New York Times - Cambodia: Villagers Arrested Over Appeal to Obama

The Telegraph – Cambodia arrests 8 villagers for ‘SOS’ messages to Barack Obama,  Barack Obama under pressure to address human rights in Burma

ABC News – Cambodia Arrests 8 Over ‘SOS’ Messages for Obama

The Huffington Post – Cambodia Prepares for Obama, but at What Cost?

Armed forces yesterday arrested eight villagers who spray-painted “SOS” on their house roofs and displayed giant photos of US President Barack Obama in the hope of drawing his attention to their impending eviction when he arrives in Phnom Penh on Monday.

Leng Vy, 42, whose Thmarkol village house is one of many lining a security fence near Phnom Penh International Airport, said her husband, Un Sokny, was detained yesterday morning.

“More than 20 officers including the police, military police and soldiers gathered outside our home and asked who had sprayed this word,” she said.

“My husband confessed it was him, and they arrested him and took him to the Por Sen Chey district police station.”

It was there the group of six women and two men, which also included Kin Leang, Chray Nim, Khea Sary, Uch Srey Mach, Sem Phal Sokunthy, Yun Sovanna, and Phung Sophea, from Chorm Chau commune, were held for hours before being released without charge last night.

The spectre of eviction has haunted residents of more than 160 households since they were issued with notices in July telling them they would have to make way for an extension of the airport’s security fence. Many villagers, who say they have the required land documents allowing them to stay where they are, feared they would be evicted before the ASEAN Summit, which began yesterday.

On Wednesday, as the summit approached, villagers tried to take their appeal for help to the sky, but were told by district authorities to remove the message and imagery or face arrest, villager Soun Dirath said yesterday.

“When they returned and arrested eight people, I was very frightened and rushed to remove the picture of the US president and scrubbed ‘SOS’ from my roof,” he said.

Villager Sok Seyha, 31, who moved from Boeung Kak lake to escape land eviction problems, said he saw police arresting three of the villagers yesterday morning.

“We saw the police come and get two or three of them. They dragged them – this is no good for the people of Cambodia. There should be talking, not fighting.”

Soldiers in full military attire – and armed with assault rifles – remained stationed at regular intervals along the road leading into the village yesterday afternoon.

At about midday, Phal Srey Phors, the 10-year-old daughter of Sopheap, said her parents, who had accepted compensation to leave Borei Keila, had been told before receiving the eviction notice that their new home was safe.

“I don’t know why the police arrested my mother here,” she said, holding her baby brother, who was later let inside the police station to be fed.

District police chief Bon Samath told the Post yesterday that the eight villagers had been arrested for disrupting public order during an ASEAN Summit. “They have been incited by foreigners,” he said, without revealing who he was referring to. “Because of their lack of knowledge about these things, we do not want to charge or punish them.”

Samath said the villagers had been asked to thumbprint a document promising not to protest again.

Ny Chakrya, head of the monitoring group at rights group Adhoc, said it was clear the villagers had done nothing wrong. “It’s freedom of expression. It’s not illegal to write something or show something,” he said.

Choam Chao commune police chief Mam Hor and commune chief Soth Sath said district authorities had handled the case, while district governor Kith Sopha was not available for comment.

The arrests came as the international community began turning its focus to Cambodia, which is hosting the final ASEAN Summit of its chairmanship.

In the lead-up to the event, which also brings Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to the capital, rights groups have amplified their calls for Cambodia to address what they consider a deteriorating human rights situation.

Adhoc yesterday condemned the arrests, saying before the group’s release that the government’s intolerance of dissent showed democracy was shrinking in the country.

“[Adhoc] has repeatedly called for fair compensation for the residents. This compensation has not been forthcoming,” a statement said. “The 2012 ASEAN Summit presents Cambodia with a unique opportunity to show its commitment to human rights. The arrest of the eight community activists gives the opposite message.”

A coalition of six rights groups, including Community Legal Education Center and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, released a statement saying the arrests sent a “chilling” message to civil society groups ahead of ASEAN.

Allegations of sabotage and intimidation of organisers at independently run community and NGO forums across the capital have also surfaced in the past three days.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Villagers who live next to the Cambodian capital’s airport had a message for President Barack Obama, but he won’t be seeing it when he lands next week.

Authorities on Thursday arrested eight villagers for plastering the U.S. president’s picture on their rooftops beside spray-painted messages of “SOS.”

Their community of about 400 families lives in rickety homes with corrugated tin roofs adjacent to the Phnom Penh airport’s only runway. Villagers say they were ordered in July to vacate their land so the airport could enlarge its runway and build a security buffer zone.

“We are being forcibly evicted from our land without proper compensation,” said 23-year-old villager Sim Sokunthea. “We didn’t mean any harm. We just wanted Obama to help us.”

Dozens of police arrived at the village early Thursday morning. They ordered villagers to remove the rooftop artwork, which was deemed illegal, and they arrested those responsible, said Long Kimheang, spokesman for Housing Rights Task Force, an advocacy group that works with villagers facing eviction.

Land disputes have become a critical social and political issue in Cambodia, which Prime Minister Hun Sen has led for nearly 30 years. Powerful companies with influential connections take over land and evict villagers, who receive little or no compensation. The problem has sparked unrest nationwide, with deadly force sometimes employed by security forces to evict villagers.

