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CAMBODIA: Police assault a man in Battambang province

October 13, 2008

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-227-2008

13 October 2008
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CAMBODIA: Police assault a man in Battambang province

ISSUES: Ill treatment; police assault; corruption
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that seven police officers assaulted a man and his daughter when they arrested him near a garden in Battambang city, Battambang province on October 2, 2008. He was severely injured due to the beatings and when he was brought to the hospital, the police forced a doctor to fabricate the medical report.

CASE DETAILS: (Based on the information received from Heng Say Hong, LICADHO human Rights NGO, Battambang)

At 8pm on October 2, Ros Sitha, selling fresh sugar cane juice, stopped his hawker's cart to serve a customer. This was in a garden named Sar Kheng Garden in Rumcheck IV village, Rattanak commune, Battambang district, Battambang province. There were other street venders in the same place also hawking and selling food and beverages.
 
Suddenly, as Ros began to serve his customer, a group of seven police officers, the leader of whom was armed with a pistol, seized his motorcycle-cart together with all the equipment on it. They loaded all of it into their truck.

Ros refused to let go of his belongings and a struggle ensued. Kha Khauy, the police team leader, punched Ros in the face several times. When Ros fell down, he kicked him on his left side. Ros's daughter Ros Sa-ang, 18, who was with her father, was then grabbed by yet another police officer and had her arm twisted to prevent her from helping her father. Other hawkers came to their assistance but were turned back by the police.

The police subdued Ros and took him together with his cart, equipment and sugar cane sticks to the headquarters in the district of Battambang.  Ros was crying because of the acute pain on the left side of his chest. When they realized that Ros had sustained serious injuries they sent him for medical treatment at a charity hospital called Emergency. They told the doctor that Ros was drunk, had fallen from a vehicle and was arrested for the second time for drunkenness. They ordered the doctor to cite these things in his statement on Ros's injuries.

Ros was released after being examined. In the morning, still suffering from the same severe chest, he went to a private clinic in town. An X-ray revealed that one of his ribs on the left side was fractured.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

In early September 2008 the Battambang district authorities convened a meeting with street venders doing their trade in and about Sar Kheng Garden. They ordered them to end their trade there so that public order and tidiness could be sustained in the garden area. The seven police officers apparently went to enforce this order. However, since there were still venders around the garden on the night of 2 October, enforcement was ineffective. Furthermore, a local newspaper wrote that the order from the district authorities was used by the police "to arrest venders to extort bribes" from them.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities below, requesting them to investigate this police brutality againt Ros Sitha and his daughter. Ask that action be taken against the perpetrators and deploy other effective measures to prevent such brutality in the future.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear_______ ,

CAMBODIA: Police assault a man in Battambang province

Names of victim: Ros Sitha, 48, a sugar cane juice hawker; his daughter Ros Sa-ang, 18, Rumcheck IV village, Rattanak commune, Battambang district, Battambang province
Names of alleged perpetrators: Kha Khauy, police lieutenant, and other six police officers of the Battambang district police
Scene of incident: Sar Kheng Garden, Rumcheck IV village, Battambang district
Date of incident: at 8pm on 2 October 2008

I am writing to express my deep concern over a brutal assault by seven police officers on a hawker and his daughter in Sar Kheng Garden, on 2 October 2008.

According to the information that I have received, at around 8pm on that day, Ros Sitha, 48, a hawker selling fresh sugar cane juice stopped his cart to serve a customer in the garden where other street venders were also selling food and beverages.

Suddenly, as Rose began to serve his customer, seven police officers, the leader of whom was armed with a pistol, seized Ros's motorcycle cart together with all the equipment on it. They loaded it all into their truck. Ros refused to let go of his belongings. A struggle ensued in which Kha Khauy, the police team leader, punched Ros in the face several times. When Ros fell down, he kicked him on his left side.  Ros's daughter Ros Sa-ang, 18, who was with her father was grabbed by yet another police officer who twisted her arm to prevent her from helping her father. Other hawkers also came to their assistance but were turned away by the police. 

The police subdued Ros and took him, together with his cart, equipment and sugar cane sticks to headquarters in the Battambang district. There Ros was crying out because of the acute pain on the left side of his chest. When they realized that Ros had sustained serious injuries the police sent him to a charity hospital called Emergency for treatment. There they told the doctor that Ros was drunk, had fallen from a vehicle and was arrested for the second time for drunkenness. They ordered the doctor to cite these things in his medical statement on Ros's injuries.

Ros was released after being examined. In the morning, still continuing to have severe chest pain, he went to a private clinic in town. An X-ray, revealed that one of his ribs on the left side was fractured.

I therefore request you to investigate this brutal police treatment of Ros Sitha, and take action against the perpetrators and deploy other effective measures to prevent such brutality in the future.

I trust you will consider my above request in a positive light.

Yours sincerely,

___
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. Ang Vong Vathna
Minister of Justice
No 240, Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 36 4119 / 21 6622
E-mail: moj@cambodia.gov.kh

4. 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

5. General Hok Lundy
National Police Commissioner
General-Commisariat of National Police
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 22 09 52
Tel: +855 23 21 65 85

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-227-2008
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.