By SOPHENG CHEANG,Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, February
15PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's government denied Thursday that it
illegally evicts poor people from their land, accusing an
international human rights group of concocting the allegation to get
publicity.
London-based Amnesty International has tried "to manipulate facts,
exaggerate the situation and invent reality in Cambodia" in making
such allegations, the Cambodia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement called the allegations deplorable and accused Amnesty of
trying "to make sound bites and grab headlines in the news without due
regard for truth and reality in the country."
On Monday, Amnesty released a re****t titled "Rights Razed _ Forced
evictions in Cambodia" that examined cases of land and housing rights
violations that have affected poor Cambodians in both rural and urban
areas in recent years.
It said at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country now live at
risk of being forcibly evicted due to land disputes, land-grabbing and
commercial development projects.
Catherine Baber, director of the group's Asia-Pacific Program, accused
the Cambodian authorities of failing to protect people's rights and
being "instrumental in demoli****ng villages, setting homes ablaze and
making poor people homeless without due process and at the behest of
those who wield economic and political power."
The victims, Amnesty said, have been ejected from their homes and land
with little or no advance notice, no access to adequate alternative
housing and no recourse to justice.
The evictions are in "sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the
government's pro-poor policies and in breach of international human
rights laws and standards," Amnesty said.
The Foreign Ministry said the government, in trying to establish
public and social order, has to remove illegal occupants from state
land.
The authorities have always given those evicted "advance notice with a
spirit of great tolerance," the ministry said, adding that "there is
absolutely no unlawful and forcible evictions in Cambodia."
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