Woman lights her body aflame

Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Khoun Leakhana
The Phnom Penh Post

Police believe a 63-year old mother, whose burned body was found by villagers in Kampot’s Banteay Meas district on Sunday, self-immolated.

Police said that the woman, from Keatha Vongleu village, bought a bottle of gasoline, saying it was for an engine, before going home and setting fire to herself around 9 or 10am.

Villagers found the body and notified police, who found the death to be suicide.

[US] Seabees complete Pacific Partnership project

Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces construct concrete columns that will support the new building. The Seabees and RCAF are working together to construct the clinics that will provide pre- and post-partum care for eight villages in the Kampot province. (U.S. Navy photo by Equipment Operator 3rd Class Bethany Spinney /Released) - Courtesy Photo

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74
Story by Hospital Corspman 1st Class Michael Smaltz
DVIDS

KAMPOT, Cambodia – A detail of 11 Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 74 and 13 engineers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces recently completed construction of a maternity center at the Kampot Health Center, Kampot, Cambodia, Aug. 7, 2012 in support of Pacific Partnership 2012.

During construction, both countries worked side by side, sharing their knowledge and tricks of the trade. The Seabees’ crew leader, Builder 2nd Class Daniel Reckers, said he was impressed with how seamlessly the two units integrated together.

“Even with our language barriers, the [RCAF] engineers are teaching us their trade skills and we are sharing Seabee skills with them,” said Reckers.

Royalists to join new opposition alliance

Monday, 20 August 2012
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

A day before the newly formed National Salvation Party’s (NSP) official registration, it got some good news – a handful of Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) members in Kampot province are adding their names to the new political force.

Chea Poch, lawmaker and president of the Sam Rainsy Party in Kampot province, told the Post yesterday that Mao Ratana, president of the NRP’s election staff in Kampot, has decided to join the new political alliance formed in mid-July between the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party.

Poch did not confirm any more specific names, claiming that it would affect their positions in the government. However, he promised to release the information in the middle of next month, and made additional claims, without citing specific officials, that members of other parties are interested in following Ratana’s lead.

Chinese Dam Project in Cambodia Raises Environmental Concerns

January 16, 2012
By SIMON MARKS
The International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)

Special Report: Business of Green

KAMPOT PROVINCE, CAMBODIA — Ever since she was a child, Bun Thavry and her family have ventured into the nearby hills above the Toek Chhou river in Kampot Province to chop down bamboo plants to weave into baskets.

But after the Chinese company Sinohydro, one of the world’s largest construction companies, started work on the 193-megawatt Kamchay Dam in 2007, access to the countryside surrounding this tranquil town has been restricted. Mrs. Thavry’s husband, Kim Sopha, 39, like hundreds of others in nearby villages, must now travel about 10 kilometers, or 6 miles, beyond the dam site to collect the bamboo.

“Before, all you needed was a bicycle and a knife,” Mrs. Thavry, a 32-year-old mother of two, said recently as she perched on a small stool outside her wooden home near the riverbank. “But it’s completely different now.”

Protest in Trapaeng Plaeng Commune Hall on Morning of 2 Jan 2012

FYI: Tomorrow (02 Jan 2012) the Villagers of Trapaeng Plaeng Commune, Chhouk District, Kampot Province will protesting in front of commune hall.

Please joint monitoring

Secretariat

--
Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF)
HRTF:#2A, St.271, Sangkat Beoung
Tompun, Khan Chamcar Morn
Phnom Penh.
Evictions Hotline: (855) 068 470 480
Tel/Fax: (855) 023 996 531
Email: sd@hrtfcambodia.org
Website: www.hrtfcambodia.org

Pesticide poisons scores

Thursday, 07 July 2011
Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

ALMOST 90 villagers were poisoned after they drank water from a stream that was polluted with pesticides in Kampot province, a doctor said yesterday.

