Marie Eng (L) and Police chief Hok Lundy (R)----------
CAMBODIA: A police officer allegedly tortured and illegally detained in custody due to a land dispute
ISSUES: Torture; ill treatment; pathetic prison conditions; denial of medical treatment; illegal land grabbing
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Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a police was arrested on 19 February 2008 and allegedly tortured and ill treated in police custody in Kep seaside town, Cambodia. He was confined to a windowless cell and shackled at night. Despite having wounds on his body, he has been denied access to medical treatment. While in detention he has been consistently pressurised to vacate the land on which his house stands.
CASE DETAILS:
(Sources: Ouch Leng, ADHOC, Phnom Penh; Pring Pov's wife, Yin Neang, Kep village, Kep commune, Kep district, Kep seaside town)
Mr. Pring Pov (40) is a police officer posted at the seaside town of Kep, in the southwest of Cambodia.
According to information received, in the morning of 19 February 2008, Pring Pov was arrested by his superior Mr. Ing Sam Ol, Kep police commissioner, on charges of "disobeying orders from his superiors".
After his arrest, he was handcuffed, shackled and bundled in a car which took him straight to the Police Discipline Unit located at Samaki village, Trapeang Krasaing commune, Russey Keo district, some 20 kilo meters away from Phnom Penh, where he has been detained ever since. Pring was summoned to a meeting at Kep town police commission office in the morning on the same day.
When his wife Yin Neang was permitted to see him in police custody on February 20, Ping claimed that he had been detained in a 4m x 4m cell without any ventilation and had been shackled at night. He was allowed to go out of his cell during the day on 9 March.
According to Yin Neang, she saw blood and wounds around his wrists and ankles, and bruises on his chest. He was crying and talked very little when other police officers were hanging around him. Even though his mental and physical condition worsened, the National Police Commissioner, Hock Lundy, did not allow any doctor to visit Pring. Yin Neang brought doctors in succession towards the end of February but medical treatment was denied.
According to sources, Pring Pov would be released on condition that he dismantle his house and vacate his land without expecting any compensation, which he has refused to do so far.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On 31 January 2008, senior police officers who were Pring's superiors, including Kep police commissioner Ing Sam Ol and Kep district police inspector Mom Sitha, began to pressurise Pring to vacate his land. Pring recorded all these pressure tactics in his diary. On 17 February, at Kep Police Commission Office and in the presence of Sean, head of Kep village, they forced him and his wife to put the thumbprint on a contract in which Pring and his wife "agree to move out of the land if they are given appropriate compensation". His superiors had the contract, but refused to give a copy of it to Pring and his wife despite Pring's pleas.
His 42m x 60 m plot of land is located in Kep village, Kep commune, Kep district in Kep seaside town. Pring and his family cleared and owned that land since 1991. In 1994, the governor of the town, Chea Chhut, forced Pring to give it to the then Princess Marie Ranariddh whose husband, Prince Norodom Ranariddh was then president of the FUNCINPEC Party of which both Chea and Pring were members. FUNCIPEC was the ruling party after the elections held in 1993.
Chea also ordered Pring to guard the land which was then lying vacant, and receive a monthly allowance of 10 US Dollars and 30 kilograms of rice for his service. Pring received only a month’s allowance after that forced deal and has since received nothing. In 2005, Pring built his house on that land. Meanwhile, Chea, a FUNCINPEC army general, was killed in the 1997 coup. The FUNCINPEC political fortune fell. Marie divorced Ranariddh in 2006, used her maiden name of Eng Marie and became a senior government minister while Ranariddh was ousted from FUNCINPEC's presidency.
However, Eng Marie has never come to see the disputed land. In January 2008, Pring's family received two successive visits from three women from her office. In the first visit, they asked them where the disputed land was located. The women then made a note of everything he had in his house and on his land. They discussed with him the nature and amount of compensation he was expecting. Pring asked for 30,000 US Dollars when the price of a similar plot in that seaside town was around 100,000 US Dollars. Eng Marie then lodged a complaint against him at the Police Department in Phnom Penh.
Pring's arrest was made without any arrest warrant. His detention in police custody has far exceeded the legally permitted period of 72 hours within which he must be brought to court to be charged (art. 96 of the code of criminal procedure). He has had no right to legal counsel within the first 24 hours of his arrest (art. 98 of the same code). Nor does he have any right to medical treatment. The medical treatment of persons in police custody is left to the discretionary power of the prosecutor and the custody officer (art. 99 of the same code).
However, detention exceeding the legally permitted period, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are violations of human rights, and are therefore forbidden and punishable by imprisonment from one to five years (arts.17, 22 and 57 of the UNTAC law of 1992).
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
In recent years, there land disputes are on the increase in Cambodia. This phenomenon has been known as land grabbing, when the powerful and the rich in connivance with powers that be, grab land from the weak and the poor offering then compensation well below the current market price.
