Backed by an experimental US-funded legal advocacy program, 88 Phnom Penh families whose homes and land were threatened by a municipal road expansion in Russei Keo district were promised a reprieve by City Hall, the families’ lawyers said Thursday.
Municipal officials agreed to temporarily postpone the expansion of Phnom Penh Thmei Road, on the outskirts of the city, while it arranges compensation for the families, said lawyers from the Public Interest Legal Advocacy Project, which represents the poor in high-profile land dispute cases.
“In the meantime, we can meet and discuss [with the municipality] to help the people…in advance, before construction can be done,” said lawyer Huon Chandy of Pilap, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development, at a press conference Thursday.
The municipality initially notified residents last month that they had 30 days to evacuate as officials planned to expand the
11 km stretch of road by 15 meters on each side.
But after meetings this week with families and their Pilap representatives, the municipality decided to halt the $520,000 expansion project, partly funded by the Vietnamese government, said lawyers and Municipal Cabinet Chief Mann Chhoeun.
Instead, the municipality will merely resume renovating the existing 7-meter-wide road, they said Thursday.
The announcement of the suspension was considered “a major breakthrough” for the Pilap lawyers, who accepted the 88 families’ cases as their first undertaking late last month.
But negotiations about compensation for the 88 families appear far from over.
Though the municipality has agreed to set up a committee to assess how to compensate the families, Mann Chhoeun on Thursday said monetary payments of compensation were unlikely.
“It’s best to give land for people, not give funds,” the municipal cabinet chief said through a translator, adding that if residents were given money, some may “take advantage” and use the funds for other purposes, only to become squatters in other areas.
At a meeting with the municipality Wednesday, however, some residents who claim to have lived along the road for decades demanded cash for their land at the current market value, which has yet to be assessed.
“I would like to require local authorities to pity me, who is poor,” said resident Prum Nary at the press conference Thursday.
Under the Constitution, the confiscation of property requires fair and just compensation in advance.
However, government authorities have been criticized in the past for offering little or no compensation in land disputes, and relocating residents to remote locations that offer few means of earning a living.
