Two Funcinpec governors ousted in post-poll reshuffle [... or the Karma of a junior coalition partner]

Friday, 05 September 2008
Written by Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

CPP continues to remove senior officials from increasingly junior coalition partner Funcinpec and has filled the posts with its own loyalists

TWO Funcinpec governors have been removed from their posts in Sihanoukville and Kampot and replaced by the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) deputy governors in a ceremony Thursday as part of the post-election drive to switch royalist officials with those from the ruling party.

Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak has been replaced by his deputy, Sboang Sarath, and Kampot Governor Thach Khorn will be succeeded by his deputy, Khoy Khunhuor.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng attended the handover ceremony.

Sak Setha, director general of general administration at the Ministry of Information, said that the two newly promoted CPP stalwarts have been serving in their provinces for years.

"The government has no more plans to reshuffle the provincial governor positions," he said.

Say Hak said that as a public servant he respected the government's decision to change positions and is happy to accept whatever post he will be offered in the future.

Tired of the job?

"I stayed here [as Sihanoukville governor] long enough," said Say Hak, who served in the position for seven years.

"I don't mind, and I am prepared to leave."

It is unclear what position Say Hak is likely to receive in the new government, which will be sworn in on September 24.

According to the draft list of new government positions, Kampot's Thach Khorn has been appointed secretary of state at the Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection.

All Funcinpec ministers, provincial governors and ambassadors have lost their posts following the July 27 general election, in which the CPP won a resounding majority in parliament.

The Interior Ministry's Sak Setha said that the government has appointed one additional provincial deputy governor for Siem Reap, taking the number of governors and deputy governors in the province to 13.

Sihanoukville governor Say Hak: Officials were just protecting the forests and land, not land-grabbing

House destruction by the authority in Spean Chhes, Sihanoukville (Photo: Licadho)

Families Seek Hun Sen in Land Grab Arrests

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
08 May 2008

Families involved in a Sihanoukville land dispute that led to the arrests of at least three men have officially filed a complaint with Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The 129 families allege that the armed forces and Ministry of Agriculture’s forestry administration illegally detained the three men May 6, following a land dispute in Mittapheab district.

In the complaint to Hun Sen, the families claim that 20 armed officials from the military, military police and forestry administration used tractors to destroy their crops and homes without warning.

Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak defended the officials, saying residents destroyed the forests and land belonging to the state.

“The officials were just protecting the forests and land and carried out their actions in accordance with the law,” he said.

5 containers of precious wood seized in Sihanoukville

Ty Sokhun, director of the forestry department and one of the person implicated in illegal logging by Global Witness (Photo: Global Witness)

11 September 2007
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Sihanoukville authority seized 5 containers of precious wood at the Sihanoukville port while they were waiting to be shipped overseas.

According to preliminary information, the Sihanoukville customs authority already seized the containers and the authority still continues to look into the people involved in the shipping.

Say Hak, the governor of Sihanoukville, told RFA on Tuesday that the containers were seized, however, he is still waiting for a detailed report from the customs authority.

Say Hak said: “I saw it, I am asking them to provide a detailed report. Earlier the 5 containers were arrested. They (exporters) had all the legal papers, they have all the export documents, that’s the story. That’s all I have.”

A source indicated that the several hundreds of cubic meters of precious woods in the containers are worth several tens of thousands of dollars.

Pen Siman, the director of the customs department, and Ty Sokhun, the director of the forestry department, cannot be reached on Tuesday about this issue. No source is willing to provide actual information on this issue.

SRP MP Son Chhay said: “We heard about this issue, we can see that the prevention of the export (of woods) is not effective. Large quantity of export still takes place in corridors along the Vietnamese border. The exports are now done at the seaport also. We, just like all citizens, want the authority and the government to work efficiently, the laissez-faire in the illegal logging, and the continued export (of woods) in this manner, will create a complete destruction of our forests within the next 2 to 3 years, just as the forest experts predicted.”

Illegal logging and illegal wood trading still constitute a main attention for the Cambodian public and for the forest protection communities in Cambodia. The Cambodian public and the forest protection organizations are constantly demanding a stop on illegal logging, and the illegal wood trade in Cambodia.

