Cambodian poor pushed out of their homes by developers
February 26th, 2013, The Nation, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Land Tenure, News, News Source, Social ConcernsA mother of four, with the youngest on her hip, said she was not impressed by the palatial government buildings where Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Council of Ministers have their offices.
Her own home is a wood-and-tin shack now partially buried under the Mekong River sand that is being piped in to fill up the Boeung Kak Lake in the capital to make way for a brand-new city of offices, condos, hotels and parks. These will be far out of the financial reach of the families who have been living round the lake since the early 1990s.
According to local rights groups, more than 400,000 Cambodians have been evicted from their homes since 2003. There have been two types of evictions – from the capital, to make way for development; and from the countryside, to make way for commercial plantations and industries, invariably by well-connected business interests. …
The Straits Times
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Cambodian-poor-pushed-out-of-their-homes-by-develo-30200729.html