Two residents of Boeng Tamok protesting the filling-in of the lake were questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday, with five others expected in court over the next week.
Six hectares of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok has been handed to a four-star general in charge of the Interior Ministry’s finance department, as residents living along the lake’s shore continued to protest their looming resettlement.
Seven women protesting evictions from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake have been summoned to court for incitement and obstruction based on a complaint by the district security chief.
Three groups of protesters crisscrossed Phnom Penh Friday morning over longstanding labor, land and political issues, submitting petitions to various government institutions and the E.U.
Residents around Boeng Tamok returned to gather at the prime minister’s cabinet office after they said their attempt to submit a petition resulted in the document being sent back to district officials.
Two-thirds of Tonle Bati lake — a popular weekend getaway — will be filled in by a developer, official documents show, as three other lakes in Kandal and a further area on Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok have been privatized by Hun Sen’s decree.
Dozens of Boeng Tamok residents staged another rally near their lakeside shacks Thursday to protest looming evictions by the vanishing body of water.
About 100 families living on the edge of Phnom Penh’s increasingly land-filled Boeng Tamok lake protested outside the Prek Pnov district hall demanding land titles and criticizing the transfer of lake plots to tycoons and the family of government officials.
A slew of new government decrees has privatized seven public lakes and waterways in Kandal and further carved up Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok. One local commune chief is threatening to resign over the sudden handover of a lake his residents rely on.
33 young activists rode bicycles around Boeng Tamok calling for a stop to the privatization and filling of the lake. For local residents, the youths were doing what they couldn’t dare to. “I’m happy to see it,” one said. “I want to see the young generation stand up to fight.”
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