LIBRARY

18 January 2009

On December 31, 2008, the Supreme Court announced the release on bail of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun after 1799 days of wrongful imprisonment, and ordered the Appeal Court to re-investigate their case. The two men were held at PJ prison for almost five years after being wrongly convicted of the assassination of Chea Vichea, leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC). Their provisional release signifies an important step towards the resolution of a case dogged by miscarriages of justice.

19 December 2008

The Borei Keila social land concession: the Government's commitment to housing Phnom Penh's urban poor - new apartments for families in exchange for land given to commercial developers. Borei Keila was the first of four social land concessions in Phnom Penh and was meant to be the model alternative to the eviction and off-site relocation of the city's urban poor. Now over 5 years later, only 3 out of 10 apartment buildings have been completed and only 30% of families have received their promised apartments while the remaining families continue to live in squalid conditions awaiting the construction and allocation of their apartments.

15 October 2008

For Cambodia's police and armed forces, impunity is the rule of law. In recent months Phnom Penh has been witness to a spate of shootings perpetrated by police or Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) personnel. These individuals at the time of the shooting incidents were either off-duty or working second jobs as security guards, during which they were illegally carrying firearms. Following the shootings all these perpetrators escaped prosecution because they were protected by their high-level connections, paid out-of-court compensation to the victim to ensure a criminal complaint was not made, or were allowed to go into hiding.

25 September 2008

September 23, 2008 marked the 1,700th day that Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun have spent in prison for a crime they did not commit.

Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, the two men continue to serve 20-year prison sentences for the murder of trade union leader Chea Vichea. They remain in Phnom Penh's PJ prison, where they have been since their arrests on January 28, 2004.

5 August 2008

On October 26, 2007, four Cambodian men aged between 20 to 37 years were trafficked from Takeo province to work on a deep-sea fishing boat off the coast of Thailand. Chronic unemployment and poverty drove the men to seek work abroad and into an environment they knew little about. Whilst it was the mens' choice to search for work overseas, they were unaware that they were being trafficked into forced labor in Thailand. Their arduous journey took them from a small village in Cambodia to a remote forest in Thailand and then to the coast of East Malaysia, however through the cooperation of several NGOs in the region the men were able to be returned to their homes in Cambodia. Their ordeal has now launched efforts by several NGOs to establish networks across Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia to break trafficking rings and to help repatriate victims.

2 July 2008

In a bid to clean up the streets of Phnom Penh, the government has been removing the homeless, beggars and sex workers and dumping them in two detention centers supposedly for rehabilitation and education. The reality however is that these people are being unlawfully detained and forced to live in appalling conditions where meals consist of a small plastic bag of rice and a bucket in the middle of the room serves as a communal toilet.

6 June 2008

On June 6, 2006, more than 1000 families were violently expelled from their homes in Sambok Chap village in inner city Phnom Penh. The residents were forced onto trucks and taken to be dumped in an open field at Andong, 22km from central Phnom Penh - their new 'home'. There was no shelter, electricity, running water, schools, health services or readily-available employment nearby.

Today 6 June 2008 marks the two year anniversary of the eviction, the site of their former homes in Sambok Chap - slated for commercial development by a private company - remains bare and unused, while the evictees continue to live in squalor at the Andong relocation site.

4 June 2008

In the past week the number of villagers coming to Phnom Penh to highlight land grievances shows the continuing dire situation of land-grabbing in Cambodia.

"People are still coming to Phnom Penh from all over the country, desperate for government officials to listen to their land problems and resolve them," said Kek Galabru, LICADHO's president. "This shows that land-grabbing is still rampant and that villagers are unable to get their grievances heard anywhere else."

Last week in just a short period of 48 hours, five groups of villagers from five provinces came to Phnom Penh because of unresolved land problems.

12 May 2008

Sophal* was only six when he became a child brick factory worker. The rest of his family has spent over five years working in the brick factory. Together, the family of five earns less than US$25 per month. The work is hard, and the children often get sick. The job involves repetitive lifting, carting and drying of clay, and hauling brick blocks in and out of hot furnaces.

On May 7, World Vision Cambodia (WVC) and LICADHO launched a joint research report "Child Labor in Brick Factories - Causes and Consequences" at a workshop in Battambang city. The research, conducted in July 2007, aimed to identify causes and consequences of child labor in brick factories in the surrounding areas of Battambang city.

8 May 2008

Radio Free Asia (RFA) Journalist Lem Piseth has yet again fled the country to Thailand after deaths threats were made against him last month.

