Borei Keila residents ‘occupy’ unfinished apartment block

Residents embroiled in a long-running land dispute in the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district on Wednesday tore down three metal fences and occupied an unfinished apartment block at the site. The fences were felled with axes by irate residents, who took the action after district authorities tried to move them to new, but smaller, plots of land away from a stinking garbage site at Borei Keila. “We decided to demolish the fence, because we got angry with the authorities this morning when they came to measure land of 3-by-4-meters for temporary shelters without agreement from the residents,” said local resident Pich Limkhuon. City Hall last week promised 4-by-6-meter plots for the families—a substantial upgrade from the ramshackle, fly-infested tent alley they currently share with piles of festering trash thrown from the balconies of the completed apartments above. After removing the fences that separated their tents from the unfinished apartment block, the villagers grabbed mats, handbags, cooking stoves and other items and headed into the unfinished building. Inside the one-story structure, with its unfinished staircases and rebar jutting out of the walls, the residents began sweeping dusty floors and laying out their belongings to “claim” the empty rooms. … In 2007, businesswoman Suy Sophan’s Phanimex firm was granted 2.6 hectares of land for development in return for an agreement to build apartments for 1,776 of Borei Keila’s residents. She promised to build 10 replacement apartment blocks, but failed to deliver on the agreement. Eight apartment blocks were completed, but dozens of families were left without homes when Phanimex failed to build the ninth and tenth blocks.

 Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-residents-occupy-unfinished-apartment-block-52083/