Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong personally handed out another 17 land titles to families from the Boeng Kak neighborhood during a ceremony at City Hall on Monday, leaving 50 to 60 more families awaiting titles.
The residents are what is left of the approximately 100 families who were left out of a plan Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in August 2011 to provide titles to the hundreds of Boeng Kak families fighting their evictions by the real estate project of CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin.
Chum Touch was among those who received a long-awaited title Monday.
“Now we’re not afraid of losing our land,” she said. Municipal spokesman Long Dimanche offered no timeframe for distribution of the remaining land titles.
Tep Vanny, a Boeng Kak resident and prominent anti-eviction activist, said about 60 families were still awaiting titles by her count. Some of them are disputing how much land the city wants to give them.
Heng Mom said she was offered a title but refused because the city wanted to cut her 563-square-meter property down to 200.
“I cannot accept this because it is smaller than my land,” she said.
