Phnom Penh - Cambodian human rights groups accused the
government and military Wednesday of brutally evicting hundreds of
families and torching their homes in a rural southern village early
in the week.
Rights monitors said at least three people were seriously injured
by beatings when soldiers, police and forestry officials forcibly
evicted up to 300 hundred families from the 20-hectare site Monday.
Authorities torched about 130 homes on Monday and another 170 on
Tuesday in the second such eviction in the area this year, the
Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights said
in statement.
'The ownership of the land in question is unclear, but
authorities claim that it is protected state forest. Some of the
people living there say they have been there for several years, while
others settled there more recently,' the statement said.
The group said soldiers also blocked a road leading to the
village in Kompot province Monday, preventing medical workers and
rights groups from reaching the site.
'They used the armed forces to evict people. It was violent and
brutal,' Try Chhoun, provincial coordinator for the Cambodian Human
Rights and Development Association, told The Cambodia Daily.
Try Chhoun said soldiers and police told villagers they had stolen
land belonging to Prime Minister Hun Sen and warned that the area
would soon be occupied by disabled soldiers.
Bokor National Park Director Chey Ulterith, who administers
national parks in the area, accused the villagers of trying to occupy
and then sell state-owned land, and then repeat the process at
another village, the newspaper reported.
Land ownership and 'land-grabbing' has been a source of intense
conflict over the past few years in Cambodia's provinces, where
property values have skyrocketed.
Human rights groups have accused the government of leaving
thousands of villagers homeless by seizing parcels of rich
agricultural land to hand over to politically connected companies.
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