Families from Kandal’s Ampov Prey commune protested outside the commune hall demanding that they receive compensation for communal land that is now being used by the new Phnom Penh international airport development.
Observers say the process of compensating evictees in development projects needs to be cleared up to avoid increasing mistrust, poverty, fear and injustice among the population.
Nine airport protesters jailed last week have been released on bail by the Kandal Provincial Court, with a family member saying they were being pressured to accept the compensation on offer and stop protesting.
KANDAL STUNG DISTRICT, Kandal — Villagers in dispute with Phnom Penh’s new, under-construction airport protested after Kandal authorities destroyed a road leading to their homes and farmland with the aid of a heavy security presence.
A representative for residents disputing land on the site of Phnom Penh’s future international airport says a provincial governor has vastly understated how many people are still holding out for a better deal.
They feel intimidated by authorities, and a village official was detained and questioned over the weekend for standing up for the community, but residents protesting the new airport have built a small barricade of branches and cursed the developers in a ceremony.
The new Phnom Penh airport’s developers have received nearly 2,600 hectares of state land to develop an airport city around the proposed travel hub, while fishers and farmers currently using the land hold onto their increasingly-challenging livelihoods for as long as they can.
Nearly 50 airlines have been warned that they could face criminal prosecution if they carry Sam Rainsy and other senior opposition officials into Cambodia, the Civil Aviation Secretariat has said, while Rainsy on Monday again vowed to return to the country this weekend.
O’REANG DISTRICT, Mondulkiri province — With guards standing by, threatening to quash any potential protest, an excavator dug closer to the Bunong communal burial grounds,
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