‘Rights Are A Political Issue’…
As if we didn’t know…
Members of the Borei Keila community, after a recent disagreement with the local authorities on the size of a piece of relocation land and their following occupation of a building which was promised to them at the very beginning of their endless land issue, were allowed to meet with the municipal authorities for a meeting this morning. It turned out to be yet another disappointing one and they went back to try and claim the ground floor of that unfinished building which had been promised to them.
Borei Keila members reported that the authorities told them that their relocation problem would be solved before the end of this year (this is February 13th if I am not mistaken). The first relocations for the community, in a deal with Phanimex company which promised to provide 10 buildings (out of which only 8 were built as Phanimex at one point said it ran out of money and couldn’t care less about the remaining inhabitants), started in 2007 and were riddled with one problem after another, the segregation of HIV positive families being one of them, corruption and nepotism being a permanent one.
During that same meeting the representatives of Borei Keila also reported having heard the authorities say that they shouldn’t claim anything on behalf of their rights because then it would be a political issue. But isn’t everything a political issue?
More on the Borei Keila story HERE…
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.