It was reported that police, military police and soldiers, who protected the company, normally assaulted and intimidated the villagers.
Mr. Sam Bun Thoeun, a 40-year-old who has also lived in the area described the story that, police and military police routinely harassed and searched the villagers when they entered the land, which is now through a gateway set up by the concession company. For instance, a 13-year-old boy was circulated to have been severely assaulted by police protecting the company. After knowing this, the villagers gathered at the police to ask for the reason; and also ask them to open the way for them to go in and out. The police did not speak to the villagers, but an officer fired a shot to threaten them, instead.
Tention became more serious. The shot led to reaction from the villagers, who got angry at the officer. Not long, the villagers started to destroy the company’s belongings. Two bulldozers, one excavator and a generator belonging to the company, as well as 10 motorbikes belonging to the security forces were fired by those villagers.
The event left at least 9 villagers injured- 2 of them were sent to hospital for treatment, 3 villagers were immediately arrested and sent to Provincial Police Custody and some others were reported to be minor wounded. Later days 4 more residents were captured.
Kampong Thom Provincial Governor Chhun Chhorn said on Thursday that the police had a list of 20 people, who were considered to be responsible for the arson, but they would not make arrests until the dispute between the Vietnamese agriculture and the local villagers had been solved.
Provincial court Chief Prosecutor Pen Sarat said that three of the arrested protesters where charged with damaging private property on Friday and were remanded in pre-trial detention in the provincial police custody.
The land conflict in the area had taken place since the company started bulldozing and grabbing the plot of land from them in 2007, due to the economic land concession granted by the Cambodian government. On September 27, 2008, Tan Bien-Kampong Thom Rubber Development Company signed a contract to lease 8,100 hectare of land in Kampong Thom province for rubber plantation and the building of a rubber latex plant for 70 years. Sixty hectare of rubber crops has been planted and nursery had already gone up on a 15 ha of land. The project is estimated to cost 770 billion VND (48.1 USD). Tan Bien Rubber Company contributed 51 percent of the capital, the Vietnam Rubber Industry Corporation, 29 percent, and the Song Da Corporation, 20 percent.
The project has affected the livelihood of about 1,735 families in Kraya commune, Santuk district. Most of the families were former demobilized veterans, the disabled and widows, who were asserted to resettle in the area since 2004. They were provided with 10,000 hectare of land as social land concession from the government of Cambodia, signed on the letter by Mr. Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior; through the Association of Disabled Military for Agricultural Development.
The above act of those police, military police and Kampong Thom soldiers seriously abused the Cambodian Constitutional Law. It is also against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They should not have intimidated or assaulted people. However, they should have protected security for people.
It has also been seen that the government, both provincial and national levels, were not trying to help the villagers. This act really contradicted the Cambodian Constitutional Law. Article 35, paragraph 2 says, “… Any people’s request shall be taken into action and thoroughly resolved.” Article 52, line 5 of the law writes that, “… The state primarily pays attention to livelihood and well-being of Cambodian people.”
The government failed to respect for the 2001 Land Law, which assures that any economic land concession given to any company for development that impacts on local livelihood; the government will form a committee to conduct research to see how much the project affects the people. If it is found to have effect on the standard of living of the residents, appropriate and just compensation will be provided.
No comments:
Post a Comment