Reuters defending Cambodia's ruthless human rights abusers?

Photo:
Dey Krahorm, Phnom Penh
March 2008,
A year before it was
completely destroyed
by developers

An article posted yesterday by Reuters India encourages investors to overlook the Cambodian government's human rights violations and to concentrate on the "stability" of Prime Minister Hun Sen's rule.

"Tens of thousands of people have been driven out of their homes in a slew of land seizures, while critics have blasted Hun Sen for filing lawsuits they say are merely attempts to intimidate journalists, activists and political opponents.


However, Hun Sen gets plenty of plaudits as well, and some analysts say the firm hand of the undisputed strongman is exactly what Cambodia and its economy needs."

There may have been improvements in Cambodia's economy, but wealth is concentrated in the hands of Hun Sen and his cronies.

In March 2008, I was in Phnom Penh investigating the forced evictions that this article so breezily brushes aside. You can read about one working-class neighborhood whose homes were bulldozed so that Hun Sen could give the land to developers. (here)

Human rights activists such as Phnom Penh's LICADHO say that these forced evictions are the single most pressing human rights issue in Cambodia at the moment. Non-governmental organizations have recorded footage of homes homes burning to the ground or being bulldozed while residents are chased away and beaten. The culprits wear government-issued army and police uniforms.

The Reuters article also praises Hun Sen for some populist reforms that supposedly help the poor. But I remember reading in a Phnom Penh newspaper that Cambodia has failed to meet several development criteria set by the United Nations and agreed to by Hun Sen himself. The most striking is the failure to educate and protect children. Though initial enrollment is high, most drop out before finishing elementary school. Education is supposed to be free. However, according to a 2008 BBC report, teachers are severely underpaid and live below the poverty line. Students must supplement their teachers' meagre incomes and contribute to the purchase of uniforms and school supplies. Most Cambodian families, particularly in rural areas, cannot afford these fees.

The Reuters article doesn't quote any of the local activists working to end these human rights violations. The article's two main sources are based in Singapore and both highlight Cambodia's economic growth while undermining concerns about corruption and human rights violations.

Ian Bryson of Control Risks, a consultancy firm whose main goal, according to its website, is to "accelerate opportunities and manage strategic and operational risks" for its clients, tells Reuters that "it's easy to criticise Hun Sen as a single-party ruler, authoritarian and totalitarian, but he's a pragmatist -- he does what he needs to do."

So what does that mean? That if violently and illegally evicting people is what Hun Sen needs to do to boost his GDP, it's justified, and we ought to help him along him with investments and aid money?

The Reuters article also quotes Pou Sothirak, a senior researcher at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies. Sothirak has the last word in the article. He explains that the world-wide economic crisis has meant a bumpy ride for Cambodia, but that the country remains "stable": "for that reason, I expect foreign investors will return when the global economic situation improves."

There are no quotes from Hun Sen's critics, and the Reuters article reads more like a commercial for investment opportunities in Cambodia than a piece of balanced and objective journalism.

Forced Evictions in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, March 2008

Dey Krahorm, a working class community in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia, looks like the gap-toothed mouth of a six year old: some tin shacks and cement bungalows still stand amid mounds of rubble and plastic bags.

Noren (who only goes by one name) is lucky. Her house has survived the police and military force, bulldozers and fire that have ripped through 30,000 homes in Phnom Penh, according to an Amnesty International report.

A popular singer of traditional Khmer music, Noren came to Dey Krahorm after surviving the Khmer Rouge. Between 1975 and 1979, this genocidal regime evacuated cities, moved people to agrarian labor camps, and sought to exterminate all artists and intellectuals.

When the nightmare ended, a band of surviving musicians gathered at Phnom Penh’s National Theatre. The community of Dey Krahorm grew on its parking lot. Now, they are facing a new nightmare with eerie echoes of the old.

“If we move, our students won’t have access to us,” says Noren through an interpreter. “Our music won’t survive.”

Cambodia is one of only 25 countries targeted for bilateral aid by the Canadian government. But NGOs and activists based in Phnom Penh say that aid to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is encouraging human rights abuses such as these forced evictions.

“We say, okay, next year we’re not going to give you any money unless you meet these [human rights and anti-corruption] benchmarks,” says Lee Robinson, a Canadian activist who often spends the night in Dey Krahorm because the presence of foreigners stills the bulldozers. “And then the next year we give more money, even though none of those benchmarks have been met.”

Between 2004 and 2005, the Canadian International Development Agency spent $16.68 million in bilateral aid to Cambodia. These annual donations guide the implementation of land laws conceived in 1991 and legislated in 2006.

“We’ve been working closely with Germany, Finland, Denmark and the World Bank,” says Michael Rymek, CIDA’s director of aid in Phonm Penh. “We provide funding to recruit, train, and pay the salaries of land-titling teams who survey the land, which will eventually lead to the issuing of land titles.”

Cambodians never kept written records of ownership. Like singer Noren, people occupied whatever property they could find after the Khmer Rouge’s labor camps. In the nineties, when refugees returned in droves, land scarcity led to inflated speculation.

“Many powerful people will use state apparatus to grab land—military police, local police,” says Nyla Pilorge, director of LICADHO, one of the largest human rights NGO’s in Cambodia.

The 2006 legislation states that peaceful occupation for more than five years constitutes ownership, a stipulation that aims to curb land grabbing.

But the government still gives permission to clear “squatters”, taking over their land as public property and selling it. It’s part of a scheme to launder bribes, Pilorge says.

“There are people who are buying to buy [the government’s] loyalty… The purchase of land is a good way to hide the money.”



Evicted communities are then displaced to “human dumping sites” where children “drink their piss and eat their shit,” according to activist Robinson.

Though international trials against Khmer Rouge leaders are a step towards social justice in Cambodia, Robinson expresses cynicism about a world that ignores Cambodia’s current human rights crisis.

“[Donors] come here in their BMW’s, and the people, they ask us, ‘Is something happening behind the scenes?’” says Robinson. “They know how much money Hun Sen gets, but they never see it.”

Speaking off the record, a UN official based in Phnom Penh admits that progress has been slow, but that it is unreasonable to expect too much too soon in a country razed to misery by the Khmer Rouge.

As for Noren and her family, they are hopeful despite the looming wrecking ball.

“We’ll just camp in front of Hun Sen’s house and play our music until he gives us a new house,” says her husband, musician and instrument maker Chien Ry.

Their son and nephew arrive with a couple of drums for an impromptu lesson. Ms. Noren smiles, confident that her art will survive for one more generation.




February 2009:

A year after my visit to Phnom Penh, it seems like the residents have lost their battle:
http://www.humanitarianchronicle.com/2009/02/violent-eviction-at-dey-krahorm-video/