Resist or comply? Experiences of violence around dams in Cambodia

Large-scale infrastructural and energy projects such as dams are a major cause of socio-environmental conflicts. Intense hydropower development has taken place since 2007 in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, with multiple Chinese-backed dams now operational while others remain proposals or have been suspended. In this chapter, Milne considers local experiences of dam development, especially for Indigenous communities whose lands and livelihoods have been directly affected. She compares the Stung Atay dam, which faced no overt local opposition, and the proposed Stung Areng dam, which became the subject of a remarkable anti-dam campaign linking transnational advocacy networks and urban Cambodian interests. She explores which factors enabled and constrained resistance, the role state-backed violence played in these contrasting outcomes, and the consequences of overt resistance - including uncertainty and fear akin to slow violence - given shrinking political space in Cambodia.