CPP's latest achievement: Cambodians evicted to make way for Hanoi road

House-breakers, employed by local authorities, saw at a resident's house in the Sen Sok district of Phnom Penh on Monday. Residents of the area's Hanoi Road had been warned to leave, but many had not, instead staying to watch in shock as their homes were torn down. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)
A bulldozer tears down houses along Sen Sok district's Hanoi Road on Monday. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)

Pleas fail to stop the Hanoi Road eviction

Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Written by May Titthara and Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Roadside properties demolished by authorities in advance of road-widening project, with affected families calling on the municipality to provide them with fair compensation.HOMES and fences belonging to residents of Teuk Thla and Phnom Penh Thmey communes in Sen Sok district were demolished by Phnom Penh authorities on Monday to make way for a road expansion project, with witnesses reporting that hundreds of armed police were deployed in the action.

Ten families comprising 40 people lost their homes along the Cambodia-Vietnam Frienship Highway - popularly known as Hanoi Road.

The demolition began after Sen Sok district Governor Khoung Sreng on March 6 told some residents living along the road that they had five days to remove their homes, fences and stalls. Residents did not move in time.

Oeum Reun, 53, whose house was demolished Monday morning, said she had lived there since 1979 and would go to Prime Minister Hun Sen's house to ask for his personal intervention.

"This is crueller than what Pol Pot's soldiers did to us - they mistreated me and then made me put my thumbprint on the form allowing them to demolish my house," she said.

"If they want to kill me I don't care because my house has been ... demolished."

"It's up to them - if they want to kill me, I don't care because my house has been completely demolished."

Oeum Reun said she was not interested in being relocated to the four-by-eight metre site at Thnot Chrum that the municipality was offering. "I would rather die than live at Thnot Chrum. I want to live in this area."

The expansion plan requires a width of 22 metres for the road, 8 metres of which will be for drainage infrastructure.

Sek Sovanna, a lawyer for the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), which has been representing the residents, filed an injunction with the Municipal Court last month seeking to halt the construction and has also filed complaints to City Hall. But she said CLEC has yet to receive any response.

"The authorities wrote to them in 2004. Since then the residents have tried asking the authorities to negotiate, but they kept quiet until the end of 2008," she said.

"If they had expanded the road to the width they said in 2004, it wouldn't affect the villagers - back then they said it would be widened by 8 metres along the 4-kilometre length. Now they have turned up and said it must be widened to 30 metres."

Sek Sovanna said the authorities were obliged to pay compensation since the residents were living there legally.

She added that in 2004 there were 90 families, but more than half had left since they did not dare stand up to the authorities.

District Governor Khuong Sreng told the Post Monday that the authorities could not delay the project simply because residents had failed to move and said most would get no compensation.

"They have to respect our notice. This is for development, and City Hall has a policy only to speak to those whose entire houses are affected," he said. And because the expansion project "affected only one or two complete houses", the authorities had offered those people a plot of land each in Thnot Chrum village.

He said that other affected families had lost fences and pavement area and therefore would not be entitled to compensation.

"They have big houses and villas," he said.

No compensation

Resident Prum Navy, 38, said her 14-metre house had lost 12 metres of its length to the project.

"My house has just 2 metres left - how can I live?" she asked. "I would like compensation from the authorities to buy a new house, but they say they have no plan to provide any compensation."

She said of the 10 families that had lost their property, just one had been compensated.

"The authorities came to demolish our houses with rage - they came to tell us on Friday and gave us just three days. And today they have come and destroyed them," she said.

"We are poor people and we don't have power like them. So they can do anything to us."

Chen Ton, 60, watched as her house lost 12 metres of its length, leaving her with just 2.5 metres of living space. She said the authorities showed no pity for the poor.

"We don't deny that the authorities need to develop, but they should know how this affects us. We are humans, not animals," she said.

"They use their power to destroy our houses. We have asked them about compensation since 2004, but they never spoke with us."

