We will not be moved : Cambodia

As Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh joins Asia’s development frenzy, its poorest people are shunted from slum to slum to make space for development land. We reveal the profound human cost of the country’s march to modernity.

“Why have they done this to us? It would be better if they killed me!” Chan Meng yells. That was six years ago, when he was first evicted from his home. Now he lives in a motley shack the size of a garden shed, with half the roof missing and mosquito larvae writhing in the shower recess. Like many evictees Chan Meng has found himself in temporary accommodation and could be moved on again at any time. “They want to move us around like cats and dogs!” These days the parlous, unpredictable reality for thousands of Cambodia’s poor is that of being forcibly evicted from their houses in the name of progress. Cambodia’s land ownership was thrown into chaos when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge extinguished private title. Now money and corruption are playing havoc with the country’s attempts to bring back private property. There is one brave group known as the BK13 – 13 women – that are not prepared to let greedy developers take the very, very little they have. But with half a million residents forcibly evicted in recent years, it’s an enormous fight they have on their hands. “Every time we leave we face arrest and they beat us. We don’t know if they will use violence against us or if we will lose our lives.”

See more films about Cambodia: Enemies of the People, Resident Aliens, and Return to Sender.

We will not be moved : Cambodia

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