Asian land grabs highlight class friction, bureaucratic failures

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

TRAPEANG KRASAING, Cambodia (AFP) — Monsoon rains have brought new misery to the residents of this resettlement site outside the Cambodian capital.

Already uprooted from their homes, the hundreds of families living here now have to contend with near daily downpours that flood their shacks with putrid water.

"Living here is a misery," said Chan Bory, one of the thousands who authorities in Phnom Penh pushed from their homes in a city slum that had been earmarked for multi-million dollar development.

The pre-dawn eviction a year ago to this remote site 22 kilometres (13 miles) away was one of the largest single forced moves from Phnom Penh since the Khmer Rouge evacuated the capital's population to the countryside after seizing power in 1975.

"A lot of...