Across Kandieng district in Pursat, people described living through a crackdown on flooded-forest farming and fishing that seemed inconsistent and designed to intimidate, in several cases becoming entwined with politics ahead of the June 5 commune election.
The floating communities in Phnom Penh have been allowed three more years on the water, but the majority ethnically Vietnamese families say they have few options on Cambodian land.
Authorities responsible for the Tonle Sap lake again held an “emergency meeting” then fanned out across the country’s largest lake after Prime Minister Hun Sen said they had failed to curb illegal fishing.
Battambang police officials summoned a Thma Kuol resident because he criticized the demolition of an elevated road on Facebook. He was “educated” and made to apologize for the comment.
Alleging renewed large-scale illegal logging, environmentalists around the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary said authorities should take action to stop deforestation before it was too late, just as officials had reclaimed 60,000 hectares of protected flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake.
As two senior Kampong Chhnang police officers were arrested over the weekend for grabbing flooded forest land, rights NGOs said any officials caught clearing flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake should face punishment for their crimes.
Following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s command two weeks ago to stop the Tonle Sap’s destruction, provincial governors say they have retaken thousands of hectares of protected flooded forests but are still working on investigating perpetrators.
Military police and provincial officials again rushed around the Tonle Sap lake on Wednesday, destroying dozens of cottages, removing thousands of land-marker poles, accepting 675 hectares from a police deputy, and arresting several residents.
Hun Sen launched into a tirade on Sunday against alleged “anarchic deforestation” along the Tonle Sap lake, even ordering the use of the “infantry, navy, and helicopters” to crackdown on land grabbing and encroachment.
Fish are scarce again and wells are running dry, Siem Reap fishers say, as some measurements track the Tonle Sap at another record low this year.
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