Resident Tey Narin told reporters that none of the residents dared to confront the police and the authorities and simply left their houses and fences to be demolished: "No one dares to protest - we fear being arrested," he said.

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The right to land is theme in dialogue between Sweden and Cambodia

Text and photo: Jan Nordlander
Government Offices of Sweden

A hundred thousand people in Cambodia have been forced to move from their land. Sweden drew attention to the humanitarian situation of the homeless in the first dialogue meeting between Sweden and Cambodia.
The first dialogue about human rights between Sweden and Cambodia took place at the end of February in Phnom Penh. The theme was land rights. The participants made a field visit to the place to which families from a slum area in the city had been forced to move by being evicted. They were given an opportunity to speak both to those who had received new housing and those who had become homeless.

The UN estimates that around 100 000 people in Cambodia have been forced to move from their land in the last ten years, and that at least as many will be evicted in the next few years. Although compensation is given, poor people in urban slum areas are primarily affected. In the mountain areas, traditional ways of life in entire societies are threatened by collapse when owners are forced to leave their property through expropriation.

The humanitarian situation of the homeless important

The Swedish delegation urged the Cambodian authorities to take measures to alleviate the humanitarian situation of the homeless and to investigate the abuses claimed to have taken place during the evictions. The delegation also urged the authorities to establish guidelines for future evictions together with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (COHCHR), should such evictions be necessary.

Other discussions covered legislative work in human rights, the fight against corruption and impunity, measures to prevent torture, the conditions of work of NGOs and the trials of the Khmer Rouge.

Sweden is to examine the possibility of supporting Cambodia in its work on human rights, including training officials, reporting to the UN Human Rights Committees and upgrading Cambodia's national committee for human rights.

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The beauty industry is proving a popular path

Written by Nora Lindstrom

Monday, 16 March 2009

A variety of schools, from expensive private courses to a free program offered by an NGO working with street children, offer a lucrative career choice. Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG Salon students at Friends International's Mith Samlanh tend to their customers last week. From the roadside barber to the top-end salon, the beauty industry in Phnom Penh offers something for everyone, at very affordable prices. While the quality remains highly variable, recent market developments are likely to result in the offering of more professional services as more beauty therapist hopefuls seek formal training. "We need to keep up with the market so our students can find good jobs," said Natalie Elverd, a technical adviser at the NGO Friends International, in reference to recent renovations at the beauty rooms and nail bar of the organisation's Mith Samlanh school. "We did the upgrade because we need to follow changes in the local economy. There has been an increase in salons, so we wanted to improve placement opportunities for our young people by providing them with a better learning environment to gain increasingly better skills," she said, adding that the renovations were made possible thanks to aid from the Australian government. The Mith Samlanh students, who were formerly street children, are given the opportunity to choose a career in hair and beauty care from a variety of other potential careers. While the beauty rooms are open to the public only during the centre's monthly flea markets, the nail bar inside the Friends 'n' Stuff shop is open on a daily basis and allows students to gain experience in a real working environment. "The idea behind opening this business for the students is for them to have hands-on training with the public. It gives them the opportunity to gain confidence and improve their [future] placement opportunities," Elverd said. She added that the training at Mith Samlanh also encompasses personal hygiene, customer service skills, how to care for and sterilise tools and how to keep the workspace clean. "The training is of good standard, as well as constantly improving. The students are very popular and in high demand in the employment market. We often have job opportunities waiting for them," said Elverd, who herself has 20 years of experience from the Australian beauty industry. There are several other beauty schools around Phnom Penh as well, catering to vast amounts of beauty therapist hopefuls, mainly girls. While the training at Mith Samlanh is free, many private schools charge significant amounts of money for their training programs. Christina's Beauty School on Sihanouk Boulevard has achieved a good reputation in the Cambodian beauty industry during its almost decade- long existence. Here, an eight- to 10-month full course costs $590 and covers a curriculum of 19 subjects, while shorter courses focussing on specific skills are also available. Owner Sun Heang said the school is attended by more than 300 students, with recent graduates usually earning between $50 and $100 per month, depending on skills. "Once they finish the course, we also offer them the opportunity to work here in my salon, or else we help them find employment somewhere else," she said, adding that there is constant interest in the courses she offers. THE TRAINING IS OF GOOD STANDARD, AS WELL AS CONSTANTLY IMPROVING. Socheat Beauty School offers training similar to Christina's, albeit at a slightly higher cost of $750 for a full course. Srei Oun, 23, has been studying there for approximately eight months along with some 100 other trainees. "I like it here. I have a lot of friends, also. My favourite thing is cutting hair," she said, though was slightly insecure about how much longer it would take for her to master all the skills necessary for a good job in the industry. Srei Oun's sister Srei Neang, 27, has been a hairdresser for 15 years and in contrast to her sibling learned the trade through working her way up. "I started by working at Central Market when I was 12 doing manicures and pedicures, but have since worked at the salons of many top-end hotels," Srei Neang explained. "You can make a good living as a hairdresser," she added. Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG A recent renovation at Mith Samlanh will offer more varied training for the growing number of students in the beauty sector. Srei Neang thinks it's better to learn while working, as opposed to going to school. "You can practise in reality straight away, and also you earn money," she said, noting that formal training can be too expensive for many people. Nevertheless, she does acknowledge that there are many salons in Phnom Penh where staff have no training whatsoever and that this is a problem. "They can open anywhere, but they don't know how to do [the services provided]" she said. As the industry develops, services provided are likely to improve as more salons have professionally trained staff. A downside of this may be an increase in prices, yet for the time being hair and beauty treatments remain affordable to most, even if their quality is sometimes dubious. The revamped Nail Bar at Friends 'n' Stuff will be open for business at the next Friends flea market, on Saturday, March 28.

