The Cambodian government’s plan to require that NGOs be registered is just an excuse to stifle legitimate protests, activists say.
‘This isn’t right at all’, says Mr Ponlok, owner of a waterfront cafe at Boeung Kok Lake in Phnom Penh. ‘People are being forced out and the compensation is way too small’.
活动份子称，柬埔寨政府要求NGO（非政府组织）进行登记的计划，只是压制合法抗议的借口。
‘这根本就不对"，金边万谷湖滨咖啡馆的老板邦洛（Ponlok）先生说，‘人们正被强制迁出，可补偿费少的可怜’。
Lakeside residents are being driven from their homes as developers try to fill the landmark lake in Cambodia"s capital with earth and sand, prior to turning it into a residential and shopping complex. In deal signed between Shukaku Inc. and the Cambodian government, a 99-year lease to the 103-hectare lake site was granted to the developers, a location that sits under the noses of the nearby British and French Embassies.
湖边居民正被赶离家园，开发商正用沙土填埋柬埔寨首都这一标志性湖泊，然后把它建成一个商住综合楼。在柬埔寨政府和Shukaku公司签署的协议里，开发商取得103公顷湖面土地99年租用期限，而该地皮正好位于英法大使馆的眼皮底下。
The lake is now about one-third of its former size, wafting a lingering odour from the pollution and ubiquitous rubbish strewn along the narrowing lakeshore. In Phnom Penh’s overcast and breezeless humidity, the smell wraps itself round the visitor like an unseen—and certainly unwanted—shroud.
这个湖现在大概只有以前的三分之一大，狭窄的湖岸上到处都是垃圾，污染物发出的臭气弥久不散。在金边阴冷无风的潮湿环境中，阵阵臭味笼罩着来访者，就像隐秘又可憎的裹尸布。
Maybe half of the lakeside residents have already been evicted, and the 2,000 or so families still there have been given a take-it-or-leave-it offer of $8,500 to vacate their homes and properties.
大概半数湖滨居民已经被赶走了，还有2000来户留在哪里，为了让他们搬家，开放商给每户补偿8500美元，而且不能还价！
Land rights are a complex and controversial issue in Cambodia, where under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, cities were emptied as part of a forced ruralisation scheme. The regime nationalised all private property and gutted ownership records. In a bid to settle the confusion and laythe bedrock for some sort of property rights and legal framework for ownership, a 2001 law said that people who could prove five years of continuous occupancy could apply to formally own the land, but that does not seem to apply to the lakeside residents.
在柬埔寨，土地权是一个复杂的争议性话题，在红色高棉残酷统治下，作为强制乡村化方案的一部分，城市全部被清空。该政权将所有私人财产国有化，并毁坏了财产所有权记录。为了解决混乱局面，为了给某些财产权和所有权法律框架打好基础，2001年的一份法律宣称，谁能证明自己连续占有土地5年，既可正式申请拥有该土地，但是该法律似乎不适用于湖滨居民。
NGOs based in Cambodia have played a crucial role so far in lobbying for the lakeside residents’ rights. However, the Cambodian government has tabled a new NGO law that threatens to undermine the independence of organisations and make it much more difficult for voluntary associations to be formed in the country. This in turn will hamper citizens from taking action against perceived rights violations, activists say.
目前为止，柬埔寨本土NGO在为湖滨居民陈述权利中，发挥了关键作用。然而，柬埔寨政府搁置了一项新的NGO法案，此举可能会破坏NGO的独立性，而且使该国的志愿团体更难成形。活跃分子说，这反而会阻碍居民采取行动，反对切身的侵权行为。
According to Naly Pilorge, Director of LICADHO, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, there are many technical problems with the law. ‘Key provisions are vague and open to arbitrary interpretation,’ she says. ‘In many circumstances, the government has carte blanche to shut organizations down without appeal.’
据柬埔寨人权促进和保卫联盟（LICADHO）主任Naly Pilorge介绍，该法案存在很多技术问题，‘关键条文模糊不清，给随意解读留下了空间。’她说，‘很多情况下，政府都不顾请求，肆无忌惮地关闭NGO组织。’
The complex and mandatory registration process will close many organisations, and the law is in breach of Cambodia’s Constitution and its obligations under international treaties, according to LICADHO. Overall, there are around 3,000 NGOs operating in Cambodia, ranging from international brands such as Oxfam to village level organizations.
人权促进和保卫联盟（LICADHO）说，复杂而具强制性的登记程序将使许多组织关闭，而且该法案也违反了柬埔寨宪法和国际条约规定的义务。目前，柬埔寨全国大约有3000家NGO，范围从国际知名的乐施会到村级组织不等。
The government for its part says that the new NGO law will ‘promote the practice of rights and the freedoms of Khmer citizens in registering associations or domestic non-government organizations in order to jointly protect lawful persons and public interests.’ According to the Cambodian government, the law will make it easier for Cambodians to form associations and NGOs. But according to an unofficial translation of the second draft of the law, it puts a series of bureaucratic fences in the way that many of the smaller, rural-based localised organisations may have trouble clearing.
