FORCED TO MOVE A story of resettlement in Cambodia

Land titles were all but destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. As a result, many Cambodians can no longer prove they own their homes and are often evicted illegally as speculators and developers move in. UN Human Rights has been advocating fiercely for their resettlement and compensation.

As she screamed and cried, bulldozers thundered down her street in the settlement of Borei Keila, levelling the modest home in which she had raised her children and lived for a decade.

Ms Sophat was forcibly evicted when developers took over her land.

LEGACY OF WAR

Each year, thousands of Cambodians lose their homes to urban and commercial development because they cannot justify their ownership.

During the civil wars that splintered the country in the late 20th century, millions were displaced, private property was abolished and land ownership records destroyed.

When peace was finally established in the early 1990s, half a million survivors began trickling back to their cities and towns, but existing laws at the time made it nearly impossible to claim their homes.

With political stability came economic growth. As cities expanded, speculation escalated and powerful developers grabbed what land they could. People felt powerless, unable to fight confiscations.

BRIEF HISTORY OF BOREI KEILA

One of the more high-profile sites to be forcibly evacuated was Borei Keila in central Phnom Penh, a community once home to 1776 families. Life may not have been ideal but schools were nearby, jobs plentiful and the capital provided a pool of consumers to whom Borei Keilans could sell their goods.

But in 2003, a “land-sharing agreement” with the government granted part of Borei Keila to a local corporation. In exchange, the company would erect ten new apartment blocks to house the former residents. Only eight buildings were ever completed, leaving more than 300 dispossessed families with no place to go.

As they waited each day for their uncertain fate, the usual background sounds of bustle were shattered one morning by the arrival of company bulldozers. When residents rushed to prevent their homes from being razed and tried to protest, they were held back with cattle prods. Some were arrested.

Orn Sophat remembers looking on helplessly as her house was smashed to bits.

“For weeks I lived rough,” she said. “I didn’t know where to go so I stayed in the rubble, in a tent.”

She and many others would have to fend for themselves while negotiations dragged on, some for years, some ongoing today.

For more information: 

https://unhumanrights.exposure.co/forced-to-move