Cambodia's land activist monk banned from Phnom Penh's pagodas

Ven. Loun Savath, an activist who helps victims of land-grabbing (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Jun 6, 2011

Phnom Penh (DPA) - Cambodia's religious hierarchy has barred a prominent Buddhist monk who works with victims of land-grabbing from staying at pagodas in the capital, national media reported Monday.

The Phnom Penh Post newspaper said Supreme Patriarch Non Nget had written to monk Loun Savath to inform him of the ban, saying his actions had 'caused villagers to think badly about Buddhism.'

'What he did is not related to the monks' point of view and has broken the Buddha's rules,' Non Nget wrote.

However, Loun Savath, who has become a prominent advocate for the dispossessed and who is the sole monk to join publicly with villagers, said the ruling would not affect his work.

'The Buddha says monks must help people who have problems and educate people to do good deeds,' said the 31-year-old monk. 'When villagers have a problem, I cannot ignore them.'

He added that the latest ruling was 'a violation of human rights and Buddhist law' and maintained he had done nothing wrong.

Rights groups have long complained that the authorities are increasingly using the courts to intimidate villagers and community representatives and prevent them from speaking out on land issues.

On Thursday, rights group ADHOC said 124 people had been summoned to appear in court this year in connection with land disputes, around the same number as were threatened with legal action in 2010.

ADHOC said 36 were arrested and 18 remained in jail.

The authorities have reportedly tried to arrest Loun Savath on previous occasions. Earlier this year the religious hierarchy forbade all monks from joining public protests.

On Friday, the UN special rapporteur for human rights, Surya Subedi, said at the close of his fifth visit to Cambodia that land rights continued to dominate his concerns.

'The problem has not gone away,' Subedi said. 'Land-grabbing by the rich and powerful has been a problem, and economic and other forms of land concessions have affected the rights of the indigenous people living in rural areas.'

Rights groups say tens of thousands of people have been thrown off their land in recent years, with many more at risk from urban development and rural concessions.