13 Boeung Kak Lake residents arrested by the cops

One of the 13 arrested women is being tossed into a truck on 22 May 2012 (Photo: Khiev Dara, RFA)

22 May 2012
By Uon Chhin
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch

13 Boeung Kak Lake women were arrested by the cops trying to prevent 18 families who were former residents of Village No. 1 in Boeung Kak Lake from building shelters on their former land. In 2010, the residents saw their homes destroyed and covered with pumped sand. The residents did not receive any compensation for their lost properties.

13 women, including Mrs. Tep Vanny, Tol Sreypov, Heng Mom, Kong Chantha and Nget Khun who are representatives of women from Boeung Kak Lake, were arrested and sent to the Phnom Penh police station in the morning of 22 May 2012.

The arrest of the 13 women was made when about 100 cops from Phnom Penh accompanied by military police, all armed with shields and electric batons, attempted to prevent the former residents of Village No. 1 from rebuilding their homes in Boeung Kak Lake.

In the incident, one Boeung Kak Lake woman was beaten up on the head by the cops and her injury required three stitches.

After the cops confiscated posters, wood and materials from the Boeung Kak residents who tried to rebuild their home on their former land, a group of Boeung Kak Lake women started singing a song about forced eviction.

Am Sam Ath, the technical director of Licadho’s human rights observation office, said that the authority should resolve the problem for the residents rather than arresting them.

Human rights observers and civil society representatives are following up on the arrest of the women by the Phnom Penh city cops.

In the evening of 22 May, the arrested women called over the phone from their detention center at the Phnom Penh police station to say that they stand accused of encroaching on land belonging to 18 families from Village No. 1 in Boeung Kak Lake.