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| Two men charged with encroachment on protected land exit Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post |
Thursday, 26 July 2012
The Phnom Penh Post
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged two government officials and four farmers from Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district with encroachment onto protected land after they allegedly bulldozed a flooded forest that was designated as a protected fish hatchery, police and NGO officials said.
Hang Thol, deputy commander of Kampong Thom’s provincial military police, said that on Tuesday, authorities arrested Cheat Sivutha, director of Kampong Thom’s Department of Water Resources and Meteorology, and Sam Proch, the local village chief, along with farmers Meng Phally, Chum Teav Thav Tum, Theang Thea and Kim Leng for destroying the markers denoting the protected land’s boundaries, then converting it to reservoirs and irrigation canals for rice farming.
“I have yet to know what action the municipal court will take against them,” Thol said, adding that authorities confiscated 45 pieces of excavating machinery in the crackdown. “Grabbing flooded forest land has a serious impact on fish shelters, because in the rainy season, fish come to spawn in the area.”
Chan Soveth, a senior investigator for the human rights group Adhoc, said the suspects were questioned at the order of Judge Sen Neang, adding that the charges are encouraging for villagers in the area because the authorities had previously acted with impunity.
“We will assist the court in implementing the law and condemning [the suspects] for what they committed, and hope that after questioning they are not freed,” he said.
Va Sakda, Phnom Penh municipal court prosecutor, said that the case was sent to the investigating judge, but refused to comment further.
Judge Seng Neang, who signed the group’s arrest warrants, could not be reached for comment.
3 comments:
yes, arrest those who do not obey or respect the cambodia law, whatever the law maybe, really! i hate law breakers, you know! tell them to get a lawyer next time! and stop breaking cambodia law, ok! or you'll risk going to jail, really!
and once you go to jail, you have criminal record in your background, then you cannot run for future office or apply to professional school, etc, etc, you know. so don't break the law, ok! and stop being stupid and ignorant and primitive and uncivilized forever, ok! cambodia is now a land of the rule of law, we all have to live under it, ok! like it or not, it's the law for people to live by, ok! this is not the dark ages era anymore, ok! and definitely not the stupid, primitive KR era anymore either, ok! stop being ignorant forever, ok!
What kind of law "Jungle law"? Law only only to poor people not the rich one. Just look at those land concessions or land grabbing or eviction, is there any law for use against those who did too?
Get real! Don't be brain-washed
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