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GENERAL APPEAL (Cambodia) : Police suppressed freedom of assembly and expression in Rattanakiri Province

December 3, 2007

URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL URGENT APPEAL GENERAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal General

3 December 2007
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UG-010-2007: CAMBODIA: Police suppressed freedom of assembly and expression in Rattanakiri Province

 CAMBODIA: Denial of freedom of expression & assembly
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 Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), human rights organization in Cambodia that police force prevented the holding of a public forum which CCHR organised on 27 November 2007 in Rattanakiri province. The police set up a roadblock to prevent the organizers from entering the place so that the forum was not held. Even though the villagers were unable to enter the venue, they started speaking with the organisers about the land grabbing in their area that had affected their livelihoods.

CASE DETAILS:

On 18 November 2007, CCHR informed the commune, district and provincial authorities of its plan to organise a public forum on 27 November 2007 in Kong Yuk village, Patey commune, O Yadao District in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri. The commune chief, Sev Ngang, gave a positive reply welcoming the forum. The district authorities did not reply. The provincial governor replied with a "disagreement" with the forum on the grounds of "insecurity" in the area, which was not justified based on the real situation, according to the organisers.

CCHR invited relevant officials and Members of Parliaments (MPs), but none replied to their invitation, except the Patey commune chief. CCHR also proceeded to disseminate information on its forum in and around Kong Yuk village and invited villagers to participate in it. It then got a make-shift meeting hall built with cover and floor mats for participants and invited guests.

All was set for the forum to be open, and in the morning of November 27 some 300 villagers arrived at the venue ready for debates and discussions. However, before the opening of the forum, the local police, without issuing any ban notice to the CCHR organisers, dispatched a force of nine officers, some of whom were armed with assault rifles to the access road some 3 kilometers away from the venue. This group set up a roadblock with their car and two motorcycles to bar CCHR organizers from making their way and bringing their audio equipment to the forum.

The O Yadao district police chief, Ma Vicheth, said that the police action is well warranted when "the organizers had not informed the local authorities." However, the Patey commune chief contradicted Ma Vicheth's allegation, saying that "the organizers had informed the district authorities and these authorities gave them authorisation."

CCHR Director Ou Virak tried to talk with the police on the spot and then called Police Inspector Ma Vicheth to get the police to remove the roadblock so that the organizers could proceed to the forum with all the equipment and the forum could begin. During the negotiations some 100 villagers were walking from the venue to join the organizers at the police roadblock to request the police to remove the roadblock and allow the organisers to proceed to the forum. Those villagers offered to carry all the equipment if the police did not allow the organizers' vehicle in. 

Upon learning about the arrival of those villagers, Ma Vicheth charged that Ou Virak had incited the villagers to stage a demonstration without authorization and threatened to arrest him for such incitement. Unable to persuade the police to remove the road block Ou Virak gave up and cancelled the forum. But at that road block those villagers were nevertheless voicing in front of the CCHR organisers their grievances against land grabbing in their area that had affected their livelihood. The organizers simply recorded those grievances to air on their radio programme.

When asked about the police action, a representative of the villagers said it was a violation the rights and freedoms of the people meant to cover up corruption among local officials who colluded to sell the community land of the indigenous people. He said: "they shut the forum and they deny the rights of the people."

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-governmental human rights organisation. It has been organising public forums in different localities around the country to enable people in and around those localities to debate and address local, regional and national issues together with relevant local, district, provincial and government officials, and also their Members of Parliaments (MPs), all whom it invite for the occasion.

During each forum, it sets strict rules of order for speakers to "take the floor" in turn in the pre-set time allocated to each speaker, on the first-come, first-served basis, to ensure fairness and allow everyone to have a voice if they so wish. The full length of each forum will then be broadcast on a number of radio stations whose airtime CCHR has bought.