Obama’s visit to Cambodia on Monday and Tuesday will be the first by a sitting U.S. president. He is to attend an East Asia summit in the Cambodian capital.

More than 10,000 security forces have been assigned to keep order during the summit as part of Hun Sen’s determined effort to show Cambodia’s best face to the outside world.

National police spokesman Kirt Chantharith confirmed that eight people — six women and two men — were arrested at the village. He declined to say what charges they face.

Human rights groups have urged Obama to demand that Hun Sen address human rights abuses and implement genuine reforms. Obama will also visit Thailand and Myanmar on his first overseas trip since winning re-election.

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, condemn the arrest today of eight residents from an airport-area community after they painted the letters “SOS” on their rooftops in an apparent plea to United States President Barack Obama, who arrives in Phnom Penh next week for the 21st ASEAN Summit and 7th East Asia Summit.

The action came after hundreds of residents living near Phnom Penh International airport were threatened with forced eviction, despite having documents establishing possession rights to the land. The detained residents, who are from Thmor Korl village, also erected photographs of Obama next to the SOS messages.

The undersigned organizations call for the immediate release of the eight community members and an end to harassment. “Cambodian authorities are trying to suppress protests leading up to the ASEAN Summits,” said Naly Pilorge, LICADHO director. “It seems they are willing to go to any lengths to achieve this, even arresting community members peacefully expressing their fear of threatened forced evictions.”

On Wednesday November 14, the night before the arrests, some 30 armed forces, together with local authorities, entered Thmor Kol village and threatened that villagers would be arrested if they did not remove the signs.

Eviction letters were issued to at least 165 households near the airport on 25 July 2012. Since then, residents have sought repeatedly to clarify their legal status – writing letters, sending petitions and requesting meetings with government representatives, all to no avail. Increasingly desperate residents decided to spray-paint the “SOS” message on their roofs to bring attention to their plight, in the hopes that dignitaries visiting Phnom Penh for the ASEAN Summits would hear their message. Instead, they were detained.

Measures taken thus far to evict families living around the airport violate both international and domestic law. There has been no consultation with affected families, no compensation offered, and individuals protesting the planned evictions have been threatened. The former chief of Thmor Kol village was removed from office, allegedly for insubordination, after signing documents substantiating residents’ legal rights to their land.

“The Cambodian government does have a responsibility to suppress criminal behavior, but what these villagers have done is not criminal. In fact, it is the forced evictions that are illegal – so far, the authorities have not respected Cambodian law with respect to the threatened evictions around the airport,” said Ee Sarom, Programmes Coordinator of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut.

“The villagers haven’t done anything wrong; they’re simply publicizing the fact they are being illegally evicted. Apparently that’s not something the Cambodian government wants visiting dignitaries to see,” said Eang Vuthy of Equitable Cambodia.

The police raid on the airport community sends a chilling message to Cambodian civil society ahead of the ASEAN Summits this weekend, and raises fears of further crackdowns on activists. Already, key civil society events in Phnom Penh this week have seen clampdowns, with threats against and intimidation of venue owners who had previously agreed to host civil society events. At least five venue owners cancelled their agreements to hold the events at the last minute, and at more than 250 activists from around the country have been turned out of their guesthouses. Several activists have also received threatening phone calls this week, warning them to be quiet in the run up to the ASEAN summit. Police intimidated activists yesterday, trying to enter an NGO’s office and disrupt a workshop, asking for names of all participants, and making threatening comments.

The undersigned organizations call for the immediate release of the detained community members. We can identify no legal basis for any criminal charges against villagers – painting a protest sign on the roof of one’s own house is not a crime. The civil society organizations also urge the Cambodian government to end its intimidation, threats and harassment of organizers, venue owners and participants of civil society events in Phnom Penh ahead of the ASEAN Summits. The NGOs call on the government to respect the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and assembly, and to stop the crackdown on these fundamental freedoms ahead of the ASEAN and East Asia Summits.

Finally, the undersigned organizations urge President Obama to privately and publicly condemn these and other arbitrary arrests when he meets Prime Minister Hun Sen next week, and call for the immediate release of all people who have been detained and imprisoned for lawfully defending their land, housing and property rights.

CLEC – Community Legal Education Center
EC – Equitable Cambodia
HRTF – Housing Rights Task Force
IDI – Inclusive Development International
LICADHO – Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights
STT – Sahmakum Teang Tnaut

Media contacts in Phnom Penh:
Am Sam Ath, Senior Monitor of LICADHO, at (+855) 12 327 770
Eang Vuthy, Representative of Equitable Cambodia, at (+855) 12 791 700
Ee Sarom, Programmes Coordinator of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, at (+855) 12 83 65 33

Reportedly, as many as eight community members – six women and two men – from Thmor Kol Village by Phnom Penh International Airport were arrested this morning and are currently detained at a local police station. The arrests follow the community spray-painting “SOS” and posting pictures of US President Obama on their rooftops in response to eviction notices issued to at least 165 households by the airport. Last night, local authorities including some 30 armed police officers arrived in the village, warning residents that they could face arrest if they did not remove SOS signs.