CAMBODIA LAND DISPUTES, EVICTIONS CONTINUE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 001426

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR DRL, EAP/MLS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA LAND DISPUTES, EVICTIONS CONTINUE

REF: PHNOM PENH 1086 AND PREVIOUS


1. (SBU) Summary. Since the June 6 and 7 evictions of 500
families from the Tonle Bassac community (refs),there was a
large-scale eviction of 168 families from the grounds of a
Phnom Penh hospital on June 29. Protests from civil society
led to the postponement of another forced eviction, but this
and others still loom, In the provinces, land disputes and
evictions are even more common and more violent. The
creation of a commission to handle land disputes has neither
resolved land disputes nor stopped forced evictions. The
National Land Dispute Authority (NLDA) lacks judicial power
to adjudicate disputes and vested interests leave the NLDA
powerless to move against high-level officials. NGOs are
trying to mobilize civil society to publicize and oppose
forced evictions. The Community Legal Education Center
(CLEC) hopes to obtain civil society support for an effort to
obtain government commitment to transparency and due process
in evictions. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has put on hold
plans to hold a public demonstration to protest the land
issue as long as the RGC suspends forced evictions. End
Summary.

Evictions Continue
--------------


2. (SBU) Early on the morning of June 29, police evicted
168 families from Preah Monivong Hospital in Phnom Penh. The
families were dumped at a site 30 kilometers from the city
center, without clean water, schools or any means of
livelihood. The Monivong eviction was reportedly the result
of an illegal land swap between the Cambodian government
(RGC) and a large, well-connected private firm, the Royal
Group. The people living near the hospital had been living
there since 1988 and, according to Thun Sray, President of
the NGO ADHOC, Phnom Penh's municipal government promised the
residents as recently as 2002 or 2003 that they could
continue to live there.


3. (SBU) Additional large-scale evictions are planned for
communities in the Tonle Bassac area. Thun Sray said that
there were as many as 12 additional evictions in the planning
stage. One community of 150 families called Group 78 has
been issued eviction notices, as has another called Dei
Krahom (Red Earth). According to Brian Rohan, Technical
Advisor to the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC),land
claims of the people in this community are so solid that the
CLEC has taken it on as a formal client. Under the 2001 Land
Law, persons in possession of a property for five years are
entitled to ownership. The people of Group 78 began settling
there in 1983 and have documents showing their residence
continuously over at least 20 years. As with the Tonle
Bassac land, no one has demonstrated that he has a
countervailing claim to the land.


4. (SBU) In the provinces, evictions from land are, if
anything, more common and more violent. Numerous evictions
have been taking place throughout the country. Thun Sray
estimated that 15-20 percent of Cambodians living in the
countryside do not own any land and another 2 percent own
less than half a hectare. That means that in a country in
which over 80% of the population engages in subsistence
farming, 45 percent of the people in the countryside have no
or insufficient land to make a living.

National Land Dispute Authority Still Not Operational
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) The creation of the National Land Dispute
Authority (NLDA) has had no appreciable effect on land
disputes and evictions. The NLDA can collect information
from parties in land disputes, but has no judicial power
adjudicating the disputes. NLDA Vice President (and former
Secretary General of the Sam Rainsy Party) Eng Chhai Eang

SIPDIS
told Econoff August 4 that the NLDA appointed one of its
members to draft a law to give the NLDA authority to resolve
disputes and verify land titles, but after more than three
months there has been no forward movement on drafting the
law. Rohan suggested to us that the NLDA undermines existing
organizations into which donors have sunk a great deal of
time and resources, such as the Cadastral Commission, that if
fully supported by the RGC would make the NLDA superfluous.


6. (SBU) In Chhai Eang's view, PM Hun Sen is sincere in
wanting to help the poor, but the people surrounding him
prevent Hun Sen from doing so by hiding the truth. He added
that he believed the officials surrounding Hun Sen care only
about their own financial interests, not the interests of the
nation. As an example, he said that Hun Sen has ordered that
land on the Cambodian Air Base across from the international

PHNOM PENH 00001426 002 OF 003


airport be redistributed to the poor on three different
occasions, but the military has not allowed it to happen.
Chhai Eang mentioned other examples in Battambang and Kompong
Chhnang provinces. He said that sometimes the central
government attempted to help, but was thwarted by local
officials. He cited a case in Mondolkiri in which the MOI
ruled in favor of ethnic minorities, but the provincial
governor would not enforce the MOI decision.


