Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Reactions to the Arrest of Two Human Rights Organization Officials Who Are Accused by the Authorities and a Court to Be Troublemakers - Tuesday 2.12.2

Posted on 3 December 2008

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 589

“The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association – ADHOC – released an announcement about the arrest of Mr. Sven Vev and of Mr. Yang Than, volunteer human rights activists of ADHOC in Ratanakiri on 27 November 2008. The announcement condemns the activities of the Ratanakiri authorities and the court that arrested two human rights activists of ADHOC for the Lumphat district in Ratanakiri. The arrest is considered by ADHOC to be an unjust act to intimidate human rights activists and to break the determination of the minority tribespeople who protect the forest land of their community that is violated by dishonest merchants with the support and collusion of some persons in authority.

“At 5:00 p.m. of 27 November 2008, Mr. Sven Vev, 36, and Mr. Yang Than, 43, representing 136 families in Ba Tang village and commune, Lumphat, Ratanakiri, were summoned by the Ratanakiri court for direct questioning about a land dispute in Ba Tang. After the court finished asking about the land dispute (which is a civil case), it ordered police to arrest both of them and had them handcuffed; when both shouted, ‘Very unjust, help!’ immediately police grabbed their necks, and a co-prosecutor rolled up paper and forced it into their mouths, so that they could not shout. This cruel torture was committed by both persons of authority [police and prosecutor] against these human rights defenders.

“Seeing such cruel and unjust actions, around 40 citizens, who accompanied them and who were standing outside, rushed in to drag their representatives out from the court, though they were handcuffed, but they were hit by the police, then, they responded by hitting back so that they could take their representatives out of the court. The violent exchange between the citizens and the police lasted almost 10 minutes. But after that, the police could arrest Yang Than by shouting, ‘Arrest this motorbike robber!’ This accusation is a distortion of the truth by the state organ of the police, a blatant fraud and abuse of trust in the sate. Also, police cruelly hit and tormented some activists; furthermore, they incited other citizens to join in hitting the victim [whom the police had accused to be motorcycle thieves – and such situations lead frequently to lynchings]. After that, police put the victim into a car to bring him to a police office, and then to the Ratanakiri prison. They even severely hit the victim in the car. As for the other activist, he managed to escape safely so the police could not hold him.

“ADHOC considers the arrest of the two human rights activists as unjust and inhuman actions of the Ratanakiri police and court, they are bad and are directed against the right implementation of the law. These activities are to intimidate human rights activists, to` destroy activities promoting human rights, and to break the citizens’ determination, while they dare to protest and to prevent the intrusion into, and the violation of forest lands of the minority tribespeople’s communities. This happens almost in all districts of Ratanakiri. ADHOC investigated this case and had found that the land dispute between the Ba Tang community and the company of the DM Group started since 2003, and the citizens had lodged complaints to the authorities and to the court, but there was no solution, beside forcing some citizens to take small amounts of money in exchange for agreeing to deliver the land to the company. This company cleared many hectares of crop of the minority tribespeople, and felled high value luxury wood trees on hundreds of hectares. The citizens sued, but there was no solution at all.

“This shows that the court and the authorities of this province do not care to investigate illegal logging, which is a serious crime and is against the policy of the Royal Government. On the contrary, the company sued two representatives of the people at the Ratanakiri court for destroying public assets and for blocking the DM Group’s work to plant rubber trees. But the court of this province used very bad tricks to cheat and to arrest them without any reason.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6514, 2.12.2008
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Tuesday, 2 December 2008

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