Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission has learned that on 15 June 2006 Colonel Neou Ol, Deputy Director of the Development Centre of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces located in Kompong Speu province, sent some 40 fully armed soldiers to evict over 40 families from their lands in Tuk Chenh village, Treng Tro-Yoeung commune, Phnom Sruoch district in the same province. The soldiers pointed their rifles at the villagers, threatening to shoot at them and forced them to move away from their lands. They doused houses with petrol and set fire to them. They also used hacking knives and axes to destroy them. In defiance the villagers succeeded in restraining the soldiers in the middle of their act. Nevertheless four houses were burnt down and four others were destroyed by knives and axes, but no villager was injured.
Col. Neou Ol has admitted his soldiers had gone to destroy the houses to evict the villagers. He has asserted that the land, which measures 25 hectares, is part of public land intended for development. The original size of the land, he says, was 2,900 hectares, 900 of which have been distributed to demobilised soldiers, and the rest has since been reduced to a small size. He has attributed the reduction of the public land for development to villagers who had stolen it bit by bit to sell.
For their part, the eviction victims claim that the land, on which they have their houses and cultivation, has been theirs since 1995 when it had been distributed to them. Not long after that distribution, they gave their land to the Army Development Unit for development including the construction of a health centre and a school. From 1997 to 1999 they saw no such development, but only the parceling of the land and the sale of its parcels to businessmen. They therefore decided to take their land back, and began to build houses and grow crops on it.
The victims now fear that the aborted eviction is but a respite and that the soldiers will return to evict them from June 19 to the end of the month. These fears are further fueled by public comments made by Col. Neou Ol that he had the right to protect the public land for development. It is further feared that the renewed eviction could lead to violence as the villagers intend to defend their land while the army are adamant that they will take it.
The AHRC condemns Col.Neou Ol for taking the law into his own hands and for the use of force to evict people and destroy their property. His action is a blatant violation of both the rule of law and people’s constitutional rights. It is illegal to carry out any eviction without a court judgment to that effect and without a request for assistance from a judicial officer legally habilitated to execute such a judgment. It is also illegal to destroy people’s property even during a lawful eviction. Col.Neou Ol should resort to the due process of law to challenge the validity of the ownership of those villagers in the first place.
The Cambodian government needs to take action against Col.Neou Ol, order proper compensation for the destruction of homes, and stop such illegal eviction in future.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter of concern to the relevant authorities listed below regarding this matter. The law must be strictly followed during any planned eviction and yet this is clearly not the case in this instance. For this reason the government must immediately refrain from illegally evicting the villagers, it must afford compensation to those who have had property destroyed and it must take action against Col. Neou Ol for his unlawful actions.
Automated email letters can be sent by the AHRC Urgent Appeals on-line support system. To support this appeal please refer to http://www.ahrchk.net/support.php?ua=UA-195-2006. For those contacts without an email address, we ask that you still write a letter and post or fax this. If you have any problems or questions using this system, please feel free to contact us at ua@ahrchk.org.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ___________,
CAMBODIA: Army unlawfully evicts villagers
I write to condemn the action taken by the army in attempting to forcibly evict villagers from their land on 15 June 2006. On that day, Colonel Neou Ol, Deputy Director of the Development Centre of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces located in Kompong Speu province, instructed some 40 fully armed soldiers to evict over 40 families from their lands in Tuk Chenh village, Treng Tro-Yoeung commune, Phnom Sruoch district in the same province. The soldiers pointed their rifles at the villagers, threatened to shoot them and tried to forcibly evict them from their land. They also proceeded to set fire to several homes and to use hacking knives and axes to destroy others. Though the villagers confronted the soldiers and were able to restrain them during the attack, eight houses were nevertheless destroyed.
Though Col. Neou Ol has claimed that the land in question is part of public land for development, the villagers maintain that it is in fact legally theirs and has been since 1995 when it was distributed to them. Though they offered the land to the Army Development Unit requesting for the construction of a health centre and a school, by 1999 no development could be seen. They therefore reclaimed the land and began to build houses and grow crops on it.
The villagers live in fear that the army will return in the latter half of June and attempt to evict them once more. They also fear that this second attempt at eviction will turn violent as they themselves have no intentions of surrendering their land yet at the same time they acknowledge that the army is equally as adamant.
Col. Neou Ol chose to misuse his power and take the law into his own hands. When he chose to send the army in to forcibly evict the villagers and allowed them to use force, he in doing so violated the rule of law and the peoples constitutional rights. It is illegal to carry out any eviction without a court judgment to that effect and without a request for assistance from a judicial officer legally habilitated to execute such a judgment. It is also illegal to destroy peoples property even in lawful evictions.
I therefore call on the authorities in Cambodia to take action against Col. Neou Ol for authorising the action that took place. I also request that compensation be afforded to those villagers who had their homes destroyed so that they can rebuild. Most importantly, I urge the government to refrain from illegally evicting the villagers from their own land.
Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Samdech Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Office of the Council of Ministers
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: + 855 23 426 054
2. H.E.Mr. Sar Kheng
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Interior
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Email: moi@interior.gov.kh
3. Mr. Ang Vong Vathna
Minster of Justice
No 240, Sothearos Blvd.
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: + 855 23 364119
Email: moj@cambodia.gov.kh
4. Mr. Hor Namhong
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
No 161, Preah Sisowath Quay
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: + 855 23 216144/ 216939
Email: mfaicasean@bigpond.com.kh
5. Mr. Douglas Gardner
UNDP Resident Representative in Cambodia
53, Pasteur Street
Boeung Keng Kang
P.O. Box 877
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Fax: + 855 23 216 257
E-mail: douglas.gardner@undp.org
6. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Cambodia
N° 10, Street 302
Sangkat Boeng Keng Kang I
Khan Chamcar Mon
Phnom Penh
CAMBODIA
Tel: +855 23 987 671 / 987 672, 993 590 / 993 591 or +855 23 216 342
Fax: +855 23 212 579, 213 587
Email: cohchr@online.com.kh
7. Prof. Yash Ghai
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia
Attn: Ms. Afarin Shahidzadeh
Room 3-080
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 91 79214
Fax: +41 22 91 79018 (ATTENTION: SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE CAMBODIA)
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org
8. Mr. Miloon Kothari
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
Attn: Ms. Cecilia Moller
Room 4-066/010
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9265
Fax: +41 22 917 9010 (ATTENTION: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ADEQUATE HOUSING)
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
