Thursday, 2 October 2008

Amnesty International denounces the harassment of housing activists

Demonstration against evictions in front of Wat Botum

Cambodge Soir

01-10-2008

The human rights organisation presents an uncompromising report concerning the use of the Cambodian justice system against victims of land disputes.

The activists pursuing the right to housing are frequently victims of intimidations and legal harassment during land disputes, states the NGO Amnesty International in an 18-pages report, titled “Cambodia – The right to housing, a dangerous activity”, published on 26 September.

Amnesty International brings up several cases, amongst which the one of Chhea Ny, arrested in August 2006 and detained until December 2007 while he was involved in a land dispute against high ranking military in Boeung Pram village, Battambang province.

“I was chained in a dark cell during one week, he declares in the Amnesty International report. I felt so unhappy. I wasn’t allowed to wash. They took the chains from my feet after one week.”

Chhea Ny was then released while the authorities claimed having “arrested the wrong person”.


Amnesty International quotes Cambodian NGO’s which say that the number of housing activists who were harassed by the authorities increased from 78 in 2006 to 149 in 2007.

The association requests the government to respect the human rights defenders and to allow them to work without obstacles, intimidations or harassment. It also demands the end of the forced evictions of people. Finally, Amnesty International suggests the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, to come to Cambodia in order to investigate these violations of the rights of the activists.

Allegedly, 150,000 Cambodians are living at risk of being evicted, according to Amnesty International.

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