Cambodia: Group 78

UPDATE 17 JULY 2009: FAMILIES EVICTED

At daybreak, at least 70 security personnel, some armed with guns and electronic batons, moved in to Group 78 and fenced off the area where four remaining families were holding out. The resisting families felt they had no choice but to leave.

Amnesty has condemned the action and the deeply flawed processes which led to it. Read our press statement and take action to express your concern about the evictions

We don’t yet know where people have gone or what has happened to their homes and community, but will share information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: 16 JULY: SIXTY FAMILIES LEAVE THE GROUP 78 SITE
The families dismantled their homes after three years of government harassment and intimidation, with no choice but to accept inadequate compensation rather than have their homes demolished.

UPDATE 15 JULY: MILITARY MOBILISED
According to fresh reports, the authorities in Phnom Penh have mobilised some 700 police and military police to forcibly evict the families.

UPDATE 14 JULY: EVICTION IMMINENT
The authorities in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, are preparing to forcibly evict this Friday the 80 low-income families living in the area known as Group 78.

On Monday 13th May, the Court of Appeal dismissed Group 78's application for an injunction to stop the forced eviction, ruling instead that the 20 April eviction notice was legal, and that the Cadastral Commission (the government body mandated to rule on land ownership disputes) should hear the case. The families had lodged complaints with the Cadastral Commission in June 2006, but despite repeated reminders, it appears to have taken no action.

The Group 78 community considers the offers of compensation made by the Phnom Penh Municipality to be grossly inadequate. There has been no genuine consultation with the community nor attempts to explore feasible alternatives.

GROUP REPRESENTATIVE TALKS TO AMNESTY AUSTRALIA:
Khen Sok Roath, a representative of the Group 78 community talks to Amnesty Australia about their struggle and the constant threat of eviction.

• See exclusive photos from inside Group 78 on Flickr
  
• Listen to Radio Australia's Breakfast Club interview with Amnesty Australia (MP3)

UPDATE: 10 JULY 2009
The Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh has threatened Group 78 with eviction on 17 July if they do not accept offers of compensation.

The community were called to a meeting with district authority officials and district police officers on 9 July. Their legal representatives were not allowed to attend, and they were asked to give their thumb-print whether they accepted the offer or not. They felt intimidated and around eight to 10 families agreed to leave the site after the meeting.

The community has appealed the 18 May Court decision which rejected their request for an injunction until the legality of the eviction notice had been established. The Court of Appeal will decide on Monday 13 July whether the decision of 18 May is upheld or overturned.

UPDATE: 19 MAY 2009
On 18 May, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court dismissed Group 78’s request for an injunction to stop the forced eviction of their community. The Court declared the forced eviction to be in the public interest after a closed hearing which the four community representatives were not allowed to attend. An act in breach of Cambodia's Civil Procedure Code.

Your continued pressure is crucial - a forced eviction could take place at any time. Residents have been told that the Military Police will be deployed to ‘implement’ the forced eviction and that no responsibility will be taken for any damages or loss of housing or other property.

UPDATE: 8 MAY 2009
The deadline has now passed on the latest eviction notice and we have just heard from Group 78's lawyers that the Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh, Mann Chhoeun has said he will not evict the community before the case is heard in court. A hearing is scheduled for 18 May 2009.

However, this is no guarantee that the community will not be forcibly evicted, and it's crucial that we continue to keep up the pressure. Group 78 has asked us to thank you for all your support and for standing up for their community.

UPDATE: 28 APRIL 2009
The families at Group 78 have been told they have just 15 days to leave their homes.

A final eviction notice dated 23 April 2009, requests the residents to dismantle their homes by the deadline or else the authorities state they will take “administrative measures”. The Phnom Penh military policy to coordinate its “implementation.

This is the sixth eviction notice that the community have received since 2006, none of which has been based on a court order.

Background information

The families living at Group 78 started moving into the area in 1983. Since then Group 78 has become prime land in an exploding property market, with an estimated value in November 2007  US$1,200 per square metre – or a total of over US$14 million.

The community has been give  different, often contradictory reasons for the eviction: the city is to be ‘beautified’; a bridge is to be built; the residents are illegal squatters. They have been told alternately that the land is state property which cannot be sold, and that it is private property belonging to someone else.

Over the past two years, the local authority, the Chamkar Morn District Office, has issued five eviction notices to Group 78 residents, none of them based on a court order.

By law, if people have occupied the land for over five years they have title to it. The Group 78 families have applied for formal title several times, but although they have plenty of official documentation to support their claim, their applications have been rejected. The Cadastral Commission – the government body in charge of allocating land title to people living on land without registered owners – has refused to consider their claim, reportedly because powerful interests are involved. The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, which promised to investigate the Commission’s refusal, has so far taken no action. The community has appealed to government ministries, local authorities, the National Assembly and the Senate, and also to human rights and housing rights NGOs and the donor community. The community has even worked with architecture students to produce plans for the site to show that eviction is not essential for development.

The local authorities refuse to discuss these plans and keep pressing the residents to agree to resettlement. Representatives of the authorities have threatened the community representatives, saying they will not be able to guarantee their safety if the community does not comply with the eviction order.

At the end of 2007, the municipal authorities offered the residents US$1,000 per family, plus a 60m² plot in a resettlement site in Andong, some 20km from the city centre. Thousands of people from elsewhere in Phnom Penh have already been forced to resettle in Andong, where they live in squalor, without sanitation, drinkable water or electricity. Transport costs between Andong and the city far exceed the expected daily earnings of most of the residents.

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UPDATE 17 JULY 2009: FAMILIES EVICTED

At daybreak, at least 70 security personnel, some armed with guns and electronic batons, moved in to Group 78 and fenced off the area where four remaining families were holding out. The resisting families felt they had no choice but to leave.

Amnesty has condemned the action and the deeply flawed processes which led to it. Read our press statement and take action to express your concern about the evictions

We don’t yet know where people have gone or what has happened to their homes and community, but will share information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: 16 JULY: SIXTY FAMILIES LEAVE THE GROUP 78 SITE
The families dismantled their homes after three years of government harassment and intimidation, with no choice but to accept inadequate compensation rather than have their homes demolished.

UPDATE 15 JULY: MILITARY MOBILISED
According to fresh reports, the authorities in Phnom Penh have mobilised some 700 police and military police to forcibly evict the families.

UPDATE 14 JULY: EVICTION IMMINENT
The authorities in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, are preparing to forcibly evict this Friday the 80 low-income families living in the area known as Group 78.

On Monday 13th May, the Court of Appeal dismissed Group 78's application for an injunction to stop the forced eviction, ruling instead that the 20 April eviction notice was legal, and that the Cadastral Commission (the government body mandated to rule on land ownership disputes) should hear the case. The families had lodged complaints with the Cadastral Commission in June 2006, but despite repeated reminders, it appears to have taken no action.

The Group 78 community considers the offers of compensation made by the Phnom Penh Municipality to be grossly inadequate. There has been no genuine consultation with the community nor attempts to explore feasible alternatives.

GROUP REPRESENTATIVE TALKS TO AMNESTY AUSTRALIA:
Khen Sok Roath, a representative of the Group 78 community talks to Amnesty Australia about their struggle and the constant threat of eviction.

• See exclusive photos from inside Group 78 on Flickr
  
• Listen to Radio Australia's Breakfast Club interview with Amnesty Australia (MP3)

• Find out more about Group 78, read their case sheet (PDF)
• Read the report on forced evictions in Cambodia (PDF)

Email the Cambodian authorities to show your concerns about the eviction of families from the Group 78 community