US hears Boeung Kak women

 Bridget Di Certo, Phnom Penh Post, 16 July. 2012

Representatives of the Boeung Kak lake community wait outside the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra in Siem Reap for a meeting with US ambassador at large for Global Women’s Issues on Friday. Photograph: Bridget Di Certo / Phnom Penh Post

The US ambassador at large for Global Women’s Issues – an office in the US State Department – met with five of the Boeung Kak lake female activists on Saturday in a sidelines meeting of a Lower Mekong gender policy dialogue.

Ambassador at Large Melanne Verveer’s interest in the womens’ continuing plight comes about a month after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in Washington and passed on her encouragement for the then-“Boeung Kak 15” to be released.

“It was a full hour, a very fruitful meeting,” Sam Rainsy Party opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua, who also attended the talks, said.

The women had three requests for the ambassador to pass on to Secretary Clinton.

“They want their records in court totally cleared; they want to know exactly where is this 12.44 hectares; and they want the immediate stop to the use of violence against women and children,” Sochua said on Saturday.

The women presented Verveer with a scarf they had crocheted while they were imprisoned for one month and three days on what are widely considered trumped up criminal charges.

Verveer first bought the plight of the imprisoned women to the attention of Clinton with a petition passed along to her by Sochua and she told the women she would likewise present their gift to the secretary of state.

“This meeting, it is really about dignity. The [Boeung Kak] women have struggled so much even to get here,” Sochua said. “If the father rapes his own family and then lives with them, how can there ever be justice?”

Tep Vanny, an activist leader in the Boeung Kak community, said she hoped that with the US’s help she could secure the attention of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“It is clear that he is not even looking at this case,” Vanny said.

Vanny said that during the meeting the ambassador has expressed her heartfelt support for the women activist.

Boeng Kak Women Meet US Ambassador for Women’s Affairs

Philip Heumans and Khuon Narim, The Cambodia Daily, 16 July. 2012

Police shadow Boeung Kak women at ASEAN

 Bridget Di Certo, Phnom Penh Post, 15 July. 2012

Intense security for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Siem Reap was to be expected, but five women activists from Boeung Kak lake didn’t think they would be the centre of military and plainclothes police’s attention on Friday.

Police, however, are now an omnipresent dark cloud in Tep Vanny’s life, the activist said as she stood under the shade of a tree opposite the Sofitel Hotel, where Clinton gave a keynote address at a Lower Mekong Gender Equality Policy Dialogue yesterday.

“See? He is from Phnom Penh police, I recognise him,” she told the Post, pointing to a group of about six men loitering near her and the other women.

“And another one was in the café with me this morning,” she said, indicating another man.

Vanny said that since her release from prison on June 27, she has grown to know the faces of the men who watch her every move.

“I receive phone calls from anonymous men who ask me, ‘Where are you? Who are you with?’,” she said.

Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian Mu Sochua, who was also in Siem Reap to attend the dialogue, said she was gravely concerned for the safety of the women.

“They are totally surrounded by plainclothes policemen. I am very worried about their security. They have to stay tonight because they have a meeting with the US ambassador-at-large tomorrow morning,” Sochua said. “I worry about how safe they will be.”

The Post made numerous attempts to contact high-ranking police officials for comment yesterday, but none of them could be reached.

Vanny was among 13 women arrested during a land protest at Boeung Kak on May 22 and tried and convicted two days later of occupying state land and obstructing public officials in aggravating circumstances.

Their summary trial, without a lawyer or witnesses, lasted just three hours and they were sentenced to two and a half years in Prey Sar prison.

The Court of Appeal reduced their sentences on June 27 to time served, securing their release, but upheld guilty charges against them.

Vanny said her community had been on edge since the arrest of the 13 women and two other activists who have since been released on bail.

“Everyone is crazy,” she said. “Whenever I go outside, [my children] always ask me where I am going and beg me not to go outside because they are scared – scared the police will arrest me again – and they hold onto my legs,” the mother of two said with tears in her eyes.

“We have one message,” Vanny stressed. “Stop violence on women and children.”

The women told the Post earlier this week that they would visit Siem Reap in the hope of personally thanking Hillary Clinton, because they believed she had played a role in securing their release.

Boeng Kak Women Attempt to Meet US Official

Philip Heijmans and Phorn Bopha, The Cambodia Daily, 15 July. 2012

High court appeal for Boeung Kak 13

Wednesday, Phnom Penh Post, 11 July. 2012

People affected by Shukaku Inc’s controversial development project at Boeung Kak lake hold a demonstration yesterday in front of the US embassy in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post

Thirteen Boeung Kak lake women imprisoned after a three-hour trial in May and released last month had appealed their guilty convictions to the Supreme Court, their lawyer said yesterday.

“They told us they are completely dissatisfied with the verdict of the Appeal Court, which maintained the accusations of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court,” Ham Sunrith told the Post.

“We will try to take this to the Supreme Court to demand justice for these 13 women,” he said, adding an appeal was filed on Friday.

The women were arrested at Boeung Kak lake during a land protest on May 22.

They were charged two days later with occupying state land and obstructing public officials in aggravating circumstances and were tried, convicted and sentenced in three hours in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to two and a half years in Prey Sar prison.

After widespread condemnation of the trial, the Court of Appeal reduced the women’s sentences on June 27 to time already served, but upheld the guilty verdicts.

