Slum evictions highlight dark side of Cambodia's building boom

Rubbish is seen scattered across the grounds at Dey Krahom village, a slum in Phnom Penh. Amid the rotting trash and shards of bricks, small squares of tile flooring are the only evidence of the homes that once packed into the capital's Dey Krahom neighbourhood, which is slated for demolition.(AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

by Seth Meixner
Thu Feb 21, 2008

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Amid the rotting trash, shards of bricks and floor tiles are the only evidence of the homes that once packed into the Cambodian capital's Dey Krahom neighbourhood, which is slated for demolition.

But a few dozen families are refusing to leave this slum, located on a wedge of once worthless property that is now part of a multi-million-dollar development scheme.

Their standoff with authorities has put them on the front line of an increasingly violent conflict over land in Cambodia that has seen dozens killed and tens of thousands evicted from their homes over the past few years.

Impoverished Cambodia is in the midst of a building boom that has caused land prices to skyrocket across the country.

Realtors estimate that the cost of prime pieces of property in Phnom Penh can top 3,000 dollars a square metre (yard), a six-fold increase from eight years ago.

Even the vast swathes of wasteland, where the city's poorest have lived for years in squalid camps, are up for grabs.

It is here, rights groups say, that the human cost of this development is being counted in the loss of homes and jobs.

"There is this unprecedented development boom in Phnom Penh, but on the other hand there's more lawlessness, more landlessness," said an activist with a legal aid organisation that has worked extensively with the victims of landgrabbing.

"The people who are losing out are the poor people, despite the fact that they have certain rights," he said, not wanting to be named.

After years of complete breakdown, Cambodia's land titling system is in disarray and doubts over ownership -- in Dey Krahom and elsewhere -- are often at the heart of evictions.

While villagers often claim to have some legal title to their properties, developers and the government insist that most of these families are nothing more than squatters and say their removal is necessary as Cambodia lurches out of the chaos of the post-war years.

In their place, Cambodia's leaders -- trying to propel their battered country towards prosperity -- have envisioned vast complexes of modern office towers and luxury shopping, condominiums and public parks.

"There are absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia," Cambodia's foreign ministry said in a statement released in mid-February, responding to accusations by the rights group Amnesty International that the government was pushing people from their land illegally.

"Cambodia in some cases has to re-establish public and social order, such as in the case of turning the streets into market places, living on the sidewalks and in the parks, and illegally occupying state land," the ministry said.

Although many families in Dey Krahom have voluntarily left, taking a payout of several thousand dollars each from developers, others are holding out for more money and refusing to abandon their homes.

"We just want to get a fair price," said Keo Navann, an articulate woman in her early 40s who has emerged as a de facto spokesperson for those threatened with eviction.

Around her Dey Krahom is gradually disappearing -- large, litter-filled gaps fill the spaces in between the remaining shacks, which stand like lonely sentinels against the developer's construction equipment parked nearby.

"Developers are offering some people 4,300 dollars for their land, but this amount is not acceptable when they can sell it for 3,000 dollars a square metre," said Keo Navann.

"We are Cambodian. Why do we not have the right to live in our city? They tell us, 'You live in a slum, you are dirty people'. So the poor people must leave the city," she said.

The standoff turned dangerous last year when villagers in Dey Krahom clashed several times with police and security guards working for developers.

In January, the violence escalated as security guards, escorting a bulldozer to Dey Krahom, began hurling rocks at residents trying to block their path to the village.

This strip of land fronting the Bassac River has been the scene of conflict in the past. Two years ago, authorities pushed thousands from slumland across the road from Dey Krahom.

The pre-dawn eviction to a remote resettlement site 22 kilometres (13 miles) away was one of the largest single forced moves from Phnom Penh since the communist Khmer Rouge evacuated the capital's population to the countryside after seizing power in 1975.

It was the start of a cycle of often violent landgrabs that has only worsened, rights groups say.

"Forced evictions are one of the biggest human rights violations that Cambodians are facing, both in the rural areas and the cities," said Brittis Edman of Amnesty International, who was in Dey Krahom recently to talk to residents.

"These people represent only a fraction of the 150,000 Cambodians who we are aware of who are facing eviction in Cambodia today," she said.

"This underscores the urgent need for these forced evictions to come to an end."