Khmer for Khmer News: Without warning, bulldozers enter Dey Krahorm

©John Vink/ Magnum

Without warning, bulldozers enter Dey Krahorm

By: Ryan Schlief, Posted: Jan 25 09

Regions: Cambodia

Issues: Shelter

Tags: Cambodia, Forced Eviction, housing, Licadho, Licadho Canada

Without immediate prior notice, bulldozers and police moved into Dey Krahorm community in Phnom Penh early morning on Saturday to raze the homes and forcibly remove its remaining residents. The eviction order given on 27 December had been suspended to allow for compensation negotiations among the city, the developer and the residents.

In this blog - see photos from Phnom Penh Post, Ka-set, blogger Jinja and read the NGO statement on the forced eviction of Dey Krahorm as well as a first-hand account from LICADHO Canada .

Read my blog from Saturday for background information on the struggle in Dey Krahorm, Phnom Penh. Also, read in Saturday's Phnom Penh Post: City, developer demolish Dey Krahorm homes:

City, developer demolish Dey Krahorm homes

Phnom Penh Post, 24 January 2009

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Without any prior notification and with compensations deals outstanding for families remaining there, around 200 police “encircled” the community in the middle of the night and were followed later in the morning by more than 300 workers with bulldozers, said Chan Saveth of the rights group Adhoc.

Yeng Virak, executive director of Community Legal Education Centre, said he had entered the Dey Krahorm complex at 4am but was forced by police to leave by 6am.

“It’s not fair and it’s illegal. People have possession rights to the land and their compensation needs to be settled before they are removed,” Yeng Virak said. “In Phnom Penh, business interests come before the rights of the people. This is another example of economic development at all costs -- not equitable or sustainable development.”

David Pred, director of rights group Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, said residents still have a civil complaint pending in an appeals court to cancel the land swap between the former community representative and 7NG that he said was patently invalid under the Land Law.

(...)

“Once again the municipality has carried out a brutal eviction in the heart of Phnom Penh without any apparent plan for relocation or meeting the humanitarian needs of the evictees,” Pred said.

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Coverage in independent online media site Ka-set: Land violences in Cambodia: Dey Krohom razed to the ground following a tough eviction.