ABOUT 11 families living in makeshift housing along a Tuol Kork district roadside said yesterday that they would refuse a compensation offer from municipal officials, who have ordered them to make way for a development project. Ken Sothea, 49, said he had been living on the land since 1984 and that this was the fifth time since 2009 that officials had asked the residents to move. He said officials had offered each family 2 million riel (US$500) and a small plot of land in Kandal province.

“We don’t accept this compensation because the land is far and quiet, and is a graveyard,” he said. Officials claim that the families are living illegally on state land.