The demonstration crackdown was led by Mr. Born Sam Ath, Dangkar District Police Chief, accompanied with many other police officers armed with guns, shields and sticks to ban and break off the attempt at around 8:30 am along Chamkar Daung street in Dangkar district. During the event, 8 people were immediately arrested and 3 human rights monitors- two from Adhoc, and one from Licadho, and their cameras were temporarily captured and seized; and in addition all pictures shot in the event had been completely erased before giving back.
Reported by Am Sam Ath, Technical Supervisor from Licdho, the villagers had lodged complaints with the organizations to seek their intervention and monitoring in the case. Therefore three were separately sent to monitor in the event; however, they were not only prohibited and allowed to take pictures, but provisionally detained. Their cameras were also confiscated and all the photos of the event, which they had earlier taken, were totally deleted.
Related to 8 arrested people, as quoted in the interview by the Radio Free Asia, on 1 March 2010 Mr. Born Sam Ath said that out of them, 7 were released later that day after they were reported to have been forced and intimidated to stop protesting; but Mrs. Mao Soly was not yet freed due to not confessing her guilty and was the subject to be sued for inciting others to hold the protest. The following day, however, she was finally released after agreeing to withdraw the land complaint.
According to the investigation, on February 26, 2010 more than 300 people also protested, but they were blocked out by around 100 policemen led by the district police chief as well.
Chained protests in question were set against the all too familiar backdrop of an 18-hectare plot of land dispute with In Samon, the deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior.
Mrs. Mao Soly and other villagers said that in 1985, former-Deputy Interior Minister Sin Sen asked to borrow that plot of land from 325 families in order to use it as farmland for police officers living in the area. Later on, up to 2007 when villagers moved back only to be claimed that the land belonged to Mr. In Samon. Then they filed a complaint with the court, but up to now their problem has not been solved. For this reason, commune chief Mr. Khat Sokhai accused them of having no legal document to claim ownership, but claimed In Samon had owned the land since 1980s with recognition from district and land management officials as well as district authority.
However, villagers asserted they did have document. If not, they would not have protested.
In relation to the event on March 1, 2010 human rights organizations considered the demonstration crackdown by Dangkar police seriously violated human rights. They expressed their concerns as follows:
Firstly, by preventing the villagers from carrying out the demonstration, the police infringed the rights to freedom of expression and assembly of the villagers as guaranteed under Article 41 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia as well as their democratic right to seek the assistance of their elected representatives;
Secondly, by detaining the eight villagers without informing them of the reasons for their arrest the police have violated Article 97 of the Criminal Procedure Code which provides that “[w]hen a person is placed in police custody, the judicial police officer shall immediately notify their decision and the reasons to the detainee” and Article 9(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which provides that “anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest” and which is part of Cambodian law pursuant to Article 31 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia;
Thirdly, by intimidating the arrested villagers with the threat of imprisonment if they did not relinquish their claim over the land, the authorities have impermissibly taken sides in a private dispute between the parties and are guilty of blackmailing the villagers in question; and
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