CCHR Media Comment, Phnom Penh, 1 February 2012
PM’s welcome intervention in Kratie shooting case indicative of the sorry state of Cambodia’s institutions
The Phnom Penh Post today reports (“Shooting blamed on firm”) that Prime Minister Hun Sen has threatened to fire one of his advisers – TTY Company director Na Marady – withdraw his company’s economic land concession license, and have him questioned, if security guards hired by TTY Company and wanted over the shooting of villagers during a protest in Kratie province on 18 January 2012 are not handed over to “the authorities of justice”. The PM also questioned how TTY Company came to have AK-47 assault rifles in the first place (the security guards fired into a crowd of about 400 villagers protesting the bulldozing of their cassava plantations, injuring four, one very seriously). According to The Cambodia Daily (“Hun Sen Tells Land Firms to Halt Violence”), the PM said that he had requested that Minister of Interior Sar Kheng lead the investigation into the Kratie shooting, and that he had ordered officials to take strict measures.
The PM then condemned the incident and issued a warning to land developers: “Anywhere there are problems with villagers, the company has to stop [land clearing] immediately. If not, the company has to be responsible. I would like to condemn this action, and I will take the land concessions from any company that causes violence to villagers.”
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) welcomes both the PM’s vocal condemnation of the Kratie violence and his stark warning to land developers. However, hand in hand with this approval comes a certain degree of unease, for several reasons. First, this is a case of demonstrative justice: justice delivered in an isolated case does not represent the systemic delivery of justice to the countless other victims of human rights violations across Cambodia. Second, words must be backed up by actions – local authorities and courts must work together to penalize companies and individuals responsible for forced land evictions and/or the violent suppression of peaceful protests, while national authorities must follow through in cancelling land concessions granted to companies that contravene the law. Third, Cambodia’s institutions – the local authorities, police and courts – should function independently and automatically whenever crimes occur. The PM should not need to intervene in such circumstances. While his intervention is welcome in this case, it is indicative of the sorry state of Cambodia’s institutions, which are seemingly unable to act efficiently and judiciously without intervention or guidance from the top.
Commenting on the PM’s intervention in the case, CCHR Program Director Ms Chak Sopheap said:
“The PM’s intervention in this case should raise the alarm as to the rate that land evictions and violent suppressions of peaceful protests are escalating. It should also serve as a reminder of the duty of police forces, village chiefs and other local authorities to investigate every violent and criminal incident that occurs in their sphere of responsibility, particularly in the context of the ongoing spate of violent land evictions. Cambodian people have suffered far too much already. They should be able to rely upon functioning judicial and security institutions without the PM having to intervene in every case. It’s also a sorry state of affairs that it takes such a violent incident as the shooting of unarmed protestors in order for the PM to intervene in order to get the institutions rolling.”
For more information, please contact Ms Chak Sopheap (tel: +855 (0) 1194 3213 or e-mail: chaksopheap@cchrcambodia.org).
1 comment:
OK! Let say, if I’d like to play an ugly game to earn some respects from a man, what I have to do is to plot with some of my friends or to pay some guys for attacking this man and at the same time I go to help him out of danger.
Well, you know what he’s going to say to me.
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