A year to the day since armed soldiers stormed into the remote village of Pro Mar in Kratie province, killing a 14-year-old girl, arresting her husband and evicting hundreds of families, Sreng Pho still has nightmares.
“I’m really scared when I think back to that day the authorities came to crack down on our village,” she said yesterday. …
Pho said villagers had been left without farmland and wanted to return to plant cassava but wasn’t sure if authorities were building a military base in the area, as reported by the Post in February. …
Prior to the eviction, villagers had been locked in a dispute with the company Casotim. …
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051665654/National/fear-still-lingers-in-pro-ma.html
In a bizarre twist at the Appeal Court hearing of radio station owner Man Sonando, the prosecution yesterday asked that judges drop the charge against Mr. Sonando of inciting antigovernment violence, but then asked the court to uphold another charge leading to an insurrection.
Mr. Sonando was convicted on a total of six charges for stocking an alleged secessionist movement in rural Kratie province by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in October and handed down a 20-year jail sentence in a decision widely denounced as politically motivated. …
The prosecutor asked the court to convict Mr. Sonando of a brand new charge, under the Forestry Protection Law, of illegally clearing state owned forestland for private ownership, which carries a prison sentence of 10 years. …
“The prosecution believes the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision to charge Mr. Sonando with Article 464 was not right and he should have been charged with Article 97.6 of the Forestry Law” Mr Rith said.”
Contacted afterward, Mr. Rith, the prosecutor, said the Forestry Law charge made sense because the alleged secessionist in Kratie province’s Broma village were in a dispute with Casotim, the private owner of a local rubber plantation. …
Eang Megleng and Zsombor Peter, P.1
www.cambodiadaily.com
The government has slashed about 250,000 hectares of land from 79 economic land concessions (ELCs), forest concessions and wildlife protection concessions and will return it, replete with land titles, to “poor people”, January’s Royal Book says.
The publication, issued on January 17 and obtained yesterday, says the government has asked King Norodom Sihamoni to issue a sub-decree reclaiming the land in 19 provinces from 37 companies including Pheapimex, Casotim and TTY, which are locked in disputes with villagers.
“This is about giving land back to the people,” a line from the Royal Book states, echoing recent statements by Prime Minister Hun Sen. …
After a string of protests, including one in which TTY-hired guards shot four villagers, Hun Sen placed a moratorium on the granting of land concessions last May, although some continued to be granted because of a clause that allowed concessions already in the works to proceed. …
It is unclear how many people will benefit from the land returns, but Kuch Veng, a representative of Kbal Trach commune, in Pursat province’s Krakor district, said student volunteers had already issued land titles to villagers in a dispute with Pheapimex, a company owned by Choeung Sopheap, the wife of Cambodian People’s Party senator Lao Meng Khin. …
May Titthara and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761237/National/cambodia-s-government-takes-back-land.html
A track of land once farmed by 1,000 families in Kratie province — families violently evicted amid claims they were part of a separatist movement — is now home to a military base.
Unit 9 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces base, which will be finished later this month, is part of a larger security-infrastructure scheme for the area. The plans include a military police base, along with a road suitable for moving supplies from the center of Chhlong district to the remote village of Pro Ma, provincial and military police officials confirmed yesterday. …
Nine months ago, joint forces stormed this isolated village and staged one of the largest mass evictions in recent history.
Although the villagers were without guns, officials opened fire, killing a 14-year-old girl in the process.
Authorities then sealed off the area for days while they interrogated residents, before driving them as far afield as Kampong Thom province.
The government has vociferously and repeatedly defended its actions, saying they were necessary to staunch a separatist movement led by a local activist named Bun Ratha and Beehive radio owner Mam Sonando. …
“The army is constructing a road from Chhlong to here,” said Channa. “Seven kilometers from here, the military police plan to do the same thing and build a base. They have started clearing the trees. I’m not sure how large it will be.” …
Located adjacent to a 15,000-hectare rubber plantation – which since 2008 has been owned by concessionaire Casotim – this land had been locked in an increasingly tense dispute. Just one month before the raid, 700 villagers from the area staged a protest – blocking a national road for days in support of an outspoken village representative who had been arrested on accusations of destroying company property.
A provincial judge later ordered his release, noting that there was no evidence to support allegations against that representative, Bun Ratha.
The base occupies prime cassava field, which is just now yielding the harvest sown last year by the so-called secessionists. While Deputy Commander Channa said the base covers two hectares, and Provincial Governor Sar Cham Rong said it covers one hectare, the territory closed off to villagers is clearly far larger. …
Blocked off to those who did the planting, the land will soon be distributed among the soldiers living at camp, according to Channa.
“High-level officers are now figuring out how to divide the land among soldiers for their families,” he said, before insisting the land is currently off-limits to all.
“Even though some of the soldiers have recently faced a shortage of food, they do not touch the land.”
