AP News, May 17, 2012
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Security forces sealed off a village in eastern Cambodia and denied entry to human rights workers Thursday after the fatal shooting of a teenager in the latest violent eviction aimed at clearing land for development.
Soldiers said they needed to secure the area around Proma village, in eastern Kratie province, to continue a search for five accused ringleaders of a clash with security forces a day earlier, said Chan Soveth, a prominent investigator with Cambodian human rights group Adhoc.
He said that journalists and human rights activists were initially pushed to an area 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the village but then pushed farther back, raising concerns about the soldiers’ conduct and the safety of the villagers.
The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement alleging that the protesters were an “anarchic group” trying to set up a self-governing zone outside the law. It accused the protesters of abducting two soldiers and seizing their weapons.
Cambodia’s system of commercial land concessions, decried by activists as opaque and corrupt, has become a volatile issue nationwide and prompted a U.N. inquiry. Last month, a high-profile activist was slain by a military policeman after investigating illegal logging in a forest concession.
On Wednesday, about 400 police and soldiers raided the settlement in Kratie province after community leaders rejected demands to vacate their farmland for several months, officials said. The security forces clashed with about 200 villagers armed with axes, crossbows and sticks. A 15-year-old girl was critically wounded in the confrontation and later died at a hospital, said provincial Gov. Sar Chamrong.
“The soldiers told us we were not allowed to go inside to see the situation, ” Chan Soveth said Thursday. “We don’t know what is happening inside. We are concerned for the safety of the villagers.”
He said that villagers who exited the security perimeter were carefully searched before being allowed to return home.
Authorities say the land is owned by the government, but the activists say the previously state-owned land already has been awarded to a Russian company to be developed as a plantation. Villagers who have been farming the land for years say they have nowhere else to go.
The incident is the latest fallout from widespread evictions and land grabs that have sparked unrest nationwide, with deadly force sometimes employed by both public and private security forces.
Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive a week ago suspending new land concessions to private companies and ordering a review of existing ones. The move was announced during a visit by a U.N. human rights envoy who warned that land disputes in Cambodia must be resolved fairly and peacefully.
He said that journalists and human rights activists were initially pushed to an area 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the village but then pushed farther back, raising concerns about the soldiers’ conduct and the safety of the villagers.
The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement alleging that the protesters were an “anarchic group” trying to set up a self-governing zone outside the law. It accused the protesters of abducting two soldiers and seizing their weapons.
Cambodia’s system of commercial land concessions, decried by activists as opaque and corrupt, has become a volatile issue nationwide and prompted a U.N. inquiry. Last month, a high-profile activist was slain by a military policeman after investigating illegal logging in a forest concession.
On Wednesday, about 400 police and soldiers raided the settlement in Kratie province after community leaders rejected demands to vacate their farmland for several months, officials said. The security forces clashed with about 200 villagers armed with axes, crossbows and sticks. A 15-year-old girl was critically wounded in the confrontation and later died at a hospital, said provincial Gov. Sar Chamrong.
“The soldiers told us we were not allowed to go inside to see the situation, ” Chan Soveth said Thursday. “We don’t know what is happening inside. We are concerned for the safety of the villagers.”
He said that villagers who exited the security perimeter were carefully searched before being allowed to return home.
Authorities say the land is owned by the government, but the activists say the previously state-owned land already has been awarded to a Russian company to be developed as a plantation. Villagers who have been farming the land for years say they have nowhere else to go.
The incident is the latest fallout from widespread evictions and land grabs that have sparked unrest nationwide, with deadly force sometimes employed by both public and private security forces.
Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive a week ago suspending new land concessions to private companies and ordering a review of existing ones. The move was announced during a visit by a U.N. human rights envoy who warned that land disputes in Cambodia must be resolved fairly and peacefully.
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