The villagers from Trapaing Phlaing commune, including 36 children, were admitted to Chhouk district referral hospital on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Nob Neb, chief of the disease and emergency building, said yesterday.

“They were not seriously harmed as they only suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness, after they drank water from the stream that had poisonous run off from the nearby farm land of the So Ngoun Company,” he said.

Two released Viet boats rob Cambodian fishermen in Treuy Koh

28 Dec 2010
Kampuchea Thmei
Translated from Khmer by Soch

Two Viet fishing boats that were arrested at sea by the cooperation between the Cambodian fisheries department and the Kampot province authority, are involved in the robbery of equipments and diesel fuel from Cambodian fishermen who were fishing in Kampot sea water.

The incident took place past midnight on 25 December 2010, in Kampot sea water.

Neak Seng, the representative of the Treuy Koh fishing community, revealed to The Kampuchea Thmei reporter that after the 2 Viet fishing boats were released by the Kampot authority at 7PM on 25 December, they returned back during that same night to seek revenge against Cambodian fishermen and they used Samurai swords to threaten and rob equipments and diesel fuel from several Cambodian fishermen in Treuy Koh community.

Neak Seng indicated that the Cambodian fishing boats are small and only had very small crew, so they were scared of the larger Viet fishing boats with larger crew members, that was why they let the Viets rob them without any confrontation.

In the morning of 26 December, the victimized Cambodian fishermen reported their complaint to the Treu Koh commune office to seek for a measure to prevent such incident and to seek justice for them.

Regarding the case of the Viet boats robbing Cambodian boats, Sor Sovin, the director of the Kampot province’s fisheries department, told Kampuchea Thmei in the afternoon of 27 December that the Cambodian fishermen made up this story [sic!] because, immediately after he heard the news, he led his force to seek the culprit boats, but he was not able to find any, furthermore, the Cambodian fishermen claimed that prior to the robbery, the Viet boats raked them, but when he looked at the boats, none of them bear any sign of raking. He claimed that in fact, the Cambodian fishermen are finding excuses to make expert like him spend money on fuel to get out and intervene.

Stop calling us “chamber pot” (Kanthor) commune dwellers anymore! Sorry no more Kanthor-Hun Xen school!

Ang Sophy, the new name for Kanthor commune (Photo: Sophal, RFI)

Villagers welcome the name change to Kanthor (chamber pot) commune

30 September 2010
By Nhim Sophal
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Soch

The Cambodian government decided to issue an announcement for a name change for the three Kanthor communes in Kampong Trach district, Kampot province. The name change was requested by the local villagers and the commune councilors in order to attract local development funds. From now on, the authority and the villagers are starting to get used to calling their new commune name, as well as changing the official letterheads, and forgetting the commune old name of “Kanthor”.

Click here to listen to the audio program in Khmer (MP3)

Viet fishing boats illegally trespassing into Cambodian seas

22 August 2010
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Fishermen from Kampot province indicated that there are illegal Viet fishing boats that sneaked in to catch fishes inside Cambodian waters in Kampot province during night time.

Kampot fishermen indicated on 21 August that, hundreds of fishermen families living in 4 communes in Kampot district are facing hardship in their fishing because the amount of fish catch is very slim because Viet fishing boats came to catch them using electric shock and illegal large fish catching equipments at night time.

The Cambodian fishermen live in 4 communes in Kampot province: Koh Toch, Sre Koh, Keb and Trapaing L’pov communes. The Viet fishing boats usually enter Cambodian waters from night time until daybreak to catch fishes, crabs and shrimps by using fine fishnets and electric shock devices etc… Each night, about 10 of these Viet fishing boats are coming in.

Cambodian fishermen are blaming the Cambodian provincial fisheries officials of not paying attention to this problem even after the villagers have complained in the past.