Since early April 2008, Lem Piseth had been investigating a drug trafficking and murder case with alleged links to high ranking officials. On April 10, 2008 Lem Piseth's daughter discovered six AK47 bullets placed in front of their rented house in Battambang. The bullets were placed at the front gate only three and a half meters from his bedroom.

17 March 2008

There are over 640 women currently detained in prisons all over Cambodia and on a day that is meant to celebrate women everywhere and promote the rights of women, LICADHO, partner NGOs, comedians and musicians spent the day remembering these vulnerable members of society.

On Saturday March 8 LICADHO and partner NGOs celebrated International Women's Day by distributing food, drinks, clothes and materials to female prisoners, children living in prison and female prison guards across 20 prisons in Cambodia. These donations are greatly needed in a prison system which must subsist on a budget of 1,500 riel (USD$0.38) per prisoner per day to cover the costs of food, water, electricity, clothing and medical care.

28 February 2008

Early on the morning of 22 February, 2008, more than 100 heavily-armed military police, intervention police and district police officers violently and forcibly evicted 23 households in Banla S'et village, Khmuonh commune, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh. As a result, four villagers were injured and eight were detained, leaving behind a dismantled community with nowhere to go.

The eviction was carried out less than 24 hours after the community received notice of eviction. Military and police forces arrived shortly after 7.30am, and less than five minutes later, fired two tear gas canisters at residents while simultaneously shooting dozens of AK-47 bullets into the air, in a blatant attempt to intimidate and force the community to leave. Many bullets were also fired directly at a nearby vehicle, which subsequently exploded.

25 February 2008

On 19 February, 2008, two international human rights organizations and two Cambodian NGOs called upon Cambodian authorities to take effective measures to combat the practice of forced evictions which constitutes a flagrant violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international human rights instruments that the Kingdom of Cambodia has ratified.

28 January 2008

Today, the 28th of January, 2008, marks the fourth year of imprisonment of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeum who were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the murder of Chea Vichea, President of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia. As of today the two men have served a total of 1,461 days in prison.

9 January 2008

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.

16 November 2007

Members of civil society, in the middle of a prayer session clashed with district authorities when their microphones were seized and electricity cut off during a peaceful Bon Phka (flower fundraising) festival held at the Phnom Den North pagoda. The Kirivong district authorities of Takeo province broke up the gathering claiming that it was politically motivated.

During the morning prayer session, a district authority representative in plain clothes interrupted the crowd by shouting at them to stop their prayers and accusing them of organizing a political rally. He warned the crowd not to talk about Monk Tim Sakhorn's case and soon afterwards, microphones were confiscated and electricity cut off by other individuals in plain clothes.

7 November 2007

At around 4am on November 2, 2007, more than 300 mixed police forces with two mechanical excavators - led by Russey Keo Governor Mr. Khleang Huot - came under the cover of darkness to demolish houses belonging to 132 families living in Chong Chruoy village, Chruoy Changva commune, Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh.

The mixed forces blocked access to the eviction site and prevented human rights workers as well as media from monitoring and reporting on the eviction. During the forced eviction, the authorities confiscated the camera of an observing Member of Parliament, H.E Nou Sarath from the Sam Rainsy Party and two cameras belonging to a staff member of the Housing Rights Task Force, a coalition of NGOs focusing on urban eviction issues.

17 October 2007

On October 16, shortly before 7pm, approximately 80 police and military police - some armed with pistols - surrounded a group of about 200 Svay Rieng villagers camped in the park outside Wat Botum near the former National Assembly. The villagers, who had only arrived at the park a few hours earlier, were forced into vehicles including two buses and sent back to Svay Rieng.

According to witnesses, some of the villagers were beaten during the raid on the park, and two persons were later taken to hospital unconscious. NGO workers were blocked by authorities from entering the area, but heard cries coming from the villagers.

4 October 2007

On September 27, 2007 the Dey Krahorm community, in Phnom Penh organized a peaceful media conference which was attended by 200 villagers and 20 7NG security guards. The media conference was meant to bring attention to the situation of the Dey Krahorm community who are at risk of being evicted from their homes by 7NG. During the conference, community representative, Touch Raotha was involved in a scuffle with a 7NG security guard. Police are alleging that Touch Raotha damaged the security guard's camera phone when he attempted to take a photo of her.

21 September 2007

From September 15 to 17, 2007, an art-exhibition entitled "Experience and Dreams, Drawings by Children in Prison", was hosted at the Cambodian National Cultural Centre in Phnom Penh. The exhibition put on display a collection of expressive drawings by children detained in prison that illustrated prison conditions, their personal impressions of the justice system and their thoughts and future dreams.