Not going without a fight
Teng Khorn’s living room is under a tree, his bedroom in a boat hauled up on a slipway for caulking beside the mangroves that lead to his source of income: the sea.
His choice of abode is also his act of defiance against the monolithic Chinese company that burned his seaside house to the ground in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor district late last month.
The company, Union Development Group, wants him and more than 1,000 other families to quietly move to relocation villages far back from the ocean. …
Rights group Adhoc says Khorn’s family was one of 45 whose houses in Botum Sakor district were burned to the ground in the latest round of Union Development Group forced evictions. …
Rights group Adhoc say Tha and Neang are not alone. Of the 1,143 families that are being displaced by the tourism resort project, Adhoc found that 29 per cent had rejected the relocation offer, instead choosing to fight for their land back.
On Wednesday and Thursday last week, groups of a few dozen protesters confronted police protecting the company’s interests, attempting to block roads. …
A report released last week by NGOs Cambodia Human Rights Protection Association and Housing Rights Network in Cambodia found that 70 per cent of those already relocated depended on fishing and had returned to their old homes. …
With $3.6 billion reportedly to be invested in the mega-resort and another $11.5 billion earmarked for a mysterious steel, rail and port project connecting Preah Vihear province to the resort concession, those orders are doubtless coming from very high up. …
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/not-going-without-fight
