Tensions have escalated since 7NG workers, protected by numerous police and military police, began blocking the two roads with empty gasoline drums

Since the night of Saturday January 5, 7NG company workers and police have persistently attempted to place roadblocks on the two main public streets leading to Dey Krahorm village in Phnom Penh, repeatedly provoking confrontations with community residents which culminated on the night of January 7 with the burning of a truck used in one of the roadblocks. Residents claim that it was 7NG workers themselves who set the truck alight, in order to accuse the community of doing it.

Tensions have escalated since 7NG workers, protected by numerous police and military police, began blocking the two roads with empty gasoline drums at 3.30am on Saturday night. Residents, fearing that access in and out of their homes would be cut, reacted by pushing the drums to the side of the road and preventing the workers from filling them with water to weigh them down.

Police maintained a loose cordon of the area throughout the night and most of Sunday. About 9.30pm on Sunday night, 7NG workers again tried up to fill the drums with water. A crowd of residents once more prevented this, and pushed the drums out of the way. Later that night, company workers re-positioned the drums, along with a parked truck, across the road to block access to Dey Krahorm from Sothearos Bvld.

On Monday, company workers or police in civilian clothes who were manning the roadblocks prevented people from delivering supplies to Dey Krahorm market - an apparent attempt to cut off the livelihoods of many community residents who make an income selling goods at the market.

Heated Night
About 9pm on Monday night, 7NG workers successfully filled the drums with water and placed them across the second access road to Dey Krahorm, nearby the National Assembly. Residents once more knocked down the drums, removing the roadblock.

Meanwhile, at about 10pm police and company workers suddenly withdrew the other road block, off Sothearos Blvd. A truck which had been positioned in the street as part of the roadblock since the beginning was driven away. However, about 30 minutes later the truck returned and was parked by company workers about 100m closer to Dey Krahorm than its previous position, and petrol drums were placed around it to block the rest of the street.

Minutes later, as residents gathered in front of the new roadblock, electricity was cut to streets lamps and the nearby Ministry of Senate and National Assembly Relations, plunging the area into darkness. After residents ran to the drums to push them aside, rocks were thrown between them and the 7NG workers. As the residents retreated, in the face of thrown rocks, the cab of the truck suddenly burst into flames. Eyewitnesses claim that, shortly before the flames erupted, two 7NG workers ran near to the truck and then retreated quickly away from it.

Fire engines speedily arrived on the scene to douse the flames, as 7NG workers photographed the fiercely-burning vehicle. Human rights workers who examined the scene afterward found a broken bottle with traces of gasoline in it and a cigarette lighter lying on the road nearby the truck. A second bottle smelling of gasoline was found in the scorched remains of the truck's cab.

"To say the least, everything that happened around the time of the fire was highly suspicious, particularly the fact that the truck was driven away for half an hour beforehand and the street lamps were cut just before the fire started," said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. "By repeatedly trying to impose these roadblocks under the cover of darkness in the middle of night, they created an extremely tense situation which it seems they wanted, one way or another, to get out of control."

"It is time for the Phnom Penh Municipality to step in and ensure that the situation is defused, not further escalated - if it does not, and further violence or damage occurs at Dey Krahorm, the responsibility for this will lie squarely with the municipality, police and 7NG company."

to preventsupplies being delivered to Dey Krahorm market, because the municipality has suddenly decided to build a public park at the location. No explanation has been given for why the municipality wants to create such a park at this time - in the middle of a heated land conflict in the area - or of why 7NG company workers are involved in putting up the roadblocks. In fact, theaction appears be a clear attempt to cut off the livlihoods of many Dey Krahorm residents who make an income selling goods at the market - creating additional pressure on them to agree to give up their land to 7NG.

History of harassment
These roadblocks are the latest in a three-year campaign of harassment and intimidation of the community to coerce them to surrender their land to 7NG in return for new apartments on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 20km away, or cash payments of far below the market value of the land. 7NG effectively claims that residents have no choice but to leave because of a contract signed by their former community representatives with the company in January 2005. Residents say they were never consulted about the contract and did not agree to it, so it is invalid. Many residents have accepted 7NG's terms and moved out, voluntarily or otherwise, but the remaining ones continue to struggle to defend their land and property rights.

In recent months, the pattern of provocation, intimidation and harassment of Dey Krahorm residents and, particularly, their community representatives, has included:

▪ On August 29, 7NG brought construction workers equipped with sharpened crowbars and hatchets into Dey Krahorm to try to dismantle several wooden shelters. When residents peacefully tried to prevent this, police instructed the construction workers to break through the crowd of protesters - which could have easily provoked a violent confrontation. During the incident, a 7NG worker handcuffed a female community representative who was protesting peacefully.

▪ On September 27, a 7NG security guard complained to police that a Dey Krahorm community representative had stolen his telephone. This followed a brief scuffle when the guard used his phone to photograph the female representative during a press conference, and the phone fell to the ground. The 7NG guard left his phone on the ground and immediately went to the police to complain the representative had stolen it from him. The phone was given to police by the community. The representative was later charged with robbery