Cham Families On Riverbank Told to Leave
More than 100 Cham fishing families who moor their boat homes on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula have been ordered to relocate, with one official saying the fishing boats were spoiling the beauty of the riverbank and the area around the new hotel. “We already informed them [of the eviction], said Chao Sidorn, Chroy Changva commune chief. “We told them the purposes, which are basically for community safety, riverside beauty and the development of the Sokha Hotel construction,” Mr. Sidorn said. Mr Sidorn said the Cham families, who live and work on their small fishing boats, would have to move elsewhere, and that there was no compensation for their relocation. … Matt Kirya, a member of the Cham community being forced to move from their riverbank, said that no warning was given by the authorities and that members of the marine police threw a rope around some of their boats on Thursday night and hauled them out into the middle of the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers. …
