"Another Group of Kandal Families Protest Against Airport Project", 7 December 2021

Families from Kandal’s Ampov Prey commune protested outside the commune hall demanding that they receive compensation for communal land that is now being used by the new Phnom Penh international airport development.

Residents previously protested over the same land saying they had lost 83 hectares belonging to their solidarity group...

Villagers said the disputed land was then sold to the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation’s Phnom Penh airport project in Kandal, and around 200 residents, representing about 414 families, again protested ..., wanting the development company to compensate them for the lost land.

This year, at-times violent protests have erupted in the same Kandal Stung district’s Boeng Khyang commune as the airport development began bulldozing people’s farmland even as they rejected compensation offers.

Phok Phanny, a representative for the Ampov Prey residents, said they had been cut off from the land, could not cultivate it and had not received any compensation. He wanted the authorities and OCIC to prepare a compensation package, mentioning the $8 per square meter figure which has been rejected by other residents affected by the project in different communes...

..., Kandal Stung district governor Bou Nareth said the land belonged to the company, which purchased it from residents of the area, and there were multiple claims to the land...

Van Sophat, Cambodian Center for Human Rights land program coordinator, said authorities should clearly communicate with residents about the dispute and find a resolution if they didn’t want any more protests. If the group’s land was taken, then the authorities should find compensation for the residents, Sophat added...