In November 2006, the Cambodian court sentenced 15 people to 7 to 17-year of jail time, accusing them of corruption, illegal logging, and the destruction of the Virachey national park located in the Dragon Tail area in Ratanakiri province, in Cambodia’s northeast, between 2003 and 2004.

Sihanoukville people bring their land protest to PPenh [-Protesters hand over their complaint to the "corrupt office" of the Council of Ministers]

Protesters from Sihanoukville have gathered in front of the Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh on 13 August 2007 (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

13 August 2007
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

More than 100 Cambodian people representing over 100 families coming from Group 2, Commune No. 3, Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville, have gathered to demonstrate in front of the office of the Council of Ministers on Monday morning to protest against a plan by the Sihanoukville city to confiscate 14-hectare of lands occupied by these families and turn these lands into state property in the near future.

The group of protesters includes old people, young children, and nursing mothers, who are holding their demonstrations in a park located in front of the office of the Council of Ministers. Some of the protesters held portraits of King Sihamoni, while others were holding portraits of Hun Sen and his wife to protest.

Three representatives of the group were sent to hand over their complaint to the office of the anti-corruption department of the Council of Ministers, requesting help to resolve the problem they are facing. However, a representative of the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Dispute (NARLD) came to tell the group that they should head to the NARLD office instead, claiming that the anti-corruption department has no authority to resolve land disputes.

37-year-old Ly Aun who traveled from Group 2, Commune No. 3, Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville, told RFA that there is no promise given by government officials who received the complaint.

Ly Aun said: “We have all the necessary documents, but they didn’t provide any information to the people. I went into this “corrupt office,” an official said that he will accept a copy of the document. He said that this is not even his office.”

Thong Sokhom, one of the representatives for the families, said that Say Hak, the governor of Sihanoukville issued an information letter on 31 July, telling the families that they have 15-day notice to move their houses out by themselves. There are only 2 days left before their homes will be destroyed by Say Hak’s henchmen, so the people were scared and came over to protest.

Thong Sokhom said: “There are 2 days left until the due date, therefore we came to ask that Samdach Hun Sen, Samdech Ta, Samdech Yeay, and the King to help us live in peace, without oppression.”

Regarding the presence of the protesters, an official representing the NARLD came to meet the group of demonstrators, and told them: “The place for the resolution, no matter where you take it, they will not resolve it for you if you hand it to the wrong place. Do you understand? Therefore, you should take it to my office (NARLD), we have the ability to make an arrangement.”

According to the people, the lands where the Sihanoukville city wants to confiscate occupy an area of 14-hectare, and is currently occupied by 103 families living in this Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville province.

According to interviews with the protesters, they said that they don’t have any official land title documents, but they own papers indicating that they live there since the 80s.

Un Thanun, an investigator for the Licadho human rights group in Sihanoukville, said that the confiscation of these lands was done without providing anything in exchange to the protesters.

Say Hak, the black heart governor of Sihanoukville, turns a blind eye to the intense hardships faced by 92 evicted families

92 families in Sihanoukville are facing hardhsip

11 August 2007
By Sok Serei
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

92 Cambodian families living in Village No. 4, O’Tress commune, Stung Hav district, Sihanoukville, who lost their shelters, complained that they are currently facing tremendous hardships from almost daily storms, severe lack of food, and lack of medicine.

55-year-old Keo Kea, one of the representatives of the 92 families who lost their shelters and who are now forced to live along the beach without any tent and food, told RFA that on Friday night, a strong storm hit the area and the families have no shelters and they are facing extreme hardships.

Keo kea said: “We are facing severe hardships from the storms, and we don’t have food, we lack rice, and the majority of us have nothing to eat at all. As far as medicine for those who are sick, some don’t have it. Most importantly, the main problem is the lack of shelters and the hard living condition.”

45-year-old Suong Touch, another representative of the 92 families, said: “The storm was fierce, and the sea waves were very strong, it rained and we couldn’t sleep at all. And at night time, they come to threaten us, they take down our tents in the middle of the night, we were trembling with fear and we went to hide under people’s houses. Now, we do not dare live near the beach, we can come back only during day time.”

