Shukaku pumped in sands to flood houses in Boeng Kok Lake

By Khmerization

Source: RFA

38 homes in Boeng Kok Lake have been flooded with sands (pictured) and 100 other houses faced being flooded with sands after Shukaku company had in the last few days deliberately pumped sands to flood residents' houses in attempt to push them out of the area after many failed compensation negotiations.

As of Saturday 6th November, many large houses and wooden houses have been flooded with sands up to their roof and many owners were forced to flee their homes to live in rented houses.

Dara Roth, a student, said he has no hope of getting the compensation he had asked for after his houses had been bulldozed on Thursday 5th November. He said company representatives told him to register his name at Shukaku's office if he wants to get the $8,500 compensation offered by the company. However, he said people who live in the lake can accept the $8,500 but those who live overland with big land and houses should be offered more. "Those who live in the water can accept $8,500 because the lake is a state property, but these (lands) are private properties where people have lived since the 1980s", he said.

Srey Mom, whose house had been flooded with sands, said all her children dare not leave the house to go to school for fearing that they cannot find the way back home after the company had flooded houses and walkways in the area. "During the Pol Pot era we thought that it was very cruel because they killed people, but this is a dictatorship which killed people on the spots", she said.

Mrs. Meas Bopha, a former NGO worker, said she had raised 13 orphans and destitute children in her home and when the company pumped in the water to flood her house, she raised her house above the ground because she fear that her children might get electrocuted, but authority had come to threaten her with guns. "I don't understand this, I just renovate my own house and they have not paid compensation to me yet, and the company has never come to negotiate with me, and why they brought guns here and pointed them at my head", she said.

The government had given Boeng Kok Lake as concessions to Shukaku company, a joint venture between Senator Lao Meng Khin who is a senator from the ruling Cambodian People's Party and a Japanese company Shukaku, for $79 million for a 99-year lear lease to develop residential areas. The developments affect 4,200 families living in Boeng Kok. About 1,00 families had accepted the company's offer of $8,500 compensation while others had asked for more because they have bigger land and houses.

There are rumours that Prime Minister Hun Sen also had interests and shares in the Boeng Kok developments.