Biography of Mr. Sim Virak

Housing Rights Activist

Mr. Sim Virak, 42, representative of Railway Station Toul Sangke A Community, was born in Kampong Siem district, province. Currently, he is a teacher of geography at Toul Svay Prey high school, . Mr. Virak is the fifth child of 9 siblings. He graduated from a high school at Kampong Cham in 1993. After his high school graduation, he came to Phnom Penh to continue his study and asked the chief of the monks of Ounalorm pagoda if he could stay with them. He lived there between 1993 and 2005. He spent 5 years studying fine art and he successfully passed the exam to work at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts in 1999. Mr. Virak is also passionate about teaching and passed the exam to become a teacher in 2002. Mr. Virak graduated with a bachelor degree of law from the Royal University of Law and Economics in 2002. In 2005, Mr. Virak got married to a garment factory worker. They have 5 kids.

After getting married in 2005, Mr. Virak and his spouse bought a house in village 78 in Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Phnom Penh. The house cost USD 650. However, the development plan of the Phnom Penh City Hall in that area led to the eviction of people living in village 78. Like other villagers, Virak’s family received compensation in 2008. Mr. Virak received USD 8,000 in compensation and he used that money to buy a house along the railway in Sangkat Toul Sangke, , Phnom Penh.

In 2009, a Government’s inter-ministerial committee composed of the Ministry of Economics and Finance, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation planned to reconstruct the railway for public transportation. The construction was funded through a loan from the Asian Development Bank with a compensation plan for citizens affected by it. The villagers were forced to accept the compensation. Nevertheless, according to Mr. Virak, the compensation provided did not comply with ADB’s policy, which brought dissatisfaction and led to protests. In 2009, there were 77 houses affected by the railway’s construction but some of them had accepted the compensation. Currently, 52 houses have filed a complaint to receive an acceptable compensation.

After protests took place at Toul Sangke A community, Mr. Virak was selected by villagers of the area to become their representative to advocate for an acceptable compensation. Moreover, he was selected by railway communities around the country affected by development plans funded by ADB to raise their cases to ADB’s representative at the international level. On 5 April 2016, Samdech Hun Sen asked Phnom Penh Municipality to study the changes in the construction plan from a railway to a concrete road. Because of this change, the compensation for affected villagers was not covered by ADB’s policy anymore. Toul Sangke A community asked the Municipality to provide the same compensation as the one foreseen in ADB’s policy. On 25 December 2016, the former Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong said he would provide the villagers with land in the same village, where they could build their own house, which people strongly approved this decision. Mr. Virak hopes that authority will respect Mr. Pa Socheatvong’s decision even if a new governor replaced him. In addition to his advocacy work for the compensation of Toul Sangke community, Mr. Virak participated in the protests organized by affected communities.

Mr. Virak requests the government not to discriminate the protesters and not to assume they belong to the opposition.