Posts Tagged ‘changing land rights in phom penh’
Phnom Penh Demolition
January 24th, 2009 Posted 6:48 pm
Loud pounding noises woke me up this morning. Startled where the noise is coming from I looked out of my window and saw hundreds of men wearing green shirt, hammering the small houses in front of the building where my whole family live. Immediately I called Nestle to witness the commotion and cover the event. It’s my first time to encounter scenes like this and it sent goosebumps all over me. There were lots of police men guarding the site and hundreds of spectators from their homes watched how their fellow Cambodians ruined other people’s houses in a small span of time.
One by one the houses are torn down, I have seen smoke from afar but dunno if it’s teargas or fire extinguisher. I have seen residents standing with their houses shouting angrily to the demolition team, some residents were even hurt because they don’t want to move out and forced to fight with the uniformed men.
I don’t know the whole story behind this horrifying scene, I don’t know if the land is under the government or under a private individual. All i know is that there are people out in the street this morning asking for some more time to discuss this matter before proceeding with the demolition. But people with no hearts didn’t listen.
As i look now to the empty space, I can relate on how my fellow Filipinos acted on situation like this. And this morning it made me realise so many things – that me and my family are lucky in many ways.
I know that whatever the purpose of the man behind this is good. But if he only knew how to listen and understand, this could have come easy without anybody being harmed.
Read fellow bloggers who also witnessed the Dey Krahorm demolition this morning :
http://jinja.apsara.org/2009/01/happy-chinese-new-year-youre-evicted/
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009012423816/National-news/City-developer-demolish-Dey-Krahorm-homes.html
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=46272686358&h=XibTj&u=blrIx
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinja_cambodia/tags/deykrahomeviction/
http://jivy1983.multiply.com/photos/album/39/Phnom_Penh_Demolition
Special thanks to Nestle and Nico for the photos.
