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Conflict continues: Transitioning into a battle for property in Cambodia today

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2015

Alexandra Kent
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Abstract

This article discusses the ongoing hybrid war crimes tribunal taking place in Cambodia — in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) — in relation to the simultaneous eviction of the Boeung Kak Lake community in the capital, Phnom Penh. Presenting these two phenomena alongside one another highlights the contradiction inherent in the liberal peace model's humanitarian rhetoric of societal reconstruction and its economic imperatives, which serve the interests of the elites. The material discussed here suggests that so-called transitional justice interventions may accompany a period of stabilisation, which is good for the global market, but do little to enhance fairness and peace for ordinary people.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 3 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2015 

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References

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25 Ibid.; emphasis added.

26 Brinkley, ‘Justice squandered’.

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31 Springer, ‘Illegal evictions?’: 542.

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34 Kheang Un, ‘The judicial system and democratization’.

35 ADHOC, Licadho, and Human Rights Watch, ‘Impunity in Cambodia: How human rights offenders escape justice’, June 1999; http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports/files/21Impunity%20in%20Cambodia.pdf (accessed 14 Oct. 2014).

36 http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/.

37 ADHOC, ‘A turning point? Land, housing and natural resources rights in Cambodia in 2012’, http://www.adhoc-cambodia.org/?p=2849 (accessed 27 Nov. 2013).

38 Springer, ‘Illegal evictions?’: 542.

39 ‘ECCC at a glance’, Apr. 2014; http://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/ECCC%20at%20a%20Glance%20-%20EN%20-%20April%202014_FINAL.pdf (accessed 12 Oct. 2014); ‘An introduction to the Khmer Rouge Trials’, Public Affairs Section, ECCC, 4th ed.; http://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/publications/ECCCBooklet4ed(Eng).pdf.

40 Article 644, cited in Hel Chamroeun, ‘Introduction to the Land Law of Cambodia’, in Introduction to Cambodian Law, ed. Hor Peng, Kong Phallack and Jörg Menzel (Phnom Penh: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 2012), p. 316.

41 Rhodri C. Williams, ‘Title through possession or position? Respect for housing, land, and property rights in Cambodia’, in Land and post-conflict peacebuilding, ed. John Unruh and Rhodri C. Williams (London: Earthscan, 2013), p. 417.

42 Ibid.

43 Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), ‘Cambodia: Land in conflict. An overview of the land situation’, Phnom Penh, Dec. 2013, p. 2; available at: http://www.cchrcambodia.org/admin/media/report/report/english/CCHR%20Report%20%20Cambodia%20Land%20in%20Conflict%20An%20Overview%20of%20the%20Land%20Situation%20ENG.pdf (accessed 11 Sept. 2015).

44 Williams, ‘Title through possession or position?’, p. 418.

45 Robin Biddulph, ‘Geographies of evasion: The development industry and property rights interventions in early 21st century Cambodia’, Ph.D. diss., Gothenburg University, 2010.

46 Springer, ‘Illegal evictions?’: 522.

47 Robin Biddulph, ‘Where has all the land gone?’, in Making the poor more visible, Landlessness and Development Research Report no. 4 (Phnom Penh: Oxfam GB, 2000).

48 Land Law 1992, Article 1; available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b567c.html (accessed 11 Sept. 2015).

49 Williams, ‘Title through possession or position?’, p. 419.

50 Hun Sen has repeatedly warned that if more Khmer Rouge era leaders are to be prosecuted, civil war may result.

51 See Paul Rabé, ‘From “squatters” to citizens? Slum dwellers, developers, land sharing and power in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’, Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, p. 93.

52 See Hel Chamroeun, ‘Introduction to the Land Law of Cambodia’.

53 See http://www.cambodiainvestment.gov.kh/land-law_010430.html (accessed 29 Sept. 2015).

54 CCHR, ‘Cambodia: Land in conflict’, pp. 13–14.

55 See Philippe Le Billon and Simon Springer, ‘Between war and peace: Violence and accommodation in the Cambodian logging sector’, in Extreme conflict and tropical forests, ed. Wil de Jong, Donovan Deanna and Abe Ken-ichi (Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), p. 19.

56 Harold R. Kerbo, The persistence of Cambodian poverty: From the Killing Fields to today (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011), p. 118.

57 Rabé, ‘From “squatters” to citizens?’.

58 Ibid., pp. 429–30. Emphases added.

59 ‘Year 2013 in review: Land, a country in crisis’, Licadho, 21 Mar. 2014; http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/articles/20140321/142/index.html (accessed 4 Apr. 2014).

60 Global Witness, Cambodia's family trees: Illegal logging and the stripping of public assets by Cambodia's elite, Washington D.C., 2007; https://www.globalwitness.org/reports/cambodias-family-trees/.

61 Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, ‘Country for sale’, The Guardian, 26 Apr. 2008.

62 By the end of 2013, Cambodia had also reportedly received some US$2.89 billion in the form of grants and loans from China (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/824919.shtml#.Uz-QJVeyrDk [accessed 5 Apr. 2014]). Some Cambodian academics have expressed grave concern to me about the consequences if Cambodia cannot repay. One described this as China throwing money in the river to muddy the water so the Cambodians cannot see when China takes the fish.

