'Land-grabbing' impoverishes Cambodians

AsiaOne News
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Sun, Jun 07, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - Widespread land-grabbing in Cambodia by individuals and companies in the name of development is fuelling poverty and has affected more than 250,000 people, a rights group said in a report Sunday.

The report by the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO) was released to mark the third anniversary of the 2006 final eviction of 13,000 people from a riverside slum in the capital Phnom Penh.

"Evictions and land-grabbing are not helping to develop Cambodia - they are simply causing more poverty and hardship," said Pung Chiev Gek, the president of the rights group.

"A few rich and powerful individuals and companies benefit by becoming richer and stronger, while the health and welfare of countless Cambodians becomes weaker and weaker," Pung Chiev Gek said.

The report said that more than a quarter of a million Cambodians had been affected by such moves between 2003 and 2008 in the 13 provinces and municipalities where the group has offices.

The report also addresses the unexpected eviction of another Phnom Penh slum in late January 2009, which was condemned by the United Nations.

The Cambodian government has faced mounting criticism for forced evictions throughout the country at the hands of army and police. Evictions have increased as land prices have risen over the past few years.