政府部门声称，新的NGO法案将‘通过对社会团体或国内NGO进行登记，共同保护合法公民和公众利益，促进高棉公民在自由和权利方面的实践活动"。根据柬埔寨政府的说法，这项法律将让缅甸人更容易建立社团或NGO。但是，按照对草案二稿的非官方解读，该法案设置的一系列官僚性障碍，会让许多基于农村的小型本土组织遇到不少麻烦。
The proposed NGO law appears to be part of a package of measures being drawn up by the government to minimise the possibility of large-scale organisations emerging or protests taking place. A draft trade union law has been criticised by union leaders who say that they were ignored throughout the drafting process. To critics, the law would allow the government to stop protests, jail leaders, break up unions and prevent new bodies from forming.
这项NGO法律提案是政府制定的一揽子措施的一部分，目的是限制大型组织出现，减少抗议活动发生。工会领导人批评了一项工会法草案，他说，在整个起草过程中，工会都被排除在外。对批评者而言，这项法案将允许政府制止抗议活动，拘捕领导者，拆散工会并防止新团体产生。
A second draft of the law was supposedly discussed by the government and some NGOs last week, but this was widely dismissed as a charade. The second draft was released by the government on March 25, but gave only four days for NGOs to prepare for the ensuing consultation. Ou Virak, President of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, says such a meeting ‘to “finalize” the draft doesn’t constitute meaningful consultation.’ The organisation fears that the meeting will be spun as NGO approval of the process and the draft law.
据信，政府和部分NGO上周已就草案二稿进行了协商，但它仍像迷一样被普遍拒绝。政府于3月25日公布了草案二稿，但只给NGO们四天时间准备后续协商。柬埔寨人权中心主席Ou Virak说，这样的‘草案“落实”会议，并没有什么协商意义"。该组织担心，此次会议会因NGO对立法程序法律草案的批准而被拖延。
The International Center for Non-Profit Law, which offers technical assistance to governments and organisations involved in drafting legal frameworks for NGOs, says that the proposed NGO law doesn’t meet international standards and contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Cambodia has ratified.
在涉及起草NGO法律框架的事务中，非营利法律国际中心（The InternationalCenter for Non-Profit Law）会为政府和社团提供法律支持。他们认为，这项NGO法律提案不符合国际标准，违背了已为柬埔寨政府批准的《公民和政治权利国际公约》（ICCPR）。
The latest version of the NGO law outlines what looks set to be a time-consuming and unwieldy registration process, open to interpretation and veto by officials, meaning it’s possible that citizens affected by new land grabs in Cambodia won’t have the right to organise themselves in time to properly respond. Already, 37 community activists are in prison due to peaceful protests against land grabs in rural areas, while others are regularly threatened or worse.
NGO法律的最终版本概要，只是设置了一个耗时且拙劣的注册过程，让官员们可自由解释和否决，这意味着受新一轮圈地影响的柬埔寨公民，可能无权及时组织起来进行正当防卫。到目前为止，已经有37名社区活跃分子，因在农村地区和平抗议强占土地而被关进监狱，其他人的处境也岌岌可危。
David Pred is Executive Director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, a group that has been assisting the lakeside residents. He says that the proposed law ‘will stifle the grassroots advocacy networks that have emerged in recent years to defend community land and natural resource rights.’ As well as making it much more difficult to set such groups up, Mr Pred says that the burdensome reporting requirements ‘would pose significant security risks for the individuals named in the registration documents.’
David Pred是柬埔寨无国界组织（Bridges Across Borders Cambodia）的执行主任，该组织已经为湖滨居民提供了帮助。他说，这项法律草案，‘会扼杀近来涌现的以维护社区土地和自然资源权利为目的的草根倡导网络。’也会使建立这样的组织更加困难，Pred说，繁琐的申报请求‘会给注册文档中的公民带来巨大的安全风险’。
Back at the lakeside, Ponlok says NGOs working for the rights of Boeung Kak residents have done a good job, but he isn’t optimistic that they can ultimately save his business or residence. ‘We are going to lose anyway in the end,’ he says. ‘I might move to somewhere else in the country. We are already looking at what we can do afterwards.’ His words tail off, and he turns his head towards the lake as if in a final glance goodbye.
回到湖边。邦洛说，为金边居民维权的NGO已经做了很好的工作，但是对他们能否最终保住他的营生和住所，但他并不乐观。‘不管怎样，我们最后都会失败，’他说，‘我可能会搬到其他地方。我们已经知道我们能做什么。’他不再说话，把头转向湖水，看了看湖面，像是做最后的告别。
