About 100 villagers embroiled in a land dispute in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district gathered on National Road 6A at 7am yesterday, blocking the road with wooden beds and their bodies for three hours.

The protest stems from a December 15 court injunction ordering 30 villagers in Prek Liep commune to vacate about 7,000 square metres for use by Eng Kang Development Cooperation and Construction.

No compensation or alternative living options have been offered, villager Nuon Mony Roath said yesterday.

“It’s unfair, we have lived there for more than 35 years,” he said. “We have a house and plantation, but now the company wants our land without paying any compensation.”

Demonstrators cleared the road when Chroy Changvar Governor Klaing Hoat arrived at the scene at 10am.

“We will look into this issue,” Hoat said. “I ask the villagers to calm down and not block the road, because it creates traffic jams.”

Seven Boeung Kak activists were sentenced to one year in prison last month after using beds to block the road outside City Hall in Phnom Penh.