Borei Keila villagers cast curse on adversaries
Borei Keila residents on Thursday cast a symbolic curse on the people they say are responsible for making their lives a misery since violently evicting them from their homes two years ago. In the latest development in the long-running dispute, security guards and riot police last week forced residents out of a vacant building they had occupied near the ramshackle tent alley they call home, injuring six people. … On the receiving end of such justice, he said, should be businesswoman Suy Sophan, whose Phanimex firm was granted 2.6 hectares of the villagers’ land in 2007, but failed to honor an agreement to rehouse all of them. Of the more than 1,000 families affected by the land deal, about 150 families are now in limbo. He said villagers want to be given 4,300 square meters of the land so that they can build proper houses. ‘We have asked the authorities to help us, but they never have.” City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said the municipality is willing to build temporary shelters for those who want them. …
Aun Pheap and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-villagers-cast-curse-on-adversaries-52897/
