Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 24/01/2009: Police aiming a straight-shot tear gas gun during the final eviction at Dey Krohom. (Photo: John Vink/ Magnum)
Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 24/01/2009: Mechanical shovel destroying private property during the final eviction at Dey Krohom. (Photo: John Vink/ Magnum)
Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 24/01/2009: Family crying the loss of their belongings during the final eviction at Dey Krohom. (Photo: John Vink/ Magnum)
Ka-set in EnglishThe threat of eviction had been lurking around them since 2006. The struggle of dozens of families who still clung onto their houses in Dey Krohom, in the central Tonle Bassac district of Phnom Penh, is one of the longest in the distressing two decade-old history of land matters in Cambodia. From one ultimatum to the next, the looming final offensive was expected to be carried out sooner or later. It happened in the early hours of the morning, on Saturday January 24th. Nobody imagined the eviction would be so well-organised but what is more, so violent. And the 7NG company, who was granted the land as part of a concession to build a residential tower block and a shopping mall, went all out in the process.
Methodical destruction
An army of more than 600 young men arrived at the scene shortly before dawn, accompanied by policemen sporting riot shields and batons, themselves followed by representatives of the authorities. The concept of task division was rigorously applied in this eviction operation. Split into several groups and told apart by the colour of their tee-shirt (red, blue, yellow, green, black and white), they cleared the site away with method. When the go-ahead was given at 6am, some erected in record time a barricade around the site which had been cordoned off prior to the offensive, while others were allocated the task of demolishing whole areas of the village. Some three hours later, the zone was entirely devastated, not a single thing was left to stand, not even trees, razed to the ground in the process.
Cracking down on every dwelling, house by house, like locusts swarming on crops, dozens of workers relentlessly applied themselves to knocking everything down with sledge-hammers and axes, leaving nothing behind but annihilation. The first action they set out to do was to wreck the houses of those who still formed pockets of resistance. There, diggers and bulldozers did the job without leaving enough time for residents to save their belongings. Even motorcycles parked inside homes were crushed by machines. Not an ounce of pity. Houses crumbled down at once in a crashing din of smashed objects, dishes, materials. A young woman, in an ultimate attempt to save a few things, fell with her own house, ravaged by a bulldozer. She came out of the rubble alive, but with several injuries.
Use of tear gas
Determined not to be bothered by residents showing protest, the one-off removers, covered by a large scale police cordon, tear-gassed the area and its inhabitants. As for those who still opposed to leaving their home, it is with fire extinguishers that workers attacked, filling houses and drowning their occupiers with white chemical solution until they came out. There again, fire extinguishers were used to tackle any fires started by inhabitants.
An old woman was sat outside on a raised board bed, lamenting the situation. “They shot teargas at us. It was impossible to breathe and it made us cry. They did this to flush us out! I don't know where I am going to live with my grand-children. Here, we only paid USD100 per month, we managed.” Her daughter, joining her, says with anger: “If I had known that they'd be capable of doing that, we would never have voted for them in the elections, in my family!”
Demolitions carried out with rage
One of the first houses to be targeted by workers was that of a young woman who obstinately refused to leave her house, racked by sobs and calling for help in harrowing cries. She was forced out by the day-workers hired for the occasion and taken away. Every single eviction gave way to violent altercations, and even direct confrontations between dwellers and workers. The latter showed excessive rage and anger in the way they proceeded, and even zeal, which sparked off the astonishment and daze of many. Every group was steered by a leader virulently exhorting workers to keep the same pace and not let the situation affect them. None of them agreed to reveal the amount of the salary they received for this task.
In one of the dwellings, a man tried to set himself ablaze and one of his relatives, a woman, threatened to throw a brick at the depredatory workers. They were interrupted in their hammering and axing task by their leader calling them to keep going with the destruction. Behind them, police officials wearing uniforms also encouraged them: “Go! Destroy! We can't do it ourselves, there are too many foreign journalists and photographers!”
When the operations ended, injured people reportedly included four residents – among whom two suffered serious injuries - and ten workers. The police proceeded to several arrests. As she watched her house being wrecked and despite her imploring for some more time to move all their belongings, a mother collapsed and was taken to hospital. “We used to run a small grocery shop, we had many things to take out of there. They just wouldn't listen. I even tried to make the district chief change his mind, but he retorted: 'We allowed you several days to move out, so why didn't you?' We lost half of our personal property...” her husband said, appalled by the situation.
