Sangkum Troam Ruos, Robuos Troam Chhoeu - "Avoid suffering with citizen participation": Op-Ed by Ven. Maha Phirum

Sangkum Troam Ruos, Robuos Troam Chhoeu - "Avoid suffering with citizen participation": Op-Ed by Ven. Maha Phirum

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.”

Announcement by the Cambodian Trade Union Coordination Council