via Khmer Times, 06 April 2024: A rebuttal against Amnesty International’s report accuses the organization of misleading the public about the rehousing of squatters in the Angkor Archaeological Park. The response clarifies that the relocations were part of a long-term zoning plan to protect the heritage site and involved offering new land, monetary support, and materials to the affected individuals. Contrary to claims of “mass forced evictions,” the process was described as a necessary measure for conservation, supported by extensive information campaigns and legal frameworks established over decades.
The fact that their situation has been recalled by the authorities cannot therefore be presented as a threat. No more than the mention of the consequences of a refusal. That the authorities made multiple visits to people who persisted in an illegal presence and with full knowledge of the facts on a protected site to remind them of this illegal situation is in no way comparable to “direct or subtle threats.
That the authorities have highlighted the advantages of this rehousing compared to their current situation is at most an incentive and in no way a threat. 2) Was it evictions, as Amnesty states? Not at all.
As with the creation, from 2010, of the Run Ta-Ek eco-village, people are relocated to land of which they become owners. What Amnesty remains discreet about, deploring that these people had to rebuild their homes themselves by exposing themselves to bad weather, is that these people had been able to build themselves, at their own expense, in the same climate conditions, their illegal housing while on the new site, the land, money and basic materials for the reconstruction of housing are offered to them.
This is in no way an expulsion, but rather a matter of rehousing. 3) Were the relocated people not adequately informed, as Amnesty states? For thirty years, the zoning of the protected site has been established.
Source: Angkor Park : Amnesty International lies and deceives international public opinion – Khmer Times
