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| Drowning victims ... Hut Heap, 13, and her brother Hut Hoeub, 9, died four days after they and their families were forcibly resettled. |
ABC Radio Australia
Calls are growing for an investigation into a Cambodian resettlment site, after two children died.
The children, aged nine and 13, were found dead in a pond near Battambang in western Cambodia. Their deaths come just days after their family and 50 others were forced out of their homes and moved to a resettlement site so that work could begin on a railway project. That project is partly financed by the Australian government aid agency Aus AID and operated by Melbourne firm Toll Holdings, with its local partner, Cambodia's Royal Group of Companies. Now Cambodian aid group Bridges Across Borders is calling for an investigation into the site and the Australian government's role.
The children, aged nine and 13, were found dead in a pond near Battambang in western Cambodia. Their deaths come just days after their family and 50 others were forced out of their homes and moved to a resettlement site so that work could begin on a railway project. That project is partly financed by the Australian government aid agency Aus AID and operated by Melbourne firm Toll Holdings, with its local partner, Cambodia's Royal Group of Companies. Now Cambodian aid group Bridges Across Borders is calling for an investigation into the site and the Australian government's role.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Dr Natalie Bugalski, Australian human rights lawyer
LAM: Can you tell us first of all what are the circumstances surrounding the children's deaths?
BUGALSKI: Well the young families were moved to the resettlement site to make way for the re-facilitation of the tracks in Battambang. And four days after the families were resettled, the two children, brother and sister, aged nine and 13, went to the pond to collect water for basic household chores and to bathe. And they have to do this because pumped water is not installed at the site. So people are needing to track through a muddy rice field to access water from the pond, which by the way is full of chemicals used for growing rice and has caused skin diseases and other illnesses. So on this occasion in late May, the children went to collect water and never returned, and their bodies were sadly found at the bottom of the pond.
LAM: So are you saying then that the children's deaths are directly related to the resettlement, because one might argue that children drown in ponds in Cambodia all the time?
BUGALSKI: Well in our interview with the brother in the community they were saying that the children would not have had reason to go to the pond to access water if piped water had been supplied at the resettlement site. And really it's just a deplorable situation that people would be forced to resettle to make way for this track project and the conditions of that site were so inadequate that there weren't even basic services for water and electricity.
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BUGALSKI: Well the young families were moved to the resettlement site to make way for the re-facilitation of the tracks in Battambang. And four days after the families were resettled, the two children, brother and sister, aged nine and 13, went to the pond to collect water for basic household chores and to bathe. And they have to do this because pumped water is not installed at the site. So people are needing to track through a muddy rice field to access water from the pond, which by the way is full of chemicals used for growing rice and has caused skin diseases and other illnesses. So on this occasion in late May, the children went to collect water and never returned, and their bodies were sadly found at the bottom of the pond.
LAM: So are you saying then that the children's deaths are directly related to the resettlement, because one might argue that children drown in ponds in Cambodia all the time?
BUGALSKI: Well in our interview with the brother in the community they were saying that the children would not have had reason to go to the pond to access water if piped water had been supplied at the resettlement site. And really it's just a deplorable situation that people would be forced to resettle to make way for this track project and the conditions of that site were so inadequate that there weren't even basic services for water and electricity.
Please click here to read more...
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