In Defence of Freedom of Expression and Inclusive Development
By David Pred
In recent weeks, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been monitoring the resettlement impacts of the Rehabilitation of the Cambodian Railways Project and providing legal assistance to affected people have come under attack by the Cambodian government. The $140 million railway project, which is being financed primarily by loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a grant from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), requires approximately 4000 families whose homes lie within “the corridor of impact” to move out of the way. Once completed, a subsidiary of the Melbourne-based Toll Holdings will operate the rails for 30 years.
Several NGOs, including Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, have been critical of the project’s resettlement process after observing widespread problems that have already led to dozens of affected people being materially harmed. The most egregious harm occurred in May 2010 when 53 families in Battambang province were relocated by the project to a site that had no access to running water, electricity, and few employment opportunities. Days after moving to the site two children drowned in a nearby pond. Since then all but 19 of the families have abandoned the resettlement site to find work closer to the center of town. On 21 October 2010, BABC, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), and two umbrella organizations on Cambodia wrote to ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda expressing our grave concerns about the situation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told national and international media that, “the deaths of the two children are not linked to the ADB’s project to restore the railway.” In an August 17 letter, the ministry warned BABC that its accusation that the railway project was responsible for the children’s deaths was “tantamount to an attempt to discredit the Royal Government of Cambodia and incite the public against its administration.” It went on to threaten to terminate the organizations’ ability to continue operating in the country in the face of further “provocative” acts. The NGOs, however, only called for an independent investigation into the cause of the children’s deaths in its letter to President Kuroda. The accusation that the railway project led to their drowning came from the children’s family.
The death of the children in Battambang is incredibly tragic, but it was by no means the only issue that has alarmed the monitoring groups. In addition to the botched resettlement process in Battambang, the groups have documented a litany of problems with the manner in which people are being resettled throughout the country. A fundamental problem is that the compensation rates set in the 2006 Resettlement Plan, approved by ADB, are inadequate to allow affected people to rebuild their homes and lives. In many cases, the families have been offered only a few hundred dollars in compensation. This is a wholly insufficient amount to cover the cost of dismantling their homes, moving and rebuilding decent housing at the resettlement site; not to mention their lost income while they attempt to establish new livelihoods at the relocation sites where work opportunities are scarce. A recent official external monitoring report substantiates these concerns, indicating that 60% of affected households in Sihanoukville have not been able to move to the relocation site because the compensation they received is not enough to build their house.
Reflecting the systematic problems with the resettlement and compensation process, more than 400 complaints have been lodged by affected households to the project grievance mechanism since December 2010. This contradicts the assertions made by government officials on national television that only 16 households in Phnom Penh have disputed the compensation. In fact, a staggering 10% of the total affected people have lodged grievances, and this is in spite of warnings from local authorities to affected people throughout the country that if they don’t accept the compensation on offer, their houses will be bulldozed and they will get nothing. To date, we are unaware of any grievances that have been resolved.
Through extensive communications, we have been urging the Cambodian authorities responsible for resettlement, as well as ADB and AusAID, to rectify these inadequacies and to comply with the most basic principle of ADB’s safeguard policy – that affected people should not be made worse off. Given the severity and systematic nature of the problems, the monitoring groups have called for a temporary suspension of loan disbursements for the Railway project until the problems with resettlement are resolved. However, rather than correcting the problems so that the project can proceed without harming affected people, the government appears instead to be trying to silence the organizations that have been advocating on their behalf.
Earlier this month, STT was suspended by the Ministry of Interior. Now we have received a stern warning from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The implication is that if we do not keep quiet and stop supporting communities on the losing end of Cambodia’s development model, we too will be shuttered. With the Law on Associations and NGOs looming at the Council of Ministers, many civil society groups fear that the Cambodian government is preparing an assault on everybody else who does not toe its line.
In this whole saga, it has been clear that the Cambodian authorities have fundamentally misunderstood and misrepresented the aims and objectives of advocacy NGOs such as ours. We are Cambodians and foreigners doing this work together out of love for the people of this country and a fervent belief in the universality of human rights. We are in no way opposed to Cambodia’s development and the upgrading of its infrastructure. After decades of conflict, this was one of the world’s most shattered and traumatized countries. The Cambodian people have every right to rebuild and they deserve international assistance to do so. But too often this rebuilding has been carried out at the expense of the poor, while the benefits have flowed primarily to the well off and well connected. In this environment, it is critical that international development projects be thoughtfully designed to empower the poor and safeguard their rights. Otherwise, as we have seen with the railways project, they will too often end up doing the opposite.
David Pred is the founder and Executive Director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia.
Joint Statement Response to Govt Accusatation [Khmer]
Joint Statement Response to Govt Accusatation [English]
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