The Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF) condemns the manner and tactics used by the military police and 7NG in yesterday’s eviction of homes at Deykrahorm, or Red Earth village in, Chamkarmorn, Phnom Penh yesterday. In particular, we reject the use of “construction workers” armed with crowbars and hatchets to disperse the villagers, the use of force in handcuffing individuals and decision by the police to not protect a villager when a 7NG employee physically assaulted her.

Mr. Pa Socheatvong, the Phnom Penh deputy governor’s description of the incident as a “small non-violent confrontation” (Cambodia Daily, August 30, 2007) is misleading and incorrect. Photographic and video evidence clearly show an excessive use of force by the police.

For example, an unarmed woman was peacefully protesting the dismantling of several shelters within the community, when a 7NG representative approached with handcuffs and wrestled her to the ground with the help of military police. The 7NG representative then handed the handcuffs to a military police officer, who attached them to the woman’s wrists.

The HRTF would like to raise the following concerns:

- The military police should not have been present as this case only involves civilians and is therefore outside of their jurisdiction.

- Some military police had removed identity tags from their uniforms.

- Construction workers carrying sharpened metal bars were repeatedly instructed by senior police officials to break through a crowd of peaceful protesters. The use of hired construction workers to break through a peaceful protest could have easily provoked a violent confrontation as the construction workers were armed with hand weapons and aggressively pushing the protestors. This raise questions as to what the military police were trying to achieve through this tactic.

- Police and military police did not make sufficient attempts to diffuse tension or remove risks of escalation in what they knew would be a highly stressful situation in a confined space. For instance, they carried hand-guns, one of which was dropped within easy reach of bystanders (a photograph clearly shows two different hands reaching for the gun).

- Despite the presence of police and military police, it was a company representative who tried to forcibly attach handcuffs to an unarmed member of the community. There is no legal basis for a representative of a private company to detain a citizen.

- After the incident, the community marched with the handcuffed woman to the National Assembly. There, police initially denied handcuffing the woman and said they did not know who had the key. She remained in handcuffs for several hours.

Once again, HRTF calls for a temporary stop to all eviction until a proper process has been established to ensure the protection of civilians and human rights as enshrined in Cambodian constitution. The HRTF additionally calls for an immediate cessation of the tactic of having

Furthermore, HRTF reminds the Royal Government of Cambodia of their responsibility to protect the vulnerable in the community and that large-scale land projects do not infringe on the civil rights of communities.

PDF: Download full statement in English - Download full statement in Khmer