Such claims ring somewhat hollow. Strung along the 700-meter path leading to the base lay half-harvested fields – the underbrush is charred, dirt lies in clumps in spots where cassava had recently been pulled.
Villagers in Pro Ma had high hopes that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling program would see them awarded land to which they appear to have legitimate claim; instead, they have seen the process closed to them.
While some will receive titles on a planned social land concession, according to Provincial Governor Cham Rong, that opportunity will be closed off to “the former Bun Ratha group”. …
Part of the tragedy of Pro Ma is the seeming randomness of the edicts that now govern the village. Those farming a mere 50 metres away from the cordoned off area have been allowed to keep their land and keep their homes. Some have been allowed back in to harvest their cassava, others not. …
“I don’t know why some have gotten in and not others. My neighbour, for instance, can’t get back to her farm either, but some others have,” said Phat. …
May Titthara and Abby Seiff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020661212/National/separatist-farms-replaced-by-rcaf-base.html
More than seven months after government security forces violently evicted hundreds of people living in Kratie province’s Broma village to quell a so-called secessionist movement, more than 70 families are still being prevented by patrolling soldiers from returning to the site of their former homes, local officials said yesterday.
Kompong Damrei commune clerk Khin Doung said that 74 families, who since 2008 have lived and farmed on more than 80 hectares of land in Broma, last week tried to return home to harvest cassava crops they planted prior to being evicted with the rest of the villagers in May.
The families, however were prevented from returning to their homes by a group of more than 20 soldiers, Mr. Dound said. …
But provincial police chief Chuong Sieng Hak said that soldiers in Broma are only there to keep them safe. …
“It is because we are worried about robberies which happen sometimes” …
Rights groups said the government’s claim that villagers were part of a secessionist movement was merely an excuse to evict them on behalf of Casotim. …
According to rights group Licadho, Casotim had a 15, 000 hectare land concession located about 10 km from Broma.
It also has a 100,000 hectare logging claim that overlaps with the villagers, but this was suspended in 2001, when the government put moratorium on timber concessions.
By Aun Pheap and Ben Woods, P.19
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday implicated Mam Sonando, owner of the independent Beehive Radio station, in an alleged secessionist movement in Kratie province and announced the government’s intentions to arrest him. …
“Now, we compete with the ringleader of the Democrats Association, which created the state within a state and canceled a village to create seven other villages and distributed land to the people,” Mr. Hun Sen said. …
Residents of Kratie province’s Broma village and human rights groups have all denied the government’s claims of a secessionist movement. More than 200 armed security personnel raided the village on May 16, evicted some 600 families involved in the land dispute with the rubber plantation and shot dead a 14-year old girl, Heng Chantha, during the operation. …
Soon after the May 16 raid on Broma village, the government issued arrest warrants for Mr. Ratha and four other villagers suspected of helping mastermind the alleged secessionist movement. …
Khy Sovuthy P.21
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Villagers detained during a bloody crackdown in Kratie province last week in which a 14-year-old was shot dead have accused security forces of brutal acts of cruelty, including forcing pregnant women to stand naked in the sun for hours.
The villagers from Pro Ma village in Chhlong district’s Kampong Damrei commune have alleged that military police and police forced men and women to strip naked, handcuffed them and left the females in broad daylight for hours while the males were not freed until the end of the day.
Almost 1,000 police and military police officers stormed the village, where residents have a longstanding land dispute with the company Casotim, at about 8:30am last Wednesday in an operation they said was to arrest the ringleaders of a group attempting to create a mini autonomous state.
Sotheavy, a 19-year-old who requested her real name be concealed, said she had “never seen such brutality”…
May Tittihara, P. 1
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052256312/National-news/women-stripped-handcuffed-kratie-villagers.html
After a three-day blockade, soldiers pulled out over the weekend from the Kratie province village where a teenage girl was shot dead last week by government security forces, officials said yesterday. However, human rights workers denied a report by a provincial official that freedom of movement had been restored to the area.
On Wednesday, 14-year-old Heng Chantha was gunned down when 200 soldiers, police and military police swept into Chhlong district’s Broma village with the stated aim of routing a so-called “seccessionist movement.” Following the raid, hundreds of families deemed newcomers” were evicted from the area and told to return to their original homes in Kompong Cham, Prey Veng and Kandal provinces.
