Riot police and security forces moved into the Boeung Kak area of Phnom Penh with batons and shields on Friday to forcibly evict families from their homes.  In all eight homes were destroyed. Our partner in Cambodia, LICADHO, and LICADHO Canada, captured the attack on video, including the violent beating with a brick by police of a local activist. This video contains graphic and violent content.

International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have written to 35 foreign ministries to review donor aid if the Government of Cambodia passes a law severely restricting the activities of NGOs in the country. The law seems to stem from the Government’s growing distaste of resistance by communities facing forced evictions and land-grabbing.

(New York) - The Cambodian government should immediately release human rights defender Leang Sokchouen, Human Rights Watch said today. The Cambodian Appeals Court, on July 14, 2011, upheld his two-year prison sentence for peaceful political expression.
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Since 2009, our partner organization in Cambodia, LICADHO, has been using video to document forced evictions and land-grabbing. We met the Venerable Loun Sovath, a Buddhist monk, through our work with LICADHO. His tireless campaigning for those at risk of forced eviction in Cambodia, has repeatedly put him at risk.

Amnesty International lent support to filmmaker and friend Chris Kelly and others to produce a short documentary about the forced eviction of residents of Boeung Kak Lake where 4000 families are now facing forced eviction.

The municipality of Phnom Penh is not only forcibly evicting communities from land, it is also removing 90% of the city’s major lake to build luxury apartments and hotels. To do this, water and silt are being pumped into Boeung Kak Lake, purposefully flooding nearby homes in several feet of murky water and causing other homes to collapse into floodwater.  Approximately 20,000 people are effected.

At an international conference for African communities facing land-grabbing, LICADHO presented a video showing how communities in Cambodia are resisting forced evictions and land grabbing. The three-day conference, Land grabbing in Africa – Dangers and Challenges, was hosted by Caritas Senegal in cooperation with other groups like, FIAN – that is FoodFirst Information and Action Network.