"'Beautifying Phnom Penh': Muslim Cham face eviction in Cambodia", 13 December 2019

… Cambodia's government has ordered Ror and hundreds of other Muslim Chams who make their homes along the riverbanks of the capital city to leave.

Thirty-year-old Ror grew up in a community of Cham on the Phnom Penh Peninsula where the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers meet. 

The Cham is an ethnic minority group living in parts of Cambodia and southern Vietnam. Its members are considered the descendants of the once-powerful Champa kingdom.

…, many of the approximately 600,000 Cham people in Cambodia live along the country's Mekong River, earning their living through fishing.

…, district chief Klang Huot gave the Cham a one-week deadline to leave "to ensure security, safety, order, beauty and public order and in preparation for the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM)," and to "lift up the reputation and beauty of Phnom Penh city."…

Like Ror, 77 other families have to relocate, according to community representative Y You. More than 100 additional families, he said, are nomadic fishermen who will not be able to return to Phnom Penh as they usually did each year.

The community requested an extension of the deadline to allow them to find a location to move to, but have not yet received an official response. They say they do not have sufficient funds to buy a new plot of land…

Evictions often resulted in violence, with authorities forcefully dismantling the houses of villagers and arresting those who resisted relocation…