Last of Boeung Kak Land Titles Handed Out, but Dispute Lingers
When Chhin Theang picked up the long-awaited title to her Boeung Kak home during a low-key ceremony at the Daun Penh district office on Monday, the moment was bittersweet. “We always had hope because we protested. We had to get land titles,” Ms. Theang said yesterday. Ms. Theang and 39 others were the last of the 638 Boeung Kak area families officially elegible for land titles under a plan approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen in August. The granting of the land titles came only after years of protest against a CPP Senator’s real estate project in Boeung Kak that had been threatening families with eviction since City Hall approved the deal in 2007. Three thousand other families accepted their eviction in exchange for modest compensation from the firm. … Another 100 families who held out against the evictions just like Ms. Theang were cut out of the Prime Minister’s plan. …