The standoff, in which the two sides exchanged words but remained nonviolent, was the latest in an escalating dispute related to compensation for farmland on the airport development land.
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.
Four protesters seeking compensation from Phnom Penh’s new international airport development have been put in Covid-19 quarantine without cause, allege their wives, who accuse authorities of trying to silence the protests.
News publisher Los Seng, of Los Seng News, says he is under pressure over covering land disputes related to Phnom Penh’s new international airport in Kandal province, warned to stop his reporting and told that a case against him was headed to court.
More than 100 villagers have planned to block the entrance to the Kandal province construction site of Phnom Penh’s new international airport, as they hold out to be compensated at market prices while the governor threatens legal action.
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.
Kandal province villagers have erected tents to stand guard over their rice fields on the site of Phnom Penh’s new airport development, as two bulldozers arrived and began to clear the area.
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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