Sma Lim, a 40-year-old fisherman from Sre village, Sre Koh commune, Kampot district and province, told RFA over the phone that: “When they (Viet fishing boats) did not come in yet, we were able to catch 4-10 kg of shrimps and such! Now, each night we couldn’t even catch 1 kg! We don’t want anything, just that these Viet fishing boats do not trespass like this! Otherwise, the small [Cambodian] fishermen will have nothing left!”

The fishermen sent a petition that bears the thumbprints of 300 to 400 families to report to the Kampot authority last week, however, there is not reply yet so far.

Keo El, a 46-year-old fisherman from Sre Koh commune, said: “Fishing nowadays is affected because of these Viet fishing boats trespassing into Cambodian territories. They use modern fishing equipments, electric shocking devices, and they dragged with their nets all night long, they take everything.”

RFA could not reach the director of the Kampot province fisheries department to obtain his reaction over the claims made by the fishermen above.

Nao Thuork, the chairman of the department of fisheries for Cambodia, explained that the claims made by these fishermen are not all true (sic!).

Nao Thuork confirmed: “I did receive [the petition], but it is not that much either! We sent our people to look also, but the waters are neighboring each other. But, they [Cambodian fishermen] kept on saying that the Viet boats trespassed and such! We do not allow them, if there were any trespasses, the number is very small! (sic!)”

Cambodia is currently after illegal fishing during the prohibited fishing season which lasts between June and October. During this season, large scale fishing is prohibited, as well as fishing through fine nets, electric shocking devices or grenades, in order to increase the fish population in 2010.

MP Mu Sochua with villagers in Kampot

June 15, 2010: SRP MP Mu Sochua, along with commune, district and provincial councilors visited people in Chey Sena village, Taken commune, Chhuk district, Kampot province. The purpose of the visit was to discuss problems regarding living standards, especially on land-grabbing. The villagers are facing land-grabbing from local dealers.

Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3


Part 3 of 3

From the Hands of Kampot Women

Dear friends,

Please come join us in celebrating the women of Kampot by supporting their products, food and crafts.

You will enjoy Devi Cookies, specialty of Kampot.

Save the date,

Sochua

Ax and knife-wielding villagers in Kampot protest palm oil development: Hun Sen's predicted farmers' revolution in the work?

Kampot Villagers Protest Palm Oil Development

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 June 2009

Around 300 ax- and knife-wielding villagers amassed in protest in Kampot province Monday, claiming a private company was clearing their land.

The company, Camland, has a 70-year license from the government to develop 1,600 hectares of palm for oil in Teuk Chhou district.

One protester, Loey Koun, 42, told VOA Khmer the residents of three villages in the district have long occupied the land of their “ancestors.” If the company does not remove its bulldozers, Loey Koun said, “we will light them on fire.”

Try Chhoun, Kampot coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said the villagers tried to stop the bulldozers clearing the land, near the villages of Tram Kok, Dong and Kampong Chin. No one was injured, he said.

Kampot Governor Khoy Khun Huor and Teuk Chhou Governor Se Da both declined to comment Monday.

Phrak Putheareak, Camland’s representative, denied the accusations the company was clearing villager land.

“Our company received a license from the government for about 16,000 hectares of land to develop a palm oil plantation over about 70 years,” he said. The company has already cut 3,000 hectares of land, he said and he called on complaining villagers to produce documents of proof.

More markers built on Vietnam-Cambodia borderline [... are they independently verified?]

05/31/2009
VNA/VOVNews (Hanoi)

Vietnam’s southern Kien Giang province and its Cambodian neighbour, Kampot province, have put into use 13 new border markers built on their common borderline.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony on May 29, Kampot’s President Khuoi Khunhua said the event marked a new step in the development of the bilateral relations between the two provinces.

The event also showed the unceasingly efforts at the two countries’ border areas in building a borderline of peace, stability and development.

At the ceremony, the two sides agreed to upgrade a couple of border gates – Ton Hon (Kampot) and Giang Than (Kien Giang), in order to facilitate trade and travel between people of the two provinces.

