VZCZCXRO3255
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0509/01 2030846
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 220846Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0970
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 000509 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL 
USAID FOR ASIA BUREAU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KDEM CB
SUBJECT: RGC HANDLING OF LAND ISSUES CRITICIZED FOLLOWING ANOTHER 
HIGH-PROFILE EVICTION 
 
REF: A) PHNOM PENH 60, B) PHNOM PENH 285, C) PHNOM PENH 379, D) 
PHNOM PENH 62 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  Phnom Penh municipal authorities removed the last 
remaining "Group 78" family July 17 from a disputed neighborhood in 
the center of the city, after the municipal government persuaded 
most of the residents to accept one of its compensation packages 
under threat of forced eviction.  Despite the quiet ending to the 
long-running dispute, the Group 78 case had become a high-profile 
litmus test of the Royal Government of Cambodia's (RGC's) ability 
and will to enforce the 2001 Land Law and related sub-decrees (Refs 
A-C).  Prior to the eviction, several diplomatic missions (including 
Embassy Phnom Penh) and international organizations issued a joint 
statement calling for a moratorium on forced evictions until 
processes for ownership dispute resolution, compensation, and 
resettlement are in place. 
 
¶2. (SBU) COMMENT.  Although the joint donor statement was unable to 
prevent Group 78's eviction, it lays down a marker and forms an 
important benchmark from which to increase engagement with the RGC 
on land issues.  END COMMENT AND SUMMARY. 
 
EVICTION PEACEFUL, BUT STILL FORCED 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Phnom Penh municipal authorities removed the last remaining 
"Group 78" family July 17 from a disputed piece of riverfront 
property in the center of the city.  Unlike the widely criticized 
Dey Krahorm eviction, which resulted in brawling and civilian 
injuries (Ref D), the Group 78 eviction was relatively peaceful, 
although human rights NGOs and donors have noted that this was still 
a forced eviction.  Since the dispute began in 2006, the Phnom Penh 
Municipal Government (PPMG) has reportedly cajoled or pressured 
community members into accepting various compensation packages in 
exchange for leaving the land to make way for what now appears to be 
a bridge construction project. 
 
¶4. (U) By July 2009, approximately 60 families remained at the site. 
 Community members reported that on July 10, the PPMG offered a 
final list of three compensation options, which included:  $8,000 
cash, or $5,000 and a small plot of empty land outside of the city, 
or $1,000 and a small apartment approximately 15 miles from the 
center of the city.  (NOTE:  A March 2009 appraisal of the Group 78 
land by the Bonna Realty Group valued it at approximately $1,300 per 
square meter, or $15 million for the entire neighborhood.  END 
NOTE.)  The PPMG warned that if the remaining families did not 
accept one of the packages by the evening of July 16, bulldozers 
would arrive early in the morning on July 17 to tear down their 
houses.  By July 16, all but six of the families took the $8,000 
offer.  The PPMG increased its offer to $20,000 per family for these 
six families, five of which accepted.  Police peacefully removed the 
last family on the morning of July 17.  According to the PPMG's 
final compensation offer, this family would still be entitled to a 
plot of land in the resettlement site outside of the city, but the 
family's representative stated that he would not accept any 
compensation on principle. 
 
GROUP 78 CASE VIEWED AS "A TEST" OF THE LAND LAW 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Group 78 case became a high-profile litmus test of the 
RGC's ability and will to enforce the 2001 Land Law and related 
sub-decrees (Refs A-C).  The community had lived in the area since 
the early 1980's and had various forms of documentation to prove 
that they had peacefully occupied the land, such as census records, 
national identity cards, voter records, and government-certified 
purchase agreements.  Per the Land Law, individuals can apply for 
legal title to private or state private land if they can demonstrate 
they have occupied that land for more than five continuous years and 
can prove their legal possession began before 2001 (Ref A). 
According to human rights groups and the community's lawyers from 
local NGO Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), Group 78 was the 
"poster child" for legal land possession. 
 
¶6. (U) Group 78 residents applied for land titles in 2004, but Tonle 
Bassac commune officials reportedly refused to sign their 
applications for submission to the Ministry of Land Management, 
Urban Planning, and Construction (MLUPC).  The community filed a 
complaint to the MLUPC, which directed the Municipal Department of 
Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction to investigate and 
resolve the situation.  However, no investigation took place.  Group 
78 residents also filed complaints with the National Cadastral 
Commission and the National Authority on Land Dispute Resolution 
(Ref A), both of which also failed to investigate the case. 
 
¶7. (U) Beginning in 2006, the PPMG issued a series of eviction 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000509  002 OF 003 
 
 
notices to the community, each with a different justification.  The 
publicly available eviction notices included claims that the 
community was 1) on state public property, 2) on state private 
property owned by a private company, and 3) occupying an area that 
the PPMG planned to "beautify".  Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema 
issued a sixth eviction notice on April 20, which informed residents 
that they were living on state land that had been leased to local 
developer Suor Srun Enterprises, and that residents had 15 days to 
leave the land.  The community filed an injunction request arguing 
that the eviction notice was illegal, as the legal status of the 
land (private, state private, or state public) and their ownership 
claim requests remained unresolved.  In May the Municipal Court 
dismissed the injunction request, and on July 13 the Appeals Court 
upheld the decision. 
 