According to an investigator of a human rights organization based in Sihanoukville, the Sihanoukville authority seems not to care about these families at all, it didn’t help provide food or resolve the shelter problem for the people at all.

Regarding this issue, Say Hak, the governor of the Sihanoukville municipality, reacted by saying that that his authority cannot provide any help because these families are under accusation by the court. Say Hak accused the families as an illegal group which occupy lands belonging to others.

Say Hak reacted by saying: “This is a court case, it is not in the hand of the authority or the local authority anymore. Where do they live now? They went to live on other people’s land. When were these lands theirs?”

The 92 families used to live in Village No. 4, O’Tress commune, Stung Hav district, Sihanoukville. The Sihanoukville authority conducted an operation to destroy their homes, and all of their crops at the end of July. The operation followed a land dispute pitting the families against Sar Soeng, the army commander of Sihanoukville , and his Chamroeun Cheat company. The extent of the land in dispute is about 130-hectare, and the dispute started since 2005.

Pung Chiv Kek, President of the Licadho organization, said: “This is the government duty, it cannot afford not to acknowledge this issue. It is his (Say Hak) duty and the duty of the government to look for a mean to provide housing and sufficient food to these people. Also, when these families are sick, they should receive medical service help also.”

Earlier, the Cambodian Independent Committee against Corruption sent a letter to the Ministry of Interior to complaint about Say Hak, accusing this (CPP) governor of using violence to grab 16-hectare of lands belonging to 100 families living in Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville, on 20 April 2007.

Nine found guilty in the travesty of justice in Sihanoukville

Villagers were arrested when the Sihanoukville authority burnt down their houses in April (Photo: Ta Som, Koh Santepheap)

Nine Guilty in Sihanoukville Land Dispute

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
04/07/2007

Sihanoukville Municipal Court handed jail sentences of up to eight months to residents found guilty of assaulting a security detail in the coastal city in April, during a clash over the forced eviction of 105 families from their Mittapheap District homes.

Sihanoukville Municipal Judge Tang Sunlay read the sentences in a public hearing, giving one suspect 8 months. He sentenced a second suspect in absentia to 8 months. Seven defendants were given 75 days. Five more had charges dropped against them.

The lawyer for the 13 defendants, Ham Sunrithy, from the rights group Licadho, maintained the innocence of his clients.

"My clients, according to the case documents and direct questioning… did not commit offenses that inflicted wounds on the police," he said.

Residents clashed with police, soldiers and military police, who carried batons, electric prods, shields and teargas on their detail to clear out the residents.

Evicted people ask for the king’s intervention in land dispute

16 June 2007
By Sok Serei
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Representatives of 107 Cambodian families from Sihanoukville wrote a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni and Chea Sim, Senate president, to ask for their interventions to obtain the release of 12 people currently jailed in the Sihanoukville prison since April stemming from a land dispute.

Chan Than, a 38-year-old woman living on commune No. 4, Mittapheap district, Sihanoukville, said that the arrest of the people jailed in an unacceptable injustice. She added: “We request that they are immediately released because their wives and children are suffering and they lost their income earners.”

According to the complaint sent to the king, the 107 families living in Mittapheap district, Sihanoukvile, lost their lands because Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak used violence to burn down their homes to evict these families out of the 16-hectare lands they occupied and turned the land over to a private company.

On Saturday, officials from the king’s cabinet could not be contacted regarding the letter requesting the king to intervene in the release of the 12 people jailed. However, Meas Sopheak, the prosecutor of the Sihanoukville court said that the whether the people jailed are released or not, depend on the decision of the judge.

The 12 people jailed are: Nom Chrey, Chrey Roeun, Chrey Phoan, Phon Roum, Doeur Sambath, Son Samrev, Petr, Yeng Ren, Sim Sopheap, Ken Nov, Ron, and Chan Sitha. One of the 13 originally arrested was allowed by the Sihanoukville court to stay out of jail temporarily because he is a minor.

Bun Narith, an investigator for human rights organization Licadho in Sihanoukville, said that there is not sign indicating the 12 jailed will be released. He said that the Sihanoukville court intents to sentence these 13 people in the near future.