Kampot land dispute boils over following destruction of homes

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Written by May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Area residents claim intimidation, but military and government officials say the land was being illegally occupied by squatter.

VILLAGERS in a Kampot province district at the centre of an ongoing land dispute involving the military say soldiers destroyed their homes Saturday in a bid to strong-arm them from their property so that it could be sold.

Government and army officials, however, say they are only targeting squatters who have recently moved onto the land in Chhouk district's Ta Ken commune.

Some 22 houses were destroyed and a bridge was torched by soldiers from the RCAF's Brigade 31, the same unit involved in earlier land disputes in the area, according to residents.

"After they destroyed other people's homes, the soldiers asked whether we planned to leave," said 68-year-old Roth Sophorn.

"We all said we would not, since this is where we farm and make our living," she said, adding that the community has grown to more than 300 families, from just 50 when the area was first settled in 1996.

She said the bridge was burned by soldiers to prevent help from arriving, and now residents are cut off from the market and schools.

"Now, we cannot leave and our children cannot go to study, and some of us are running out of food," she said.

"We do not leave our homes because we are afraid [the soldiers] will also burn them."

Chang Barang, a resident whose home was destroyed, said soldiers, along with a provincial Environment Department official, arrived after the incident asking villagers for thumbprints for a census.

But he and other residents suspected it was a ruse to get them to sign over their rights to the land. "We are scared about our safety. At night, armed soldiers come to look around our village," he said.

Military denials
Kong Lum, head of Brigade 31, denied any involvement in the incident by his soldiers, saying that Environment Department officials burned the bridge to prevent villagers from crossing into public land to cut down trees.

An area village chief, Tum Kol, said the problem stemmed from immigrants from neighbouring provinces who flooded into the area thinking that they would qualify for compensation by the state if they squatted on unoccupied land. "I have warned them many times before that new residents are not allowed, but they do not listen," he said.

But Try Chhon, a provincial officer with the Cambodian rights group Licadho, said the conflict had arisen because the government failed to discuss the development with the squatters.

"If they have a plan to develop the area, they must explain clearly the situation and what the villagers will get in return. Otherwise, it is very difficult for the people to cooperate."

Violent land eviction leaves poor villagers homeless, starving

The forced eviction was carried out by a mixed group of about 100 RCAF Brigade 31 soldiers, forestry officers, environment officers, police and military police. Most of them were armed with handguns or AK-47s. (Photo: Licadho)

Friday, 21 November 2008
Written by CHEANG SOKHA
The Phnom Penh Post

Hundreds rousted by RCAF soldiers in Kampot are in dire need of shelter, rights monitors say, as the government says illegal squatters must go

HUNDREDS of families whose homes were torched and dismantled earlier this week in a violent land eviction near Bokor National Park say they have been left starving and without anywhere to go, local villagers told the Post Thursday.

Up to 300 houses in Anglong Krom, in Kampot's Taken commune, were destroyed during the eviction Monday and Tuesday by RCAF soldiers from Brigade 31, who have been involved in earlier evictions in the same area, villagers said.

Six villagers were injured - three of them severely - while clashing with the troops as their properties were ransacked, rights monitors say.

"IF WE HAD A CHOICE WE WOULD NOT STAY HERE.... WE ARE LIVING IN FEAR."

Hem Da, whose home was torched to the ground, said that villagers were now sleeping under the open air without shelter or food, while being threatened with arrest from soldiers in the area.

"We have nowhere else to go, so we might as well die here," Hem Da said.

"Most of the villagers here are starving, as their food supplies have run out."

Hem Da said that on Thursday, an environmental police officer from Bokor National Park arrived and ordered villagers to leave within three days.

"If we had a choice we would not stay here," he said. "We are living in fear under the watch of soldiers."

Am Sam Ath, a monitor for human rights NGO Licadho, said that on Thursday his organisation took rice and fish to the villagers.

