Golden Crown casino in Poipet has ordered 218 families from Kbal Spean village to move from the land where they have been camped since the bloody eviction that killed five villagers, villagers and officials said Monday.
“He came yesterday to tell us to move,” village representative Chey Sophat said. “They don’t want us to stay on their land. We told him we would not leave until there is a solution from the government.”
On March 21, more than 100 heavily armed police and military police officers opened fire on the families they had been ordered to evict from a six-hectare plot of land located meters away from a golf course owned and operated by the Star Vegas casino.
In the aftermath, the families built an impromptu camp on a path bordering the site where their village had once stood and backed by a deep canal the casino says it built.
Government officials have made several promises to find a quick resolution—either giving them the disputed land or new plots somewhere else—but the villagers have not yet seen any results, Chey Sophat said.
“We heard a lot of promises from the excellencies,” he said. “But until now there is no solution for us from the government. The people now are finding it difficult and are suffering living under the rain and sunshine.”
O’Chrouv district Governor Keo Sen, who was at Sunday’s meeting, said casino officials had complained villagers were polluting the canal water and had asked the government to move the villagers from the path, which the casino also owns.
“It is the dam of the Golden Crown casino, which was constructed to produce water for the casino’s use,” he said. “That canal provides water for the casino and they said the villagers are polluting it.”
Golden Crown owner Kok An could not be reached for comment.
Banteay Meanchey Deputy Governor Sok Sareth said the government has not yet devised a plan to deal with the villagers.
“I don’t know what to do because they don’t have any land titles,” he said.
Sok Sareth said that the villagers can’t remain where they have settled.
“They are living on the [casino’s] land,” he said.
Naly Pilorge, director of human rights NGO Licadho, said she was afraid the villagers could be evicted with nowhere to go.
“The villagers are receiving food and emergency supplies right now, but finding them new land and shelter could take months,” she said.
