“People living there were not able to get their possessions before they were smashed down,” she said. “Then they ordered us to get into the truck and dropped us about 1 km from here.”
Ms. Mom was recalling January 3, 2012, when, after years of struggle with the company Phanimex, military police and police clashed with around 200 villagers who attempted to protect their homes in the capital.
Members of the community had been promised new homes in return for giving up their land to the firm in 2003, with Phanimex—which is owned by businesswoman Suy Sophan—announcing that it would build 10 apartment blocks to house the 1,776 affected families. In the end, the company constructed only eight buildings, leaving more than 300 families still at the site with no housing resettlement plan.
Once authorities had flattened the homes of the evictees, many of the residents were dumped at designated relocation sites in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district and Phnom Bat, a barren strip of land around 40 km outside of the capital that resembled a refugee camp, where villagers temporarily lived in flimsy tents donated by NGOs.
Four years later, the tents have made way for small shacks, some of which have mango trees growing alongside them. A few vendors have also sprung up, selling drinks and snacks. Ms. Mom, a former rubbish collector and dessert vendor, now cooks up Khmer noodles and rice porridge for customers on her front porch.
Despite some improvements at Phnom Bat, which sits at the foot of Oudong Mountain, all residents interviewed on Thursday spoke of the desperation and crippling poverty they continue to experience at the site.
“We face big problems because we don’t have clean water, a health center or jobs to make money. We have to live here with no revenue,” said Seang Chanda, 43, a former fish vendor who has not managed to find steady work since she was relocated.
“Of course, in Borei Keila it was easy to make money…. I sold a basket of fish a day and would earn 50,000 riel [about $12.50].”
Although around 140 people are based at Phnom Bat, in reality only about 40 live there permanently, as the lack of job opportunities in the area has forced them to seek work elsewhere. Residents interviewed said many of the community’s men were currently working on a cassava plantation in Ratanakkiri province, around 500 km away, while some of the young women have entered more dangerous lines of work in the capital.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Four Years On, Borei Keila Evictees Suffering
PHNOM BAT COMMUNE, Kandal province – Sitting beneath her tin shack in a dusty settlement here on Thursday, 73-year-old Buot Mom broke down in tears as she recalled the day four years ago that bulldozers descended on her former home in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community to evict her and her neighbors.
“The people from Borei Keila refused to leave. They burned car tires and the authorities arrived and used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to shoot at us,” Ms. Mom said.
“People living there were not able to get their possessions before they were smashed down,” she said. “Then they ordered us to get into the truck and dropped us about 1 km from here.”
Ms. Mom was recalling January 3, 2012, when, after years of struggle with the company Phanimex, military police and police clashed with around 200 villagers who attempted to protect their homes in the capital.
Members of the community had been promised new homes in return for giving up their land to the firm in 2003, with Phanimex—which is owned by businesswoman Suy Sophan—announcing that it would build 10 apartment blocks to house the 1,776 affected families. In the end, the company constructed only eight buildings, leaving more than 300 families still at the site with no housing resettlement plan.
Once authorities had flattened the homes of the evictees, many of the residents were dumped at designated relocation sites in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district and Phnom Bat, a barren strip of land around 40 km outside of the capital that resembled a refugee camp, where villagers temporarily lived in flimsy tents donated by NGOs.
Four years later, the tents have made way for small shacks, some of which have mango trees growing alongside them. A few vendors have also sprung up, selling drinks and snacks. Ms. Mom, a former rubbish collector and dessert vendor, now cooks up Khmer noodles and rice porridge for customers on her front porch.
Despite some improvements at Phnom Bat, which sits at the foot of Oudong Mountain, all residents interviewed on Thursday spoke of the desperation and crippling poverty they continue to experience at the site.
“We face big problems because we don’t have clean water, a health center or jobs to make money. We have to live here with no revenue,” said Seang Chanda, 43, a former fish vendor who has not managed to find steady work since she was relocated.
“Of course, in Borei Keila it was easy to make money…. I sold a basket of fish a day and would earn 50,000 riel [about $12.50].”
Although around 140 people are based at Phnom Bat, in reality only about 40 live there permanently, as the lack of job opportunities in the area has forced them to seek work elsewhere. Residents interviewed said many of the community’s men were currently working on a cassava plantation in Ratanakkiri province, around 500 km away, while some of the young women have entered more dangerous lines of work in the capital.
“People living there were not able to get their possessions before they were smashed down,” she said. “Then they ordered us to get into the truck and dropped us about 1 km from here.”
Ms. Mom was recalling January 3, 2012, when, after years of struggle with the company Phanimex, military police and police clashed with around 200 villagers who attempted to protect their homes in the capital.
Members of the community had been promised new homes in return for giving up their land to the firm in 2003, with Phanimex—which is owned by businesswoman Suy Sophan—announcing that it would build 10 apartment blocks to house the 1,776 affected families. In the end, the company constructed only eight buildings, leaving more than 300 families still at the site with no housing resettlement plan.
Once authorities had flattened the homes of the evictees, many of the residents were dumped at designated relocation sites in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district and Phnom Bat, a barren strip of land around 40 km outside of the capital that resembled a refugee camp, where villagers temporarily lived in flimsy tents donated by NGOs.
Four years later, the tents have made way for small shacks, some of which have mango trees growing alongside them. A few vendors have also sprung up, selling drinks and snacks. Ms. Mom, a former rubbish collector and dessert vendor, now cooks up Khmer noodles and rice porridge for customers on her front porch.
Despite some improvements at Phnom Bat, which sits at the foot of Oudong Mountain, all residents interviewed on Thursday spoke of the desperation and crippling poverty they continue to experience at the site.
“We face big problems because we don’t have clean water, a health center or jobs to make money. We have to live here with no revenue,” said Seang Chanda, 43, a former fish vendor who has not managed to find steady work since she was relocated.
“Of course, in Borei Keila it was easy to make money…. I sold a basket of fish a day and would earn 50,000 riel [about $12.50].”
Although around 140 people are based at Phnom Bat, in reality only about 40 live there permanently, as the lack of job opportunities in the area has forced them to seek work elsewhere. Residents interviewed said many of the community’s men were currently working on a cassava plantation in Ratanakkiri province, around 500 km away, while some of the young women have entered more dangerous lines of work in the capital.
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