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8/6/13 11:52 AMRainsy Says Those Behind Boeng Kak Deserve Jail | The Cambodia Daily

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Rainsy Says Those Behind Boeng Kak Deserve Jail

By#Aun#Pheap#and#Zsombor#Peter#4#August#6,#2013

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday vowed to return Phnom Penhs beleaguered Boeng Kak neighborhood to its residents and to have those who

filled the lake with sand thrown in jail, should the opposition CNRP ultimately prevail in contesting the unofficial results of last months election.

The Boeng Kak neighborhood witnessed some 3,000 families forcibly evicted after the city leased the land to CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin in 2007. The area

has since become the flashpoint of years of anti-eviction protests around the city, and also led the World Bank to suspend loans to the government over the

unfair treatment of the areas residents.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy addresses residents of Phnom Penhs Boeng Kak

neighborhood on Monday. More than 3,000 families have been evicted from the site to

make way for a massive real estate project headed by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin. (Siv

Channa)

Mr. Rainsy, who made land rights a central theme of his election campaign and is contesting the ruling CPPs claim of having won the July 28 poll, made a

brief tour of the Boeng Kak area on Monday trailed by more than 200 excited residents waving CNRP signs.

The people who filled in the lake are criminals and they will be put in jail because we need to keep this lake to relieve flooding in the city and this lake is

also for tourism, Mr. Rainsy told a crowd outside the home of the neighborhoods leading activist, Tep Vanny.

Mr. Rainsy alleged that both Mr. Meng Khin, whose real estate firm filled in the lake, and former city governor Kep Chuktema, who oversaw the evictions

when he was in charge of Phnom Penh, should be held legally responsible for their actions.

Kep Chuktema conspired with Lao Meng Khin, the owner of Shukaku Inc., who filled in the lake and took this land for their own interests, so they must be

responsible for the filling, Mr. Rainsy said.

Mr. Rainsy also demanded the release of Boeng Kak anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha, who is serving a three-year jail sentence for an incitement conviction

her supporters believe was politically motivated to stop her protesting.

We do not believe the current development is right, because we have seen that the development confiscates peoples land and destroys their homes. Real

development creates progress for all people throughout the country, Mr. Rainsy said to cheers and applause.

We will not act like the previous government, which will step down soon because the people voted to drop the old prime minister, he said.

Mr. Chuktema, who gave up the governors office earlier this year to mount a successful bid for Parliament on the CPP ticket in Phnom Penh, denied any

criminal wrongdoing when contacted for comment Monday.

He is not prime minister yet, but he threatens to arrest people and put them in jail. So does he deserve to be a political leader? And can the people believe

him? Mr. Chuktema said.

I did nothing wrong, he said.

Mr. Chuktema conceded that no development drive happens without mistakes, but then denied any responsibility for what had occurred at Boeng Kak

because he was merely following unspecified orders from the national government.

I just want to stay in peace because I have retired, he added.

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

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