The area was sealed off by units of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and military police, who kept human rights workers from entering the village where the teenager was shot dead. Kratie Provincial Governor Sar Chamrong said the withdrawal of troops started on Saturday and that freedom of movement was now permitted in the area. …
But human rights workers gave a different account. Chan Sovath, senior monitor for ADHOC, said that as of midday yesterday, rights workers remained blocked from Broma village. …
“The armed forces are still searching, still finding, to make arrests in Kompong Cham or in someplace else,” said Adhoc’s Mr. Soveth, who added that even some of the long-term residents were afraid to return to the area. …
Governor Chamrong denied the account, reiterating that the villagers who were not evicted were “happy with our operation.” “They said it was as if they had been rescued from the Pol Pot period,” Mr. Chamrong claimed. …
By Abby Sieff and Lor Chandara, P. 1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
Government security forces shot dead a teenage girl in Kratie province yesterday morning in a coordinated operation to arrest protesters locked in a long-running land dispute with a rubber company accused of stealing their land.
The provincial governor said the joint forces opened fire to defend themselves from villagers armed with axes and other farm instruments, and called the girl’s death a regrettable accident.
The shooting comes amid a trend of increasing violence across the country against villagers by government forces and security guards driving them from large parcels of land being granted to private firms in the country’s rush to develop.
Heng Chantha, 14, was shot in the abdomen while hiding from the soldiers with her mother and brother under the family’s house in Broma village, Chhlong district, said her brother, Heng Sokleang. …
Nuon Bunthy, another villager, said he saw at least 15 armed soldiers sweep in at about 8:30 a.m. before rushing into his home for shelter and soon heard a long burst of automatic gunfire.
“They are very cruel,” said Mr. Bunthy, one of about 1,000 villagers who accused the private firm Casotim of turning their farmland into a rubber plantation. “They shot an innocent person dead. This is injustice for the people.”
Provincial governor Sar Chamrong defended the operation, accusing the villagers of attempting to secede from the state, and labeled the incident a successful operation against their alleged ringleaders, who escaped. …
Kuch Naren and Lor Chandara with additional reporting by Kim Chan and Zsombor Peter, P. 1
http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodia.daily/ (Note: Infrequently Updated.)
A Cambodian girl was shot dead on Wednesday when security forces clashed with a village protest over an alleged land grab, rights groups said, in the latest territorial dispute to descend into violence.
Details not unclear but campaigners said the teenager was shot when hundreds of villagers involved in a long-running conflict with a private firm squared off against military officers and police in the eastern province of Kratie.
The Cambodian government has faced mounting criticism from the UN and rights groups over a string of increasingly violent land conflicts, with security forces accused of using live rounds against activists in at least four cases. …
National police spokesman Kirt Chantharith told AFP he had no information about the fatality but said armed forces had been deployed to the area to prevent villagers “trying to control the land illegally”.
The Kompong Domrey residents have long been embroiled in a disagreement with the Casotim company, which owns a concession to produce rubber in the area, with both sides laying claim to the forest land. …
AFP
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20120516-346295.html
… Reports said that during a clash between up to 400 soldiers and police and villagers in Kratie province in the east of the country, a 15-year-old girl was badly injured. She subsequently died of her injuries in hospital, according to the Associated Press.
Provincial official Sar Chamrong said government forces had secured the area and were hunting for five accused ringleaders who had escaped. He claimed the protesters were trying to set up a self-governing zone outside of the law. …
Andrew Buncombe, Kounila Keo
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cambodian-security-forces-kill-teenage-girl-during-clash-with-villagers-armed-with-axes-and-crossbows-7758004.html
Security forces fatally shot a teenage girl Wednesday during a clash with villagers armed with axes and crossbows in eastern Cambodia, in the latest of several violent evictions aimed at clearing land for development.
Cambodia’s system of commercial land concessions, decried by activists as opaque and corrupt, has become a volatile issue nationwide and prompted a U.N. inquiry. Last month, a high-profile activist was slain after investigating illegal logging in a forest concession.
On Wednesday, about 400 police and soldiers raided a settlement in Kratie province after community leaders rejected demands to vacate their farmland for several months, provincial Gov. Sar Chamrong said. The security forces clashed with about 200 villagers armed with axes, crossbows and sticks.
He said a 15-year-old girl was critically wounded in the confrontation and later died at a hospital.
Government forces secured the area and were hunting for five accused ringleaders who escaped into the jungle, Sar Chamrong said. He alleged that the protesters were trying to set up a self-governing zone outside of the law.
Authorities say the land is owned by the government, but the activists say the previously state-owned land already has been awarded to a Russian company to be developed as a plantation.
Accused protest ringleader Bun Ratha said about 500 villagers have been farming the land for years and have nowhere else to go. …
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/05/16/world/asia/ap-as-cambodia-land-dispute.html
Security forces in Cambodia have shot dead a 15-year-old girl who was taking part in a land protest.
She was demonstrating against the development of a rubber plantation on farmland in eastern Kratie province.
Authorities say local residents, armed with axes and crossbows, would not vacate the area. …
The Associated Press news agency says Wednesday’s clashes involved 400 members of the security forces and about 200 villagers.
Authorities say the land in question is owned by the government, but activists argue villagers have been farming the land for many years and have nowhere else to go if it is developed by a private company. …
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18093818
