter details the request:

“To ask the Shukaku Inc. Company to stop dredging sand using it to fill the Boeng Kak Lake.

To ask the Shukaku Inc. Company to come to solve the effects on the land and on the houses of the residents living on the land and on stilt houses above the surface of the water, directly with the citizens, according to market prices.”

-Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3599, 28.10.2008, Translated by The Mirror

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 584

In the News: Lake Flooding Forces ‘Volunteer’ Exodus

From Voice of America, October 27th: “It is right to say either: we volunteered or were forced, because the company dredged to flood us,” she said. “We must leave. How can we stay? Speaking frankly they’re driving us away.”

More from the story:

Ny Chakrya, chief of the monitoring section for the rights group Adhoc, said the displacement was similar to those along the Tonle Bassac, except residents here were being forced out by floodwater and not gunpoint.

“It is not a principle of volunteering,” he said. “Volunteer removal means a negotiation in which neither side was put under pressure of any kind. Once one side acted to put another side aside; with no choice, it becomes a non-voluntary agreement. If it was to be a voluntary agreement from the people, [authorities] should not have created an impact on the daily living conditions of the people.”

Resident Neth Sophana and her family said they were being forced to leave under a “volunteer principle” espoused by Phnom Penh authorities and Shukaku.

“It is right to say either: we volunteered or were forced, because the company dredged to flood us,” she said. “We must leave. How can we stay? Speaking frankly they’re driving us away.”

Despite floodwater creeping into her house, forcing her to build small wooden walkways through the living room, resident Houth Srin said she would wait for a better offer. Borei Santepheap 2 was too far from services, she said, and the itchy feet caused by the dirty water was a small price to pay to hold out.

Meanwhile, she said, people who owned smaller houses were being separated from those with large houses by the city’s buyout plans. Those with small houses could take the money, but those with larger houses, like hers, would wait. That meant a unity of voice against the displacement was divided, she said.

Click here for the full story.

Click here for the story in Khmer audio.

In the News: Protester arrested.

Resident Pears Out From House (Source: Phnom Penh Post)

Arrests bring intimidation to Boeung Kak residents.

The Phnom Penh Post  (17 October 2008) reports that a community member was arrested this week by police in Boeung Kak:

“Nget Srey Leap, who rents a property in Village 4 and witnessed the arrest, said that the man was detained at around 10:30am. “He was escorted by a few policemen into a police car,” she said. “Our renters are mostly illiterate so we asked him, rather than the Boeung Kak residents, to help write down the names of protesters.”

She added that renters in her village planned to protest at the local commune office and the office of Boeung Kak project developer Shukaku Inc  Wednesday afternoon to ask for better compensation for villagers who have been renting houses in the Boeung Kak area since the 1980s. “But now we are afraid of protesting,” she said. 

 

– From the Post’s Article (Click Here to Read It)

In the News: Angry Boeung Kak residents say water supplies have been cut

In the Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 09 October 2008

“Residents living under threat of eviction say their lives got even more difficult when their supply of running water was turned off last month”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008100922048/National-news/Angry-Boeung-Kak-residents-say-water-supplies-have-been-cut.html

In the News: Eviction threatened villagers cite intimidation

In the Cambodia Daily

October 10th

Page 35

“Eviction threatened villagers cite intimidation“

Community representatives from across Cambodia gather in Phnom Penh to demand an end to land concessions, threats, intimidation and use of violence by companies and powerful people.

“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)

Where: World Vision rooftop (level 4).

House 20, Street 71, Sangakt Tonle Bassac, Phnom Penh

(100 meters south east of Bokor lights)

Date: Thursday 09 October 2008

Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Who: Representatives of communities around Cambodia (100 people+)

In June 2008, communities from 5 provinces that filed public complaints against land concessions and alleged land grabbings were subjected to harassment by the 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. In June, a public forum to discuss the complaints was also shut down by authorities.

At that time, key complaints from 5 provinces were delivered to the Government. The Minister for Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries promised that the issue would be investigated and promised that action would be taken. Since that time, however, communities have received no resolution to their complaints and in fact they have actually seen a growth in the number of land concessions or illegal land grabs.

In a mark of the solidarity amongst all the communities that are faced with eviction, land alienation and ongoing harassment, representatives from the 11 provinces will present their problems having, in the morning delivered formal complaints to the government. Representatives are from:

• Ratanakiri,
• Mondolkiri,
• Kampot
• Pursat
• Oddar Meanchey
• Kratie,
• Koh Kong
• Kompong Cham
• Kompong Chhnang,
• Preah Vihear
• Phnom Penh

The majority of these complaints are related the Cambodian Government granting Economic Land Concessions or allowing private land transactions to private companies in a manner that fails to comply with Cambodian Law.

A recent report by the UN describes the situation:

At the root of these concerns is poor enforcement of and compliance with the requirements of the Land Law and Sub-Decree on Economic Land Concessions, which govern the grant and management of economic land concessions. Essential pre-conditions to the grant of concessions, such as the registration of land as state private land and conduct of public consultations and environmental and social impact assessments, have not been met. Likewise, restrictions on the size and ownership of economic land concessions have not been properly enforced.

…Instead of promoting rural development and poverty reduction, economic land concessions have compromised the rights and livelihoods of rural communities in Cambodia.

United Nations Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Economic land concessions in Cambodia. A human rights perspective.

For more information please contact (only Khmer language)

Mr Seng Sokheng 092 324668

Mr Hor Samath 012 686074

Ms Pheoung Kimhoy 092 266454