A Cambodian villager paints the body of another to resemble the forest people from the film "Avatar" during a rally against the destruction of the Prey Lang forest in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh on August 18, 2011. Photo courtesy: AFP
Aug 18, 2011,
Phnom Penh - Dozens of rural villagers handing out leaflets that called for forest areas to be preserved were detained Thursday in Phnom Penh in a move condemned by rights groups.
At least 106 villagers were held at a number of locations in the Cambodian capital, three human rights groups said. All were released after agreeing not to distribute more leaflets.
The organizations said in a statement that the villagers had a democratic right to share their concerns and described the detentions as 'a totally disproportional and shocking response.'
A Ministry of Interior spokesman could not be reached for comment.
About 150 villagers, some dressed in green clothes and wearing face paint and hats of green leaves in a nod to the blockbuster film Avatar, gathered at a Buddhist shrine in Phnom Penh.
Kao Chart, a 48-year-old man from Kratie province in the north-east, said villagers had come to the capital to seek public support for the loss of forest on which they depend for a living.
'Now there is too much anarchic deforestation and many companies bulldozing Prey Lang forest, and this affects us,' he said, adding that families like his faced financial hardships because they could no longer gather forest products.
Prey Lang is the region's largest lowland evergreen forest, but tracts of it have been parcelled out for rubber concessions that activists said have affected tens of thousands of people.
'We have come here to let the public know about our problems and to support us to protect natural resources,' Kao Chart said, 'and to ask the government to stop granting licences to companies that destroy the forests.'
A community coalition claimed 145 similar events had taken place across the country Thursday although it was not possible to confirm that number independently.
The government has granted extensive agricultural and mining concessions across the country in recent years to domestic and foreign firms.
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