Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Evictees face a difficult transition

By May Titthara and Will Baxter 
The Phnom Penh Post


Kandal province
OVER the past eight months, Chork Teng has become an adept hunter of frogs and freshwater crab, stalking her prey at night in the rice fields near her ramshackle home in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district.

But she laments the fact that she has been forced to adapt to this scavenger’s lifestyle.

A former resident of the Dey Krahorm community in central Phnom Penh, hers was among the 144 families evicted in a violent operation in January 2009, when police and construction workers employed by local developer 7NG Group levelled all remaining homes at the site.

The families were initially relocated to Dangkor district. Then, on December 12, 2009, a total of 467 former Dey Krahorm families and vendors were relocated yet again to the Tang Khiev community in Ponhea Leu’s Phnom Bat commune, said Va Savoeun, the community’s chief.

However, as a result of the lack of employment opportunities at the relocation site, which is over 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh, more than 240 families have since returned to the city to seek jobs, Va Savoeun said.

Chork Teng said that before the eviction she had been a construction worker.

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