29 May 2007
By Keo Pech Metta
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Villagers from Phnom Sruoch district, Kompong Speu province, reported on Tuesday that a group of people believed to be members of the ACO army tank unit, used an army tank to clear several hectares of the villagers’ farmlands.
The land clearing took place in Sambuor village, Taing Tya commune. The villagers oppose such action but they were defenseless in front of these better equipped soldiers.
An anonymous villager who expressed his concerns about his personal safety, said that if the soldiers grab the villagers’ farmlands as they are doing now, the villagers will no longer have land to plant their rice crop in the upcoming rainy season.
The same villager added that the soldiers cleared the lands three times already including the most recent land clearing on 29 May. “Soldiers of the ACO unit started to clear the lands this morning, they cleared both rice fields and orchards, they even knocked down my fence … and demolish everything. They brought a tank to clear the land. When the land is valuable and its price increases, the ACO came in and grabbed the villagers’ lands. And, this morning they came in to push me when I was giving an interview with VOA, they took my phone from my hand, and they wanted to beat me up and shoot me. I don’t know this soldier’s name, but the name of their chief is Lanh Kao.”
Today, RFA could not obtain clarification to the villagers’ accusation from the army ACO tank unit.
Tep mean, the Phnom Sruoch district governor, said that he did not know that the soldiers used a tank to grab lands and violate on the villagers farmlands and rice fields. He said that he will travel to the incident location later.
Satyavuth, the Kompong Speu deputy-provincial also said that he did not know about this incident, and he told RFA reporter to go ask the question to Touch Sarun, another deputy-provincial governor in charge of land issues in Kompong Speu province. However, RFA could not contact Touch Sarun over the phone today.
The land clearing took place in Sambuor village, Taing Tya commune. The villagers oppose such action but they were defenseless in front of these better equipped soldiers.
An anonymous villager who expressed his concerns about his personal safety, said that if the soldiers grab the villagers’ farmlands as they are doing now, the villagers will no longer have land to plant their rice crop in the upcoming rainy season.
The same villager added that the soldiers cleared the lands three times already including the most recent land clearing on 29 May. “Soldiers of the ACO unit started to clear the lands this morning, they cleared both rice fields and orchards, they even knocked down my fence … and demolish everything. They brought a tank to clear the land. When the land is valuable and its price increases, the ACO came in and grabbed the villagers’ lands. And, this morning they came in to push me when I was giving an interview with VOA, they took my phone from my hand, and they wanted to beat me up and shoot me. I don’t know this soldier’s name, but the name of their chief is Lanh Kao.”
Today, RFA could not obtain clarification to the villagers’ accusation from the army ACO tank unit.
Tep mean, the Phnom Sruoch district governor, said that he did not know that the soldiers used a tank to grab lands and violate on the villagers farmlands and rice fields. He said that he will travel to the incident location later.
Satyavuth, the Kompong Speu deputy-provincial also said that he did not know about this incident, and he told RFA reporter to go ask the question to Touch Sarun, another deputy-provincial governor in charge of land issues in Kompong Speu province. However, RFA could not contact Touch Sarun over the phone today.
I was led to strongly believe that our national army's task is the defence of our country. Now I have realised I had been misled: our national army grabs land from our fellow Cambodians instead, and also colluded with tycoons to exploit and destroy our forests.
ReplyDeleteAnd our territory has been shrinking all the time!
Is it not about time we reconsider the role of our national army, considering a huge slice of our national budget is allocated to it every year?
Or we should continue to be silent as members of our army have guns?
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
There will be war against this army. I will form my sniper army. You will see. We will take out these assholes corrupted army.
ReplyDeleteDr. Lao, stop changing the subject.
ReplyDeleteWhat territory are you talking
about that is shrinking? And how
how long had it been shrinking?
I like to compute how much of
territory we got left, up to date,
if you don't mind.
Anyhow, I won't panic and get
a heart attack over this case
until the court get in the picture.
Remember, your stupid westerner's
phylosophy that everyone is assumed
innocent until proven guilty?
Our current leaders included that " stupid westerner's
ReplyDeletephylosophy that everyone is assumed
innocent until proven guilty" in our current constitution (art.38).
We agree to disagree on our territory. But don't forget to check with our Kampuchea Krom and Surin fellow Cambodians and our fellow Cambodians living in the border regions. The case of territory is beyond the jurisdiction of our court, unless your think otherwise.
As regards the land grabbing case in Kompong Speu, our army should have got a court order to evict the occupants first, then a prosecutor would execute that order with or without the assistance of the police or military police, but not with army tanks.
I add another piece of stupid westerner's philosophy: " whenever law ends, tyranny begins." And all of us, except a few, had experienced this end of law at least once in our recent history.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Yeah, but who the hell putting all
ReplyDeletethe westerner's craps in our
constitution, Dr. Lao? I like to
get my hand on them if you know
what I mean.
Oh you were talking about history
of Ah Khmer-Yuon and Ah Khmer-Siem.
Of course we all know why our
country is the smallest in the
region. Just look at how our
politicians, kings, and queens
behave.
Yes, and I agree with you that
they should go through the court
to claim any land. This does
suggested a robbery or they don't
know about the court procedure.
Good thinking!
As for "whenever the law end,
tyranny begins" yes that will
be bad, but I would prefered,
"The law end, and moral begin".
I don't like to live under
man made law that much. I prefer
to live under good moral value.
Without good moral value, people
will manipulate the law to take
advantage of each other. That is
what I don't like about law based
society. People should only use
law as the last resort, when a
dispute cannot be resolved with
good moral usage.
FROM A LT. GENERAL
ReplyDeleteWe take oath to protect CAMBODIA against domestic and external enemies.
DOMESTIC ENEMIES CAN BE ANYTHING ACCORDING TO OUR INTERPRETION.