Some 300 Siem Reap province villagers living near Angkor Archaeological Park detained three Apsara Authority officials for three hours Tuesday to protest demands that they no longer repair their own homes, villagers said.
The three men were released unharmed after intervention by newly appointed Apsara Deputy Director, RCAF General Dom Hak, and CPP lawmaker Sieng Nam.
Residents of Chung Kaosou village said their action was sparked by a visit from 20 Apsara officials earlier in the day.
“Even if our roof leaks, they ban us from repairing it,” villager Chao Pao, 34, said by telephone.
He claimed that Apsara officials had gone door-to-door explaining that the restrictions on repairs were a prelude to the authority acquiring their land at below-market prices.
“Apsara Authority needs the land for constructing hotels…but they offer us only $2 per square meter and $0.50 per square meter for any plot of land without homes or crops,” Chao Pao said.
Village chief Chan Ravuth said villagers hold land titles endorsed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which they received after being repatriated from Thai border camps in 1991.
Apsara has been warning villagers against constructing new homes on their land since September, Chan Ravuth added.
Dom Hak said that his security officials were merely making a door-to-door census ahead of the Angkor-Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2006, which is planned for November.
“We have no plan to evict those villagers,” he said, adding that some of the villagers who were involved in the incident were drunk.
