The Phnom Penh Municipality said Wednesday that it would not be deterred by the growing criticism of its decision to sign a 30-year deal allowing a private Japanese company to run the Choeung Ek genocide memorial.
On the eve of the official signing ceremony with the JC-Royal company, Phnom Penh’s first vice governor, Mam Bun Neang, said the privatization of the Khmer Rouge-era “killing field,” where the skeletons of some 9,000 execution victims were unearthed in 1980, would go ahead.“The municipality cannot change,” Mam Bun Neang said. “We have already entered into a contract with the company.”
He added that the signing ceremony will take place today at 8 am.
Chea Vandeth, cabinet chief of the Council of Ministers and chairman of JC-Royal’s board of directors, who according to documentation wrote to Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema seeking his approval of the deal, declined to comment Wednesday.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, wrote on Tuesday to Prime Minister Hun Sen requesting that the government halt the deal and offering DC-Cam’s assistance in running Choeung Ek.
“I urged the prime minister to reconsider the deal because I [feel] the deal has not been sealed as yet, and I don’t think that the prime minister has been informed,” Youk Chhang said.
“[Municipal officials] say that the city is making so much progress…so why can they not afford to maintain Choeung Ek? It does not make any sense,” he added.
Chea Vannath, president of the Center for Social Development, said Wednesday that she feared the Japanese company would focus primarily on increasing tourism to the genocide site.
“Whatever development, it needs to keep the original feeling of the crime, the sadness and the sorry. The concept of tourism is opposite to the concept of the ‘killing fields,’” Chea Vannath said.
Tourism Ministry Secretary of State Thong Khon said Wednesday that he supported the privatization of the killing field.
“Where there are tourism sites, they need to provide facilities and services including accommodation, food and drink services. It seems City Hall is thinking about providing better services,” he said.
Mam Bun Neang denied on Wednesday a report by residents that other companies had been granted land in the area to develop water leisure activities.
He said that a study has been completed to construct a multimillion dollar wastewater treatment basin in the area to relieve Phnom Penh of sewage problems.
The project will require 400 hectares of lake land in Choeung Ek and will be funded by the Japanese and Cambodian governments, he said.
(Additional reporting by Kay Kimsong)