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CAMBODIA: Two killed; several injured and arrested by force in operation of forced eviction in Preah Vihear

November 20, 2007

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

20 November 2007
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UA-325-2007: CAMBODIA: Two killed; several injured and arrested by force in operation of forced eviction in Preah Vihear

CAMBODIA: Extrajudicial killings; forced eviction; arbitrary arrest and detention; no investigation
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources that a mixed forces composing of civilian and military police and forestry officials carried out an eviction operation against 317 families in O Cheu Teal, Choam Ksarn district, Preah Vihear province on 15 November 2007. In the course of this forced eviction, two persons were killed and several were injured and arrested. The police force cremated one dead body without allowing his family to take it and another died of gun shot wounds in a hospital. While no investigation has been conducted yet, the affected people are living in fear of being further shootings or arrests. The police have claimed that it was 'for self-defence'.
 
CASE DETAILS: 

According to the information received, at around 8:30am on 15 November 2007 a mixed force composed of civilian police, military police and forestry officials, armed with assault rifles, altogether 283 men, mounted an assault to end the stand off between the public force and 317 families that started on the 10 November. The public force had been spread out to surround the area called O Cheu Teal some 15 km away from Sro-em village, Kantuot commune, Choam Ksarn dictrict in the northern province of Preah Vihear, with a view to evicting those families but the families in the area had been resisting forced eviction by the public force.

On November 15, the force started to put the families' huts and shelters on fire causing the explosion of a battery which is generally used for electricity. The Deputy-District Governor, Sar Sam Ol, who led that eviction operation with Pol Kham Narei, Deputy-Head of the Regional Forestry Department, and Kao Loung, the district governor of Chuam Kharn, claimed that the villagers resisted the eviction by firing shots in the direction of the public force. His force then fired shots at them "for self-defence", which caused deaths and injuries.

The public force then made arrests and rounded up hundreds of villagers, young and old alike, men and women, and bundled then into trucks to take them away to Sra-em village and Kor village 20 km away from O Cheu Teal, while all their huts, together with their belongings and food supplies, were burned down.

While forced eviction was operating, Mr. Oeurn En was shot dead on the spot and the public force cremated his corpse there without allowing his family to take it for traditional cremation. Ms. Toeung Chheng died of gun shot wounds in a hospital. It is also reported that seven were seriously injured, ten were arrested and others are facing arrest. It is feared that there might have been other deaths among the missing. The injured suffered broken limbs and were taken to the district and provincial hospitals. The rest have since been seeking shelter in other people's houses or under trees. They are living in fear of being killed or arrested.

In the commotion, families lost track of each other, children could not find their mothers, and mothers their children. Worse still, when brought to the new areas, they had lost everything and had nothing left to live on. They appealed for relief assistance including clothing, kitchen utensils and foodstuffs to live on.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 2002 a few families started to clear forests for settlement and cultivation. The number of settlers has grown over the years to 317 families in 2007. Those villagers then formed a community with Man Chan Than, the husband of the dead woman, and his two other brothers as leaders. In June 2006, on behalf of the community, he applied to the provincial authorities for the ownership of those cleared and settled plots of land. Clearing forests for settlement and cultivation was not anything unique in that particular province or in others.

On November 9, a public force were dispatched to O-Cheu Teal to evict those 317 families from the area which the authorities claimed belongs a leisure park and greenbelt next to the highlands on top of which is located the ancient Khmer temple of Preah Vihear next to the Thai border. The temple has special significance to the Cambodian nation after Cambodia won its dispute over its ownership with Thailand at the International Court of Justice. It has become a tourist attraction, however access to it from Thailand is easy while from Cambodia it is very difficult. Lately, the Cambodian government has requested UNESCO to recognize it as a world heritage and has preserved the surrounding areas for this purpose.

According to the leader of those families, Mann Chan Than, now arrested, the authorities wanted to have the area to sell to dishonest merchants. The veracity of this claim has yet to be verified. But the acquisition of forest land in that particular province since access roads opened some years ago has proceeded unabated. Along the roads, large swards of forests either side of those roads have been cleared for private land ownership, and owners of those large plots of land are predominantly senior government or provincial officials, military and civilian. Ownership by businessmen of part of those lands cannot be ruled out.

Those families, armed with knives, sticks and axes, stayed put to resist their forced evacuation, undeterred by the pressure. They felled trees and put them across the road at either end of a bridge to block the road leading to the Temple Preah Vihear, to put pressure on the public force, which aggravated the confrontation.

The Deputy-Provincial Governor claimed that those families were "anarchists" and had been "incited" to clear forests to have land for private ownership. The authorities have offered them alternative site for settlement, but all refused to accept it.

A deputy governor of that province, Meas Savoeun, may have consented to the clearance for settlement. Since then, Mann Chantha, the brother of Mann Chanthan, arrested in the forced eviction, and another man, Mok Meart, arrested on 14 November, on the eve of the fatal incident, were charged with infringement on public property, illicit forest clearance and incitement to people to settle in the concerned area.

The AHRC is of the view that the local authorities had failed to do discharge their duties right from the beginning. They should have begun any action when the number of people clearing that part of the forests was small and just beginning and offered them a commensurate alternative location. They failed to address the application for ownership of those plots of land that had been cleared for settlement and cultivation. They also failed to apply to the due process of the law to stop any further forest clearance in the area and elsewhere in the province.

The authorities used excessive force to evict those 317 families and failed to distinguish between the sound of an explosion and that of gun shots. They used that explosion as an excuse to forcibly carry out the eviction. The killing of at least the two known persons has not been justified on the grounds of self-defence. 

