One thousand students and more than 100 teachers demonstrated outside their high school in Banteay Meanchey province’s Serei Saophoan City on Friday against a private construction firm that recommenced work on disputed land, according to the school’s director.
Kim Sroy, the director of Samdach Euv High School, claimed an excavating machine owned by Khmer Dynastic International Co. Ltd. started digging at about 9:30 a.m. but stopped when 134 teachers led the students from their classrooms in protest.
“The company has made an agreement with us so many times that they will not build on the disputed land, but afterward they still continue working on it,” Mr. Sroy said. “It is a serious encroachment.”
Khmer Dynastic general manager Luy Keettan says the company is planning to build apartments and shops on land it legally owns.
“I have the land title and everything I have done has followed the law,” he said. “The teachers are just encouraging these students to protest but they do not know the reality of the situation.”
One of the students who joined the protest, Chea Sovannady, 18, said no more than 100 students and 10 teachers were involved.
