Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema ended years of City Hall assistance to Preah Vihear province last week, scrapping an ambitious road construction project near the Thai border that was launched by former governor Chea Sophara, officials said Wednesday.
Nhem Saran, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works, said City Hall has called back its road construction machinery that was sent to make the temple more accessible and develop it as a tourist attraction.
He would not say why.
About 4,300 meters of a treacherously steep 5-km-long road that leads to the mountain-top temple and was scheduled for paving remain bare, Nhem Saran said. And 30 km of the mostly renovated 113-km road between the provincial seat of Tbeng Meanchey and the temple remain unfinished, he said.
“Everything was pulled out last week without revealing a reason,” said Sam Saroeun, deputy chief of the Preah Vihear provincial Department of Land Management. “People here were shocked.”
Another City Hall official, who declined to be named, said Kep Chuktema has also discontinued monthly 8-ton deliveries of rice to the 250 families living around the temple. A former supplier of those deliveries, Tbeng Meanchey rice seller Khoy Bunthan, confirmed that City Hall no longer purchases her rice.
Phnom Penh’s assistance to Preah Vihear was launched by Chea Sophara in February 2002 after Thailand closed its side of the border crossing at the temple in December 2001.
Chea Sophara gained immense popularity in Preah Vihear by helping the temple’s isolated economy, which was further strangled by the border closure.
As recently as January, Municipal Cabinet Chief Mann Choeun said Chea Sophara’s road construction project would be completed. Neither Kep Chuktema nor Preah Vihear Governor Preap Tan could be reached Wednesday to explain why the road machinery was removed and the rice deliveries halted.
Other municipal and provincial officials declined to explain the projects’ cancellations on the record.
Kep Chuktema’s last visit to Preah Vihear, during which he visited the temple and delivered rice to locals, ended conspicuously for the governor. Kompong Cham provincial police and forestry officials stopped a truck in Kep Chuktema’s convoy for hauling illegal timber back toward Phnom Penh.
Witnesses and forestry officials said military police accompanying the governor’s delegation opened fired on the foresters and local police. Kep Chuktema said it was the local authorities who fired on his entourage.
