Company digs trench around family’s home
Hang Chantha watched in horror last weekend as a private company battling to take her land dug a four-meter-deep trench around the perimeter of her home. “After the company dug, I could not sleep at night; I was afraid my house would fall,” she recounted Thursday, sitting beneath her elevated home with her grandchildren playing nearby. “I have many children up there.” The Heng Development Company has muscled its way into Phnom Penh’s Prek Kampoes commune in the past few years, scooping up at least 300 hectares of land behind Ms. Chantha’s home. Ms. Chantha, 53, and two of her neighbors have refused to sell their homes, located just off National Road 2 and leading into Heng Development’s large swath of land. … Ms. Chantha, who says that she always carries her land ownership title in her handbag, explained Thursday that she has been sleeping beneath her home since the trench was dug. Looking at cracks that have appeared in the land under her home, she said she’s too afraid to sleep in her elevated home, which she recently raised to escape floods. “My land has started to break; it’s very dangerous,” she said. “We are a poor family and the company thinks it can do whatever it wants.” …
Ben Sokhean and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-digs-trench-around-familys-home-60031/
