VZCZCXRO5024
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #1426/01 2211025
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 091025Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7127
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

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