Bun Narith said: “We interviewed the witnesses and those whose houses were burnt down, we interviewed them all already so that the hearing can be held soon. The lawyers (of the jailed men) ask us to act on behalf of the witnesses during the court hearing, and to provide answers to the court so that the jailed men could escape the charges.”

On 20 April 2007, the Sihanoukville authority, under the order of Governor Say Hak, used violence to burn down about 100 homes and arrested 13 people who were charged of destroying properties belonging to other people, and they were also charged of creating unrest, and living on lands owned by the (CPP) Tycoon-Senator Kong Triv.

After the violence perpetrated by the authority, a number of organizations including Pact anti-corruption group in Cambodia stepped forward to send a complaint to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Ministry of Interior asking that Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak and his accomplices be punished for using violence to grab 16-hectare of lands belonging to 107 families.

Commentary: Cambodia's war against the powerful brings terror to the powerless

HONG KONG, May. 16
LAO MONG HAY

Land-grabbing has been one of the most serious issues facing Cambodia since it abandoned communist collectivization at the end of the 1980s to embrace a market economy based on private property. In recent years, this problem has become worse as land conflicts have dramatically increased.

A non-governmental organization (NGO) listed 1,551 cases between 1991 and 2004, affecting nearly 160,300 families or almost 7 percent of the population. Another NGO alone received 335 cases in 2005 and 450 in 2006 in which it dispensed legal assistance to victims.

Land-grabbing has affected urban dwellers, rural folks and ethnic minorities alike with the land primarily being grabbed by the powerful and the rich backed by powerful officials. Using their high position and influence, land-grabbers can secure eviction orders and the enforcement of these orders from the state machinery without going through due process of law and without paying fair and just compensation to evictees.

For instance, in 2006, a powerful company got the Ministry of Interior to force 168 families living in Phnom Penh, whose land the government conceded to that company, to accept average compensation of less than US$20 per square meter of land, while the estimated market price was US$200, and then forcibly evict them. Facing such injustices, evictees had no choice but to resist their eviction to demand fair and just compensation. Force and intimidation were then used against them as the police and military police, armed with assault rifles, electric batons and riot shields, were sent to break up the resistance, demolish evictees' dwellings and force occupants to vacate their land.

Frequent forced evictions have not led to the end of land-grabbing, and protests against them and the issue itself have only become worse year after year, to such a degree that Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeatedly warned it could spark a "peasant revolution." In March 2007, Hun Sen secured full support from his party, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), to declare a "war against land-grabbers," whom he identified as "CPP officials" and "people in power." His remarks were a positive development as the prime minister, known as the "strongman" of Cambodia with all power centralized in his hands, personally addressed the issue.

Critics have said, however, that this high-profile "war," staged just weeks before the commune election on April 1, was simply campaign rhetoric. Perhaps it is too soon to give credence to these critics, but this "war" has not earned Hun Sen many victories as yet, for it has only subdued an army major, an army general and a tycoon for land-grabbing. Furthermore, it has provided no security to victims of some 2,000 land-grabbing cases lodged with the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes.

Moreover, on April 20, Say Hak, the governor of Sihanoukville, a seaport on the Gulf of Thailand, turned this "war" into terror for 107 families by sending armed police and security personnel to forcibly evict them from their 17 hectares of land for the benefit of Sen. Sy Kong Triv, a CPP tycoon. That day Say Hak, together with his deputy, the town prosecutor, the police commissioner and military police commander, led about 100 police and military police officers armed with AK47 assault rifles, electric batons and tear gas to search for illegal weapons in the homes of these families. Although they had a warrant, this search for weapons was merely a legal cloak to cover up the eviction of the families as the security forces failed to find any weapon and instead took their land.

The families resisted and clashes ensued. The security forces fired shots in the air and into the ground and charged the villagers, using their rifle butts, electric batons and water canons to disperse them. Thirteen men among the villagers were seriously beaten, and many women were assaulted. A 75-year-old man in the village was so severely beaten and electrocuted that he required hospital treatment. Three members of the security forces were also injured.