Rattanakiri province where the forum was due to take place is a remote northeastern province bordering Laos and Vietnam. It is sparsely populated, and its population is mainly composed of different groups of indigenous people. All these people have a tradition of communal land ownership which the Cambodian Land Law recognizes and protects.

Over the past ten years or so there has been a continuous acquisition of land in that province "for development purposes", especially by the rich and the powerful after the opening of roads to that province. This acquisition has affected the communal ownership of those people and reduced their "living space" where many of them still practice slash and burn cultivation.  Because of an ineffective enforcement of the Land Law, abuse of power and corruption of local officials, an increasing number of large areas of land in that province have been acquired as private property by powerful and rich people. Communal land has increasingly been and those indigenous people's livelihood is being threatened.

In that particular area where the public forum was to be held, those indigenous people have been affected by a case of alleged land grabbing by a lady dignitary named Keat Kolney who is the wife of Chann Saphann, a Secretary of State for Land Management Urban Planning and Construction and the sister of Finance Minister Keat Chhon. The affected villagers have been protesting against this landgrabbing for some time. They wanted to participate in the planned forum to voice their side of the story and appeal to the government to protect their communal land.

Cambodia has a history of grave violations of human rights, and to prevent the repetition of this history it has undertaken, as its international human rights obligations, to ensure respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms. It has adhered to all international human rights norms and standards and incorporated them into its constitution.

The AHRC has learned that back in September the same local authorities and police had banned a seminar forum a radio NGO called Voice of Democracy had organized in the same locality. The Cambodian authorities have practically banned all public demonstrations since 2003, and have also banned or disrupted many of public forums organized by CCHR and Voice of Democracy.

The AHRC deplores the action taken by the authorities of Rattanakiri province and by the police of O Yadao district in particular for their suppression of freedom of assembly and expression which is a constitutional right Cambodian citizens. Action should be taken against the police of O Yadao district and effective measures should also be taken to prevent any repetition of such suppression.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send your letters to the authorities listed below to call for action to stop all action to suppress freedom of assembly and expression in Cambodia. The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Representatives of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia and UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression calling for their intervention into this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

Suggested letter

Dear_________

CAMBODIA: Police suppressed freedom of assembly and expression in Rattanakiri Province

I am writing to you to express my deep concern about the suppression of the constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression of the villagers of Kong Yuk village, Patey commune, O Yadao District in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri on 27 November 2007 by the Cambodian authorities and the police of the locality.

I have learned that those villagers, altogether some 300 of them, are indigenous people. They went to participate in a public forum organized by an NGO called the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) with a view to expressing their views and positions on a pending landgrabbing case which was badly affecting their livelihood.

Those villagers had already been at the forum when a police force composed of nine officers, some of whom were armed with assault rifles, was dispatched to set up a roadblock with their car and two motorcycles some 3 kilometers away from the forum to stop CCHR officials, the organizers, and bar them from traveling with all their equipment to that forum. Some 100 villagers walked down from the forum to request the police to remove the roadblock. They even offered to carry that equipment if the organizers were not allowed to drive their vehicle with the equipment to the forum.

It is shocking to learn that, not only the police inspector named Ma Vicheth rejected the request from both the organizers and the villagers, but he took their gathering at that place as a demonstration and threatened to arrest CCHR Director Ou Virak for inciting those villagers to stage it without authorisation. After exhausting all means to persuade the police to remove the road block, the organizers had to cancel the forum.

The police action was tantamount not only to stopping that forum but to suppressing the rights of those villagers to freedom of assembly and expression as guaranteed by the Constitution of Cambodia and by the international human rights instruments to which Cambodia is a party.

I strongly urge you to take action against the police inspector of O Yadao district for the suppression of these constitutional rights of Cambodian citizens and also effective measures to prevent such suppression in future.

I trust you will take this proposed action and measures.

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

Thank you.

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

CAMBODIA: Denial of freedom of expression & assembly
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Document Type :
Urgent Appeal General
Document ID :
UG-010-2007
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.