Inhabitants left in shock
Slightly further away, a resident, wearing his police uniform, eyes sore from crying and speaking in a choked voice, refused to helplessly witness the demolition of his home. “You're alone against them, you can't do anything! Stay calm!”, his friends told him. He arrived there in 1993 and remembers, like others, promises made by prime Minister Hun Sen back then, that the inhabitants of that neighbourhood could one day become the true owners of their piece of land...
A neighbour, whose house was faced with the same fate, could not stop expressing her astonishment in front of the violence deployed. A dweller at Dey Krohom since 1987, she did not show any more interest than other families - those officially recognised by the company 7NG - in the latter's offer of resettlement in the Chom Chao area on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, or in the USD20,000 cash compensation per family (last offer made by 7NG), which was thought to be insufficient. “They show more brutality and meanness than during Pol Pot's regime! But today, Cambodia is part of the ASEAN and has its place on the international scene, they cannot act like this! The government robs inhabitants to serve the company's own interest!” A young teacher, standing beside her, adds: “They see the poor as slaves. They decide on our life and death!”
Journalists and observers mistreated
No one was allowed to enter the zone, and those who tried hard to make their way through were severely reprimanded, shoved away in a more or less strong manner. The general trend was to keep observers away. Fire hoses were deliberately pointed at photographers.
“This is not good for you, Barangs [expatriates], to stay here, it's dangerous!”, the lawyer for the 7NG company insistingly advised. A Barang replied to him, not without irony: “But there are policemen here, and they are here to take care of security, aren't they?”. For his part, Phay Siphan, the spokesman for the Council of Ministers, enquired about observers' situation: “Were you treated well?”
Authorities trying to make a good impression
His back turned to the scene, Mann Chhoeun, the deputy governor of Phnom Penh, who arrived at the scene at about 8 o'clock, tried to be reassuring. “We are taking inhabitants to the resettlement site [Damnak Trah Yeung village, Chom Chao district, about 12 miles west of the capital], it is necessary to respect what is written here!”, he explained, waving a report made by the municipality on Dey Krohom, the back of which states the offer made by 7NG to inhabitants: a 4m x 12m house built by 7NG in the Damnak Trah Yeung village, or the sum of USD15,000, each offer being topped up with 770,000 riels (USD192,50) and 30 kilos worth of rice and dehydrated noodle packs.
In the light of this little reminder, the deputy governor defends the morning intervention: “We are not throwing them out into the street, we have a house for them!” The company 7NG acknowledged the existence of 91 families when the site actually houses 150 today, as a few came last minute to add themselves up to the lot. The company will examine each dossier on a case-by-case basis and it is down to them to decide whether they will do something for them”, Mann Chhoeun detailed, pointing out that 8 out 91 families accepted the offer of 7NG in the past few days
Authorities and 7NG promote the resettlement site
“Those who did not jump on 7NG's last offer [which settled the amount of compensations at USD20,000, an offer which is not valid any more today, according to 7NG manager] claim between USD50,000 and USD120,000, and the highest claim was made by a family. But negotiations have come to an end...” The deputy governor then painted the idyllic picture of the resettlement site, “connected to the drinking water network”, where dwellers will be able to benefit from “a 700 million riel [ USD175,000] credit fund set up for them to obtain loans”. “And also, the authorities are in charge of building a school there”.
7NG manager Srey Chanthou, on site, wearing a tee-shirt with his company's logo and a material mask, presented a similar line of argument. “More than 1,300 families in Dey Krohom agreed to go and settle there, why do others cause problems? They will have nice accommodation!...” The representative then added up to the list of assets of the Damnak Trah Yeung village by mentioning the existence of a market and a factory.
As Human rights and housing rights organisations set up a series of meetings since Saturday morning's events, some twenty evicted families found refuge at the headquarters of Cambodian Human rights NGO (LICADHO).
Who's next?
Residents of the Building, living right next to the Dey Krohom area, did not miss a second of the operations. They also said they were shocked by the deployment of violence. The net is tightening around them. All the squats and makeshift villages which used to surround them have now disappeared, replaced by tall buildings. They know it: they are now next on the list of evictions in Phnom Penh.
Emi Caitlin enjoying a local snack in Cambodia while performing her Peace Corps Volunteer work
Children of all ages in rural Takeo Province, Cambodia now have a library and books to call their own. (Photo courtesy of Caitlin Ishigooka)
Students at the school where Peace Corps volunteer Emi Caitlin Ishigooka raised funds for a new library decorated the space with a large mural of the world. (Photo courtesy of Caitlin Ishigooka)