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The mother of a Khmer worker who died in Thailand sought intervention

Khmer workers who died or were murdered in Thailand.

Khmer Sthapana newspaper
12th March, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization

The mother of a Cambodian worker who died mysteriously while working in Thailand has asked the Cambodian government to intervene on her behalf to seek compensation for the death of her son.Mrs. Pa Sophea, mother of Min Sitha Saravuth, the dead worker, said in a press conference on 11th March that her 26 year-old son was recruited by a job agency in Phnom Penh, Human Power, to work legally in a glove factory in Thailand since 2006. On 20th December 2008, she received the news that her son had died from a fall off the ship. She claimed that the body of her son was cremated immediately without any investigation into the causes of his death.

She is appealing to the Cambodian government to intervene in helping her to seek compensation for her son’s death.

Mr. Ya Navuth, president of an NGO, CARAM Cambodia, also appeals to the Thai embassy and the Cambodian government to help her seek compensation because the victim had been recruited to work in Thailand legally by the employment agency, Human Power.

He said that the company where Mrs. Pa Sophea's son had worked before the accident that killed him should compensate her family and pay all his salaries for the 23 months duration that he had worked for the company.

Mr. Ya Navuth added that, this is not the first death of a Cambodian worker in Thai factories. Many Cambodian workers continue to die in Thai factories every year without any investigations for the causes of their deaths.

CARAM Cambodia estimated that, currently, there are about 80,000 Cambodians working legally and illegally in Thailand.

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Canadia Bank's land-grabbing tactic in Reek Reay community: Fenced in the residents and grab their lands

A house in Reek Reay community, Phnom Penh city, is being demolished by the workers hired by the Canadia bank on 15 March 2009 (Photo: Ouk Savborey, RFA)

Canadia Bank starts to demolish Reek Reay community in Phnom Penh city

15 March 2009
By Ouk Savborey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Sunday 15 March 2009, residents of the Reek Reay community, Group 46A, Village No. 8, claimed that workers for the Canadia Bank used force to demolish their homes, and the workers also fenced the residents, preventing them from leaving or coming into their homes if the residents refused to sell their lands to the Borey Bassac Park Villa company.
Bun That, a young man who resides in Village No. 8, Group 46A in the Reek Reay community, indicated that the bank set a price limit for each plot of land and the home on it to: either (1) $20,000 (in compensation) or (2) a row house measuring 4-meter-by-10-meter located in Dangkao distritct plus $10,000 if the residents agree to leave. If the residents refuse to leave, they will use force to demolish their houses, and they will fence in the residents’ houses to prevent them from leaving or coming into their houses. As of today, the bank’s workers have used force to demolish 9 homes already.

