Cambodian rights worker faces death threats over land dispute

12 May 2014
Radio Free Asia
Civil society / Constitution and rights / Crime and law enforcement / Domestic investors / Economy and commerce / Human rights / International laws and treaties / Investment / Judiciary and courts / Land / Land classifications / Land policy and administration / Land tenure and land titling / Law and judiciary / Social development
Cambodian Center for Human Rights / CCHR / Council of Ministers / Khun Sear Import Export Company / Land Law 2001 / Phnom Penh City Hall / Phnom Penh Municipal Court / Sangkat Boueng Kak 1

A worker with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has been intimidated and received death threats while trying to document the plight of three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a developer in the country’s capital, according to the center. The worker, Vann Sophath, was shooting a video at the dispute site in Phnom Penh's Sangkat Boueng Kak 1 on May 9 when he was confronted by around six civilians known to work as security guards for the developer, Khun Sear Import Export Company, CCHR said in a statement. ... Vann Sophath and his team first visited Sangkat Boueng Kak 1 on April 25 to begin shooting interviews with the family of Ly Sreakheng—one of the three households involved in the dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export Company, which has offices on property adjacent to their homes and has been seeking to extend its property to include the residents’ land. ... On Oct. 4, 2010, Cambodia’s Council of Ministers granted the land to Khun Sear and, in order to facilitate the transfer, the Phnom Penh municipal government in 2013 issued a certificate stating that the site belongs to the state. ... In October last year, ahead of a protest march on City Hall by dozens of residents involved in land disputes in the capital, the three families found three poisonous cobra snakes had been placed near their homes. Days earlier, after company employees had threatened the families about killing their pets, two of their cats and one of their dogs were poisoned to death and left on the doorstep, unidentified persons sprayed insecticide on one of the houses, and others harassed customers at one of the families’ businesses, according to a statement by rights groups. ... Land disputes are a bitter problem for Cambodia, where rural villagers and urban dwellers alike have been mired in conflicts that the U.N.’s special rapporteur for human rights to Cambodia has warned could threaten the country’s stability. ...

 Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/threats-05122014162650.html