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Seven MPs from the Sam Rainsy Party visited Mam Sonando today at Prey Sar prison.
"I tried putting my head down to sleep but my head felt harder than the concrete floor ", said Mam Sonando to describe his physical health.
Suffering from diarrhea for the past week from food he consumed, Mam Sonando's physical health is of concern. He has made request for a medical check up outside of the prison clinic. This should be granted to avoid further complication.
"I have no regrets for I have committed no crime. My heart cries out to the villagers who are losing their land and my head continues to think of the management of my radio station", he continues with a firm but frail voice.
The prime minister's involvement in the case before the court's action has raised alarm and further targeting of human rights defenders about this Kratie case must not be tolerated. it is a problem of economic land concession that should be resolved by letting the people speak and make their own claims and not a matter for the court.
Mam Sonando, Beehive Radio director and president of the Association of Democrats, is escorted by police at Phnom Penh Municipal Court before being taken to Prey Sar prison last month. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 06 August 2012 Meas Sokchea The Phnom Penh Post
The Ministry of Interior last week refused to grant a request from opposition lawmakers to visit jailed Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando, referring the request to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Sam Rainsy Party and ministry officials said yesterday.
SRP parliamentarian Mu Sochua, who had hoped to lead a delegation of lawmakers to visit Sonando on Friday, said that the ministry redirected her request last Thursday and called the move an example of “the procedure in disorder”, adding that the Ministry of Interior was responsible for Sonando’s arrest and so responsible for prison access to him.
“If Mam Sonando is in Prey Sar, why should I go to the court?” Sochua asked, noting that the prison system is under the Ministry of Interior.
Sochua said she had never been asked to refer a request for a visit to any court, despite having visited prisoners in Prey Sar at least three times – most recently to see the so-called Boeung Kak 13.
Sam Rainsy Party MPs Seek US Intervention for Release of 15 Human Rights Defenders of Boeung Kak Lake
MP, Mu Sochua will meet with State Department officials and members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Committee of the US Congress on 6June, 2012 to raise concern for the deteriorating human rights conditions inside Cambodia particularly regarding recent human rights abuses against women and girls.
FEBRURARY 19, 2012 – Bavet Town governor, Chhouk Bandith, opened fire on 6000 protestors at a garment worker demonstration in his town in Northern Cambodia. Three young women were shot and injured. Witnesses claim that Bandith was assisted in his escape from the scene by police vehicles. The governor later confessed to his crime, but was never arrested. On May 14, 2012, Bandith was charged with “unintentional injuries” and was demoted to a lower position.
MAY 16, 2012 – 1000 military police and a military helicopter violently stormed a village in the northern province of Kratie during a forced eviction. Forces opened fire on residents and killed an innocent 14-year-old girl. Villagers were brutally attacked by the military forces, and a group of women were handcuffed, stripped naked, and made to stand for hours under the sun.
MAY 22, 2012 – During a peaceful demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake community, thirteen women human rights defenders were violently arrested and detained at the municipal police headquarters for two nights. On May 24, 2012, the women were taken to an illegal summary trial without their defense lawyers. The lawyer’s requests to delay for preparation, for case files and evidence, and to bring witnesses to the stand were also denied. In less than 3 hours all thirteen women were convicted and sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison. Since then, one woman received a 1 and a half year suspended sentence, and another five have received 6 months suspended sentences out of the initial 2.5 years.
As a result of violence against women, including armed and military force by private companies against citizens, women's human rights are continually violated in a nation that claims to be democratic and free.
Sam Rainsy Party MPs, are seeking for:
Ensure the immediate release of all thirteen women imprisoned and two witnesses for defending their land rights;
Temporarily suspension of US military aid to Cambodia;
Call for an end to the harassment of human rights defenders in Cambodia and ensure that peaceful protests can take place without fear of arrest, intimidation or violence.
Bring an end to forced and violent evictions of Cambodian citizens from their homes and land.