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send your letters to the authorities listed below to call for a thorough public enquiring into that particular forced eviction and the killing of Toeug Chheng and Oeun En and the injury inflicted to other people, urge them to bring the perpetrators to justice, release those arrested, end any pursuit of others, provide all help and assistance to assist them resettlement and cultivation to sustain their livelihood in areas acceptable to them.

To support this appeal, please click here:

Suggested letter:

Dear _______

CAMBODIA: Two killed; several injured and arrested by force in operation of forced eviction in Preah Vihear

Name of victims:
1. Mr. Oeurn En, shot dead; his dead body was cremated by the public force without family's consents
2. Ms. Toeung Chheng, died of gun shot wounds in a hospital
3. Seven villagers were seriously injured; Ten villagers arrested
Name of alleged perpetrators:
1. Sar Sam Ol, Deputy-District Governor
2. Pol Kham Narei, Deputy-Head of the Regional Forestry Department
3. Kao Loung, the district governor of Chuam Kharn
Date of incident: 15 November 2007
Place of incident: O Cheu Teal, some 15 kilo meters away from Sro-em village, Kantuot commune, Choam Ksarn dictrict in the northern province of Preah Vihear

I have learned with horror that, on 15 November 2007, two people had been killed, seven seriously injured, ten arrested, others facing arrest and others continuing to go into hiding in the jungle following a forced eviction of 317 families in an area called O Cheu Teal some 15 km away from Sro-em village, Kantuot commune, Choam Ksarn dictrict in the northern province of Preah Vihear. 

A man named Oeurn En was shot dead and the public force cremated the corpse on the spot without allowing his family to take it for traditional cremation. A woman named Toeung Chheng died of gun shot wounds in a hospital. It is feared that there might have been other deaths as many are still missing. The injured suffered broken limbs and were taken to the district and provincial hospitals. The rest have since been seeking shelter in other people houses or in the jungle. They have been dispossessed of all belongings including foodstuffs. They are living in fear of being shot dead or arrested.

Those 317 families were in dire need of food and shelter, land for settlement and cultivation to sustain their livelihood. Their needs are more pressing than those senior government officials and merchants who have also acquired land in the same province. The authorities seem to have acquiesced to such acquisition of land, demonstrated the lack of care for such people as those 317 evicted families.

They have failed to help such families to acquire their own land. They had to clear forests, as others had been doing, to have such land. If the authorities found, as they should have, that the first few families had cleared any preserved forests, they should have stopped them there and then, and offered alternative locations. Bloodshed would have been avoided.

I also notice that the same authorities failed to act on the application by those families for ownership of those plots of land that had been cleared. They also have failed to have recourse to the due process of law to stop any further forest clearance in the area and elsewhere in the province.

What I find horrible is the use of excessive force to evict those 317 families and the public force's failure to distinguish between the sound of an explosion and that of gun shots. This has led me to believe that the public force used the explosion as a convenient excuse to forcibly carry out the eviction. I hold that the killing of at least the two known persons had not been justified on the grounds of self-defence. 

I therefore strongly urge the concerned authorities provide immediate relief assistance to all evictees, and also shelters and land for settlement and cultivation in areas acceptable to them. They should release all those arrested without any charges.

I also strongly urge the Cambodian government to conduct a thorough public enquiry into this particular forced eviction and the killing of Toeug Chheng and Oeun En and the injuries inflicted onto other people. Perpetrators should be brought to justice.

This particular public enquiry should be conducted by an independent body, and I would find it very appropriate if the Prosecutor-General of the Court of Appeal is appointed to lead it. The Prosecutor-General already has power of supervision and control over the police, military police, and forestry officials and also provincial and district governors, and many of these officials had been involved in the forced eviction which caused the fatalities. His findings should be made public and recommendations issued from that public enquiry should be acted upon to avoid any repetition.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Cabinet of the Prime Minister
No. 38, Russian Federation Street
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Tel: +855 2321 9898
Fax: +855 23 36 0666
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 or moi@interior.gov.kh 

3. Mr. Ang Vong Vathna
Minster 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
Tel: +855 11 86 27 70
Fax: +855 23 21 66 22

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

6. Ms Margo Picken
Director
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Cambodia
N 10, Street 302
Sangkat Boeng Keng Kang I
Khan Chamcar Mon
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Tel: +855-23-987 671 / 987 672, 993 590 / 993 591 or +855 23 216 342
Fax: +855-23-212 579, 213 587

7. Mr. Douglas Gardner
UNDP resident Representative in Cambodia
Resident Coordinator of United Nations/ UNRC
NX 53, Pasteur Street, Boeung Keng Kang I,
Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia (P.O.Box 877)
Tel: +855-23-214371/214397/211240/211205/216167/216217/213094
Fax: +855-23 216257/721 042/216 863/210 214

8. Prof. Yash Ghai
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia
Attn: Ms. Afarin Shahidzadeh
Room 3-080
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 91 79214
Fax: +41 22 91 79018 (ATTENTION: SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE CAMBODIA)

9. Professor Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXECUTIONS)

10. Mr. Miloon Kothari
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
Room 4-066/010
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211, Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9265
Fax: +41 22 917 9010 (ATTENTION: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ADEQUATE HOUSING)

11. Ms. Leila Zerrougui
Chairperson
Working Group on arbitrary detention
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTENTION: WORKING GROUP ARBITRARY DETENTION)

Thank you.

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

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-325-2007
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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.