¶8. (U) In addition to pursuing resolution to their dispute through 
legal channels, the Group 78 community stood out among other urban 
land dispute cases for remaining united and proactively trying to 
negotiate with the PPMG.  In 2007, the community worked with an 
independent architect to design a small apartment building, which 
they proposed to the government as an on-site resettlement solution. 
 This effort responded to the stated urban development need to 
beautify the area.  The community worked with Bonna Realty to 
appraise the land and then tried to offer reduced compensation 
prices to the PPMG.  Families even held a special Buddhist ceremony 
in May to try to protect themselves from forced eviction. 
 
DONORS, CIVIL SOCIETY SPEAK OUT ON LAND ISSUES 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶9. (SBU) In a last-ditch effort to prevent eviction, Group 78 
families met July 15 with World Bank Country Director Annette Dixon, 
who was in Phnom Penh for meetings with senior RGC officials, to 
plead for donor intervention.  (NOTE: Ms. Dixon met with the 
Ambassador on July 17, which will be reported in septel.  END NOTE.) 
 Although donors and diplomatic missions have rarely advocated on 
behalf of specific communities, and those interventions have never 
successfully swayed the RGC, the World Bank viewed the impending 
Group 78 eviction as an opportunity to address publicly the general 
issue of forced evictions.   Several diplomatic missions (including 
Embassy Phnom Penh) and international organizations issued a joint 
statement (emailed to EAP/MLS and included below) calling for a 
moratorium on forced evictions until fair, transparent processes for 
ownership dispute resolution, compensation, and resettlement are in 
place. 
 
BUILDING ON THE MOMENTUM OF THE DONOR STATEMENT 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶10. (SBU) COMMENT.  Although the joint donor statement was unable to 
prevent Group 78's eviction, it lays down a marker and forms an 
important benchmark from which to increase engagement with the RGC 
on land issues.  It has been a challenge for donors and civil 
society to gain traction with the RGC on land issues, and while the 
government response to the public statements about Group 78 has been 
fairly limited, it has at least been more civil than the starker 
responses to comments about corruption or freedom of expression. 
Cambodian People's Party (CPP) lawmaker Cheam Yeap went so far as to 
thank development partners for raising their concerns and 
acknowledging that the PPMG needed to better develop relocation 
sites before attempting to evict communities.  Reactions like this 
indicate that we, in cooperation with other donors and civil 
society, have an opportunity to try to increase constructive 
dialogue with the RGC on the social and economic issues that arise 
from land disputes in Cambodia.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶11.  Following is the full donor statement issued on July 16. 
 
BEGIN TEXT OF DONOR STATEMENT 
 
DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS CALL FOR HALT TO EVICTIONS OF CAMBODIA'S URBAN 
POOR 
 
July 16, 2009--- Development Partners are calling upon the Royal 
Government of Cambodia to stop forced evictions from disputed areas 
in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in the country until a fair and 
transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place 
and a comprehensive resettlement policy is developed. 
 
Development Partners recognize that land issues are an ongoing 
challenge to development in Cambodia and urge the Government to 
adopt fair and transparent systems for land titling, including in 
urban areas, which recognize and protect the equal rights of all 
citizens.  Development Partners stand ready to support the 
establishment of national policy guidelines which would ensure that 
evictions and resettlement follow due legal process and provide just 
compensation to affected individuals. 
 
 
PHNOM PENH 00000509  003 OF 003 
 
 
The World Bank and a number of Development Partners have been 
working closely with the Government on securing land titling in 
Cambodia.  The Government is commended for issuing more than one 
million land titles because this offers the opportunity for improved 
growth and poverty reduction. 
 
However, in an environment of escalating urban land values in 
Cambodia and speculative land buying and selling, urban dwellers are 
under threat of being moved to make way for high value property 
development. This has become a major problem in Phnom Penh and other 
fast growing cities Q\fQ=QSQb'y2Q2L4xQ`2PtlQeld 
putting at risk the livelihoods of, thousands of poor people living 
in disputed urban areas. This is a result of policies and practices 
that do not reflect good international practice in dispute 
resolution and resettlement and do not make effective use of the 
procedures and institutions allowed for in Cambodian law. 
 
International experience has established that secure land tenure is 
vital in ensuring economic growth and reducing poverty and that 
fair, well-implemented resettlement processes are key to an 
effective land tenure and titling system and protecting the rights 
of all people. 
 
Development Partners reaffirm their commitment to work with the 
Government to help address land issues in a just and equitable 
manner and to ensure that the rights of poor people are promoted and 
protected. 
 
signed by: 
Embassy of Australia 
Embassy of Bulgaria 
Embassy of Germany 
Embassy of the United Kingdom 
Embassy of the United States of America 
Embassy of Denmark / Danida 
Swedish International Development  Agency (Sida) 
Asian Development Bank 
Delegation of the European Commission 
United Nations 
World Bank 
 
END TEXT OF DONOR STATEMENT 
 
 
RODLEY