Khmer Krom Fear New Year Violence [-Khmer Krom not allowed to celebrate Khmer New Year]

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
16 April 2008

Members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom minority living in Vietnam are continuing to flee their homes or live in fear, as security forces have been deployed to surround them, witnesses told VOA Khmer.

One woman said she received a shooting injury in an April 9 crackdown on the Khmer Krom, who are culturally linked to Cambodia but live in Vietnam.

The Khmer Krom have not been allowed to celebrate their traditional New Year, for fear of a crackdown, she said.

“No one dares to go out. We are just hiding, as black-uniformed, fully equipped forces have been deployed around our village,” said the woman, who like other witnesses asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution.

A second witness, from Tin Bien of Tra Bao district, Vietnam, said he had been forced to move around from one place to another, fearing arrest by government forces, including through trickery.

A person might be invited to a party, only to be arrested, he said.

“They’ve deployed troops and are watching us and trying to arrest us,” he said. “We do not have any freedom.”

As many as 300 Khmer Krom in Vietnam protested last week, claiming their rights were abused by officials, but witnesses said the protest led to a crackdown, where five people were injured and six were arrested for illegal demonstration.

Ang Chanrith, director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Organization in Cambodia, said the situation was “more serious” than before the Khmer New Year.

No international rights groups or embassies had paid any attention to the crackdown, he said.

Vietnam makes another false promise to Khmer Krom people?

Vietnamese authority promises to resolve land dispute for Khmer Krom people

Thursday, April 10, 2008
By Uk Sav Borey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata and Heng Soy

Khmer Krom people claimed in a phone call that the Vietnamese authority promised to resolve the land dispute pitting Khmer Krom people and Vietnamese within 3 days. Khmer Krom people protested for several days on this issue and their protest was met by violence and arrest.

Mrs. Neang Yean, a Khmer Krom woman living in Chau Laing commune, Svay Tong district, Motr Chrouk province (An Giang in Vietnamese), claimed from Vietnam that the Vietnamese police stopped surrounding Khmer Krom people living in the Chau Laing commune at 03:00 PM on Thursday 10 April. The police action came after the Vietnamese authority promised that it will resolve the land dispute involving Khmer Krom people within 3 days time. “They (Vietnamese authority) said for us to go meet them in 3 days, they will resolve this issue, if they don’t resolve this issue, I will plant my crop in these (disputed) rice fields,” Mrs. Neang Yean said.

Mrs. Neang Yean indicated also that, on Wednesday, the Vietnamese authority used violence and shot Khmer Krom people living in Chau Laing commune, causing 5 injuries, and they also arrested 2 Khmer Krom men: Chau Hen and Chau Uk. The pair were taken away and all the others returned back home already.

Mrs. Neang Yean indicated: “Only 2 (were arrested), but 5 were injured: Uncle (Chau) Hen’s wife, his youngest son, his nephew, and Uch and his younger brother. But the two arrested disappeared…”

Regarding the raid against Khmer Krom people who protested about the land dispute against the Vietnamese authority which confiscated rice field lands belonging to Khmer Krom people, one Khmer Krom monk residing in Wat Chi Ka’eng Krom pagoda, said over the phone from Vietnam that Khmer Krom people living in Ang commune, Krobao district, Motr Chroun province, not too far from Chau Laing commune, have fled to avoid being arrested by the Vietnamese authority. Several of them went to ask for refuge at Wat Chi Ka’eng Krom pagoda, following the protest in the land dispute. “In the morning they did release people, like they said, they (Vietnamese police) pulled out, but in the afternoon, they re-arrested all these people back…”

The Wat Chi Ka’eng pagoda monk indicated monks in his pagoda are concerned that the Vietnamese authority will give hassle in the pagoda, and that they will break up the pagoda calm: “… Three truck-full of people was taken away, those are the ones who were beaten up (by the Vietnamese police) and injured. They went to the hospital, but the hospital was not allowed to check up (these injured people), as soon as they arrived to the hospital, they were told to go back home. Now, these people came to ask to stay in the pagoda… It’s difficult because it creates problem in the pagoda, in particular, for my group, some have been given hassle and they (Vietnamese) are trying to find excuses as well.”

According to Khmer Krom people, they have disbanded their protest while waiting to see the land dispute resolution from the Vietnamese authority. If there is no resolution as promised by the Vietnamese authority, they will continue planting their rice crop and they will continue their protest again regarding these (disputed) rice field lands.

Khmer Krom people added that the reason they conducted this protest was because the Vietnamese authority confiscated several thousands of hectares of their ancestral rice field lands starting since 1978. The Vietnamese authority turned these confiscated land to Vietnamese people for planting crops and they prevented Khmer Krom people, the original owners, from planting rice crops on their own lands. Because of this issue, Khmer Krom people’s livelihood got worst and some had to cross the border to go live in Cambodia.

Land dispute in Sihanoukville leads to violence

A view of the shooting location, Inset: the victim of shooting (Photo: Ta Som)

20 March 2008
By Sok Serey Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A villager was seriously injured: both of his hands were broken, and his calf was pierced after he sustained several shots from guards protecting the land allegedly belonging to the Thai Bun Rong Company in Sihanoukville. Four other villagers were also arrested stemming from the dispute over 13-hectare of land in Sihanoukville on Thursday.

