A policeman fires an AK-47 into the air yesterday during a clash with armed villagers over an area of disputed land in Kampong Speu province. Sovan Philong (Phnom Penh Post)
Monsters and critics
Jun 10, 2011,
Phnom Penh (DPA)- A Cambodian rights group Friday condemned violent clashes this week between armed police and villagers in a land dispute that injured at least 10 people, seven of them seriously.
Around 300 police and military police were sent Thursday to Kampong Speu province west of the capital to enforce a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that saw 65 hectares of land awarded to a Taiwan businessman.
Hundreds of villagers facing eviction said the land was unlawfully sold, and is farmed by 88 families in the area. The villagers had said this week they would fight back.
Naly Pilorge, director of human rights group LICADHO, said Friday the incident showed 'the total lack of legal recourse' for ordinary people, and called on the government to settle the issue peacefully.
'Once again we see armed forces mobilized to protect private interests, at the expense of the public interest,' she said. 'One rich man's minor business deal is worth more than the homes, livelihoods, and lives of hundreds of poor villagers. This is the reality of Cambodia today.'
LICADHO condemned the violence on both sides, which saw police using AK-47 assault rifles and electric batons, and villagers armed with poles, axes and slingshots. The group warned more violence could follow as land-grabbing continues apace.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan said the authorities would investigate what had happened.
'We will review that case into what went on,' he said Friday. 'Ordinarily we do that. We have to report to the cabinet of the Prime Minister (Hun Sen).'
On June 3 the UN human rights envoy to Cambodia said land rights were at the top of his concerns as he concluded his fifth visit to the country.
'The problem has not gone away,' said Surya Subedi. '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.'
2 comments:
Bravo, Khmer farmers are arming with sticks, hopefully soon they will arms themselves with guns.
Out of the killing field in to a dark prison designed by Hanoi.
How many journalists have been killed?
How much money have been stolen each years?
How much national assets have been sold to Hanoi?
How much land have been grabbed by corrupted CPP?
How much land have been encroached by Hanoi and covered up by Hun Sen?
Do you know who run Angkor Wat,which built by Khmer ancestors ?
Xoc Kong(Vietcong,Hanoi top businessmen and a close friend to Hun Sen.)
Have Hun Sen insulted you enough?
Cambodia is your country. It belong to everyone in your family,why you have no say about all of these gross injustice that is a direct result of a traitor Hun and his clans?
We must stop allowing a bunch of those idiots to run our country.They have insulted us enough. We must be brave to stand up.
Those farmers' plight is our plight,we must be together in this battle.
Freedom is the pupils of our eyes without it the universe means nothing to us.Let's live and die for justice.
True Khmer
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