Very recently, the Cambodian authorities at two different locations took action to ban peaceful public demonstrations of the people as they wanted to express themselves against the wrongdoings affecting their livelihood.
On 12 May 2008 fifteen indigenous minority associations in the northeastern province of Rattanakiri sought permission from the provincial authorities to hold a seminar and, at the end of it, organize a procession in the provincial capital, Banlung. Their purpose for both functions was to urge the provincial authorities to enforce laws and execute Prime Minister Hun Sen’s orders to take action against deforestation and illegal acquisition of woodlands for private ownership.
Those indigenous minorities have been badly affected by such deforestation and acquisition of land that have dramatically diminished their community forests and lands and have adversely affected their livelihood and culture. Those minorities practice slash and burn cultivation and gather forest products to make a living, and their way of life requires vast areas of forest and land. The countrys land law has recognized their communal ownership of land which include the land and woodlands in their areas. Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an order to all authorities respectively in June 2004 and September 2006 to take action against deforestation and illegal acquisition of woodlands for private ownership.
However, on 16 May, the provincial authorities allowed those associations to hold the seminar but banned the organization of any procession without giving any reason for the ban.
On the same day in the same province, the authorities of Voeun Say district refused with a red pen to permit a local human rights activist named Khum Samret to enlist the participation of local officials and people in the same endeavour to prevent deforestation and acquisition of woodlands for private ownership. With the same arbitrariness, they would allow no one in their district to take part in this activity.
Meanwhile, on 14 May, the immigration police on the Thai-Cambodian border in Poipet Commune, O Chroeu district in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, arrested and held a man named Morng Puthy, head of Independent and Democratic Informal Economy Association (IDEA), for several hours for distributing leaflets to enlist peoples support for and participation in a peaceful demonstration planned for 16 May.
According to the organizers, the public demonstration was aimed at demanding the lowering of prices, a pay increase for public officials, clear customs duty rates, and an end to border public officials extortion of people crossing the border or working around the border post. All the grievances are well known in that border town. Many migrant workers, tourists, traders, and transport workers have to bribe border officials every time they cross that border checkpoint to or from Thailand, especially to and from the Thai market across the bridge from the Cambodian side of the border.
On 16 May, IDEA went ahead with its planned demonstration. Despite fears of police action, some 100 people including goods cart pushers, taxi-motorcyclists, motorised-rickshaw drivers, and petty traders joined in. But the authorities posted a mixed, civilian and military police force of some 65 men armed with assault rifles some 100 meters away from the beginning of the procession route to block the procession and prevent the demonstrators from marching to the center of Poipet town.
For both Morng Puthys arrest and the blocking of the demonstration the police said that staging any protest without permission was “illegal” and the demonstration “could cause turmoil to the society”. However, the organizers said that they had already sought permission from the commune and district authorities on 6 May 2008.
Staging peaceful public demonstrations and persuading people to join in a legitimate activity such as to prevent deforestation and acquisition of woodlands for private ownership is one form of exercising the right to freedom of expression and assembly. This right is among all the human rights that Cambodia has undertaken to observe and respect as part of its obligations under the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991. All these human rights are binding on Cambodia as its Constitution of 1993 has recognized and as its Constitutional Council has confirmed in its ruling dated 11 July 2007.
Both actions are not illegal. Nor the invocation that such actions could cause turmoil to the society or were a breach of the peace is justified when there was no evidence to suggest such turmoil or breach of the peace was imminent.
The ban on the two peaceful public demonstrations in Poipet town in Banteay Meanchey province and in Banlung in Rattanakiri province as well as the ban on the enlisting of support for and participation in an activity to prevent deforestation in Voeun Say district are but violations of the constitutional right to freedom of expression and assembly of the Cambodian people. They have also violated the international human rights norms and standards Cambodia has adhered to.
The Cambodian government must therefore honour its human rights obligations and ensure full observance of and respect for all human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and assembly in the form of peaceful public demonstrations or enlisting support for and participation in a legitimate activity.
