Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information that trials have begun against several poverty-stricken villagers who were charged with robbery for stealing scrap rubber left uncollected on the ground at a state rubber plantation of Krek, in Pohnea Krek district, Kompong Cham province, Cambodia. The AHRC reported this case earlier in July that eight villagers, including two women and two minor girls, were arrested in June and about twenty more in July in connection with this accusation. All of them have since been charged with theft or robbery (See further: UA-242-2006).
According to the latest information we have received, three women out of the eight villagers arrested in June had been tried by the Kompong Cham Provincial Court on 2 August 2006. They are Ms. Soeun Phou (25), the mother of two, Ms. Van Sary (36) the mother of three, and Miss. Soeun Vy (20), unmarried woman. The court sentenced them to suspended six-month imprisonment with five-year probation. After the court order, the three women were released from prison after being detained for nearly two months. There is no news yet as to when the other five arrested in June and the twenty-eight others arrested in July will be tried in court.
The three women are among the 400 to 500 landless families living in the area who are extremely poor. Due to harsh life, they were forced to gather scrap rubber to sell in order to avoid starvation. Furthermore, they were gathering rubber that had been left on the ground uncollected by the plantation company. Those arrested were the poorest people who allegedly could not afford to pay a bribe to the plantation guards. According to the information we have received, the guards usually released villagers after receiving 2,000-3,000 riels (USD 0.50 – 0.75) in bribes.
The AHRC has maintained its position from the beginning of the incident that these poverty-stricken villagers should have not been arrested in the first place and least of all brought to court to face trials. Instead of taking such drastic measures, the authorities should have met their right to life by providing them land and creating jobs for them to make a living. In addition, to date no investigation has been launched into the alleged extortion of bribes from those accused by officials of the court of Kompong Cham province.
The AHRC again urge you to write to the Cambodian authorities regarding this matter. Please urge them to investigate the alleged extortion of those arrested at that rubber plantation and to urgently heed the poverty-stricken villagers’ appeal for land for cultivation and steady jobs so that they will not have to go and gather scrap rubber to defend themselves against starvation.
For sample letters, detailed contacts of Cambodian authorities and full details of the case, please visit the original appeal: UA-242-2006.
To send appeal letters to the Cambodian authorities, please click: 
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
