Yorm Bopha verdict upheld

By Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell,Phnom Penh Post, 17 June 2013

Yorm Bopha, 29, exits Phnom Penh’s Court of Appeal on Friday. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Rights groups have continued condemning the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold a guilty verdict against Boeung Kak land-rights activist Yorm Bopha, saying that “weak” evidence and “inconsistent” testimony failed to link her to an axe and screwdriver attack on two motodops.

The 29-year-old mother will remain in prison, possibly until September next year, after judges rejected her appeal on Friday, but suspended one year of her three-year sentence.

Amnesty International’s Cambodia researcher, Rupert Abbott, who was in court for the case, called for Bopha’s immediate release.

“There was inconsistency in testimony and really weak evidence. To suggest she was involved seems really far-fetched,” he said yesterday.

Abbott said the presumption of innocence had been missing from the trial, suggesting “outside influences are at work again”.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said in a statement that it was outraged the “bogus” conviction against Bopha had been upheld.

“The accounts of the alleged victims were often convoluted and did not corroborate,” the statement said.

At the end of the four-hour hearing, judges changed the intentional violence charge against Bopha to a charge of masterminding an assault.

Presiding Judge Taing Sun Lay said Bopha ordered her brothers Yorm Kanlong and Yorm Seth to carry out an attack on motodops Nget Chet, 28, and Vath Thaiseng, 24, last August.

Speaking outside court, Bopha’s husband, Lous Sakhon, vowed to appeal the decision.

“I think the Supreme Court might support all the other courts, but I will still appeal because I want to show the whole world what justice is like in Cambodia,” said the 56-year-old, who was given a suspended prison term last December over the same incident.

During the hearing, Vath Sareth, the father and uncle of the motodops, said he knew “clearly” that Kanlong and Seth had attacked the motodops. But when pressed further he said he had overheard only later that the brothers were the attackers.

“I don’t know who [stabbed my son] because there were many people around and it was confusing,” he said.

In a closing statement, prosecutor Than Seng Narong said Bopha and her husband masterminded the violence but added he did not know why authorities had imprisoned “the woman in this case and not the man”.

Bopha’s lawyer, Ham Sunrith, said witnesses and evidence presented had failed to prove Bopha was guilty.

When the motodops’ lawyer, Neang Hay, disagreed, the usually calm Bopha began shouting, interrupting to demand he solemnly swear the evidence he had presented was true.

Boeung Kak housing-rights activist Tep Vanny said yesterday that her community would continue protests and take straw effigies of “corrupt officials” to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house today, urging his intervention.

Activist Denies Ordering Attack on Tuk-Tuk Drivers

By Khy Sovuthy, The Cambodia Daily, June 06, 2013

Hunger strike ahead of hearing

By Khouth Sophak Chakrya, Phnom Penh Post, 04 June 2013

Residents of the Boeung Kak lake community participate in a hunger strike in front of Phnom Penh’s Court of Appeal yesterday. The protesters are calling for the release of jailed campaigner Yorm Bopha, a key player in the evictee community. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Two days before the appeal trial of imprisoned Boeung Kak lake activist Yorm Bopha, some of her supporters went on a hunger strike yesterday to demand her release.

Led as usual by Boeung Kak activist Tep Vanny, the group of four, dressed in white, set up outside the Court of Appeal in Phnom Penh at about 9am and laid flowers spelling “Free Bopha” on the pavement.

One, Bo Chhorvy, said the group, all women, would remain there until this morning.

“We will keep striking here until Tuesday and will return again on Wednesday to support and encourage Yorm Bopha when the Court of Appeal hears her case,” she said.

But it wasn’t to be: Chhorvy, who had not eaten since Sunday night, fainted at about 8:30pm, while fellow activist Bov Sophea followed about 10 minutes later.

They were taken to NGO Licadho’s clinic for treatment, while the remaining two vowed to continue through the night.

In her prison cell at PJ prison, Bopha was also refraining from food yesterday, said her husband, Luos Sakhorn.

“My wife told me that she will not eat anything if Boeung Kak villagers set up this strike in order to gain justice and freedom for her,” he said.

Bopha was arrested in September, convicted of assault and sentenced in December to three years in prison.

Rights groups say the allegations against her – that she ordered her two brothers to savagely beat two motodops with an axe and screwdriver – were fabricated to silence her community.

They point to the fact that the two victims drank a large quantity of rice wine before the alleged attack but delivered precise testimony.

Supporters of the motodops have also staged protests, claiming  the matter is a clear-cut assault case.

 

City turns up pressure

By Khouth Sophak Chakrya, Phnom Penh Post, 30 May 2013

A Boeung Kak protester lies on the street after being water-cannoned by police in Phnom Penh yesterday. Photograph: Khaouth Sophak Chakrya/Phnom Penh Post

A woman was knocked unconscious and many more fell to the ground when municipal authorities unleashed a water cannon on Boeung Kak lake, Borei Keila and Thmor Kol protesters, who were blocking the capital’s Monivong Boulevard yesterday.