"The violent eviction by the armed forces is an abuse of human rights," he told the Post while on his way to the site. "These people are very poor, so the destruction of their homes means they are now even poorer."

Am Sam Ath added that even those villagers living illegally on the land should have been informed before their eviction so that they could prepare themselves.

"[The government] should come to investigate how these people are living," he said. "Then look at the possibility of relocating them instead of kicking them out with nothing."

More evictions to come

Chey Uterith, the director of Bokor National Park, said that the army had evicted 192 families and that among those, only 83 owned the homes they were living in. He added that villagers from three other locations nearby will also be evicted in the near future.

"The villagers were not living there legally," he told the Post on Thursday. "We will figure out how many families really deserve new land and will try to provide concessions for them."

A military official in Brigade 31 told the Post that the number of illegal homes being built had increased, and that soldiers were now guarding the area against the squatters.

Life under the prosperous Hun Sen regime as recounted by a pro-Hun Sen newspaper

Grandma Long Hang begging for help (All photos: Neay Koeub, Koh Santepheap)
Nearby villagers came to tell the hardship story and the lady's loneliness.

Blind lonely old lady

Friday, November 14, 2008
Koh Santepheap newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Kampot – A blind old grandmother lives alone in a miserable-looking hut built next to the side of the road, this is the lonely life of this woman in this desolated home. This is life’s fate for this lonely lady who has nothing left but wait for the day she will die. The old woman survives by begging so she can get some money to buy rice and continue her livelihood. Nevertheless, her total blindness and her loneliness create even more hardship for her.

The 70-year-old woman by the name Long Hang lives in Kan Trung village, Tany commune, Angkor Chey district, Kampot province. She became completely blind about three years ago.

While she still had her eyesight, she used to live with her nephew-in-law, but when she lost her sight, this nephew kicked her out of his house and she became very desperate. Nearby villagers then decided to build her a small hut covered with plastic tarp and coconut leaves, as well as a few wooden planks along the side of the road. They also left a small water jar for her use. It is very pitiful to see her living in such dire situation, can you imagine your own mother living under such hardship condition? Currently, she survives by sitting on the street side walk begging people for money along National Road 31, near Kan Trung village, about 80-meter from the Tany commune office. Some of the travelers who saw her hardship would stop by and give her some alms, while others would just ignore her completely. Currently, she is attacked by bouts of diarrhea because she does not have enough to eat, and she is now very ill, miserably lying on the wooden floor of her hut from morning till night.

Grandma Long Hang seems genuinely happy when she met the Koh Santepheap reporter. She hopes that the newspaper would publish her story and that generous people would provide her with some help. She is begging all Samaritans to please have mercy on her and provide her with some help.

[Hun Sen's elite] Brigade 31 seizing land: villagers

The Centre for Development of Disabled Soldiers in Kampot province. (PHOTO SUPPLIED)

Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Written by Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

On the fringes of Bokor, a dispute is raging between Brigade 31 soldiers, who say they're redistributing land to the poor, and local villagers who say they're losing their homes

A VILLAGE in Kampot province's Bokor National Park remains the focus of a land dispute that villagers say has resulted in members of Prime Minister Hun Sen's elite Brigade 31 evicting residents and preparing the land for sale to a private company.

The Centre for Development of Disabled Soldiers was begun in June this year, nominally to provide housing for veterans with disabilities at Kbal Damrei, located in the park.

But local residents say the military has used the pretense of the centre to expel them from their homes and sell the land for profit.

"We have been told that soldiers are preparing the land for sale to a private company," said Nhek Chanthol, who lives in Kbal Damrei.

Nhek Chanthol said about 1,000 families live on the land but that nearly 500 of them have been displaced and their crops destroyed by soldiers bulldozing the area.

Brigade 31 commander Sun Saroeun denied the claim and said his troops are only dividing the land with the villagers for the benefit of veterans.

