Mass Evictions in Angkor Wat Traditional Villages Need Continued Pressure From Human Rights Organizations

During the past decade, there have been increasing issues with land concessions and land evictions in Cambodia. One ongoing manifestation of this takes place at the historic Angkor Wat region. Cambodian families are facing 'mass forced evictions' in Angkor, which caught the attention of international human rights organizations. At least 10,000 families were forced out of their homes in the region. The acts were found to be illegal and directly standing against the cultural site's UNESCO status as a living heritage area. The people who were threatened to lose their homes claimed ancestral ties to the temple area. Human rights organizations like Amnesty International were ready to call UNESCO, the World Heritage Committee, and the government of Cambodia to respond to what happened.

Background

The Angkor Wat, a temple complex near Cambodia's Siem Reap, was once the capital of the Khmer Empire. It has had religious significance for the Khmer population in Cambodia since the 12th century. This archeological heritage park is the largest religious monument in the world, and is in many ways rooted deep in the Cambodian identity.

As one of the cultural wonders of the world, architectural sophistication comes with temples and forested areas, systems of hydraulic structures with water basins, dikes, reservoirs, and canals, as well as communication routes. It is understandable that there would be minor decay in the complexity of the Angkor temple system.

A few decades ago, UNESCO dealt with some problems on the heritage site, almost delisting Angkor Wat as a site. There are building and development codes and limits for construction, and at times those were compromised. These infringements were going to impact the temple area's classification. UNESCO ended their inquiry during the 2000s, and as a result, Cambodians thought their preservation efforts exemplary.

What, then, could happen to the concept of the Angkor being a 'living heritage site'? The heritage park was entitled to and embedded in important traditions and practices of Cambodians.

A targeted threat that the Cambodian government imposed on its own population with forced evictions was surprising, because it used an excuse that doesn't make sense in the context of the 'living status' of the heritage site. Amnesty International first documented that the mass evictions affected approximately 10,000 families in the Angkor Wat region. The government argued that Cambodia might lose the UNESCO's classification because of the people dwelling in the traditional villages.

We now know that UNESCO revoking the heritage status would come from infringement and would never be about the people living in the traditional Angkor villages. As a result of the international attention to the evictions, UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee responded on 24 of July 2024, by issuing an ‘interim decision’ for the on-site monitoring mission.

UNESCO's response is, however, partial in that it doesn't include evictions as an implicit and non-negotiable part of the original Angkor heritage agreement. The Cambodian government cannot in the first place evict the people from the region. Not making stronger statements leaves too many loopholes for the governance and management of the Angkor heritage area.  

Past currents and land grabs

The tumultuous past of the country coming from the civil war and the Khmer Rouge violence, resulted in Cambodia in that the country never fully recovered from damage to its cultural life and identity. The past atrocities left people uprooted and left marks on the economy and culture. War damage among the Angkor temples was one such marker. Angkor structures were taken over by vegetation, resulting in the eroding of the buildings.

In light of the current crisis in Cambodia facing the people who settled to live in Angkor in the traditional villages often a long time ago, it is important to understand the vulnerable context behind UNESCO's classification. The Cambodian officials' forced evictions against people touch the core of people's identity. These actions will affect the future of the site as peoples' cultural heritage, as a 'living heritage site' of the current and future Cambodians.

Many questions relating to the evictions of families from traditional villages in the Angkor area, are in fact part of a larger tendency taking root in various parts of Cambodia. Evictions from people's rightful homes are a violation of international law. Land grabs are illegally taking place in many parts of Cambodia.

Increasingly so, international organizations are pushing back on corrupt tendencies. The UN is focusing on the right to adequate housing as a norm and as part of sustainable development. The idea of the right to adequate housing serves the minimal purpose of, at least, offering people compensation for losing their homes in cases like forced evictions. It seems that there is very little promise for the people in Cambodia.

Quite the contrary, large foreign corporations have taken more 'ownership', claiming land from traditional communities. As part of the democratic development in the Global South, the UN's emphasis on environmental rights and right to land ownership needs to be taken more seriously. We see countries tackling development challenges in an unjust manner, while ignoring basic human rights. In Cambodia, sustainable development goals need to progress with the people and communities in mind. We should be worried that Cambodia keeps on targeting its population, often impoverished communities, through evictions and land grabs.

From the start, UNESCO has been clear that the Angkor Archeological Park is inhabited. The people have settled there in over a hundred villages. Some of the people living in the villages can date their ancestors to the historic Angkor period. Many descendants have traditionally practiced agriculture and rice cultivation for generations.
 
Openings

The 'aftermath' of Angkor evictions is not promising and is far from being over. The local people have also gone into debt in order to acquire new homes. On their part, UNESCO responded to the complaints of the international groups and local communities. While the community asked for a full stop to the evictions, the response was merely referencing an interim team that would monitor the situation.

The questions remain: what will happen to the Angkor villages in the future? Are people who have already been evicted allowed to move back? Will there be a real rebuilding that guarantees a sustainable future for the people in the Angkor area?

The Cambodian officials made an offer to fix up the Angkor homes after the complaints. Yet they ignored people's real needs for full compensation, which provides rebuilding and financing. In addition, creating 'model homes' for show on the relocation sites only proves that the government is not canceling their eviction plans. Just like the government is not answering why the evictions happened in the first place.

Many are still struggling with the threat of being evicted in the future from their Angkor homes and cannot go on with their lives. Those who were evicted faced material conditions that don't meet the standards for adequate housing.

UNESCO's interim mission justifies the evictions. Local communities deserve a real plan for their futures, and it needs to include the Angkor Wat agreement highlighting the continued living status of the heritage site. The future of Angkor is embedded in the very agreement that situated the people in it. UNESCO's actions have been complicit since they don't show remorse in the Cambodian government's illegal evictions. They should have required that any future evictions need to stop. Also, evictees should be offered compensation for the hardship of losing their homes. Overall, Amnesty International and other organizations addressed UNESCO’s failure to name the responsibility of the government, so the Angkor future seems critical.

Our responsibility remains to work together with the local communities, international groups and human rights organizations and demand more effective responses to the forced evictions. A collaborative effort is needed to prevent any further evictions. More so, those who have already been relocated from their Angkor homes need serious plans to return.

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