About 30 residents of a planned community on the eastern outskirts of Phnom Penh gathered around the picturesque lake that forms the center of their neighborhood Monday to prevent its developer, a former opposition lawmaker, from reclaiming the land to construct condos.
The residents, many of whom are dual citizens who left the country prior to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and have returned to retire, said they blocked a truck from delivering sand to fill in the tree-lined lake that stretches between the houses of Borey Prek Eng.
“This morning some 20 people came in to prevent the trucks from entering,” said Vong Rimheang, 59, a French-Cambodian, pointing to the narrow concrete paths leading away from the lakefront that provide access to National Road 1 in Chbar Ampov district.
“I had decided on this plot of land because of the natural lake. Our contract says they will not fill the lake, and says it’s for fishing, and for riding boats. Now they want to fill it with sand,” she said.
Ms. Rimheang and her husband, Vong Say Aime, who both returned from France in 2011, said the residents recognize that the lake is in fact owned by Lon Phon, the former opposition lawmaker who owns the planned community, but said its reclamation violated documents signed by the residents when they bought property in the area.
“There’s a place for riding on boats and a fishing,” reads a promotional brochure for Borey Prek Eng, which is laid out across a background painting of boats fishing and prominently features waterside themes.
“The owner said they would keep the lake for good health and the atmosphere, and that’s why we came to live here,” said Breniaux Vanny, a retired butcher who lived in France between 1973 and 1996.
Mr. Phon, who served in parliament for the Sam Rainsy Party between 1998 and 2003 before defecting to the ruling CPP in 2008 to serve as a secretary of state at the Ministry of Rural Development, said that the residents could not rely on a brochure for their claims.
“That is just the model for the master plan,” said Mr. Phon, who has retired and defected back to the opposition CNRP as an ordinary party member. “I never made a contract with them when selling in the neighborhood that I would keep this pond for riding boats and fishing.”
“It is not a natural lake, it is a pond I dug up some time in 2006 when I developed this neighborhood. Now I want to fill in the lake to build condos and infrastructure because this pond belongs to me,” he said.
In front of his villa-style home, Mr. Say Aime said he was prepared to defend the community’s lake if necessary.
“If they come back, I will start building barricades,” he said.
