Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Phnom Penh Post
Women
threatened with eviction from the Boeung Kak lake community protest
while dressed as Buddhist nuns last year in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Hong
Menea/Phnom Penh Post
Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua yesterday condemned the
“system” that has left civil-servant husbands of Boeung Kak lake
protesters believing they must decide between their marriages and their
jobs.
Activists Tep Vanny and Tol Srey Pov told the Post
last week that their husbands, who are both employed in some way by the
Phnom Penh municipal authority, had been told they would be sacked if
their wives’ continued to protest against Shakaku’s development of
Boeung Kak.
Rather than go silently, however, the women vowed to
divorce their husbands so they could keep fighting for land titles and
for the authority to clearly mark 12.44 hectares of land for residents.
Mu
Sochua said such intimidation, spearheaded by a “system [of] those who
have targeted the women from day one”, was unacceptable.
“Their
husbands should not have to be called in and pressured,” she said. “Not
so they have to leave their jobs because of what their wives are doing.”
Tol Srey Pov, 37, said yesterday that her husband’s employer, Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), had threatened to fire him “many times” over her striking, a claim the company denied.
EDC falls under the Phnom Penh municipal authority’s umbrella and is partly owned by the government.
“I
told my husband to divorce me, because I do not want to stand by and
watch him get fired because of me,” she said, adding that she had all
but filed for divorce last week before deciding against it.
“If
my husband gets threatened again and his work is affected because of my
protesting, I will divorce him,” she said. “I really do not want this
because we have never argued or had a problem with each other since we
married.”
Village representative Tep Vanny told the Post last week that her husband, a civil servant at Phnom Penh municipal authority, had received similar threats.
An unidentified government official had also called to ask her husband if he was a member of the SRP, Tep Vanny said yesterday.
“This man who called also asked if I was a member of the SRP – but I’m not.”
Tep Vanny said she did not want to divorce her husband, but would if it prevented him from being sacked.
“Next
time, if my protesting affects my husband or it causes my family
problems, I will divorce my husband – but it won’t be our fault, it will
be the authority’s fault,” she said.
Chea Sin Hel, director of distribution at EDC, denied officials had threatened any worker with links to Boeung Kak.
“It is not true, and they should contact me to show me who threatened to fire him,” he said.
“If their wives are protesting . . . we don’t have the right to threaten or fire them.
“They should not accuse us like this.”
Kiet Chhe, deputy administrative president of Phnom Penh city hall, declined to comment yesterday.
Mu
Sochua said intimidation shadowed the Boeung Kak villagers everywhere
they went, leading many to feel intimidated and helpless.
“That’s
exactly what [their intimidators] want. Look at the woman who jumped
off the bridge,” she said, referring to Chea Dara, who took her life in
November. “That story is finished, gone, forgotten . . . This
[intimidation] can work.
“These women are strong inside out,”
she said. “[Tep Vanny] has gone beyond [her intimidators]. She fights
for a cause. She has shown all along that … she is totally above their
tactics and their strategies.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com
Mom Kunthear at kunthear.mom@phnompenhpost.com
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