Invariably, in order to forcefully evict land owners from their own lands, land grabbers have an unholy nexus with local authorities, the police and courts officials to force other parties to accept such offers and vacate their homes and lands. Those who resist are falsely implicated and arrested in a bid to oust them. Forced evictions have been carried in recent years, adversely affecting tens of thousands of families. Amnesty International's report on 11 February 2008 says that at least 150,000 people in Cambodia or slightly over one per cent of its population are living at risk of being evicted.
Cambodia has ratified both, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Optional Protocol to it. It has not enacted a law against acts of torture and ill treatment, nor created a national mechanism for the prevention of such acts as stipulated in the Convention and Optional Protocol.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below requesting them to immediately release Pring Pov: conduct an investigation into his arrest and torture; and take action again violators of his rights.
The AHRC has also written letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture and Adequate housing, Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights--Cambodia and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia calling for their intervention in this case.
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SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear __________,
CAMBODIA: A police officer allegedly tortured and illegally detained in custody due to a disputed land
Name of victim: Mr. Pring Pov, 40 years old, police officer of Kep seaside town; residing at Kep village, Kep commune, Kep district in Kep seaside town; arrested on 19 February and currently detained at Police Discipline Unit
Name of alleged perpetrators:
1. Ing Sam Ol, Kep police commissioner
2. Police officer known as "Ta Mon"
3. Head of the Police Discipline Unit, Samaki village, Trapaing Krasaing village, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh
Date of incident: Since 19 February 2008
Place of incident: in police custody at Police Discipline Unit, Samaki village, Trapaing Krasaing village, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh
I am writing to express my deep concern relating to the arrest and alleged torture of Pring Pov, 40, a police officer serving the police force of the seaside town of Kep, in the southwest of Cambodia in the morning of 19 February 2008. He was arrested without any arrest warrant when he was summoned to a meeting. He was handcuffed, shackled and bundled in a car which took him straight to that Police Discipline Unit at Samaki village, Trapeang Krasaing, Russey Keo district, some 20 km away from Phnom Penh.
According to persons who were permitted to see him in police custody, Pring has been confined in a windowless cell all day and shackled at night. They have seen blood and wounds around his wrists and ankles, and bruises on his chest. They heard him coughing badly. However, the Hock Lundy, the National Police Commissioner, has disallowed any doctor from visiting Pring. Doctors who have successively brought in to see him have all been turned away.
According to the same sources, Pring was arrested following a land dispute over a plot of land he had cleared in 1991 and has since owned. In 1994, he was forced to give it to a high ranking woman named Eng Marie who was the wife of the president of the then ruling party. Pring was also forced to guard the same land and promised a monthly allowance of US and 30kg of rice which he received only once.
Eng has never visited Pring's land. In recent years, she became a senior government minister. In 2008, she laid claim to that land and filed a complaint wiht the Police Department to that effect. The senior officers of the Kep police, including Kep police commissioner Ing Sam Ol and Kep Police Inspector Mom Sitha, then put pressure on Pring to vacate his land. They forced him and his wife to sign an agreement to the effect that they would vacate their house if they received an appropriate compensation but refused to give them a copy of that agreement, despite Pring's pleas.
Pring has not received any compensation and has refused to dismantle his house and move out. His refusal is apparently the reason for his arrest, detention and torture, not his disobedience to orders from his superiors as wrongly charged.
What I find disturbing is that Pring's detention from 19 February until now has far exceeded the legally permitted period of 72 hours under the Cambodian code of procedure. He should have been released then or brought to court to face any genuine charge. Under Cambodian law, such prolonged detention is illegal and the officers responsible for it ought to be punished for gross violations of Pring's rights.
What is most disturbing is that Pring has allegedly been tortured and ill treated after his arrest as he was handcuffed, shackled and bundled in a car while being taken to the Police Discipline Unit. Persons who have visited Pring have found blood and wounds around his wrists and ankles, and bruises on his chest. They have also heard him coughing badly. But he has been denied any medical treatment. This alleged torture and denial of medical treatment should be investigated into and appropriate action be taken against the perpetrators without any further delay.
I therefore, strongly urge you to immediately order Pring Pov's release, conduct an investigation into his arrest, prolonged detention and torture, and take action against all violators of his rights.
I also urge you to clearly criminalize acts of torture and ill treatment and set up a national mechanism for their prevention as stipulated in the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol which Cambodia has already ratified. Furthermore, you should ensure that all persons in detention have the right to medical treatment, and this treatment not be left to the whims of the custody officer or the prosecutor.
I trust you will act on my above stated requests.
Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Cabinet of the Prime Minister
No. 38, Russian Federation Street
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 36 0666
Tel: +855 2321 9898
E-mail: cabinet1b@camnet.com.kh
2. Mr. Sar Kheng
Deputy-Prime Minister
Minister of Interior
No.275 Norodom Blvd., Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax/phone: +855 23 721 905 / 23 726 052 / 23 721 190
E-Mail: info@interior.gov.kh
3. Mr. Henro Raken
Prosecutor-General
Court of Appeal
No 240, Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 21 66 22
Tel: +855 11 86 27 70
Thank you.
