Workers at an international airport under construction in western Cambodia this week were preparing the tarmac for a runway more than 3km long — big enough to land Boeing 747s or military aircraft, and longer than the one in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh.
The airport will sit inside Dara Sakor, a special economic zone where a Chinese company with ties to the military is building a mega-resort with a casino, an 18-hole golf course and an area for mooring jet skis and yachts.
Across the bay in the fishing village of Chamlang Kou, residents told the Financial Times they had been visited on July 15 by Cambodian local and military officials, who asked them to sell their land to make way for the construction of what they believe will be military facilities.