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Boeung Kak Lake Residents Score Landmark Human Rights Victory
The Boeung Kak land rights struggle began in February 2007, when the Municipality of Phnom Penh granted a 99-year lease to the private developer Shukaku Inc. over 133 hectares of real estate, including the lake and surrounding land where some 20,000 people resided. The lease was granted for a mere US $79 million - a fraction of the estimated value of the property – and violated numerous Cambodian laws. It threatened more than 4000 families with forced eviction as well as the destruction of Boeung Kak lake, which has not only been a place of recreation and enjoyment for Phnom Penh’s residents for the past century but also a critical natural reservoir for excess rainwater during the monsoon season. For many lakeside residents who grew morning glory or harvested fish and snails from the lake, it was also an important livelihood source. In August 2008, Shukaku began filling the lake, with the stated intention of building a new ‘satellite city’ with private villas, shops and office buildings on the site. The filling of the lake caused serious flooding in the surrounding villages and forced more than 3000 families to accept inadequate compensation under extreme duress to vacate their homes and relinquish their land to the developer.
In January 2011, news reports surfaced that the Chinese firm Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Company entered into a joint venture with Shukaku to develop the controversial project. Hung Jun has a reputation in China as a generous philanthropic company, which has provided significant support to people in need. Specifically, in 2010 the company was awarded the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Civil Affairs’ prestigious China Charity Award in recognition of the company’s commitment to balanced development. Further, in the same year, the company’s Chairman, Mr. Wang Linxiang, was recognized as one of “China’s Most Outstanding Philanthropic Entrepreneurs.” In light of this reputation, the affected communities privately approached Hung Jun in the hope that their prior standard of conduct would prevail in their case and the company would support their proposed alternatives to further evictions. In a letter translated into Chinese, and sent to the company’s headquarters in Erdos city, Neimenggu Province, China and to its Hong Kong office, community representatives asked Hung Jun to support their demand for resettlement onsite. The Cambodian Housing Rights Task Force, a coalition to which BAB Cambodia belongs, also sent a letter to Hung Jun urging the company to meet with the community and to engage responsibly in the Boeung Kak lake project. Hung Jun did not reply to either letter.
The World Bank also called upon the Cambodian Government to halt the Boeung Kak evictions, following the release of an investigation report by the World Bank Inspection Panel in March 2011. After investigating a complaint filed by Boeung Kak residents, with support from BAB Cambodia, the Panel found that non-compliance with World Bank safeguard policies in the implementation of a Bank-financed land-titling project contributed to the evictions. The Bank prepared remedial actions but the Cambodian government showed no willingness to cooperate on their implementation and Boeung Kak residents continued to face intense pressure to vacate their homes. In turn, Bank Management announced that it will stop providing loans to Cambodia and would not resume lending until there was a satisfactory resolution of the Boeung Kak case. Within a week after this lending freeze became public, the Government issued a sub-decree carving 12.44 hectares of the remaining families’ land out of the development zone and ordering that the families be granted titles.
Photo by: Mai Vireak, Phnom Penh Post
“In their unity and determination, and by effectively leveraging the influence of the World Bank to help balance the power differential with the State, the people of Boeung Kak stopped in its tracks the biggest land-grab and forced eviction since the days of the Khmer Rouge,“ said David Pred, Executive Director of BAB Cambodia. “This is without doubt one of the most significant human rights victories that Cambodians have achieved since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords,” he added.
“This means that these families will now be able to go on with their lives without fear of losing their homes. It means that they will be able to contribute to and benefit from the development of the country,” said Development Watch Program Manager Eang Vuthy. “We hope that the authorities will give all the remaining families this security,” he added.
BAB Cambodia remains deeply concerned that more than 90 of the remaining families have been excluded by the Municipality of Phnom Penh from the entitlements granted under the sub-decree. We urge the authorities and the Shukaku Erdos Hung Jun Property Development company to include those who want to remain onsite in the 12.44 hectare zone or negotiate an alternative agreement with them that fully respects their rights.
We are also very concerned about the plight of those who accepted compensation under duress and fled their homes in Boeung Kak over the past two and a half years. It is incumbent upon the Cambodian Government, the Shukaku Erdos Hung Jun Property Development company, and the World Bank to redress the harms suffered by these families. Click here for more information on the Boeung Kak case.
Check out the story on CNN below:
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Bridges Across Borders Cambodia sincerely welcomed the delivery of the first batch of land titles to residents of Boeung Kak Lake on Saturday. Land titles were distributed to 254 Boeung Kak households by Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema on September 10th, coinciding with International Human Rights Day. For the families who received titles on Saturday, it marked a successful end to a five-year struggle to defend their homes and land. The titles were issued in accordance with a decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on August 17th, which ordered that 12.44 hectares be cut out of the Boueng Kak development project and land titles provided to the roughly 800 families inside. 
