Oath water drinking ritual points to widespread CPP vote buying, and villagers contempt to such practice

Human rights organization calls for an end to the forcing of villagers to drink oath water

26 May 2007
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia (a station labeled insolent by Hun Sen)
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

A human rights organization plans to send a letter to ask for intervention from the Siem Reap provincial governor, asking him to put to an end the practice of forcing villagers to drink “oath water” to show their support for a political party in all the villages of the province of Siem Reap.

The reaction from the human rights organization came on the heel of an investigation at the Svay Sor commune, Varin district, where almost 100 villagers from 3 villages were forced by their village and commune chiefs to support the CPP by continually drinking oath water starting from 19 May until now.

Suon Narin, the Adhoc facilitator in Siem Reap province, said in the afternoon of Friday 25 May that the human rights organization is concerned about the upcoming 2008 general election if the population are bring forced (to pledge their allegiance to a political party) since now already.

Suon Narin said: “If they take this action, we have concerns that, for the upcoming 2008 general election, there will be irregularities because people fear due to the threats.”

A villager from O village, Svay Sor commune, who is one among the many who drank oath water said that he was forced by his group chief to drink oath water, and he was very scared about this issue. “They call us in to drink (the oath water), they are concerned that we are not faithful, that we do not want to vote for them. They pour water in a cup, they put in a small statue of Buddha (in the cup), they told us to drink. We are concerned, but we don’t know what to do, so I drank…”

The commune and village authorities recognized that they did indeed call the villagers to come in and drink the oath water because there is a disparity between the number of people receiving gifts and the number of votes the CPP received during the recent commune election.

Prang Chheun, the Svay Sor commune chief, said that he was the one who came up with this idea, and he did not receive any order from anybody else. He said that this stems from the fact that the CPP have 1,800 adherents in the commune, however, during the April commune election, the CPP received 700 votes less than the number of (alleged) party members.

CPP “magic” oath water drinking ritual: Shouldn't the CPP institutionalize this experimental ritual for all top CPP leaders and family members also?

22 May 2007
Siem Reap CPP official forces villagers to drink “magic” oath water

By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia (a station labeled insolent by Hun Sen)
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

A group of villagers living in the Svar Sor commune, Varin district, Siem Reap province, claimed that the population of many villages were rounded up by their CPP village chiefs and commune chiefs who forced them to drink “magic” oath water in order to prove their faithfulness to the CPP party in the commune.

Some villagers in the Svay Sor village, Svay Sor commune, said on Tuesday that several villagers were rounded up by the village chief and commune chief, and they were handed water for them to drink, one at a time. “… they forced us to drink, they say whoever are faithful to them, they let them drink (the water), but those who are not, they let them go. I drank, we all drank, and we are drinking every day. In this village, several hundred people (drank)…”

Other villagers said that they don’t understand what is behind this “magic” oath water drinking ritual, but they just drank it anyway because they were afraid to protest.

Prang Chhoeun, the (CPP) Svay Sor commune chief, recognized that he organized this ritual, but that he only forced CPP party members to drink only, and he is not forcing anybody else to drink at all.

Prang Chhoeun said: “We organized this ritual because we want to know who among the villagers are faithful to our CPP, we don’t force anyone, we just conducted business as usual.”

Em Wat, the Varin district governor, said that he knew about this activity also, but he believes that there is nothing wrong with this ritual because it is organized only for party members to attend.

Em Vat said: “I think that their (CPP) members numbered 1,900 in the past, now, they have filtered and selected only 1,000 sure (party members), this is an experiment they conducted only for their party members. This is their criterion, this is a commune affair only.”

Nevertheless, human rights NGO oppose this action. Suos Narin, a facilitator for the Adhoc human right group, called this action a violation of human rights. Suos Narin said that forcing people to drink “magic” oath water is a violation on the election law.

Suos Narin said: “There is no law that states that people must drink ‘magic’ oath water to prove their faithfulness. If the commune officials want to obtain votes, it depends only on their campaigning, the election law does not allow the forcing of people to drink ‘magic’ oath water like this.”

Kul Panha, the executive director of Comfrel, said that according to the commune election law, and the general election law, it is stated that forcing of people to drink ‘magic’ oath water must be fined between 5 and 25 million riels ($1,250 to $6,250).