63 Licadho, ‘Land grabbing and poverty in Cambodia: The myth of development’, 2009, p. 5; http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports.php?perm=134 (accessed 7 Sept. 2015).

64 Le Billon and Springer, ‘Between war and peace’.

65 Suriya P. Subedi, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, 16 July 2012, A/HRC/21/63, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council 21st Session, Agenda item 10.

66 CCHR, ‘Cambodia: Land in conflict’.

67 Rachel Vandenbrink, Radio Free Asia, ‘New study sees “no end in sight” to Cambodia's land conflicts’; http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-disputes-12122013192058.html (accessed 1 Apr. 2014).

68 CCHR, ‘Cambodia: Land in conflict’, p. 35.

69 Biddulph, ‘Geographies of evasion’.

70 See Bridges Across Borders Cambodia for a synopsis of the story: http://babcambodia.org/developmentwatch/lmap/ (accessed 15 Oct. 2014).

71 Rabé, ‘From “squatters” to citizens?’, p. 414.

72 In September 2014 it was announced that the World Bank was considering resuming loans to the government despite the lack of settlement of the Boeung Kak Lake dispute. See Mech Rara, ‘Land communities take on World Bank’, Cambodia Daily, 19 Sept. 2014.

73 BBC News Asia-Pacific, ‘World Bank blocks loans amid Boeung Kak row’, 9 Aug. 2011; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14457573 (accessed 14 Oct. 2014).

74 Biddulph, ‘Geographies of evasion’, p. 214.

75 Internet property sites show land in Boeung Kak Lake area varying widely in price, but plots of around 500 sq m are available from anything between US$500,000–$1,300,000.

76 Amnesty International, Public Statement, 15 July 2009, ‘Cambodia's government must intervene to stop forced eviction’, AI Index: ASA 23/015/2009.

77 Sebastian Strangio and May Titthara, ‘Chinese linked to filling of Lake Boeung Kak project’, Cambodia Tonight blogspot, 30 Jan. 2010; http://cambodiatonight.blogspot.com/2010/01/chinese-linked-to-filling-of-lake.html (accessed 18 June 2014). See also ‘Roundup: Chinese Yunan province expands economic cooperation with Cambodia’, People's Daily, 8 Apr. 2007; http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200704/08/eng20070408_364615.html (accessed 18 June 2014).

78 Khouth Sophak Chakrya and James O'Toole, ‘Chinese lakeside link confirmed’, Phnom Penh Post, 6 Jan. 2011.

79 Andrew Higgins, ‘Land disputes in Cambodia focus ire on Chinese investors’, Washington Post, 25 Sept. 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/land-disputes-in-cambodia-focus-ire-on-chinese-investors/2012/09/24/1e64dce6-fd9c-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html (accessed 15 Oct. 2014).

80 In the new political economy, despite some provisos in Cambodian land law, formal land title is the only sure form of protection for landowners. A first phase of systematic land titling was conducted by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Construction and Planning between 2002 and 2007. Progress has been slow and less than 30 per cent of Cambodians today have such titles.

81 Some fifteen aspiring community representatives were given training by the NGO Bridges Across Borders. Local leadership, solidarity and collective organisation in such slum areas is often spurred by NGOs. See Rabé, ‘From “squatters” to citizens?’.

82 Springer, Simon, ‘Violent accumulation: A postanarchist critique of property, dispossession, and the state of exception in neoliberalizing Cambodia’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103, 3 (2013): 616CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 Springer, ‘Illegal evictions?’, p. 521; See also James Crotty, ‘Structural contradictions of the global neoliberal regime’, paper presented at ‘Neoliberalism: Theory and Practice’, Allied Social Science Association Meeting, 7–9 Jan. 2000, Boston. Available at http://people.umass.edu/crotty/assa-final-jan00.pdf (accessed 16 Oct. 2014).

84 Levy and Scott-Clark, ‘Country for sale’.

85 Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg, ‘Husband locks anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha in house’, Cambodia Daily, 15 Jan. 2014; http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/husband-locks-anti-eviction-activist-yorm-bopha-in-house-50584/ (accessed 19 June 2014).

86 Tep Vanny has become the face of Boeung Kak Lake activism. She has led numerous protests and has been both beaten and imprisoned by the authorities. In March 2013 she was awarded a Human Rights award at the ‘Movies that Matter Film Festival’ in The Hague.

87 Bridget di Certo and May Titthara, ‘S-21 survivor plays host’, Phnom Penh Post, 13 Feb. 2012.

88 Seth Mydans, ‘Survivors shed light on dark days of Khmer Rouge’, New York Times, 16 May 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/world/asia/17cambo.html?_r=0 (accessed 19 June 2014).

89 See, for example, Tallyn Gray, ‘Justice and transition in Cambodia 1979–2014: Process, meaning and narrative’, Ph.D. diss., University of Westminster, London, p. 98.

90 ‘Cambodian military and demonstrators clash during violent protest’, Reuters, 28 Jan. 2014; http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/cambodian-protests-turn-violent-article-1.1593670 (accessed 7 July 2014).

91 John Ciorciari, quoted in Lauren Crothers, ‘Much to learn from ECCC failures, author says’, Cambodia Daily, 3 July 2014; https://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/much-to-learn-from-eccc-flaws-author-says-63074 (accessed 7 Sept. 2015).