"I don't have the right to sell any of this land," Sun Saroeun told the Post Sunday.
"The agreement to divide land into smaller plots was signed by the head of our government."

Sun Saroeun said those spreading the rumours of a private sale are themselves outsiders who purchased plots illegally from current residents and lost them when authorities redistributed the plots.

"We are trying to provide land for landless people," Sun Saroeun said.

Land redistribution

The dispute began on June 23, when Brigade 31 soldiers posted land redistribution signs throughout the village.

Residents responded by pulling them up. A later protest saw the arrest of four residents, including Nhek Chanthol's mother - all of whom remain in Kampot provincial prison on charges of robbery and destroying property.

Chin Lida, a lawyer from the human rights group Licadho who is defending the four prisoners, said the court is in the process of investigating the case and a trial is expected to start soon.

One resident, who gave her name as Thim, said the land the soldiers had allotted to villagers is being repossessed, according to a press release from the human rights group Adhoc.

"They let people onto new areas of land. Once it is cleared, they repossess it," she was quoted as saying.

Sole Monk Observer Touts 'Same Rights'

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 July 2008

More than 20,000 Cambodians will observe the July 27 elections, along with 300 international observers. Among them will be at least one monk.

His name is Huy Man Kheang. Sixty-one-years old, the venerable monk is the chief of the Tonle Neam pagoda, in Angkor Chey district, Kampot province.

He is also president of the Organization of Buddhism Support and Human Resource Development.

"Even if I'm a monk, I have the same rights as a civilian citizen," Huy Man Kheang told VOA Khmer in a recent interview. "The monks have the right to create organizations also."

"We have monks who go to vote also, like the ordinary citizens," he said. "Observation is only to monitor if there is violence from one party to others and to monitor in order to have a smooth election process."

As far as he knows, he is the only monk from his organization to volunteer as a monitor.

Kampot barely slaps CPP violations caught by Mu Sochua

PEC Warns Official on Campaign Violation

By Mean Veasna, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
08 July 2008

The Kampot provincial election committee warned Tuesday a high-ranking ruling Cambodian People's Party official not to use military vehicles during election campaigning.

The warning was a result of a dispute between Sam Rainsy Party Kampot candidate Mu Sochua and San Sman, Kampot's deputy secretary-general and chief of the Kampong Trach district border crossing.

Mu Sochua alleged San Sman had traveled in a four-wheel drive military vehicle bearing a CPP campaign sign on both sides, five days into the campaign period.

"We warned him, referring to the provincial headquarter administration, and to the Ministry of Interior, that he must not use any more for the campaign the vehicle," said Te Chinarith, head of the PEC, who presided over Tuesday's hearing. "If he abuses this, he will be fined 5 million riel (about $1,250) and ban him from voting for 10 years."

Sam Sman applauded the ruling, but Mu Sochua was not satisfied with the decision.

"What the CPP official has done is too serious, and he must not merit such a warning," she said. "He should be prevented from voting."

The PEC decision was biased toward the CPP, which would impact the election, she said, adding that she planned to appeal the ruling to the National Election Committee.

Te Chinarith rejected the accusation.

More Protesters Flee Kampot Arrests

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 May 2008

At least eight more residents of two villages in Kampot province have fled their homes, fearing arrest in a land dispute, rights officials and villagers said Friday.

The residents, of Banteay Meas district, fled as police were searching for protesters following a violent clash with authorities in April.

“We are very concerned over police arresting us without finding the wrong or right reason in the land dispute,” said a leader of the protesting villagers who asked not to be identified.

Twenty-eight people have fled their homes since the violence in April, the leader said, and some of them have gone as far as Battambang and Siem Reap provinces.

Ith Kong Chet, an investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said the arrest was a threat to the security of people and a serious human rights abuse.

Police say they are not arresting protesters, per se, but those who damaged private property and injured people during April’s clashes.