The security forces arrested 13 villagers for "battery with intent" and "wrongful damage to property." These villagers are now detained in the prison in Sihanoukville. The police are also looking for other villagers, and 30 to 40 of them have gone into hiding for fear of being arrested.

Meanwhile, Say Hak has filed a criminal lawsuit against Chhim Savuth, a human rights investigator, for "inciting" the villagers to form a "breakaway zone independent of government rule." Chhim Savuth has thus also gone into hiding as well.

Say Hak's terror against these families and his pursuit of some of their members and a human rights activist are his way to help people in power grab land from powerless people. He once confided that "it is not difficult to settle land disputes: it is a matter of eliminating one or two gang leaders, and these conflicts will be over." He does not care about the plight of these 107 families who found that their homes, crops and other belongings, including motorbikes, bicycles, generators, TVs, VCRs, DVDs, clothes, kitchen utensils and domestic animals, were destroyed by fire, tractors and bulldozers during the eviction. These families have been made destitute and are now camping under plastic shelters or trees under monsoon rains and the tropical hot sun on the roadsides along Highway 4 leading to Phnom Penh. They are surviving on relief handouts from humanitarian organizations.

Say Hak has not stopped with this eviction though. His connivance with land-grabbers continued on May 11 when he issued another order of eviction to 18 families and gave them 20 days to vacate their land. Knowing his way of ending land disputes, these families face the same terror as those previous 107 families if they defy his order. Hun Sen needs to stop Say Hak's abuses before other governors turn his "war against land-grabbers" into terror against powerless people in other towns and provinces if his "war" is to have any meaning.

Gov't dirty tactics: For denouncing land eviction, CCHR investigator is accused by Sihanoukville governor of fomenting illegal secession

Human Rights Investigator Goes Into Hiding

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
14/05/2007

An investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights was in hiding Monday for fear that he would be arrested on charges of creating an illegal secessionist movement in Sihanoukville.

Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak filed a suit against the investigator, Chin Savuth, and five others, accusing them of starting an illegal force.

Chin Savuth, who denies the charges, fled the town. He'll stay in hiding until the issue is resolved, he told VOA Khmer by phone.

"They charge me of forming an autonomous secession region from the government," he said. "This charge is more than my capacity. For what I am, I cannot do anything to that capacity. I am not capable of doing that."

Sihanoukville court prosecutor Meas Sopheak declined to comment.

Say Hak could not be reached for comment but his accusations follow the violent eviction of villagers from Mittapheap commune on April 20.

CCHR Director Ou Vireak called the charges "groundless."

" I see this as a step to threaten human rights activists and a violation on the people's rights," Ou Vireak said.

Son Chhay demands an investigation on the Sihanoukville governor

Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A SRP MP sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday, requesting the latter to order an investigation and a possible arrest of Say Hak, the Sihanoukville governor, if he is involved in the forced eviction with the use of violence on villagers last month. In his letter, Son Chhay wrote to request for an investigation and an arrest of Say Hak, the Sihanoukville governor, and his colleagues, in the forced eviction of hundreds of villagers from their homes in Khan Mittapheap. In a phone response to The Cambodia Daily, Say Hak said that he has no worry about Son Chhay’s call sent to Hun Sen because he said his action was legal. Say Hak said that he is not worried and he welcomes this call.

Barbaric methods used to evict people: Torching their homes by gun-toting police forces

Houses Torched in Sihanoukville Land Dispute, Residents Say

Suon Kanika, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20/04/2007

Residents of the beach town Sihanoukville say they clashed with security forces loyal to the city governor Friday in a land dispute that led to shots fired and huts burned.

Yim Yorn, who heads the local branch of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom organization, said 10 people were wounded by about 100 armed police, military police and soldiers.

Twenty huts were torched in the dispute, Yim Yorn said.

"I am very hurt that the authorities from all departments mistreat people who are living peacefully," one villager told VOA. "They were all armed. We would like to appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen, [Senate President] Chea Sim and [National Assembly President] Heng Samrin to help us have land for ourselves and live peacefully."

Hul Vantha, a local deputy police chief, said his forces acted according to the orders of Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak.

The governor could not be reached for comment.