Villagers and rights workers in Koh Kong province’s Botum Sakor district yesterday denied government claims that the last 18 families in the area were preparing to move to a nearby resettlement site to make way for a large Chinese tourism project.
In a Friday letter from the Environment Ministry, Chay Samith, director general of conservation, said the final 18 families in Botum Sakor were preparing to leave their coastal homes where Union Development Group is planning to build.
“The government has no policy to intimidate and evict villagers,” Mr Samith said in the letter. “For villagers who do not agree to compensation, there is no coercion.”
He added that the government was planning to build roads, a hospital, a new commune office, a pagoda, an irrigation system and supply locals with electricity at their relocation site about 20 km inland.
But In Kongcheth of the human rights group Licadho said there were 41 families in Thma Sar commune alone who had not agreed to compensation.
“There are 41 families who do not want to take or receive compensation because they don’t know about the price of their land,” he said, adding that there are 33 families in nearby Ta Noun commune who have received no compensation for their rice fields. “If there is no compensation for them, it is a serious rights violation,” he said.
Deputy provincial governor Sun Dara declined to comment.
Union Development Group has cleared a roughly 30-km stretch of woodlands from Thma Sar commune in Botum Sakor district to Koh Sdech commune in neighboring Kiri Sakor district and has built rows of houses for displaced families. However, much of the land has been deforested and is subject to severe water shortages.
Rung Ty, a villager representative in Thma Sar commune, said he knew of at least 26 families living in the area who had not agreed to move and flatly denied the government’s claim that there were 18 families left willing to move.
“We will not move out, and we have asked to stay here forever,” he said.
