Sophal’s story

Sophal is 31. She and her inner-city community at Dey Krahorm village, Phonm Penh, resisted eviction for over three years, until the night it was stormed by hundreds of police and company workers who decimated the village in just a few hours.

In December 2006, a private development company called 7NG was granted title to the land at Dey Krahorm after community leaders, unknown to the community, were persuaded to swap their land.

Residents were pressured by the company and the authorities to move to Damnak Trayoung, 20km from the centre of Phnom Penh, or agree to US$8,000 dollars compensation. Hundreds of families left. "I arrived in the land of Damnak Trayoung and walked around. I felt really helpless. And I was angry. I hated them," says Sophal.

Sophal’s family did not accept the offer, and the remaining residents resisted the eviction, organizing press conferences and concerts that showed the public a flourishing community determined to fight for its rights. In January 2009, the company offered the remaining households $20,000 to move. Several families immediately took the offer, and attempts at a further, fairer negotiation were in vain.

In January 2009, the remaining 400 families at Dey Krahorm were forcibly evicted. In a final show of solidarity and resistance, the frightened residents joined hands round the village. They were attacked by hundreds of police and privately paid demolition workers armed with axes, hammers, iron bars and electric batons. Police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannons on residents as they tried to gather their possessions. In a matter of hours, Dey Krahorm village no longer existed.

Families who did not 'own' their houses were eventually moved to a resettlement site in Kandal province, 40 km away from Phnom Penh, some living in dire poverty.

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►Eviction and resistance in Cambodia: five women tell their stories