Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that the police allegedly assaulted a family of venders in Battambang city, Battambang province, Cambodia on 25 October 2008. The police damaged their trays and severely assaulted the father of the family. Their beating caused him to sustain serious injuries and lose consciousness.
CASE DETAILS: (Based on the information received from Yin Meng Ly, ADHOC human rights NGO, Battambang province)
On the afternoon of 25 October, a force of eight policemen, armed with pistols, chased a women vender named Ken Narath, aged 21 and her sister Kin Narey, 17, with their truck. The sisters were both street venders selling pickled delicacies on trays.They were pursued from a garden to Hun Sen Bridge in Rumchek IV village, Rattanak commune, Battambang distict, Battambang province. The police caught up with the venders when they reached their parents who were selling fresh sugar cane juice. The police officers quickly jumped off their truck, seized the trays of delicacies, threw the delicacies on the ground, and grabbed the women to put them in their truck.
The two sisters resisted the police, holding on to their trays and refusing to go up into the truck. Seeing the police assault in which Kin Narath’s blouse was torn apart, their father Kin Thina, aged, 48, intervened to protect her from further assault. The police then grabbed hold of him, beat him and attempted to push him onto the truck. But he refused to get in the truck. While being dragged half way up the vehicle, an officer beat him again. He fell off the truck, flat on his face, with all his full weight, his head hitting the tarmac hard. Another officer on the ground then used his foot to pin Kin to the tarmac. Kin then lost consciousness, lying motionless, while the police drove away.
Unable to get anything except a plastic chair belonging to Kin Thina, the police drove off, leaving Ken lying on the tarmac, injured and unconscious. Passersby and motorcycle-taxi drivers helped lift the man onto a folding chair under a nearby shade tree. Later on his family took him to the hospital for medical treatment. Ken suffered serious injuries to the left side of his forehead as a result of the fall.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Kin Thina and his family are living in Anh-chagn village, O Char commune, Battambang district, Battambang province. The police had videotaped their action against these venders at the time of the incident.
The chief of Battambang district police, Thuch Ra, denied that his officers had assaulted Kin Thina and his daughters. He accused them of assaulting his men instead, and was preparing to charge them with battery.
This was the second assault on venders by the same police force in the same area. On 2 October a group of seven police officers assaulted a man and his daughter, also venders, in a garden in the same village. The man suffered a fractured rib as a result (see AHRC-UAC-227-2008).
Meanwhile, the Battambang district police threatened to sue the journalist, whose pen name was Bopea, working for the Koh Santepheap newspaper. The police alleged that his story was untrue. This journalist went into hiding for a couple of days, not because of the pending law suit but from fear of physical attack. He had also written the story of the first assault. In both stories he was highly critical of the brutality of the Battmabang district police.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write your letters to the authorities below to urge them to conduct an investigation into the Battambang district police’s assault on Ken Thina and take action against the perpetrators and their superiors.
Please be informed that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for intervention in this case.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear _____,
CAMBODIA: Police allegedly assault venders in Battambang province
Name of victims: Ken Thina, 48, and members of his family, Anh-chagn village, O Char commune, Battambang district, Battambang province
Alleged perpetrators: police officers of Battambang district, Battambang province
Place of incident: New Bridge, Rumchek IV village, Rattanak commune, Battambang district, Battambang province
Date of incident: 25 October 2008
I am writing to express my deep concern with the police assault on a man named Kin Thina. They beat him, causing him to fall off their truck, flat on his face, with his head hitting the tarmac with the full force of his body. The police then drove off, leaving Ken lying unconscious, the left side of his forehead having sustained a serious injury.
The incident took place on the afternoon of 25 October near Hun Sen Bridge in Rumchek IV village, Rattanak commune, Battambang district, Battrambang province. A group of eight police officers got out of a truck and suddenly seized trays of pickled delicacies of the two sisters, Kinn Narath, 21, and Kinn Narey, 17, both street venders. The police chased them from the garden, caught up with them when they reached their parents who were selling fresh sugar cane juice near Hun Sen Bridge.
The police officers quickly jumped off their truck, seized the trays of delicacies and threw them on the ground. They then grabbed the two sisters attempting to get them on the truck as well. The young women resisted the police, holding on to their trays and refusing to get into the truck.
Seeing the police assault in which Kin Narath’s blouse was torn apart, their father Kin Thina, aged, 48, intervened to protect her from further police assault. The police then grabbed hold of him, beat him and tried to push him onto the truck. But he refused to get in. At this point he had been dragged half way up the vehicle. An officer beat him again making him fall off the truck, flat on his face, his head hitting the tarmac with his full weight. Another officer on the ground then used his foot to pin Kin to the ground. Kin lost consciousness, lying motionless, while the police drove off.
I have learned that this was the second police assault on venders in the same area in Rumeck IV village. There was hardly a month between assaults, the first one having taken place on 2 October. I have further learned that the Battambnag district police threatened to sue the journalist, known by his pen name as Bopea, working for the Koh Santepheap newspaper. He had covered both assaults and was highly critical of the police brutality. Bopea had to go into hiding fearing he might be physically attacked.
I find the repeated action of the police of the Battambang district against those venders so repugnant that I need to urge you to put an end to it immediately. I request you to investigate the police assault against Ken Thina and his family, to take action against the perpetrators, and to require them to pay adequate compensation to all the victims. Action must also be taken against the superiors of those police officers for their failure to prevent the brutality of their subordinates.
I further urge you to protect press freedom and ensure that journalist Bopea will suffer no harm.
I trust you will positively consider my request above.
Yours sincerely,
————
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Cabinet of the Prime Minister
No. 38, Russian Federation Street
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 36 0666
Tel: +855 2321 9898
E-mail: cabinet1b@camnet.com.kh
2. Mr. Sar Kheng
Deputy-Prime Minister
Minister of Interior
No.275 Norodom Blvd., Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax/phone: +855 23 721 905 / 23 726 052 / 23 721 190
E-Mail: info@interior.gov.kh
3. Mr. Ang Vong Vathna
Minister of Justice
No 240, Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 36 4119 / 21 6622
E-mail: moj@cambodia.gov.kh
4. Mr. Henro Raken
Prosecutor-General
Court of Appeal
No 240, Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 21 66 22; +855 23 21 63 22
Tel: +855 11 86 27 70
5. General Hok Lundy
National Police Commissioner
General-Commisariat of National Police
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: +855 23 22 09 52
Tel: +855 23 21 65 85
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)
