Freedom Park plantation protest

Villagers from Kampong Cham province protest in Freedom Park yesterday against a tycoon’s land concession. Photo by: Pha Lina

Friday, 26 August 2011

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

The Phnom Penh Post

More than 150 villagers from Kampong
Cham province’s Chamkar Leu district gathered at Freedom Park in Phnom
Penh yesterday morning to protest against a plan to relocate them from three villages they say they have lived in since 1979 to make way for a rubber plantation.

A company owned by prominent businessman An Marady was behind the plan, they said, urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene on their behalf.

Staff from the company had asked
families in three villages in Bos Knor and Ta Ong communes to accept
new 10 by 20 metre plots and US$600 in compensation for relocating to a
new site, protester Sun Tuoch, 52, said. “My home has a well and
electricity, and is near a road, school and hospital,” he said. “I don’t
want to move.”