Cambodians denounce World Bank-funded land grab http://brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=567912

Excerpt of a February letter to the World Bank President from the League of Boeung Kak Women Struggling for Housing Rights We are the residents of Boeung Kak in Sras Choc commune, Phnom Penh, Cambodia who submitted a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel in September 2009. Our land rights, including our right to register our land, were unfairly denied by the World Bank-financed land-titling project. Instead our land has been leased to a private company and we are being forcibly evicted from our homes. We know that we have the right to be protected from forced eviction under the World Bank policy on involuntary resettlement. However, this policy is not being respected. … 

In Cambodia today, land-grabbing by powerful people is increasing all the time. … We are losing our land, our homes and our livelihoods. Our children are forced to drop out of school. We have no food security and our mental health is deteriorating. We cannot find justice at the courts, which only work for the rich and the powerful. When we try to protest, we are threatened, arrested, beaten and abused.Every year, [Cambodia] receives more than one billion dollars in aid and loans from international banks and donors. But much of this aid is not reaching the poor. … We believe that the donors are a part of our problem when they fail to monitor their aid to ensure that it does not cause harm.