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CAMBODIA: Military police commander assaults a man in Stung Treng province

November 24, 2007

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal


 
24 November 2007
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UA-329-2007: CAMBODIA: Military police commander assaults a man in Stung Treng province

CAMBODIA: Assault; abuse of power; no investigation; impunity
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources that a military police commander assaulted a man in Stung Treng province on 16 November 2007. The victim suffered injuries to his leg as a result of the assault. It is reported that the commander has a prior record of assault by using his position and a case was filed six month ago. However, to date, no investigation has been conducted.

CASE DETAILS:

There was a traditional religious fete at the Buddhist monastery of Tuol Roluos, Pha Baing village, Seang pang District in the northeastern province of Stung Treng on 16 November 2007 which was followed by a dance.

At around 10:30pm while the dance was going on, Nou Say Bun went up and requested a song from the head of the musicians. According to eye witnesses, he was slightly drunk. Sim Vanna, a District Military Police Commander, in plain clothes who was there at the time told Nou Say Bun off. Sim Vanna was prominent in the area and villagers known him to be a District Military Police Commander. A quarrel ensued and soon, Sim Vanna slapped and kicked Nou Say Bun for some time. The correct action was to have called the police to settle the dispute but it is believed that Sim Vanna abuses his position by assaulting Nou Say Bun under the pretext of subduing him. As a result of this assault, Nou Say Bun suffered injuries to his leg. Many other villagers witnessed the assault.

Nou Say Bun is now seeking assistance from a local NGO to file a criminal lawsuit against to Sim Vanna to seek justice.
 
However, it is reported that this is not the first incident of assault by Sim Vanna by abusing his power and position as a commander. According to Say Saly, another villager in the area has claimed that, Sim Vanna had assaulted him after a quarrel over luxurious wood trading. He had filed a criminal lawsuit but, to date, no action has been taken.

The AHRC is concerned by the assault of villagers by the District Military Police Commander. Legal or disciplinary action must be taken against Sim Vanna if these assaults on the villagers prove true. The AHRC is concerned that even though the victim has filed a case against the commander, there will be no thorough and impartial investigation into the assault by the commander due to his misuse of his position and power.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send your letters to the authorities listed below to call for action against Sim Vanna to find justice for Nou Say Bun and also Say Saly.

To support this appeal, please click here: 

Suggested letter:

Dear _______

CAMBODIA: A military police commander assaulted a man in Stung Treng province

Name of victims and date of incident:
1. Mr. Nou Say Bun, assaulted, slapped and kicked about, 16 November 2007
2. Mr. Say Saly, assaulted, slapped and beaten, May 2007
Name of alleged perpetrator: Sim Vanna, District Military Police Commander
Place of recent incident: Phar Baing village, Thmar Keo commune, Seang Pang district, Stung Treng province

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the assault of a man by a District Military Police Commander in Stung Treng province on 16 November 2007.

I am informed that at 10:30pm, in a dance following a religious fete in Tuol Rorluos monastery, Thmar Keo commune, Seang Pang district in the northeastern province of Stung Treng, the military police commander of the district named Sim Vanna abused his power when he assaulted a villager name Nou Say Bun, 46, slapping and kicking him about. Sim Vanna assaulted Nou Say Bun after a quarrel when Nou Say Bun went up to request a song from the head of the music group for the dance. Nou Say Bun suffered injuries to his leg as a result of the kicks.

I am also informed that the commander had also assaulted another villager named Say Saly six months earlier following a quarrel over luxurious wood trading. Say Saly filed a criminal lawsuit against the commander but to date no action has been taken against Sim Vanna.

Therefore, I strongly urged you to take both disciplinary and legal action against Sim Vanna to find justice for his victims by thorough and impartial investigation if the assaults on villagers prove true. I am of the opinion that he is not fit to serve the military police force because he has record of violence. If he continues serving the military police, he should be sent to undergo rigorous retraining to rid of his violence and become a military police officer who will serve and protect the people, not assault them.

I trust that you will take immediate action into this case.

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. Tea banh
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of National Defence
Russian Federation Street
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Tel: +855-23 883184 / 428171
Fax: +855-23 883184
E-mail: info@mond.gov.kh

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. General Sao Sokha
Commander
Military Police
Mao Tse Tung Blvd
Khan Tuol Kok
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
Tel: +855 12 36 3636

8. Mr. Christophe Peschoux
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

9 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)

Thank you.

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

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-329-2007
Countries :
Issues :
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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.