Sam Rainsy Party MPs, Ket Khy, Noun Vuthy and Mu Sochua met the 13 Boeung Kak Lake women land owners sentenced by the Phnom Penh Court on an illegal summary trial without their defense lawyers on May 24, 2012. All, except an elderly woman were sentenced to 2 and a half years in prison.
Although in good health, the women speak of their worries for their children who are now living in fear and deep depression.
"We want justice now. We should not be in this prison. We have lost our land and our human rights", said Tep Vanny.
"Please convey to the people outside not to forget us", she continues.
SRP MPs have written to His Majesty the King for the immediate release of the land owners.
MP, Mu Sochua who has been collected contributions from donors through her blog, handed US$1,570 to the women.
US$100 were kept by the women for food inside the prison and the rest is kept by their networks to support the continued action for their release and for justice.
A former Borei Keila resident detained at the Prey Speu Correctional Centre is helped over the outer wall during an escape by 22 people yesterday. (PHA LINA)
A woman behind the front gate of the Prey Speu Correctional Centre cries yesterday before escaping over the outer wall.(Pha Lina)
Former Borei Keila residents leave the Prey Speu Correctional Centre in a tuk tuk after climbing over the outer wall yesterday. (Pha Lina)
A woman detained at the Prey Speu Correctional Centre passes a child over the outer wall during an escape yesterday in Phnom Penh. A total of 22 former Borei Keila residents escaped the centre yesterday. (Pha Lina)
Thursday, 19 January 2012 Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell The Phnom Penh Post
Security personnel watched 22 distraught women and children climb the walls of Prey Speu social affairs centre and flee in tuk-tuks at about 11am yesterday after SRP lawmakers Mu Sochua and Sovann Visakha visited the site to tell them that the government had no right to lock them up.
Earlier, the women and children, who were among 30 detained during a Borei Keila protest in Phnom Penh last Wednesday and held without charge, had accepted food and water from relatives and made impassioned pleas for their release through journalists who also gathered outside.
It wasn’t long before the items were being handed back and the detainees were climbing the grey brick walls.
Older women and small children were boosted up and passed to those who had gone before them and the detainees ran to tuk-tuks.
Prior to the escape, Mu Sochua and Sovann Visakha were granted access to the site.
Mu Sochua addressed the emotional women who knelt in front of her – many crying and some rocking their weary children – as relatives watched through the bars of the centre’s main entrance.
A conflict-ridden project that was supposed to rehouse poor families living on high-value land in the centre of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, has been documented on video by local activists. The year started badly for 300 families in the Borei Keila suburb, with a massive forced eviction operation that saw their homes destroyed and a number of residents arrested. The raid is captured in our lead video (above).
This statement from a coalition of 11 local civil-society organisations condemned the evictions:
The demolition was carried out by Phanimex employees and paid workers alongside an excavator, which crushed houses before residents had the opportunity to clear out their belongings. The process was overseen by over 100 mixed police forces who arrested and detained eight community representatives, including one minor who were taken to the main police commissioner and three bodyguards who were taken to an unknown location. Police also fired tear gas and live ammunition on the residents of Borey Keila.
There were further arrests a week later, with women and children from Borei Keila being taken into custody as they protested outside local government buildings:
Image: LICADHO Cambodia
There were calls for the release of the women and children:
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, call for the immediate release of Borei Keila residents detained yesterday and since unlawfully detained at the Prey Speu Social Affairs Center. We also call for the permanent closure of the Prey Speu center, which has been proven time and again to be nothing more than an extra-judicial detention facility. The detained residents – 24 women and six children – are among several hundred who were forcefully displaced on Jan. 3, 2012, when Phan Imex, a construction company owned by the well-connected Suy Sophan, destroyed their homes in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila settlement. The brutal eviction was overseen by over 100 armed state forces, and resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of at least eight residents.