Protesters sitting on the road were met with the storm-like onslaught after more than 100 had gathered outside City Hall to demand new Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong deliver on his pledge to resolve their land disputes.

The spray’s force, from three fire trucks, left Khek Chan Raksmey, 33, unconscious on the ground, while others – soaked – ran or were pulled to safety.

Boeung Kak land activist Sen Touch said protesters from the three communities had wanted to know when the governor would act on his promise to end their disputes but felt yesterday’s incident showed municipal authorities didn’t really want to find solutions.

“If you want to kill people, just use the real bullets, not fire engines,” she said.

After an ambulance was refused because villagers said they could not afford to pay for it, Chan Raksmey was taken in a tuk-tuk to the clinic of rights group Licadho for treatment.
Phnom Penh municipal police chief Choun Sovann said yesterday that authorities had no choice but to spray the protesters, who blocked or slowed traffic for more than two hours.

“I had already told them not to block the road because there are many people who travel along this boulevard,” he said. “We should respect all people’s rights, not just a few.”

Phnom Penh Municipal Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said the villagers’ efforts to block the road were akin to “kidnapping” road users and holding them hostage.

“Because of this, we’re obliged to crack down on [protesters],” he said.

The congestion caused by the incident frustrated motorist San Chamreung.

“I cannot accept this roadblock because it affects my career. I know they have been treated unfairly, but this is treating us unfairly,” he said.

But Nay Vanda, from rights group Adhoc, said firing water at the protesters was an extreme method that served only to flare tempers.

“The municipal governor should solve these [protesters’] problems,” he said.

During his swearing in early this month, Socheatvong promised quick solutions to the disputes. He followed this pledge up days later in meetings with community representatives.

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said the incident turned the clock back two or three years to more violent protests, just when it appeared the governor was close to taking action.

“We’re really disappointed with the authorities for using violence to stop a peaceful protest,” he said. “They are women trying to find a solution.”

Phearum said the disputes needed to be resolved before the beginning of election campaigning in about four weeks.

“When the election campaigns begin, they know they will have no chance. They were cheated before the 2008 [election] – the previous governor promised not to evict them.”

Dimanche said yesterday that municipal authorities had created a committee to review villagers’ documents in order to resolve the disputes.

“We are asking for time to solve these problems for villagers,” he said.

Phnom Penh, Seoul See Joint Eviction Protests

By Chhorn Chansy, The Cambodia Daily, May. 09 2013

Phnom Penh Governor to Re-Examine Land Disputes

RFA, May. 08 2013

Boeung Kak and Borei Keila activists holding posters of Yorm Bopha demonstrate outside the South Korean Embassy in Phnom Penh, May 8, 2013.

The newly appointed governor of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh has vowed to re-examine two bitter land disputes that rocked the city under his predecessor’s term after meeting activists involved in the cases, his spokesman said Wednesday.

But Governor Pa Socheatvong, who took office on Monday, will not intervene on behalf of a jailed campaigner, Yorm Bopha, who had vigorously championed the evictees’ right to housing.

Pa Socheatvong will review the cases of residents locked in disputes in the Boeung Kak Lake and Borei Keila area by next week, spokesman Long Dyman said.

“He will begin the work of leading the city for a week first and then he will examine the villagers’ documents,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

The new governor met on Tuesday with representatives from the two communities, who said he promised them a swift solution to the disputes, the local newspaper The Phnom Penh Post reported.

The meeting marked a departure from the policies of his predecessor Kep Chuketma, who refused to meet in recent years with the activists, who have staged countless demonstrations in the city on behalf of residents evicted to make way for luxury developments.

Long Dyman said Pa Socheatvong will not be intervening in the case of Yorm Bopha, a leading Boeung Kak activist who was jailed last year in a case critics have said was “manufactured” to target her for speaking out.

Her case is beyond the governor’s authority and only the courts can decide what happens to her, he said.

Yorm Bopha, 29, who has been held since early September, was convicted by the Phnom Penh municipal court in December for committing “intentional violence” in connection with the beating of a suspected thief, and in March the Supreme Court rejected her bail plea.

She has been named an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience and local rights groups have said her case smacks of political interference and should be thrown out.

Stepped up protests

Borei Keila and Boeung Kak activists have stepped up their protests in recent weeks, calling for Yorm Bopha’s release and demanding the city issue land titles for 64 Boeung Kak families excluded from a resettlement deal.

On Wednesday the activists staged a demonstration in front of the South Korean embassy and presented petitions to embassy officials, who did not give any assurance that they will raise the issue with the Cambodian government.

Boeng Kak community representative Tep Vanny said the residents have turned to ask foreign embassies for support because they are disappointed with the government and Prime Minister Hun Sen for delaying an resolution to the disputes.

“South Korea is a democratic country, so we think they have a duty to intervene our case,” she told RFA.

