CAMBODIA: Police pressurise officer to relinquish his rights in a land dispute in Rattanakiri province

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the police in Rattanakiri province have applied disciplinary measures to pressurize one of its officers named Sven Vev to stop joining a collective action against the grabbing of his indigenous community’s land and forests in Tapang village, Lumpat district in that province. Sven fears arrest now that he has defied that pressure.

CASE DETAILS: (Based on the information received from Pen Bunnar, ADHOC, Rattnakiri; Sven Vev, Lumphat, Rattanakiri)

Sven Vev, a police officer in Lumphat district, Rattanakiri province, is a member of the indigenous community of about 100 families living in Tapang village, Tapang commune, Lumphat district in that province. Since 2005 this community has been protesting against the grabbing of its community land and forests of altogether 300 hectares by a private company called DM Group.  Sven has been involved in this protest right from the beginning.

DM Group allegedly had two bodyguards and a relative of Prime Minister Hun Sen to protect its land clearance work in May 2008. These bodyguards have threatened to arrest villagers who dare put any resistance against this work (see: AHRC-UAG-007-2008).

The National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution went to resolve this dispute twice: on May 31 where it did not allow the villagers’ representatives to argue their case while giving all latitude to the company’s representatives; on June 12 where it forced them to sign an agreement on derisory compensation, which they refused to do. The villagers wanted their land back and they have continued their protest.

On June 17, Sven was summoned to appear before the police discipline council of the province. The provincial police commissioner, Hor Ang, chaired the meeting which lasted over an hour. Fearing that he would be arrested on the spot for disobeying order, Sven forced himself to sign the minute of that council’s meeting. This minute says, among other things, he has agreed to accept a plot of land in compensation and desist from joining his community to continue the protest.

The provincial police commissioner, Hor Ang, said that the police had helped find a plot of land for him in compensation so that Sven would not have to get himself involved with that group of protesters. He had already successfully coerced two other police officers to accept the offer and stop joining the protest. Apparently Hor has not acted on his own to pressurize these two police offers and Sven.

Sven said later that he had not failed in his police duty or had not done anything wrong that had brought disrepute to his police force. He had joined the protest as a private citizen and a member of his community without any police uniform on, for the common interest of his community, against the company’s grabbing of its land and forests.

Sven has now filed a complaint against the minute of the provincial police discipline council to the Ministry of Interior, but he has received summons to appear at the office of the police commissioner, which he feels as harassments.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

This is yet another of senior police officers using the discipline of the force to coerce one of its members to give up his rights in a land dispute. Last February, in the sea resort town of Kep, a police officer was tortured for defying orders from his superiors to give up his land to a senior member of the government (see:  AHRC-UAU-012-2008 and AHRC-UAC-045-2008).

Land grabbing is a serious issue in Cambodia. It has arisen out of land disputes between the rich and powerful people on the one hand and the poorer and weaker people on the other. Over recent years it has affected the livelihood of many people across the country. In Rattanakiri province and an adjacent province in the northeast of the country, it has affected even more the livelihood of indigenous peoples and their culture. These people practice slash-and-burn cultivation and need large tracts of land and also forests to make a living. They also have to preserve their ancestral land where they keep the remains of their dead.

The land law of the country recognizes the community land and forests of those indigenous peoples and prohibits their sale (art.26).

The police have no jurisdiction over land disputes. These disputes are under the jurisdiction of the courts of law, the cadastral commissions and the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write your letters to the authorities listed below to request them to end the unlawful use of disciplinary measures to pressurize and harass Svcen Ven to relinquish his rights in that land dispute.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for interventions in this case.

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