Capitalising on recent worldwide attention to their plight, some 200
villagers who say they’ve been robbed of their homes and land staged a vivid
and stylised protest yesterday aimed at President Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, calling for intervention in Phnom Penh’s land-titling crisis.
Boeung Kak and Borei Keila land
activists, among others, took to the sand plateau of what was once a lakeside
community bearing enormous “SOS” signs with the faces of US leaders in what
they promise is the first of many protests timed to coincide with the ASEAN
summit.
Despite recently being thrown in
a prison cell for similar “SOS” actions at the Thmarkol community near Phnom
Penh airport, 34-year-old Chhay Nem joined in the protest.
“I will not fear another arrest;
I am not breaking the law,” Nem said, putting aside her fears for her personal
safety for the protection of her home. As well as a scrum of international
media, the protestors were surrounded by hundreds of riot and district police,
with metal crowd control barriers blocking all exits to the former lake area.
After a peaceful face-off between
the authorities and the protestors, crowds dwindled throughout the afternoon
with a small squadron of police remaining close to the Boeung Kak community at
the time of going to press.
Rights groups blasted the police
presence as another form of menace on freedom of expression in Cambodia.
“Deploying hundreds of forces to
prevent villagers to go outside their village is to reveal that freedom of
expression is limited in Cambodia,” Community Legal Education Centre’s Moeun
Tola said.
City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche
said last week authorities would take any necessary “administrative measures”
if protestors caused public disorder or threatened security.
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
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