Mech Dara | Publication date 27 December 2017 | 15:37 ICT
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Boeung Kak residents hold their new land titles this morning. Pha Lina
Twenty-two families who were still protesting their evictions from the Boeung Kak lake area accepted offers from the city today, leaving 10 holdouts remaining more than a decade after the lake was first sold and filled in.
The families, from Village 1, each accepted 4-by-16-metre plots of land in Village 22, located on the other side of the former lake.
Boeung Kak resident Bou Soychhay, 62, said he was relieved to finally feel the land title in his hand.
“We have been struggling since 2007,” Soychhay said. “We are receiving a plot almost the same size as our previous land. We were scared and worried when we did not have the land title, but now that we have the papers we are very happy.”
Sand is pumped into Boeung Kak lake on August 16, 2011. Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP
The news, announced by officials at Phnom Penh City Hall this morning, means that the city is close to settling one of the country’s most protracted and high-profile land disputes. Thousands of families were forcibly evicted from the lake area in the years following its sale in 2007. The evictions spurred years of protests by evictees, drawing the ire of local officials and sparking multiple court cases.
Read more: Boeung Kak: A disastrous decade
Now, on the sandy plain were the lake once was, high-rises, condos and commercial buildings have begun to take shape.
At the press conference, Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mean Chanyada said villagers should “get along” with local authorities.
“When brothers and sisters have problems, they should discuss with local authorities rather than making this issue bigger and seeking help from other people who do not solve the problem for you,” Chanyada said, without specifying to whom he was referring. “Brothers and sisters must know how to keep the peace. This is the key point."
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