“Cambodia's development cannot be made with our tears”

Geneva (Switzerland), May 7th 2009. Ros Han, Chan Vichet, Sia Phearum and Seng Sokheng in font of Palais Wilson, Wilson quay, headquarters of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights© Laurent Le Gouanvic

Ka-set
http://cambodia.ka-set.info

By Laurent le Gouanvic
13-05-2009

From the top of the stairs of the Wilson Palace in Geneva, headquarters of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR) and formerly the late League of Nations, Ros Han, Chan Vichet, Sia Phearum and Seng Sokheang look at the unobstructed view of lake Léman and the Mont-Blanc quay, a street where luxury boutiques, banks and posh hotels run side by side. At the heart of the Swiss city, in a setting which strongly differs from Kratie, Oddar Meanchey and Phnom Penh, these four Cambodians came to make a call for help and file the demands of those evicted from their land or from those who are under threat of eviction to the international community. Before attending the Cambodian Government reporting to the Committee of economic, social and cultural rights of the UNHCHR, which is holding its 42nd meeting on May 11th and 12th, those heralds of Cambodian civil society held a series of meetings, hoping to put an end to evictions and land grabbing in their country.

Last chance operation
“This is our last opportunity” says a moody Seng Sokheang, coming from Oddar Meanchey province in the North-West of Cambodia and representing the Peace Building Community Network, a community-based network. “We have tried many things to denounce the violent evictions which struck our communities: we have notified the authorities, we have held sit-ins in front of the Phnom Penh Municipality, the National Assembly, the Council of Ministers... But nothing... There were no results", this Human Rights activist enumerates. He arrived in Switzerland with a delegation of the Cambodian civil society on May 6th. "So the last thing we can do is to plead our cause on the international scene".

“We have protested many times with the Cambodian government, but nothing has changed", adds Ros Han, who represents Indigenous Rights Active Members. He also took the trip and intends to denounce land grabbing affecting native and ethnic minorities in Cambodia. We tried to discuss, to argue, to publish communiqués, to plead our cause with the authorities, trying to make them more aware of the issue... But without any result at all.”

Have the international community react
Despite continuous protest on the part of local NGOs in Cambodia, and the spreading of images and information through the press and the Internet, eviction threats are still hovering over hundreds of families, notably in Phnom Penh. All over the country, many families are deprived of their ancestral resources, since the land they are living on has been granted as a concession to private companies for plantations or mining operations, and elsewhere for hydroelectric dams, according to Ros Han. Hence the initiative of several NGOs to try, this time, to knock directly on the door of the United Nations, on the occasion of the hearing of Cambodia in front of the Committee on economic, social and cultural rights from the UNHCHR, with the hope that the international community will react and put pressure on the Cambodian authorities so that the violence the Dey Krohom inhabitants went through would not happen again.

To prevent a case similar to Dey Krohom
Chan Vichet knows the Dey Krohom case very well: he used to live in that neighbourhood located in the centre of Phnom Penh, with his wife and two children. They resisted forced departure for a long time, but one morning the thugs of the private 7NG company, under the passive eye of the forces of law, destroyed all the houses and their content. Vichet agreed to come and tell his story to the UN people, despite his condemnation by the court of Phnom Penh to a suspended sentence of eighteen months in prison and a probation period of five years following a complaint by a 7NG employee. This sword of Damocles is constantly hanging over his head. “I left my relatives in order to come here. And I know that when we go back [to Cambodia], we will not have our life back, but half the life we had. I lost everything. I am already half-dead. So at least, if I have to die, I want it to be useful to the communities of poor people who are still under threat, so that they can enjoy better living conditions”, he says.

Vichet told his story to many of the respondents he had the opportunity to meet in Geneva, so that they would be aware of the negative impact created by uncontrolled development in Phnom Penh, achieved by a minority of people, to the expense of a majority of others living with few resources. “I explained the nature of the problems linked to development in Phnom Penh. I told my own story and wanted to draw attention to the other communities who also live under threat of eviction”. He reminds that “In Phnom Penh, thirteen communities are threatened”.

Living witnesses
For Vichet, it is important to bear witness directly, so that those in charge at the UN would be made aware of the fact that the dramas described with numbers and graphs in reports are for real. “The people we talked to showed sadness and pity. But above all, they did not expect this. They could not believe a government would be able to act this way. They had read the information on forced evictions in Cambodia on the Internet. But, until then, they had never been confronted with the direct testimony of victims, who came all the way here on purpose to talk to them.”

The “parallel report” of the civil society
Sia Phearum, director of the Housing Rights Task Force secretariat, one of the most active Cambodian NGOs in the field of housing rights and the fight against evictions and land grabbing, backs up this testimony with facts and figures, assembled in a “parallel report” on the land and housing rights in Cambodia in 2009, compiled by several Cambodian organisations and handed over to his Geneva respondents. A document intended to give additional - if not contradictory - information to the one introduced by the government, and which features a picture of a Dey Krohom resident, carrying the few belongings she managed to rescue before her house was destroyed, as the jaws of an excavator loomed over her head, ready to smash a tin sheet and wooden house. In addition to the few figures collected by different NGO’s - according to Amnesty International 150,000 people are threatened by eviction, 70,000 in Phnom Penh alone - this document details the various evictions which took place over the previous years and gives a series of recommendations, one of which seems quite obvious: the government should implement the 2001 Land Law and respect its international commitments regarding Human rights.

The tears of development
“We don’t want this to happen again and again”, Phearum insists, detailing the intentions of his action: “Making sure that the United Nations and donors, one way or another, urge the government to prevent the ongoing evictions of other communities”. “We do not act against the Cambodian government, but we only want the UN and the government to finally tackle these problems”, says Sokheng, who is involved in denouncing the negative consequences of some land concessions on the environment and inhabitants. “We cannot go on developing Cambodia with the tears of the people. We are in favour of real development, for the poor. Not a development of tears”, Vichet concludes .

New UN appeal
The message was heard, at least partially. A few days before Cambodia’s presentation to the Committee on economic, social and cultural rights at the OHCHR, and the day after their meeting on May 7th with Special Rapporteur to the UN for the right to decent housing Raquel Rolnik, the latter published a communiqué, urging the government to prevent new expulsions, notably the one of “Group 78” in Phnom Penh. In this text dated May 8th, she underlines that “ Since I became Special Rapporteur to the UN for the right to decent housing in May 2008, I observed an increase in violent expulsions throughout Cambodia (...). In most cases, the authorities refused to acknowledge the property rights claimed by the affected communities and failed to offer fair compensations or solutions [ for relocation]”. She adds, “Unfortunately, the Cambodian government has not responded to my demands, or did so after a long time”. It remains to be seen whether that new appeal will be put into effect.