GENERAL APPEAL (Cambodia): Forcible eviction and blockade of food supplies against the villagers in Kompong Thom province

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by a blockade of food supplies set up by the Cambodian authorities to force 180 families of disabled war veterans, widows and orphans out of their homes and lands at Kro-Year commune, Santuk district, Kompong province, in a forced eviction to hand over the land to a rubber company. This violation to the right of access to food began on 10 January 2008 when these vulnerable people had protested against their eviction.

CASE DETAILS: (based on the information from Kim Kheang, president of Disable War Veterans Association for Agricultural Development and Chhuon Roun, representative of LICADHO human rights NGO in Kompong Thom province)

The Cambodian government made a concession of 8000 hectares of land to a company to plant rubber trees in a remote area called Banteay Lo-Ngeang in Kro-Year commune, Santuk commune, Kompong province in central Cambodia, some 37 kilometers away from the nearest town called Kompong Thmar on Highway 6 crossing the province from Phnom Penh to the historical town of Sieamreap in the northwest. A war veteran named Kim Kheang founded an association called ‘Disabled War Veterans Association for Agricultural Development’. Members of this association and other people, originally 357 families, with due approval by the chief of the Kro-Year commune named Keo Chheng and the governor of Santuk district at the time named Kim Vasy, cleared the forests for cultivation in 2003. Altogether they have occupied 800 hectares.

In the meantime, the Cambodian government has made a concession of 8000 hectares of land to a company called Tan Bien Company for planting rubber trees. This land overlaps the land that those people have occupied. In August 2007 the new district governor named Sok Kheang called a meeting with Kim Kheang and other fellow settlers with a view to finding a compromise. But no compromise was then reached.

Then, on 10 January 2008, to Kim Kheang’s surprise, a mixed force composed of altogether 36 military, civilian police, military police and forestry officers, armed with assault rifles, was posted along the only access road to the community to seal it off from the rest of the country, to force the people out of their lands. 180 out of those 357 families remained and protested against their eviction.

Those settlers have been allowed out but not allowed to return to their community. Nor have they been allowed to secure food supplies from outside either, which puts them in danger of starvation since they have not been able as yet to grow their basic foodstuffs in their area. Furthermore, those officers have put pressure on them to leave their homes and lands, threatening to burn down their homes and arrest their leader, Kim Kheang.

The AHRC holds that the Cambodian authorities have used food as an instrument of political and economic pressure to evict those disabled war veterans, widows and orphans action from their homes and lands when they have not been able to grow any food as yet on their lands. Their blockade of food supplies to that community is a gross violation of the right to food and, if leading to starvation and death, is nothing but torture itself. Their action is very against an obligation to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which the government of Cambodia is a state party to. It is an obligation for state parties to respect the right to access to food and not to take any measures that result in preventing this access as interpreted in General Comment No. 12 (1999) on the right to adequate food as stipulated in Article 11 of the Covenant.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Lately, Cambodian authorities and land grabbing companies have used blockades of access roads in forced evictions as a war of attrition to make life so difficult for recalcitrant evictees and wear them out so much so that they have to accept any compensation they are offered and move out of their homes and lands.

On 16 December 2007, a development company sent around 30 workers to wall up the entire Dey Krahorm zone in Phnom Penh by building corrugated plates around it, fencing off houses that belong to the residents, and blocking off all access roads to it. The purpose was to force the residents to accept the company’s offer of compensation and move out of their homes. The residents thwarted its attempt. On 6 and 7 January 2007 it again sent its workers to barricade all access roads to the zone with oil drums filled with water and prevent supplies to the market located inside the zone. This attempt again failed when the residents succeeded in removing the barricade.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below to urge them to lift the blockade of food supplies to that community of disabled war veterans, widows and orphans as this blockade is a violation of the right to access to food stipulated in Article 11 of the International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The AHRC writes separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on right to food and Representatives to the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia calling for their intervention in this matter.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER