Monday, 29 December 2008
Written by Chrann Chamroeun
The Phnom Penh Post
Military is increasingly being used as muscle by private businesses trying to remove people from land slated for development, Licadho says
AT LEAST 3,500 families were affected by land disputes involving the Cambodian military in the first 11 months of this year, the human rights group Licadho said Sunday.
"There are 25 cases of land disputes with armed soldiers that affected more than 3,500 families," said Licadho investigator Chheng Sophors.
"These were where the soldiers claimed the [disputed] land belonged to either an individual, their military units or to companies that received a land concession and hired armed guards to expel the people from their land," he told the Post.
He said that Licadho intended to file a report to the Council of Ministers and government ministries, asking for intervention "because soldiers are obligated to serve the people, not private companies".
The military has been implicated in several land disputes across the country that have turned violent, drawing sharp criticism from rights groups.
"The government doesn't seem interested in taking any action against these violent attacks by armed military and police over land disputes," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.
"This is a severe human rights violation and a danger to democracy," he said Sunday.
Government officials, when contacted Sunday, said they were too busy to comment.
But Moeung Samphan, a secretary of state with the Defence Ministry, said that these disputes needed to be settled through the national committee established to resolve land grabs.
"I cannot elaborate on the Licadho report on these disputes," he told the Post.
AT LEAST 3,500 families were affected by land disputes involving the Cambodian military in the first 11 months of this year, the human rights group Licadho said Sunday.
"There are 25 cases of land disputes with armed soldiers that affected more than 3,500 families," said Licadho investigator Chheng Sophors.
"These were where the soldiers claimed the [disputed] land belonged to either an individual, their military units or to companies that received a land concession and hired armed guards to expel the people from their land," he told the Post.
He said that Licadho intended to file a report to the Council of Ministers and government ministries, asking for intervention "because soldiers are obligated to serve the people, not private companies".
The military has been implicated in several land disputes across the country that have turned violent, drawing sharp criticism from rights groups.
"The government doesn't seem interested in taking any action against these violent attacks by armed military and police over land disputes," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.
"This is a severe human rights violation and a danger to democracy," he said Sunday.
Government officials, when contacted Sunday, said they were too busy to comment.
But Moeung Samphan, a secretary of state with the Defence Ministry, said that these disputes needed to be settled through the national committee established to resolve land grabs.
"I cannot elaborate on the Licadho report on these disputes," he told the Post.
20 comments:
Land reform is needed. No such program is initiated because land is the main source of income for corruption.
In corrupt country, police and military are used as enforcers for the big gangs, the corrupt office holders, and the organized crimes.
Khmer Republican
Totally agreed with 4:31 PM, Licadho and Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.
However the article's heading seems a bit too generalizing which is unfair to those KHMER PATRIOTIC ARMIES currently stationed at the frontline.
Great to see the CPP did a great job protecting State's land from illegal squatters!
Thank you all, and God blesses.
I have mixed feelings about the national military police and the municipal Phnom Penh police in Cambodia. A lot of the lower ranking police officers perform their duties based on chains of command derived from the top. For the most part, the higher ranking police officers and police generals are highly corrupted in their profession. They take part in illegal cover ups, illegal business deals and their intertwined connections with CPP politicians & criminal-minded businessmen causes their actions to be orchestrated through one-sided political & economic influences.
I will vote for CPP again in 2013!
Jey Yoh, PM Hun Sen!
All -
I only post as "Khmer Patriot, Ph.D.". Do not confuse me with any other individuals.
As for those of you who cursed me, I will not curse you back. I have told you that I will not stoop to your level. I am an academic and am not at all amused by all the puerile name-calling and other abusive behaviors on this site.
I welcome civil and educated exchanges based on facts and reasoning.
It's apparent that the Ki-media team and Lao Mong Hay do not have the mental capacities to answer my challenges.
As for those of you who supported me and who nominated me to be KI-Media's resident intellectual, I accept. I am flattered by your nominations and promise to conduct myself with the utmost professionalism consistent with my academic credentials.
- Khmer Patriot, Ph.D.
I a 100% agree with the headline.
Khmer Patriot, Ph.D.
Please answer my question, has you time to check the DSM-IV to see what diagnosis category might fit your symptoms?
Have you seen a person that sit in a chair can lift him or herself up?
Well, just send these people and these army to Preah Vihear or on the border with Thai so they can grab the land back from Thai.
These richest military comanders and their boss should show their muscle at the border with Siam, and must grab all the land and temples that was stole or will lose to Thai in the near future back, so you can make big dollars.
A real well-educated person should be more decent than this. It's not high education that makes a person more decent; it's his nature. It does not matter how well he's educated, if he's cocky and cockier, he's still cocky when he gets a higher degree.
So, I say let's the cocks with the Ph.D answers all of the question, and perhaps the societal delimas in Cambodia.
Education system in Cambodia is a shamble; students bribed to get a good grade. Where is moral/ethic and professional responsibility in a teacher?
Have we in Cambodia society any school that testing/grading students based on their ownself effort?
Big and huge $ earns good GPA; little and tiny $ earns bad GPA. That is the way through which the educational sytem is run in a country of too many PhDs. Just take a good look at the cocky and arrogant ruler, a PhD too; the lower look up to the higher one.
AIDS is eating up the Ph.D from Hanoi's brain now...It's just sad. What a waste!
1:35 AM, ber heng min deung sa-ey kom ha mot, ah joi mrai! ka-doi tha maer veer kone mi jour kay joi!
Can't hear you 1:46 AM. Why don't you stick your butt up higher in the air and scream louder please? lol!
Same to you BTW! ROFL!
Read this 1:46 AM (I bet you can't):
កូនមីសំផឹងយួនកន្ដបអស់សាច់ ទៅចុយមីសំផឹង
ម៉ែអាហែ្ហងទៅ ..... ចយដឹកអើយ...ឌូម៉ែ
អាស្កែបួនជើង ហា!
Wo wo wo slow down 1:46 AM,
Are you saying Mr. Dick is going in thru your back door without knocking, now?
Ey yaas! Kone mi sompeung ka-doi ah-yeas nah mok hean jay anh veuy?
Ah gnob! Pouk ah heng min baan ach (shit) anh teh. Kom mok niyeay jea muoy anh veuy!
I guess these are Hun Sen's words; perhaps he read these comments. Only him and his dogs can utter wirds like such. Keep barking dogs, otherwise you will never be given dired bones to likck.
2:59 AM,
You Viet slave dying of AIDS Ph.D from Hanoi should wake up and come around to serve Khmer people interest...But I bet you can't cuz you had been deeply indoctrinated and drugged up so bad that you can't know who you are anymore, am I right?
p.s. I don't feel sorry for you at all, you are just a waste!
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