Cambodia Dismisses Amnesty Report on Evictions at World Heritage Site

The Cambodian government has rejected an Amnesty International report into its mass eviction campaign near the Angkor Wat temple complex as “baseless,” even as a U.N. agency calls on the government to perform “corrective measures” and formally respond to the allegations.

In an investigation released November 14, Amnesty accused the Cambodian government of forcibly evicting thousands of families at the World Heritage site. It also accused the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, which designates World Heritage sites, of falling short in its mission to uphold human rights.

“The report has so much baseless content,” wrote Long Kosal, spokesperson for Cambodia's Apsara National Authority that oversees the park, in an email. He did not respond to follow-up questions, but officials took to the government-aligned Khmer Times to rail against the report, with a Siem Reap administrator saying that Amnesty’s investigation was “political in nature.”

“I don’t think they are suffering,” he said of the evictees, adding that Amnesty “exaggerates what’s actually happening.”

For generations, Cambodians have lived and worked at Angkor Archaeological Park, the 400-square-kilometer site that contains Angkor Wat and other ancient temples. In late 2022, the government began evicting about 10,000 families that it claimed were illegally squatting there.

In interviews with more than 100 people, Amnesty found that Cambodian authorities relied on threats, intimidation and violence to remove people, sending them to relocation sites where they had to build their own homes and had no clean water. The tactics amounted to a “gross violation of international human rights law,” Amnesty concluded in the 94-page investigation.

Amnesty implored Cambodia to stop the evictions and bring the relocation sites up to international standards. It also recommended UNESCO investigate, noting that the U.N. agency had “not publicly condemned the forced evictions at Angkor nor even acknowledged that they are taking place” — even as the government blamed the evictions on them.

The report stirred mixed reactions at UNESCO's Paris headquarters, where a meeting of Angkor’s International Coordinating Committee, or ICC-Angkor, was hosted the week the report came out. The director-general of Cambodia’s Apsara authority, Hang Peou, told the room that “we need to take care of the site and make sure there are no illegal settlements” and invited Amnesty to meet in Cambodia, according to a livestream of the meeting.

Another member of ICC-Angkor, archaeologist Mounir Bouchenaki, claimed that “some of these people, in front of the Angkor Wat temple, were living in terrible sanitary conditions” and appeared to discourage Amnesty from speaking to the media.

"What we heard from the authorities is that they will receive land ... they will have the facilities for sanitation, water, electricity, they will have the school, the temples, et cetera," Bouchenaki said. “We cannot have our eyes blind and not see that something is [being] done for the population. Now, how it is done, what are the conditions, I think you have to sit down with the Apsara.” 

In a formal November 15 response, UNESCO said Angkor’s population was “an integral part of the decision to include the site on the world heritage list” in 1992 and that it was “deeply concerned” about the allegations.

UNESCO called on Cambodia to “make an explicit commitment not to carry out forced evictions in Angkor and to ensure that all necessary corrective measures are put in place.” The agency also expedited the date for Cambodia to submit a report on Angkor conservation to the World Heritage Committee, to be discussed at its next meeting in summer 2024.

The Cambodian government has often invoked UNESCO as the reason for the evictions. Former prime minister Hun Sen claimed he was “under pressure” from UNESCO to maintain Angkor’s world heritage status and that people who refused to leave would not receive “one cent” of compensation.

UNESCO rebutted that claim, writing in the statement, “at no point did it request, support, or participate in this programme.” The World Heritage Committee has not considered Angkor “in danger” of being removed from the heritage list since 2004.

Montse Ferrer, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for research who attended the ICC-Angkor meeting, told VOA that she hoped UNESCO’s words “will translate into active monitoring of the human rights situation at Angkor.” Amnesty will accept Apsara’s invitation to meet in Cambodia, she added.

“However, we are concerned Apsara has vehemently denied all of our allegations and has not in any way substantively engaged with Amnesty International to discuss the underlying human rights concerns at Angkor,” she said.

One 43-year-old Cambodian artist at Angkor, who asked for anonymity out of fear of authorities, has lived in the park his entire life and makes a living selling paintings to tourists. In April, he agreed to leave his home by the end of the year after authorities said he otherwise wouldn't receive any compensation.

The artist told VOA he has “zero interest” in going to the relocation site about 20 kilometers away because he would have no house and no customers. He isn’t sure where he’ll end up.

“I saw on TV that UNESCO said we are unhygienic, living here, and that Apsara authorities say us living here has an impact on society,” he said. But if that’s the problem, he added, “please, allow us to fix our homes.”

Keat Soriththeavy contributed to this report.