Talk:Koh Anlong Chen
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Why the area is on the map
- United Press International, 19 December 1996: the police campaign against marijuana growers was launched on "Anlong Chine Island", home to some 2,000 families who grew the crop with their vegetables.
- Associated Press Television, 21 December 1996: about 100 officers cut down more than ten hectares of cannabis on "Anlong Chen island, about twenty kilometres (12 miles) south of Phnom Penh", one of four islands in Kandal province with substantial plantations. The other three islands are not named.
Where the island is
- The two reports name the same island: UPI spells it "Anlong Chine", APTV "Anlong Chen". The present name is Koh (or Kaoh) Anlong Chen, កោះអន្លង់ចិន.
- UPI places the island "13 miles west of Phnom Penh". APTV and the map put it about 20 km south of the city, in the Bassac; the land west of Phnom Penh has no river island of this kind. The page follows APTV and the map.
- APTV speaks of "a series of islands in the Mekong River". The island lies in the Bassac, the branch of the Mekong that leaves the main river at Phnom Penh.
Figures that differ
- Area destroyed: UPI reports a 10-acre (about 4 ha) plantation burned; APTV reports more than ten hectares (25 acres) cut. The article gives both, attributed.
- The police officer is "Deputy Police Commander Yeng Marady" in UPI and "General Yeng Mardi, Deputy Director General of Police" in APTV's caption. The article uses UPI's spelling.
The date of the raid
- United Press International's report is datelined Phnom Penh, 19 December 1996, and says the police campaign on the island "was launched Thursday". The article takes this to mean 19 December.
- Associated Press Television's story is dated 21 December 1996. Its shot list on AP Newsroom (Video ID 40456) dates the raid footage to 5 December: "Anlong Chen Island, near Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 5th December, 1996 & File".
- The two dates are two weeks apart. The article follows UPI for the start of the campaign, ten days after the National Assembly passed the drug law on 9 December. The news item on the raid, Police cut down cannabis on Anlong Chen island, is dated by the shot list.
Growing status
The status is Historical. Both reports date from December 1996, and the one year a source gives for growing on the island is 1996, set as the last year. No source read gives an earlier year, and no source read says growing on the island ended after the raid. APTV doubted "how much of a dent has been put in Cambodia's booming marijuana business". Searches of the Phnom Penh Post, the Cambodia Daily and the AP Archive found no later report naming the island.
New Island
An Associated Press Television report of 1996, "Cambodia: Farmers Turn to Growing Marijuana", filmed cannabis grown among bananas on "New Island", across a short stretch of the Mekong. The report gives no province, no distance from Phnom Penh and no Khmer name. "New Island" does not translate Anlong Chen, and in 1996 at least four Kandal islands carried plantations. The two are not treated as one island here.
How the border is drawn
- The border is the island's outline in OpenStreetMap (way 37692514), about 6 km², the figure in the infobox. The map point (11.444, 105.049) is OpenStreetMap's point for the island; the outline curves, so its centroid falls in the river.
- The reports speak of the island as a whole. Where on the island the plantations lay is not stated.
- The border is not drawn from accession or news points.
- Where this border meets the border of a neighbouring place, the two share one line, drawn once. The island's outline and the Southern Cambodia border now meet on one line, which changed the area by about 5%: about 5.5 km², down from about 5.9. The infobox figure stays about 6 km².
Sources
- United Press International, "Cambodia launches anti-pot drive", 19 December 1996, read on the UPI archive site.
- Associated Press Television, "Cambodia: Police Crack Down on Growing of Marijuana", 21 December 1996: the AP Archive story text and shot list, read on the AP Archive's video page.
- Martin (1975), read in the full text of Cannabis and Culture.
- Cambodgemag (2 August 2026), read in full for the island's river and its administrative history.
- Not yet read. Khmer-language press of December 1996, and the US State Department's narcotics control reports for 1996–1999.