 

More Than 100 Boeng Kak Protesters Clash With Police

 

Khuon Narim and Khy Sovuthy, The Cambodia Daily, April. 23  2013

Rights Group Denounces Denial of Bail for Anti-Eviction Activist

Lauren Crothers, The Cambodia Daily, Mar. 30-31 2013

King Sihamoni Petitioned Over Jailed Boeng Kak Activist

Khy Sovuthy, The Cambodia Daily, Mar. 30-31 2013

The Price of Land Development in Cambodia

Jonathon Head, BBC News, Mar. 29 2013

Tep Vanny (left) and her movement have vowed to keep protesting until all the evicted families have replacement homes

Phnom Penh, a city once fabled for its stately colonial buildings and boulevards, and its serene riverside setting, is becoming a city of glaring contrasts.

An economy left in ruins by the years of war and violent revolution in the 1970s and 80s grew at a rate of almost 10% a year from 1998 to 2008. Cheap land, cheap labour and rich natural resources have attracted big inflows of foreign investment, especially from Asian neighbours like China, Vietnam and Thailand. That has ignited a property boom.

For the first time in its history Phnom Penh’s skyline is being pierced by modern high-rise towers, offering new office space and luxury apartments. Land prices are soaring, and developers are constantly seeking out new possibilities for construction.

One area they targeted was the city’s largest lake, Boeng Kak. A company owned by a senator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, Shukaku, was given a 99-year lease to drain and build on the lake in 2007.

Another was the centre city neighbourhood of Borei Keila, which another politically-connected company, Phanimex, was given the right to develop in 2003.

But there was a problem. People already lived on this land. Like most of Phnom Penh’s residents, they had moved to the city after the fall of the radical Khmer Rouge regime, which had emptied Phnom Penh in 1975, and following the decade of civil war in the 1980s.

Some residents evicted from Borei Keila have been forced to live in tents

They did not have land titles; very few people do in Cambodia, as the Khmer Rouge abolished private property and nearly all documents were destroyed.

So the state claims to own more than 80% of Cambodia’s land. That gives the government the final say over who gets to develop it.

The bulldozers moved in to start demolishing the flimsy houses around Boeng Kak lake in 2008. There have been clashes with local residents ever since. Some have been beaten by riot police as they tried to block the developers, other have been arrested and charged. Many of them are women.

One of them, 31 year-old Tep Vanny, has become the leader of the women who are still protesting against their treatment by the company. A passionate and outspoken mother of two, she and her husband were previously evicted from land they lived on in Kampong Speu province near Phnom Penh, and moved to Boeng Kak in 2004.

Last year she was charged with rebellion and illegally occupying land, and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. She was released on appeal after two months.

“I’ve been detained by the police five times,” she told me in the house next to the drained lake that the women use as a campaign headquarters.

“The last time I was sentenced to jail. This is normal in my country. Before I started this work I thought hard about what I would face, but I knew I could not back down. I had to fight the corrupt officials and the greedy companies which are harming the lives of our people.”

Foreign investment has ignited a property development boom in Cambodia

More than 4,000 families were evicted from the area around the lake, which has since been filled with sand. There was no prior consultation, and the World Bank responded by suspending all loans to Cambodia in August 2011.

The government then ordered the company to allocate a small portion of land to some of the evicted families, but there are still more than 60 families who have been excluded.
‘Powerful interests’

Tep Vanny and her movement have vowed to keep protesting until all the families have replacement homes. They are also supporting other poor Cambodians who have lost homes to the country’s breakneck development. There are plenty of them.

Tim Sakmony is a 64 year-old grandmother and, like Tep Vanny, she has also spent time in jail.

She lives in Borei Keila, and has led the families protesting against their exclusion from the deal under which Phanimex would be allowed to redevelop the site in return for building 10 apartment blocks for the displaced residents. The company only built eight.

Over 4,000 families have been evicted from the area around Boeng Kak lake

Tim Sakmony was given a six-month sentence for “making a false declaration”, a complaint filed by the owner of Phanimex. She was released after three months, but still cries when she talks about her treatment.

“I went to see the owner of Phanimex, to claim a home for my son, who is disabled and cannot speak for himself. After that I was summoned to court.”

“I thought it was an opportunity to explain about my case. But the judge sentenced me to six months.”

She and her son, a former soldier who bought a small plot of land at Borei Keila, are now living with his 12 year-old twins in the stairwell of one of the completed apartment blocks. The area lies next to a festering rubbish dump.

A few hundred metres away, upmarket apartments are under construction.

Last year the government responded to international pressure over widespread land grabs by politically-connected companies by authorising a project to give land titles to 470,000 people.

Tim Sakmony spent three months in jail for “making a false declaration”

But the student volunteers carrying out the project are only allowed to work on uncontested land. That excludes the many thousands of Cambodians who are fighting eviction.

Human rights groups estimate that 700,000 people have been adversely affected by land development, and they say the government and the courts openly side with the developers.

Speaking about the case of Yorm Bopha, another activist who was jailed for three years for protesting against the evictions from Boeng Kak, Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch said this week that “a politically controlled judiciary has targeted a brave woman who has the audacity to challenge powerful interests and people”.