Monday, 28 May 2012
By May Titthara and Meas Sokchea
Phnom Penh Post 
Villagers in
Kratie province block the road in January after four people in a group
of villagers protesting against alleged land grabbing by the TTY company
were shot. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Prime Minister Hun Sen has told villagers they should not to protest in
land disputes but rather seek help from authorities following a spate of
violent crackdowns on demonstrations.
The premier said protests
affect public order and claimed they sometimes become violent in a
statement signed last Tuesday and obtained by the Post yesterday.
“In
settling to divide land or land ownership to villagers, there is no
other means to resolution than authorities to tackle [the problem],” the
statement reads.
Protesters must avoid “all forms of violence” and not employ disruptive actions such as blocking national roads, it continues.
Conversely,
rights groups and opposition parties last week issued a series of
statements condemning government crackdowns of protests and the abuse of
the legal system in favour of companies over villagers in land
disputes.
In what observers have said has been a sharp downturn
in respect for human rights in Cambodia this year, a series of bloody
crackdowns on land protesters have left an innocent 14-year old girl
dead and several others injured by gunfire.
On Thursday, 13
women involved in the Boeung Kak land eviction were sentenced to two and
a half years in jail, while on the same day, activist monk Loun Sovath
was manhandled into a car, detained and threatened with arrest if he
refused to stop attending protests.
In a statement on Friday,
rights group Adhoc condemned the abuse of the land law to grant
concessions on land already occupied by villagers.
“It is
particularly disturbing that the 13 Boeung Kak women received hefty
prison terms for occupying the disputed land for merely three hours,
when companies continue to flagrantly ignore the laws with no
consequences.”
The Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party both
issued statements the same day condemning government-sanctioned violence
in disputes.
“[We] would like to request Supreme Council of
Magistracy to have a look and punish judges and prosecutors who used
power to convict people unjustly,” the SRP statement reads.
Chan
Soveth, an investigator for Adhoc, said yesterday the very reason people
take to the streets is because they cannot expect help from Cambodia’s
dysfunctional legal system.
To contact the reporters on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
Meas Sokchea at sokchea.meas@phnompenhpost.com
2 comments:
I say shoot the bad govermen. talk like hun sen pler pek huy!! If you don't steal what the point of protesting??
I say shoot the bad govermen. talk like hun sen pler pek huy!! If you don't steal what the point of protesting??
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