Women Arrested as Land Protest Turns Violent, Borei Keila and Beoung Kork

One day after Prime Minister Hun Sen warned against the use of violence in land disputes, six female protesters fro the Borei Keila and Beoung Kork Communities were violently packed into a police van yesterday after municipal authorities blocked them from marching on Phnom Penh's Monivong Boulevard. 

The protest, which started peacefully, escalated at around 11 a.m. when about 100 residents from Phnom Penh's Borei Keila Community, who were violently evicted from their homes last months, gathered with about 50 residents from the Beoung Kork lake area at City Hall to demand that authorities address their ongoing land dispute grievances.
More than 100 riot police who had created a barricade with their shields prevented the protesters, who have now been demonstrating for weeks, from walking along  Monivong Boulevard, resulting in the outbreak of violence. 

Several women took off their bras and walked around bare-chested as they threw water bottles at police. Others broke off branches from a nearby tree and swung them at police, who pushed back with their shields, while the municipality's security guards hit the irate women with their fists during several bouts of fighting.

The police and security guards eventually threw five female protesters from the Borei Keila Community and one fro Beoung Kork Lake into a parked police van. 

"They grabbed me like a pig or an animal and threw me inside the prison van, and my head hit the car wall,"said Ath Samnang, 28, a Borei Keila resident, who spoke yesterday afternoon from inside the municipal police station where she was detained. The whole of my body and my head hurt."

Sung Ly, chief of the municipal minor crimes police, declined to comment when asked about the violence and the detained women, as did municipal police chief Touch Naruth, who was in Singapore. 

During the confrontation, Phoung Malai, deputy municipal police chief, was heard ordering police to arrest the protesters. "Surround them completely, push them, arrest them and take them to the municipal police station,"he said. 

Yesterday's violence was just the latest confrontation between the land dispute protesters and government authorities. 

On Jan. 3, armed forces evicted about 300 families from Borei Keila on land that has been purchased by Phanimex, which is owned by the political well-connected, wealthy businesswoman Suy Sophan. 

Along with Ms. Samnang, Borei Keila villagers Seng Kun Sakmony, 63; and Nen Sarith, 38, were detained yesterday with Beoung Kork resident Srang Srey Tuch, 38, who was protesting yesterday to demand the municipality pay for repairs to her home at the site to which she was relocated after being evicted from the lake area. All six women were still detained as of late last night.


Four of the detained Borei Keila protesters were part of a group of 30 women and children detained for one week at the Prey Speu Social Affairs Center following a similar protest at City Hall last month, said Long Kimheang, a representative for the Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF).

"We monitored the protest and found that local authorities and Phnom Penh Municipal authorities have no capacity to solve the problem-they just know how to beat people and arrest people,"said Sia Phearum, secretary-general of HRTF. 

Mr. Phearum added that the escalation of violence in land disputes is undermining the credibility of Mr. Hun Sen, who gave a speech on Tuesday warning against the use of force in land and disputes.

"I think they also disrespect the prime minister,"Mr. Phearum said. 

SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua called on Phnom Penh municipal governor Kep Chuktema to seek solution to both land disputes. 

"This a total culture of impunity. No use of force by the police is justified, and the governor hasn't even come to address this,"Ms. Sochua said. "He's been hiding for too long, and who is allowing him to hide? The prime minister."

Senior CPP lawmaker and de facto ruling party spokesman Cheam yeap said the authorities had no right to detain land dispute protesters.

"Villagers have rights for protesting, and the authorities had no right to arrest them,"he said.

Im Srey Moni, 32, another Borei Keila resident-who escaped detention as the women were bundled into the van-said that many of th eprotesters had been injured. 

"These actions are crueler than the Pol Pot regime, she said as she pointed to a small bloody gash on her head. "We will continue protesting, we are not scared."


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