ON a white canvas, Chan Vichet painted an image of the Hindu deity Shiva, oblivious to the clanging sound of Cambodian soldiers loading the remnants of his neighbour’s demolished home onto a truck.
The artist has worked on the fringe of the Angkor Wat temple complex for seven years, making a living selling paintings inspired by the jungle and ancient ruins to tourists.Now his home and gallery will be flattened as the Cambodian government clears 10,000 families living within the sprawling Unesco world heritage site, and many of those facing eviction are unhappy.
“Since I heard about the relocation plan, I have felt numb,” Chan Vichet said. “I have to force myself to work to fund my family’s livelihood, but I don’t have full concentration or creativity.”
Authorities say they are acting to protect the ruins by moving squatters whose informal settlements are damaging the local environment by producing rubbish and overusing water resources.
Once their home is demolished, Chan Vichet and his family will move 25km away to Run Ta Ek, a new community on ex-rice paddies that are currently still a construction site.Families are given a 20m-by-30m plot of land, US$350 (RM1,500) in cash, 30 pieces of tin roofing material and access to a welfare card – but they must build their own houses.
Before the pandemic, over two million foreign tourists came yearly to see Angkor Wat’s ruined temples, half-swallowed by the jungle.
For a poor country, the swarms of visitors eager to see the remains of the Khmer Empire’s capital from the ninth to 15th centuries brought welcome cash.
The tourist trade spawned a micro-economy of stallholders, food and souvenir sellers and beggars, and the local population exploded from an estimated 20,000 in the early 1990s to about 120,000 by 2013.Now, the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen says the settlements lack the infrastructure and sanitation they need, and with visitor numbers expected to rise now pandemic travel restrictions are over, it aims to clear them within the next four months.
“Even though they are here illegally, the government is doing a lot to support their livelihoods,” Long Kosal, a spokesman for the Apsara National Authority, which manages the archaeological park, said.
“The area here cannot allow such unorganised settlement and there is very poor (sanitation).”
The government recognises that some villages near the temples date back centuries, and insists that only recent unauthorised settlements have been targeted.
Apsara aims to regenerate the jungle by planting trees where ramshackle huts – without proper sewerage, running water or in some cases electricity – once stood.
Like many others facing the end of their business selling to tourists, Chan Vichet fears he will be worse off financially.
As earthmovers levelled plots across the hot, dusty landscape at Run Ta Ek, Heav Vanak watched his grandchild play in the dirt, and worried about the lack of jobs for his four adult children.
“I don’t have enough money to buy materials to build a new home,” the 51-year-old said. “We are powerless. How can we protest?” — AFP
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