A Cambodian police officer shouts instructions to squatters to begin filing into a rope enclosure inside a Phnom Penh slum. Authorities, trying to dismantle the shanty town, have corralled hundreds of villagers who refuse to leave the area, which is slated for development. They have been forced to live in the open for days without electricity, water or shelter.(AFP/Seith Meixner)PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Hundreds of Cambodian squatters have been corralled in an open field without water or shelter as authorities continue trying to clear a Phnom Penh slum to make way for a development project.
Under the gaze of riot police armed with cattle prods, the villagers were put behind a rope barrier on part of what was once the Tonle Bassac shanty town, which authorities have been trying to dismantle since the beginning of the month.
City authorities have been trying to move more than 1,000 families to a remote site 22 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, but many complain they have not been allocated a plot of land there, or that the land they have is uninhabitable.
Hundreds of families have already left the shanty town, which has now largely been reduced to debris.
But hundreds more who rented their homes in the slum and have no claim to new land are refusing to leave.
"All I want is a piece of land and then I will leave. If they don't give it to me I will not move," said 41-year-old Sin Pharin, sitting amid piles of household goods and scraps of straw mats or plastic sheeting.
She said she had been living in the open for several days since her house was taken apart, and that the authorities are refusing the remaining squatters electricity or clean water.
The squatters briefly faced off with security forces Friday morning, attacking a gate with sticks and rocks when they thought the authorities were sealing the shanty town in order to keep people from returning.
No one was hurt on the clash, and police called for calm as they tried to round up the lingering villagers.
"Please calm down and be quiet," said one police officer over a loudspeaker as he stood amid the villagers inside the rope enclosure.
"We are working this out for you ... don't panic, otherwise we will not solve this," he said.
It was unclear how the land would be used by the owner, the Sour Srun Enterprises Company, although a shopping center is reportedly in the works.
Several similar shanty towns mysteriously burned down in 2001, leading to speculation that they had been deliberately torched to clear real estate. Thousands of families were left homeless by the fires.
Rampant corruption and a lack of credible land records -- most of which were originally destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s -- have made land disputes increasingly common in Cambodia.
Under the gaze of riot police armed with cattle prods, the villagers were put behind a rope barrier on part of what was once the Tonle Bassac shanty town, which authorities have been trying to dismantle since the beginning of the month.
City authorities have been trying to move more than 1,000 families to a remote site 22 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, but many complain they have not been allocated a plot of land there, or that the land they have is uninhabitable.
Hundreds of families have already left the shanty town, which has now largely been reduced to debris.
But hundreds more who rented their homes in the slum and have no claim to new land are refusing to leave.
"All I want is a piece of land and then I will leave. If they don't give it to me I will not move," said 41-year-old Sin Pharin, sitting amid piles of household goods and scraps of straw mats or plastic sheeting.
She said she had been living in the open for several days since her house was taken apart, and that the authorities are refusing the remaining squatters electricity or clean water.
The squatters briefly faced off with security forces Friday morning, attacking a gate with sticks and rocks when they thought the authorities were sealing the shanty town in order to keep people from returning.
No one was hurt on the clash, and police called for calm as they tried to round up the lingering villagers.
"Please calm down and be quiet," said one police officer over a loudspeaker as he stood amid the villagers inside the rope enclosure.
"We are working this out for you ... don't panic, otherwise we will not solve this," he said.
It was unclear how the land would be used by the owner, the Sour Srun Enterprises Company, although a shopping center is reportedly in the works.
Several similar shanty towns mysteriously burned down in 2001, leading to speculation that they had been deliberately torched to clear real estate. Thousands of families were left homeless by the fires.
Rampant corruption and a lack of credible land records -- most of which were originally destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s -- have made land disputes increasingly common in Cambodia.
1 comment:
Looks sad. hun sen's familly very rich, hen neng operating brothels. Expensive cars, the most expensive.
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