The October 5 protest by residents of Preah Dak commune followed rumours that they would be forced to relocate from the area. PHOTO SUPPLIED
In a bid to allay fears of relocation that fuelled a protest in Preah Dak commune within the Angkor Archaeological Park, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the government is merely studying the water infrastructure in the area and that experts have yet to come to any firm conclusions on a course of action. In any case, he said it would not necessarily require anyone's relocation.
He suggested that residents there remain calm and await a more detailed explanation from Minister of Land, Urban Planning and Construction Chea Sophara and Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona, noting that no action has been taken yet and therefore it has had no impact to date on the locals.
Hun Sen brought this up while addressing the Vision of Cambodia 2022 conference, held in Phnom Penh on October 6 under the theme "Cambodia's Recovery: Sustainable Development After the Covid-19 Pandemic".
The October 5 protest by residents of Preah Dak commune followed rumours that they would be forced to relocate from the area.
"I would like to take this opportunity to send this message to the people there: Please calm down and think carefully. I will send [Sophara and Sackona] to meet with you tomorrow [October 7] and there will be a meeting held to explain things," Hun Sen said.
The premier said the government is studying the East Baray – one of the ancient reservoirs hand-dug during the Angkor Empire period that are some of the largest ever constructed without use of machinery in human history. He said it can hold up to 30 million cubic metres of water, noting that Preah Dak commune was established there 300 to 400 years ago when water levels had dropped with the thinning population.
"We are studying how much water we can put into the East Baray to support Angkor Park. The Japanese ambassador, who is the co-chair of ICC-Angkor, also knows about this and we all understand that we need to act with caution,” he said, using the acronym for the International Coordinating Committee for the safeguarding and development of the historic site of Angkor.
"The main point here is that we do not require the reservoir to be fully filled with 30 million cubic metres of water, which would force everyone to move from Preah Dak commune," he stated.
Hun Sen added that it is the bottom of the pool and its current capacity that is the focus of the study and they only want to know how much water can be held there today and what kind of impact it would have on the area because the study is actually aimed at protecting the people living there and in the Angkor Park area.
"The important thing is to look at the bottom of the pool to see how much water would be required to fill the reservoir and also when the water fills the reservoir, how much it affects the land and the people who are benefiting from it and how we should deal with that location in order to have water to meet the needs of this cultural heritage site. But moving an entire commune away? It's impossible to do that," he said.
Chea Virak, a 43-year-old resident of Preah Dak commune who took part in the protest, told The Post that over 2,000 people gathered at the Preah Dak commune hall on October 5.
According to Virak, the protest began after a team from the Apsara National Authority (ANA) – a body tasked with managing the park – informed some people that families who agreed to move would be provided with a 20m x 30m plot of land in Run Ta Ek village, and that the authorities would also provide means of dismantling and transportation of their homes to that place.
On top of that, they said they would also give each household an IDPoor card valid for 10 years as well as one million riel ($250) and 30 flat zinc sheets for use in construction at the new location.
This prompted them to gather at the commune hall demanding clarification, only to be told to come for a meeting on October 7.
"Now this information has reached [Hun Sen] who made it clear that [our homes] should not be dismantled … People here are very worried about their houses as we have been living here for hundreds of years. How can we move from here?" he asked.
Suos Narin, a provincial coordinator for rights group ADHOC, said he had received information that what the residents were protesting about was reportedly the offered compensation for moving from their current villages.
"We do not know what the compensation will be because the area has not been cleared yet. They are just promoting it and asking residents to accept and agree voluntarily to move from four villages in Preah Dak commune and they reportedly told them that they have to move and cannot stay there, so they erupted in protest," he said.
Kong Chantha, the second deputy chief of Preah Dak commune, said the residents protested because they had been informed by ANA officials that there were plans to relocate them to a new place.
"The villagers are not happy because they hear that there are plans to relocate them. So they feel worried about their homeland and their property," she said, adding that it was a grave error on the part of the officials to go around telling people such things if they were not true.
Provincial governor Tea Seiha told The Post on October 6 that the protests in Preah Dak commune may have been caused by a misunderstandings or inaccurate information because relocating Preah Dak residents is not in the current plans, which only mention a step-by-step study of the East Baray because the hope is that it can be used as a reservoir once again to support the temples.
"There is no principle requirement that they have to move to Run Ta Ek, so whether this information is just rumours or something else, I'm not very clear about. But what is clear is that we do not have any relocation orders for those in Preah Dak commune," he said.