Hieng Sophon, the younger sister of Vat Kiet, the shooting victim, told RFA over the phone from the incident location, about Thursday’s violence: “They shot him 4 times in his arms which were broken off. They arrested many people, you can’t count them all, they shoved them inside a car…”

A source indicated that the violence erupted among 125 Cambodian families stemming from a dispute over 13-hectare of land with the Thai Bun Rong Company, near the 7-story hotel in Sihanoukville. This dispute lasted many years already.

An anonymous police inspector from Sihnaoukville who is in charge of resolving this land dispute, told RFA that his police force did not receive any order to use violence to resolve the land dispute. He believes that the dispute erupted between the security guards working for the Thai Bun Rong Company, and the villagers: “It was not (my officers), they were other military police standing guard there because there are a lot of problems in that location. Let me call the city military police unit first.”

Chan Chamroeun, an investigator for the human rights organization Adhoc in Sihanoukville, said that the villagers were only protecting their lands, but they sustained the violent attack instead.

Chan Chamroeun said: “This case is a severe violation of human rights because the villagers do not have any weapon to fight back. Here they are only protecting their lands, and the armed military police used their weapons to shoot at the villagers. This is a case of human rights violation.”

A source indicated that a large number of people was arrested by the authority, and the victim of the shooting is still in serious condition.

Land dispute violence is erupting at a time when Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, issued a 25-page report criticizing the serious human rights violation in Cambodia, as well as the land-grabbing by private companies and influential powerful people in Cambodia.

Phnom Penh residents hold off developers

22/02/2008
ABC Radio Australia

In a stand off with Cambodian authorities, a number of residents in a Phnom Penh suburb are refusing to make way for developers.

A few dozen families are refusing to leave their homes in the suburb of Dey Krahom, despite a multi-million-dollar development scheme.

Cambodia is in the midst of a building boom that has caused land prices to skyrocket across the country.

A Dey Krahom resident, Keo Navann, says those who are refusing to leave just want a fair price for their land.

She says developers are offering some people $US4,300 for their land, but then sell it for $3,000 a square metre.

Their standoff with authorities is just one of many increasingly violent conflicts over land in Cambodia that has seen dozens killed and tens of thousands evicted from their homes over the past few years.

Cambodian police attempt to stop journalists from photographing dispute over land

6 February 2008
Source: Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

Two journalists who were reporting a land dispute in a village were harassed by police for taking pictures of the incident, according to the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), a SEAPA partner based in the capital Phnom Penh.

On 30 January 2008, journalists Chum Sophal and Kong Sopheak, from the local newspapers "Khmer Mchas Srok" and "Solanh Khmer", respectively, went to Au Andong village in Prek Pra commune, Meanchey district, to cover the confrontation between two major companies, Phanimex and Sok Kong Import Export Co Ltd, and the villagers.

As Sopheak was photographing the police in the act of removing the poles that demarcated the land in dispute, the police got angry and shouted at them, ordering for the photos to be deleted. They did not press the matter when Sopheak refused to hand over his camera, according to CAPJ, who said that most of them were drunk.

Land disputes and forced evictions are an ongoing problem in Cambodia. As they are often accompanied by violence, authorities would try to prevent media and human rights workers from monitoring or reporting on evictions as they happen.

Local resident injured in Dey Kraham land dispute

30 January 2008
By Mondul Keo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The ongoing land dispute in Dey Kraham has reached violence one more time, and a local resident was injured with a gash on her head in the afternoon of 29 January.

Men Chenda, the injured woman, said that she was hit on her head and on several places of her body because of the rock throwing which she accused the employees of the 7NG company as being the perpetrators. She was hit when she tried to help one of her neighbor who was almost swept by a land clearing bulldozer.

Men Chenda said: “I went to help that old lady with the glasses when they moved the bulldozer (towards her). I went to help, then they (7NG company employees) threw rocks at me, they threw a lot of them at me. I only dodged, but a rock hit me on my neck, I dodged again and I was hit on the spine, and when I stood up one more time, I was hit right on my head.”

Dul Chantha, the elderly woman with the glasses said: “If they want to bulldoze me to kill me, let them kill me, I have no regret to die for Dey Kraham, for the more than 200 families living here, we (residents) are human beings, we are not dogs, we are not animals. We want money, we want a house to live in, just like others, we don’t want to live in anarchy like this, we do not accept it. We went to the prime minister (Hun Sen) to ask for his intervention because these lackeys of the 7NG company, including the commune chief, they are so bad, they dressed up in uniform to threaten the residents, all the residents, they throw rocks on the resident’s heads, and they brought a bulldozer to clear our land.”

The 7NG company could not be contacted in the afternoon of 29 January. Khat Narith, the Tonle Bassac commune chief denied the accusation made by the residents that he was the one who led the confrontation.

Khat Narith said: “At this time, there is nobody providing me any report yet, and they asked if I went to lead the (7NG company) attackers. Up to now, I didn’t see any report from the village chief about any problem yet. Let the residents show proof that I led the (7NG company) attackers, do they have any documents, any photos that show that I led the attackers?”

Man Chhoeun, the deputy governor of the city of Phnom Penh, said that he does not know yet about the dispute reaching violence where one resident was injured.

Man Chhoeun said: “Yesterday, I was busy meeting with students coming from Japan, they want to know about me providing funds to the poor. I did not know about the information (of the violence in the land dispute). I was busy all day long.”

The Dey Kraham land dispute pitting the 7NG company and the local residents is ongoing for several months already, it stems from a disagreement in the compensation to be paid by the 7NG company to the residents as the price of lands keep on increasing.