With their houses buried in sand, Boeung Kak lake residents still call for mercy from Hun Xen [-Why ask for mercy?]

Young children came to the protest site with their parents (All Photos: CEN)

Workers for the Shukaku Inc. Co. extending pipes to bury more houses

Residents set up a banner showing the 3 CPP monkey deities: Chea Xim, Hun Xen, Heng Xamrin ... to no avail

Cops paid by Shukaku inc. took off the residents'  banner even when a small child was still holding it

Picture of the useless CPP monkies taken off by the cops

08 Nov 2010
By Serey
Cambodia Express News
Translated from Khmer by Soy

[Adhoc's Ouch Leng] said that government officials can clearly see this tragedy out of the windows of the Council of Ministers’ building.

Phnom Penh – Even though the Shukaku Inc. Co. pumped sand to bury their houses, and other villages now suffer severe flooding, the residents of Boeung Kak lake still continue to demand that Hun Xen help intervene in their cases so that they may obtain justice because these residents have no more choice left [KI-Media note: Do they?]. Officials from the Adhoc human rights organization showed a report indicating that numerous houses have been buried in sand to force the residents to move out of the area.

In the morning of 08 Nov 2010, about 200 residents including young children tried to prevent the company from burying their houses with sand, but they did not obtain any results. Furthermore, a group of about 100 armed cops that are paid by Shukaku Inc. used violence to tear down CPP banners and flags, and they even took off a banner showing the three CPP supreme deities: Chea Xim, Hun Xen and Heng Xamrin, and Shukaku Inc. is now extending its pipes to bury more houses in order to prevent the residents from protesting.

Mrs. Ly Mom, a representative of the Boeung Kak lake residents whose houses have been buried by sand, said: “The residents support the [ruling] CPP party because they trust Samdach Hun Xen’s leadership. The residents’ protest is to demand from the company to stop sand pumping and force it to return to the negotiation table. The residents demand the market value for their lands which encompass 7 villages where 2,000 families now live. These villages are not located on the lake, but rather on land and they cannot accept the $8,000 plus 2 million riels ($500) offered by Shukaku.” She added that Shukaku buried the residents’ houses all the way to the roof and yet, there is no proper compensation given to them yet.

Ouch Leng, an official for the Adhoc human rights group, indicated that 38 houses have been buried, and another 100 houses are now flooded. Ouch Leng criticized the government for not taking care of the residents’ tragedy. He said that government officials can clearly see this tragedy out of the windows of the Council of Ministers’ building.

Ouch Leng added: “We didn’t see the government preventing the [Shukaku] company from pumping sand to bury the residents’ houses. Quite to the contrary, the government even provides police force to help protect the company’s interest instead. It is as if the government belongs to the [Shukaku] company, and not to the voters. This is an extremely serious violation of human rights. Nevertheless, human rights officials insist that the company’s representatives negotiate with the residents’ representatives to provide them with appropriate compensation.”