Squatting is common in the country of Cambodia. Following the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime, the new democratic government introduced land reform. In the capital Phnom Penh, where in 2003 an estimated 25 per cent of the population was squatting, there are informal settlements and occupied buildings.
Land disputes and evictions are common across Cambodia. Squatters are known officially as the "urban poor" or "temporary residents".
Squatting is not an activity defined in Cambodian law. [1] : 468 In the Khmer language, "squatter" means an anarchist and "squatters settlements" literally translate as "places where anarchy and confusion reign" therefore officially squatters are referred to by different names, such as the "urban poor" or "temporary residents". [2] : 5, 18, 21
After the Khmer Rouge was ousted in 1975, many people returned to Phnom Penh and began living in their old houses or squatted informal settlements if their homes were already occupied. [3] One example of a squatted building was the White Building. [4] Under the Pol Pot regime (1975–1979) almost all the country's cadastral officials had been murdered. [1] : 473
In 1989, the new State of Cambodia launched a sweeping land reform program, recognising 4.9 million claims for title between 1989 and 1993. [5] The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) oversaw reforms and also caused land prices to soar by inserting $2.8 billion into the local economy. [5]
Until the end of the 1990s, the Phnom Penh authorities did not recognise squatters and tended to evict squats. As of 2003, an estimated 25 per cent of the city's population were squatters. [2] : 5, 16 Land disputes and evictions are still common. The World Bank estimated that in Phnom Penh alone, 11,000 households had been evicted between 1998 and 2003. [6]
In 2005, soldiers shot dead six squatters in an eviction and the following year, soldiers and riot police were used to evict a thousand slum-dwellers in Phnom Penh. [7] Amnesty International stated in 2008 that 150,000 people were at risk of being forcibly displaced. [6]
As of 2014, there were estimated to be 300 slums in Phnom Penh, including the Hemakcheat, a former cinema. [3] There are many land disputes and the government has created the Cadastral Commission and the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolutions. [1] : 491
In 2023, the Cambodian government evicted about 10,000 families who had been living near the Angkor Wat temple. [8] As a result, Amnesty International criticized UNESCO for failing to challenge the evictions, which according to Amnesty International violated both Cambodian law and international law. [8] [9] In March 2024, Cambodia responded by denying the allegations, claiming that it had only been moving out squatters and not longtime village residents. [10]
The history of Cambodia, a country in mainland Southeast Asia, can be traced back to Indian civilization. Detailed records of a political structure on the territory of what is now Cambodia first appear in Chinese annals in reference to Funan, a polity that encompassed the southernmost part of the Indochinese peninsula during the 1st to 6th centuries. Centered at the lower Mekong, Funan is noted as the oldest regional Hindu culture, which suggests prolonged socio-economic interaction with maritime trading partners of the Indosphere in the west. By the 6th century a civilization, called Chenla or Zhenla in Chinese annals, firmly replaced Funan, as it controlled larger, more undulating areas of Indochina and maintained more than a singular centre of power.
The Khmer Rouge is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The name was coined in the 1960s by then Chief of State Norodom Sihanouk to describe his country's heterogeneous, communist-led dissidents, with whom he allied after his 1970 overthrow.
Pol Pot was a Cambodian communist revolutionary, politician and a dictator who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Maoist and a Khmer ethnonationalist, he was a leading member of Cambodia's communist movement, the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 to 1997, and served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. His administration converted Cambodia into a one-party communist state and perpetrated the Cambodian genocide.
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there were one billion slum residents and squatters globally. Squatting occurs worldwide and tends to occur when people find empty buildings or land to occupy for housing. It has a long history, broken down by country below.
Phnom Penh is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, industrial, and cultural centre. Before Phnom Penh became capital city, Oudong was the capital of the country.
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambodia borders Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline along the Gulf of Thailand on the southwest. Cambodia spans an area of 181,035 square kilometres, and has a population of about 17 million. Its capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh.
Articles related to Cambodia and Cambodian culture include:
Norodom Sihamoni is King of Cambodia. He became King on 14 October 2004, a week after the abdication of his father, Norodom Sihanouk.
Siem Reap is the second-largest city of Cambodia, as well as the capital and largest city of Siem Reap Province in northwestern Cambodia.
Russey Keo, also spelled as Russei Keo, is a district (khan) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This district consists of the northern and north-eastern outskirts of the main city of Phnom Penh, stretching from Khan Sen Sok in the west to the Tonlé Sap River in the east. As of 2019, it is the most populous district of Phnom Penh.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), also known as the Khmer Communist Party, was a communist party in Cambodia. Its leader was Pol Pot, and its members were generally known as the Khmer Rouge. Originally founded in 1951, the party was split into pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet factions as a result of the Sino–Soviet split with the former being the Pol Pot faction, and the latter adopting a more revisionist approach to Marxism. As such, it claimed that 30 September 1960 was its founding date; it was named the Workers' Party of Kampuchea before it was renamed the Communist Party in 1966.
Khmer nationalism is a form of nationalism found in Cambodia, that asserts that Khmers (Cambodians) are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of the Khmer (Cambodian) race.
The White Building, originally known as the Municipal Apartments, was a large and prominent apartment building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the buildings in the Bassac development. The White Building was on Samdach Sothearos Boulevard near the Bassac River, a large urban extension project built on reclaimed land in the early 1960s. After being abandoned during the Khmer Rouge era, it became a squat. After many years of neglect, it was declared unsafe by authorities, its residents evicted and it was demolished in 2017.
Dy Proeung is a Cambodian architect and sculptor. He is notable for creating scaled-down models of Cambodian temples, most notably Angkor Wat. An article in Roads & Kingdoms once described Proeung as Cambodia's "Most diligent and heroic architect".
Squatting in Zimbabwe is the settlement of land or buildings without the permission of the owner. Squatting began under colonialism. After Zimbabwe was created in 1980, peasant farmers and squatters disputed the distribution of land. Informal settlements have developed on the periphery of cities such as Chitungwiza and the capital Harare. In 2005, Operation Murambatsvina evicted an estimated 700,000 people.
Squatting in Ghana is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. Informal settlements are found in cities such as Kumasi and the capital Accra. Ashaiman, now a town of 100,000 people, was swelled by squatters. In central Accra, next to Agbogbloshie, the Old Fadama settlement houses an estimated 80,000 people and is subject to a controversial discussion about eviction. The residents have been supported by Amnesty International, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and Shack Dwellers International.
Urban areas in the Philippines such as Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao have large informal settlements. The Philippine Statistics Authority defines a squatter, or alternatively "informal dwellers", as "One who settles on the land of another without title or right or without the owner's consent whether in urban or rural areas". Squatting is criminalized by the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, also known as the Lina Law. There have been various attempts to regularize squatter settlements, such as the Zonal Improvement Program and the Community Mortgage Program. In 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that out of the country's population of about 106 million, 4.5 million were homeless.
Wat Vihear Suor is a Theravada Buddhist temple located in Kandal Province, Cambodia. It was built on an older pre-Buddhist cult site belonging to the Angkor era.
During the colonial occupation of Kenya, Black Africans working on farms owned by white settlers were called "squatters" by the British. As of 1945, there were over 200,000 such squatters in the Highlands and more than half were Kikuyu. The Mau Mau rebellion began amongst these squatters in the late 1940s and after independence in the early 1960s, peasants started squatting land in rural areas without the permission of the owner.
The Preah Ang Chek Preah Ang Chorm shrine is a religious shrine in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is located within the compound of the Royal Residence where two statues referred to as Preah Ang Chek and Preah Ang Chorm are worshipped since 1982.
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