Bun That said: “The Cambodia Bank company fenced us in to grab our land, if we are involved in the sale of our land to other individuals.”

Chan Bunthol, a teacher at Sisowath high school who is protecting his home, said that the Canadia Bank’s workers act like thieves when they are using force to demolish people’s homes during a weekend: “ I don’t have time to go teach anymore now, because I am afraid they will come and demolish my home.”

Heng Samphoas, the president of the Reek Reay community, indicated that, up to now, some of the community residents have agreed to sell their homes to the Canadia Bank: “When they attack (to demolish) houses like this, we, as neighbors who are living nearby and we have not sold our homes yet, we have fear, then they (Canadia Bank) told us to go negotiate. They told us this or that date will be the end of the negotiations.”

Hor Vannak, chief of Village No. 8, Group 46A, Reek Reay community, said that in his village, there are more than 200 families living in more than 200 houses. Most of them are civil servants. He said that the village is connected to the road and the park of the Koh Pech development zone. Later on, the residents received offers to sell their lands and homes by the Canadia Bank and by a number of private groups.

He said that he is not certain about the number of residents who sold their lands to the Canadia Bank and the other private groups: “The region over the Reek Ray dike is located right on the city road, as well as on the path of the bridge crossing to Koh Pech, the second bridge (that is).”

Phal Sithon, the Tonle Bassac deputy commune chief, said that according the directive no. 157, dated 30 January 2009, issued by the Council of Ministers, decided that there will either be a development of the Reek Reay community at the same spot or the residents will receive another house measuring 4-meter-by-10-meter in the suburb as compensation plus $10,000 in cash.

Phal Sithon said: “A portion of the land belongs to Chumteav Hun Neng (Hun Sen’s sister-in-law), and on the other portion, people have built their homes to live on, but the Canadia Bank claimed that it was their land. I saw the development plan signed by Kep Chuktema (Phnom Penh city governor) in 2006, but the residents have been living here since the 90s.”

Regarding this issue, RFA could not reach a representative of the Canadia Bank on Sunday to obtain clarifications on this issue.

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Heng Samrin's advisor accused of threatening American diplomats with weapon

Deum Ampil newspaper
13th March, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization

An opposition MP has accused advisor to National Assembly president Heng Samrin (pictured) of threatening American diplomats with a weapon.

In a letter dated 11th March sent to Mr. Heng Samrin, Mr. Son Chhay, an MP for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), has requested him to launch an investigation into an allegation that one of his more than 100 advisors has used a gun to threaten U.S diplomatic staff in February 2009, while they were jogging along the Phnom Penh roadsThe letter alleged that, on 14th February 2009, while the diplomats were jogging near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an armed man had threatened them with a gun. The man was later identified as Ob Sophy, an administrative officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is also an advisor to National Assembly president Heng Samrin.

Mr. Son Chhay cannot confirm whether the allegation was true. However, he appeals to the authority to launch an investigation into this allegation.

Mr. Touch Naroth, Phnom Penh Police Commissioner, told Deum Ampil News on 12th March that the police has launched an investigation and identified the alleged culprit as Ob Sophy. He said: "We have launched an invetigation and found out that he (Mr. Ob Sophy) is head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but we have turned this case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve it with the American embassy."

The police Commissioner added: "We have questioned him regarding the allegation and he said that he dropped the gun ( and tried to pick it up). But when we got a complaint from the U.S embassy, we turned the case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to resolve it with the American embassy."

Mr. Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that he has not received any information regarding the case, but said that he will launch an investigation into the allegation.

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School girls sell themself for money for their term

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