Cambodia: evicted land rights defenders arbitrarily detained, beaten and threatened
Event- Country
- Cambodia
- Initial Date
- Jan 29, 2019
- Event Description
Mok Heng and Chhoem Chhuon, village representatives from Kampong Thom province’s Prasat Balangk district, are illegally arrested and beaten by police before being sent for questioning at the provincial station. The two men are forced to thumbprint a document turning their land and threatened with imprisonment should they continue to protest against a 2016 land grab that saw almost 1200 hectares of farmland occupied by 586 families seized and cleared to make way for a World Bank-funded social land concession. Another land representative, Eang Sokmeng, was arrested in June and charged with intentional physical assault.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Administrative Harassment
- Intimidation and Threats
- Judicial Harassment
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Offline
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Right to liberty and security
- Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 12.756980223326298
Longitude: 104.89565224386035
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 29 January 2019, Mok Heng and Chhoem Chhuon, community-based and land rights HRDs, were arbitrarily detained ad beaten by the police, and then forced to sign a document certifying their land eviction and threatend with detention if they continues protesting in Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.