Candlelight Vigil Marks One Year After Forced Eviction of 1000 families in Phnom Penh
June the 6th marked the one year anniversary of the forced eviction and relocation of more than 1000 families from their homes in the center of Phnom Penh. A peaceful candlelight vigil held at the eviction spot served as a stark reminder that one year on, families are still living under tarpaulin in squalid conditions waiting on empty promises to be fulfilled by the authorities.
The families were forced by the authorities to get into the police trucks. They had no idea where they were being taken. Their belongings, which had been dismantled by paid workers, were also brought to the new location situated in Andoung village, Sangkat Kok Rokar, Khan Dangkor, which is twenty-two kilometers from the city center and their livelihoods. The municipality took only one month to plan the relocation and failed to prepare the land in advance for the people. This site failed to meet minimum standards for human habitability. It lacked adequate sewage, sanitation facilities, drainage potable water, electricity, nearby schools and clinics, much less economic opportunities. Rather, families found themselves with a tarpaulin, a bucket, no marked out plot and the entire rainy season ahead of them. Living conditions were, and continue to be to this very day, dire. More than seven hundred of the evicted families still have not been provided with a plot of land on which to rebuild their homes. To mark this sad anniversary, Bridges Across Borders (BAB), together with our partners in the Cambodian Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF) and community representatives from around the country, visited the Andoung relocation site. At 6:00pm, former residents of Sambok Chap, BAB, HRTF members and other concerned citizens of Cambodia gathered at Sambok Chap for a candlelight vigil to remember the one year anniversary of the forced eviction and to call upon the Municipality of Phnom Penh to alleviate the humanitarian crisis at Andoung and other relocation sites outside the capital. Behind our circle of candlelights stood Dey Krahom and Group 78, two communities with more than 5000 residents, many of whom have resided there for decades, who have also been served with eviction notices. Their future remains disturbingly uncertain. This was not only a day to remember the events of last June and highlight the fact that the former residents of Sambok Chap continue to live in appalling conditions at the relocation site. It was also a day to urge the Cambodian authorities to cease the illegal and inhumane practice of forced evictions and unplanned relocations that are raging throughout the country. Stop Evictions!
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Approximately one thousand police and military police forces gathered in Sambok Chap village heavily armed with rifles, electric batons, tear gas and riot gear. They threatened human rights monitors and local and international journalists, and then confiscated their cameras and prevented them from recording police actions.