Sunday, November 21, 2010

Villagers in Kratie Protested before Premier House in Phnom Penh

On May 17, 2010 about 150 villagers were coming from Kratie province in order to protest against their land being grabbed by several private companies, Huot Sambat, TTY, CT Men and Sovan Rithy, in front of Botom Vortey Pagoda in Chaktomok commune, Daun Penh district, Phnom Penh.

According to a villager, who came to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and also asked for the condition of anonymity, the group left their home town on May 16, at about 3:00 PM and arrived in Phnom Penh the following day at 1:00 AM. They all slept in front of the pagoda. At about 8:00 AM a group of some 30 joint armed forces, police, security and civil authority went to the area and asked them to leave; otherwise they would take serious action. Finally the authorities picked up the villagers by a van to drop them another side of Chroy Changva brigde.

Based on the document brought with the villager, 104 affected families by the above companies lived in Kilometer 113, Kilometer 131 and Viel 3, O’Dapi in Pithnou commune, Snoul district, Kratie province. In the complaint, which planned to send to the president of the National Assemb ly, Heng Samrin, the villagers asserted that the companies had bulldozed their land and destroyed their trees. They had sought intervention from all levels of authority, but they had been ignored. In contrast 18 villager representatives, who dared to fight against the companies, were arrested and sent to jail without judgement and reason for the arrest.

The companies were provided with 9,780 hectares of land as economic concession.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive