TRANSCRIPT
The largest religious building in all of Asia, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, draws around 2 million foreign visitors each year.
It’s a source of income that tens of thousands of locals depend on, including families that for decades have run restaurants, retail shops and other businesses near the site.
But for the past year, the government of Cambodia has been evicting around 40,000 people, demolishing their homes and businesses.
Long Kosal is the deputy director general of APSARA, the Cambodian government authority which manages the site.
“These people, we consider them illegal occupants or settlements. And therefore they are the subject to be relocated. There are so many issues with them, the living conditions, the environment is hazardous. And because they are illegal they do not have the land title.”
Cambodia’s government says it is acting on the advice of the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, to protect the heritage values of Angkor Wat.
It says communities are leaving voluntarily, and financial and logistical support is being provided to residents to move to a new residential site 30 kilometres away from Angkor.
But in a new report, Amnesty International called the program “forced evictions … carried out on a massive scale and a gross violation of international human rights law.”
Montse Ferrer is a lawyer with Amnesty International.
“We spoke to over 100 people, there was not one person who said they voluntarily moved. In terms of what that means, it is going to depend on the person. But we’ve reported that threats were made and intimidation was suffered. People were told in many different ways, ‘you have to move’.”
The Amnesty International report says people are being forced to move to areas that lack basic sanitation and infrastructure, and criticises UNESCO for not publicly condemning the relocation program.
“We have not seen UNESCO take a strong stance. They have said repeatedly that they have not asked for the relocations. But at no point, have they recognised or acknowledged that forced evictions are taking place. It doesn’t appear that they have conducted their own investigation to conclude that. Or that they have taken our findings as something to engage actively with and ultimately they haven’t condemned the forced evictions.”
Authorities in Cambodia have been relocating people away from Angkor Wat for at least a year, but only this week, in response to Amnesty International’s report, has UNESCO publicly asked the Cambodian government to stop forcing people to leave.
UNESCO has given a statement to SBS News:
"(UNESCO) calls on Cambodian authorities to make an explicit commitment not to carry out forced evictions in Angkor. It is important to note that UNESCO has always categorically rejected the use of forced evictions.”
UNESCO has asked the Cambodian government to provide a full report on conservation efforts at Angkor Wat by 1 February 2024, including a response to Amnesty International’s allegations.
