World Bank meets Phnom Penh Governor, Boeng Kak evictees
The World Bank on Thursday asked Phnom Penh municipal officials to do more to help the thousands of families the city evicted from the Boeng Kak neighborhood to make way for a CPP senator’s private real estate project, and is now waiting for a reply, according to anti-eviction activists. Twelve representatives of the evicted community met with World Bank country manager Alassane Sow and regional director Ulrich Zachau on Thursday afternoon, shortly after the bank officials met with Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong. … Housing rights groups say city officials acted illegally when it sold off most of the Boeng Kak neighborhood to CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin in 2007 for his private real estate venture because it did not give the families a chance to apply for land titles, which they were entitled to. In 2011 the World Bank admitted that it had botched a land-titling project it was funding by not doing enough to ensure that the rights of families at Boeng Kak were protected. Later that year, the bank imposed a freeze on new lending to the Cambodian government because of the mass evictions from Boeng Kak, but said it could not do more to help the affected families because of a lack of cooperation from the government. …
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-bank-meets-phnom-penh-governor-boeng-kak-evictees-54189/