From LICADHO Cambodia
This video shows the moment when, on the advice of two members of parliament from the opposition SRP party that they were being held illegally, the detained women and children made their escape:
Prior to the escape, (member of parliament) Mu Sochua was granted access to the site, something the detainees’ families had been denied. She addressed the emotional women, who knelt in front of her – many crying and some rocking their weary children – as relatives watched through the bars of the centre’s main entrance. From Phnom Penh Post
This tweet from freedom of expression NGO on Wednesday claimed that scare tactics against the residents were continuing:
ARTICLE 19 Asia@article19asia
#Cambodia: Borei Keila community suffering severe violations to FOE. Scare tactics by authorities persist. ^JT
A Voice of America news report carried quotations from the escapees, who were facing into an uncertain future:
“We were detained in the center with drug users, mad people and homeless people,” said Sim Sakmony, 63, one of the escapees. “It was improper. We were forced to stay at the center. We wanted freedom.”
“I am free from detention,” said Ke Heang, 45. “From today and tomorrow, I don’t know what to think, for I have no house to live in. My life faces poverty and an uncertain future. I cannot resolve it.”
From VOA News
A local news outlet reported that the owner of development firm behind the project was refusing to compensate the families involved:
Phan Imex president Suy Sophan told the Post yesterday that her company would not compensate these families for any losses, but would offer them “humanitarian” payments of US$200 to $500. “Most of the protesters are those who have bought a house after 2003 or rented houses at Borei Keila,” she said. “Many are children of the residents who have received flats from our projects – the company cannot give these people another flat.” Ten families, most of whom had rented houses or cottages belonging to residents in Borei Keila after survey registration in 2003, accepted the offer, Suy Sophan said, with the “humanitarian” money intended to help families run businesses or return to their homelands.
Sam Rainsy Party MPs, Sovan Pisaka and Mu Sochua were able to enter the Social Affairs Center(the small door was open very shortly for the security guard to enter) where 18 women and 2 children from Borei Keila had been illegally detained by the municipality since 11 January as they demonstrated outside of the municipality office to demand for housing and compensation for their belongings that were destroyed by PHANIMEX company.
The head of the center asked the two lawmakers to leave as they did not have permission. He then locked both gates. He informed both lawmakers that the women and children were at the center but were not registered. The municipality had asked him to watch over them.
MP Mu Sochua spoke to the women about their rights and the gross violation of human rights committed by the authorities and the company. The head of the company had been every day to force the detainees to thumbprint to accept her offer.
When asked what they wish to do, the women said they wanted to leave the center as they feel scared, unsafe and shame for having to be detained with homeless, mentally disturbed people, drug addicts and young men who are violent. They wish to obtain housing in Borei Keila as promised to them by the prime minister.
After our short meeting, the women gathered their belongings and started climbing over the fence.
Their husbands ad relatives who brought them food and medicines helped them from the other side of the fence and they quickly left the center for town.
The two MPs were locked inside the center for 15 minutes till the head of the center unlocked both gates.
SRP MPS, will send a letter to the Minister of Justice to request action from the municipality court against the authorities and the company for illegal detention.
Since the destruction of Borei Keila, no representative of the government has provided support or care for the victims. The office of the governor and local authorities have provided full protection and total carte blanche to the company to threaten the victims and manipulate the situation.
This is Cambodia!
Please help support Mu Sochua's Justice Fund by donating at this link.
The Cabinet of President Sam Rainsy would like to invite all media groups, human rights NGOs and interested persons to joint the Press Conference on the "Boycott by SRP MPs of the coming National Assembly sessions".
Date: Thursday 24 November 2011
Time: 9:00 am
Venue: SRP Headquarters, House #576, National Road No2, Sangkat Chakangres Leu, Khan Mean Chey, Phnom Penh.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011 ដោយៈ ស៊ន សុភក្រ្ត-តុល សុភ័ណ្ឌ DAP-New
Synopsis: In the morning of 23 November, Hun Xen pushed all 26 SRP MPs to resign rather than just the four who had resigned recently. He said that the resignation of opposition MPs will not block the National Assembly sessions. "I would like to send my words to them: Don't be dumb, if you want to be crazy, be crazy by yourself, don't make others be crazy, I will not be crazy with them. There is no way for the minority to force a veto on the majority. The opposition has no veto rights."
