Police clash (L), Residents arrested (C), Home demolition by the authority (R) (Photo: Koh Santepheap newspaper)Monday, April 23, 2007
By Ung Chamroeun
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French
Friday’s eviction of about 100 families in Sihanoukville turned into a violent clash. Two cops were seriously injured, 10 of them lightly injured, and 13 people were arrested.
Thirteen people were arrested on Friday in Sihanoukville, they were accused on intentionally beating and causing injuries following the violence which exploded during the eviction of about 100 families who illegally settled on private lands.
A joint committee under the direction of two Sihanoukville deputy governors, Prak Sihara and Chev Kim Heng, was in charge of applying a city order, on Friday morning, to destroy houses occupied by these families in the Spean Chhes (burnt bridge) zone, Mitapheap district. On the spot, the residents armed with knives, slingshots, gasoline containers, and acid jars, were waiting for the police forces coming to evict them, and they violently oppose the cops. Two cops were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized, about 10 other cops were slightly injured. The residents demonstrated their anger by burning down several homes. The cops arrested 13 people who were immediately sent to temporary jailing at the penal municipal office, they were charged with the destruction of still-standing houses.
The [police] operation aimed at demolishing 75 homes built on 18-hectare of lands officially belonging to Thing Ravy, a Phnom Penh resident.
According to Chan Chamroeun, an investigator for the Adhoc NGO in Sihanoukville, 170 people are now without housing after the police intervention. They have established themselves in a makeshift camp close the disputed lands. “The police forces are still being deployed on the spot, and the victims of the eviction, the majority of whom are fishermen, now have no housing and no food,” Chan Chamroeun testified.
Say Hak, the Sihanoukville governor, said that the authority had prepared another plot of land to receive about 10 families living near the Spean Chhes zone, but that there is no solution planned for the other families who have settled illegally.
As the vice-president of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), Eng Chhai Eang published a letter in which he “condemns this violence, and [he launches an] appeal to the municipal authority and the government to avoid using violence in the resolution of land disputes” and to put priority on peaceful solutions.
Thirteen people were arrested on Friday in Sihanoukville, they were accused on intentionally beating and causing injuries following the violence which exploded during the eviction of about 100 families who illegally settled on private lands.
A joint committee under the direction of two Sihanoukville deputy governors, Prak Sihara and Chev Kim Heng, was in charge of applying a city order, on Friday morning, to destroy houses occupied by these families in the Spean Chhes (burnt bridge) zone, Mitapheap district. On the spot, the residents armed with knives, slingshots, gasoline containers, and acid jars, were waiting for the police forces coming to evict them, and they violently oppose the cops. Two cops were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized, about 10 other cops were slightly injured. The residents demonstrated their anger by burning down several homes. The cops arrested 13 people who were immediately sent to temporary jailing at the penal municipal office, they were charged with the destruction of still-standing houses.
The [police] operation aimed at demolishing 75 homes built on 18-hectare of lands officially belonging to Thing Ravy, a Phnom Penh resident.
According to Chan Chamroeun, an investigator for the Adhoc NGO in Sihanoukville, 170 people are now without housing after the police intervention. They have established themselves in a makeshift camp close the disputed lands. “The police forces are still being deployed on the spot, and the victims of the eviction, the majority of whom are fishermen, now have no housing and no food,” Chan Chamroeun testified.
Say Hak, the Sihanoukville governor, said that the authority had prepared another plot of land to receive about 10 families living near the Spean Chhes zone, but that there is no solution planned for the other families who have settled illegally.
As the vice-president of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes (NARLD), Eng Chhai Eang published a letter in which he “condemns this violence, and [he launches an] appeal to the municipal authority and the government to avoid using violence in the resolution of land disputes” and to put priority on peaceful solutions.
4 comments:
In reality, all investors of land concessions have breached their own contract with the Government. When they proposed to the CDC Cambodian developpment board, they have promised to the government by offering their enormous investments to improve the lives of people in their investment areas by building for them quality housings, school, hospital, all transport within the area and quality job. They must share all their profit to the people concerned as well. But these landgrabbers have robbed people after they have business proposal approved by CDC by kicking out all the people from their lands. It is indeed illegal to kick them out. These landgrabbers must to be arrested and all their investment must be returned to the people concerned. They must to be punished heavely for their breach of trust and their breach of the contracts.
Hey Ah Phnom Penh government, When are you going to end this Bullshit Land dispute? Cambodians are sicken and tired of this fucking rules.
Before approved by CDC, the land must be free and clear. CDC stands for Cambodian Demolition Corporation. Go Suharto go...
9:37, the land dispute will end,
once Ah illegal Khmer-Yuons moved
back to South Vietnam.
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