Residents Protest Satellite City Road Construction

Khmer Times/Pav Suy

 

Monday, 25 January 2016

 

Roughly ten residents from the Kien Kleang community set fire to tires in protest of a City Hall development near National Road 6A, along which the majority of the community lives, after bulldozers began felling their fences and clearing their land.   
 

The protesters said the government’s claim of facilitating the flow of traffic by widening a nearby road, which connects the Chroy Changvar roundabout to Prek Leap market, was an obfuscation of their real intentions. They say removal of the Kien Kleang community is solely in the interest of the $1.6 billion Chroy Changvar Satellite Development Project, which is being carried out under the oversight of the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC) and whose Economic Land Concession the Kien Kleang community falls within.
 

OCIC is reportedly owned by Cambodian-Canadian tycoon Pung Khieu Se.
 

In yesterday’s operation, authorities apparently surrounded two bulldozers and an excavator with roughly 30 security forces. The Kien Kleang residents said that they attempted to stop the construction to no avail.
 

The 12-meter-wide road was constructed 100 meters behind National Road 6A, too close for Kien Kleang residents’ comfort. When they complained that it would have inverse effects on residents’ lives, they also demanded that it be moved an additional 50 meters away to alleviate its impacts.
 

Community representative Moa Vanntech wished city and district authorities would stop the project immediately and talk with citizens about their concerns. 
 

“[The authorities] should not do whatever they want, because the land has its owners. Whatever development happens should not happen through force, but discussion,” he said.
 

Uy Phary, whose fence was crushed by the government’s excavator, said she was not informed about the nuances of the road expansion, nor were her neighborhood’s concerns addressed.
 

“I was not very well-informed about the project,” she said. “When they informed us, we did not agree, but they just went ahead with it forcibly. It is a fierce violation of people’s rights by using the power of authority to oppress the people.”
 

Mrs. Phary said that the authorities discussed the monetary compensation she stood to collect, but she did not agree to them because the $15 dollars per square meter they were offering was too little.
 

Sie Phearum, director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said, “What the authority is doing is an abuse of the housing rights of the citizens and it is a habit of the Cambodian government, a remnant of a government instilled with communism. What they have done is use force to press the people to accept their terms.”
 

Touch Samnang, OCIC project manager, had a different take, pointing to his company’s adherence to the master development plan laid out by City Hall and highlighting the success they have already had relocating residents of development zones.
 

“What we are developing is in accordance with the master plan that City Hall has set,” he said. “So far, we have built a great number of such roads and reached agreements in deals with a lot of residents by giving them houses in Borey Rung Roeung as compensation.” 
 

Mr. Samnang went on to say it is the responsibility of City Hall and their authorities to deal with the complaints and protests of citizens. 
 

Neither City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche nor Dangkor district governor Klaing Hout could be reached for comment yesterday.