The court said the women had helped villagers “rebuild” their houses on state land, which has been awarded to CPP senator Lao Meng Khin’s Shukaku company, but released them because many of them had children and were unaware of the law.

Tol Srey Pov, one of the 13, said the women had not been involved in any violent activity, such as using weapons or throwing rocks at police.

“We think the Appeal Court didn’t give us [justice]. We didn’t commit these crimes,” she said, adding that they were grateful for their release, but wanted their names cleared.

Sam Rainsy lawmaker Mu Sochua, who said in the wake of the women’s release that the guilty verdicts meant nothing, said yesterday it was important that they be overturned.

“What needs to be done more to the Boeung Kak lake issue is the full return of their land and all charges against them must be dropped,” she said.

Sia Phearum, secretariat-general of the Housing Rights Task Force, said it was time for the authorities to demarcate land at Boeung Kak to resolve the dispute.

Released Boeng Kak Women Back to Old Ways

Khuon Narim, The Cambodia Daily, 11 July. 2012

Appeals Court Decision on Boeung Kak 13 a ‘Bad Sign,’ Analyst Says

Sok Khemara, VOA, 06 July. 2012

Photo: by Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

Thirteen women hastily convicted in May after their arrest in a land demonstration were released from jail on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

“If the court system is not independent, impunity and the influence of politicians on the court will continue.”

Last month’s release of 13 women jailed for protesting a housing development in Phnom Penh was good news for the women incarcerated, but by upholding the lower court’s judgement, the Appeal Court set a bad precedent, observers say.

The Appeals Court did not overturn a guilty verdict hastily handed the women by Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but released them with time served, after they were arrested for constructing a house on the Boeung Kak site of a forced eviction in May.

Sok Khemara hosts “Hello VOA” 05 July, 2012

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Analyst Lao Monghay told “Hello VOA” Thursday the Phnom Penh court’s decision had little basis in law. The Appeals Court decision to uphold the judgement—though reduce the sentence—was “a bad example of the Cambodian court, which did not try them based on legal procedures,” he said.

The court “did not find clear evidence, had no witnesses, and so on,” he said. “And the Appeals Court upheld the Phnom Penh court as making the right judgement. Then others will do the same, meaning that in the future they will not need to investigate a great deal but immediately try them when police arrest them and imprison them.”

That will cause worry among the populace, he said, that they can be immediately imprisoned after their arrest. “This is a bad sign for people in general.”

Even though the women are now free, he said, they are still convicted of a crime. “Releasing them I don’t think was justice for them all, but it was compassion,” he said.

The women were arrested as they tried to reconstruct a house at the Boeung Kak development site following a forced eviction and destruction of their homes. They were charged with illegally occupying land and defying local authorities.

Am Sam Ath, head investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the charges against them did not fit the act. “What we regret is that although the Appeals Court decided to let the 13 people out of prison, it still upheld the verdict of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court,” he said. “It’s not justice for 13 people who did not commit anything like the charges.”

Instead, he said, the Appeals Court decision underscored the need for reform in the Cambodian judiciary.

“If the court system is not independent, impunity and the influence of politicians on the court will continue,” he said. “So NGOs have urged the government to speed up reform, especially judicial reform, and make the court independent.”

‘Viable’ Boeung Kak option floated

Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya, Phnom Penh Post, July 3 2012

An aerial view of the filled-in Boeung Kak lake in April. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post

More than enough vacant plots exist within Boeung Kak lake’s 12.44-hectare concession area to house those denied land permits, a new NGO report says.

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut claims to have found “a viable and practical” solution for households excluded from the unmarked land the prime minister promised the community in August – and residents and other NGOs have welcomed it.

According to Outside the Lines: Households Excluded From 12.44Ha Boeung Kak Concession, the NGO has mapped the area based on boundaries outlined in the relevant sub-decree.

“We identified 70 households that appear to be excluded from the concession area, as well as 401 vacated plots within the 12.44 hectares,” STT programs coordinator Ee Sarom said. “Our report shows it would be eminently possible to allocate land for the excluded households within the concession.”

The report states that the 401 plots make up 17 per cent of the concession.

“[This] indicates households excluded from the 12.44 [hectare] concession could be given a vacant plot within it,” it states.

The findings are part of a solution STT hopes could end the Boeung Kak dispute, which has been raging since 2007, when a 99-year lease of the land was awarded to CPP senator Lao Meng Khin’s Shukaku company.

STT’s report also suggests changing the boundary of the concession area slightly.

The proposals have won support from villagers, including Heng Mom, one of 13 women released from Prey Sar prison last week after being jailed for protesting on May 22.

“We asked the Phnom Penh municipal authority to exchange our land plots when they claimed our house was on Shukaku’s land,” she said, adding she still wanted this.

Doung Kea, 43, a resident of Village 22, said the 12.44 hectares was a “gift” from Hun Sen that villagers had a right to.

“So if the authority is still claiming our houses are not in that area, they should move us into the 12.44 hectares,” he said.

Villager Chan Puthi Sak described the proposal as a “win-win” solution. A coalition of NGOs also supported it.

“[This] proposal is a viable option as a solution for part of the Boeung Kak land dispute,”Housing Rights Task Force’s Sia Phearum said.

The municipal authority declined to comment.