City Stands Firm on Choeung Ek Privatization

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)

 

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