A Kandal court acquitted nine airport protesters who were charged with multiple felonies for alleged violence during protests, more than a year after they were arrested and bailed.
Around 200 residents protested in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district last week over the airport’s construction, and said they suspended the protest after being promised a meeting at the district hall on Monday.
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.
Dozens of families in a Kandal village have been marked for eviction to develop Phnom Penh’s new international airport, and have petitioned Prime Minister Hun Sen complaining of the state’s compensation offer that they say is a mere 10th of market prices.
Local authorities, accompanied by security forces, started clearing land in Chroy Changva district’s Prek Leap commune without any notice on Thursday, affecting one resident’s fencing and fish pond, near a satellite city being developed by the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation.
A standoff between residents on land earmarked for Phnom Penh’s new international airport against developers and authorities continues, as the gulf between the land’s rising value and authorities’ insistence on paying only pre-development prices as compensation widens.
About 50 villagers who say their farmland falls within the planned site of the new Phnom Penh International Airport submitted a petition at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Takhmao City residence on Tuesday to ask for a bigger payout from the airport’s developer.
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