7. (SBU) Eng Chhai Eang said that it was difficult to
obtain cooperation from the CPP to resolve cases involving
high-ranking officials. As a result, the NLDA will try to
publicize low-ranking officials' cases as an example to
others. In reality, the NLDA lacks the capacity to monitor
cases and follow-up cases.

Sam Rainsy Party Hopes to Exploit the Issue
--------------


8. (SBU) Party leader Sam Rainsy continues to maintain a
keen interest in the land issue, Chhai Eang said, and has met
recently with NLDA President and Deputy Prime Minister Sok
An. Sok An told Sam Rainsy that the NLDA has authority to
stop evictions; in practice, the body has not been able to
prevent any so far. Rainsy told A/DCM that he pressed Sok An
to make the NLDA operational as soon as possible; the DPM
countered that many NLDA members were on holiday outside
Cambodia and would not return until early September.
According to Rainsy, the DPM agreed that the government would
halt further evictions if Rainsy would agree to postpone the
SRP leader's planned demonstration later this month to
protest the rising tide of evictions and illegal land
grabbing. Rainsy said any future demonstration will be
decided according to how the RGC handles several contentious
land issues, including the Tonle Bassac case cited above.
While the NLDA's authority and capacity to deal with the land
issue remains an open question, Chhai Eang said he believed
the SRP was gaining supporters by participating in the NLDA
and supporting the claims of victims. NGO leaders, however,
refused to join the NLDA and agreed to act in an advisory
capacity only. Thun Sray said he refused an invitation to
join the NLDA because its lack of authority would make it
ineffective and he believed that participating in the NLDA
would make him a part of an unfair process, ultimately
damaging his standing in the NGO community. Thun Sray also
said that he wanted to move the land eviction disputes from
the municipality into the court system in order to publicize
the facts.

What Needs to Be Done
--------------

9 (SBU) In addition to defending the poor in land disputes,
the CLEC hopes to mobilize civil society to oppose forced
evictions. Like Thun Sray, CLEC believes eviction orders
should originate as court decisions rather than from the
municipal administration. The master plan for the
development of Phnom Penh should be publicly available so
that it could be referred to in disputes. He suggested that
the NGO community should support three objectives: 1)
Transparency in the land dispute/eviction process; 2) Due
process; and 3) Following existing laws, which in many cases
have been flouted.


10. (SBU) The UN Office of Human Rights (UNOCHR) wrote a
letter to Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema on July 14 to
protest that the municipality's eviction practices violate
Cambodia's obligations under the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (The covenant states
that forced evictions "constitute gross violations of a range
of internationally recognized human rights" and lists those
rights.) The Governor's response, dated July 26, sidestepped
the UNOCHR's complaints, claiming that the municipality was
helping the urban poor to "regularize their situation" and
that it could not let the people live in temporary
settlements permanently. He claimed that the eviction of
Group 78 was necessary for a road crossing to a bridge as
part of the Phnom Penh Master Plan. UNOCHR Director Margo
Picken told us that she is trying to mobilize the UN country
team in Cambodia to encourage the RGC to put an end to forced
evictions and to establish a fair compensation, resettlement
and housing policy.

Comment:
--------------


12. (SBU) Given the common abuse of power by influential
persons and organizations, the public's first assumption here
is always that the poor are being victimized by the powerful,
and in many cases that is the reality. In some instances,

PHNOM PENH 00001426 003 OF 003


different officials over the span of several years have
granted title to the same property to different petitioners.
Sorting out the mess of land titles in Cambodia would be a
challenge to any government, no matter how noble their
intentions. In the short term, however, greater transparency
and observance of due process and existing legislation on
land ownership would go far toward restoring public trust in
the authorities and the credibility of the NLDA. It is also
important that when evictions are unavoidable, the persons
being moved are given fair compensation, and a place to live
that enables them to pursue a viable livelihood and schooling
for their children. There is great interest in the NGO
community in the Embassy making its views known on this
issue. We will be looking for ways to voice our concerns
over the human rights aspects of the issue.
MUSSOMELI