Ensure protection from forced evictions around Boeung Kak Lake
Over 20,000 people around Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake are facing eviction as a development project is planned. The population is not part of the development plan, 10 February 2008. ©AI
Tens of thousands of people living in the immediate vicinity of Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh are at risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes. When contractors began filling in Boeung Kak Lake with sand on 26 August 2008, none of the estimated 3,000 to 4,200 families living on the shores of the lake and around the area had been informed that work was about to begin. Just over a week later and after protests from residents, the filling was temporarily stopped.
In February 2007 Phnom Penh Municipality entered into a 99-year lease agreement with a company whose development plan risks displacing up to 20,000 people.
Send this letter to:
His Excellency Kep Chuktema
Governor of Phnom Penh Municipality
# 69 Blvd. Preah Monivong
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of Cambodia
Fax: + 855 23 426 101
Email: phnompenh@phnompenh.gov.kh
Your Excellency,
I am writing about my concern for an estimated 3,000 to 4,200 families who are at risk of forcible eviction from their homes around Boeung Kak Lake in central Phnom Penh. Filling of the lake began on 26 August 2008 - without notice to the tens of thousands of residents in the immediate area - for a redevelopment project. If the project goes ahead, without proper plans, compensation and adequate alternative housing for those affected, it could be the beginning of the biggest forced eviction in post-war Cambodia.
I am dismayed that both international and domestic law appear to have been violated since the Municipality of Phnom Penh granted a 99-year lease of the land to a private company in 2007. The affected community has been excluded from participation and genuine consultation. In addition, offers of compensation and/or adequate alternative housing have not been systematic. Indeed, many of the affected families have strong legal claims to the land under Cambodia's Land Law.
I urgently call on you to:
- halt the filling of Boeung Kak Lake until a process protecting human rights is in place;
- guarantee that none of the estimated 3,000 to 4,200 affected families will be forcibly evicted;
- review the lease agreement to ensure that it is annulled if in breach of domestic and international law.
Yours sincerely,
The agreement was reached without consultation with the affected population, who only found out about it from television news. Many of them have lived on the land for long enough to have strong claims to formal land title deeds under the 2001 Land Law. According to the contract, the Municipality has granted a concession of 133 hectares to the company, including most of Boeung Kak Lake, which is to be turned into a landfill. The landfill and the rest of the area will be redeveloped into "pleasant, trade, and service places for domestic and international tourists", in the words of the Municipality.
The project process breaches international law and standards in that it has excluded affected communities from participation and genuine consultation, and failed to detail schemes for fair and just compensation and/or adequate alternative housing. The lack of information and conflicting messages further increase fears of forced eviction.
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