Uwazi

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the arrest of a former monk and forestry activist living in exile who shared a disparaging poem about the country’s strongman on social media, RFA has learned.

Voeun Veasna currently resides in neighboring Thailand. A Khmer Times report on Oct. 11 described him as a 35-year-old activist affiliated with the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

On Oct. 9, Voeun Veasna used his Facebook account under the name Kranhoung Preylang to post a poem titled ‘Hun Sen is a Traitor’ on the prime minister’s own Facebook page. The poem criticized Sen for amending Cambodia’s constitution, thereby “destroying the country.”

The poem also accused Hun Sen of allowing Cambodia’s forests to be destroyed during his rule.

Hun Sen quickly responded to Voeun Veasna’s poem, calling it an expression of “extremist theory,” and called for his arrest, according to the Khmer Times report.

“Now there are extremist rebels left that need to be eliminated for peace to be maintained,” the report quoted Hun Sen as saying.

Hun Sen said that he hoped the police would track Voeun Veasna down, whether he was inside or outside the country.

Speaking from exile in Thailand, Voeun Veasna told RFA’s Khmer Service that his opinion on Hun Sen remains unchanged.

“I commented on Hun Sen’s Facebook because ever since I was born, I have not seen Hun Sen do anything to benefit his country and his people,” he said.

“Hun Sen has looked the other way as his powerful friends… stole land from the people. People are crying throughout the country, but Hun Sen has ignored them.”

The former monk said that his poem reveals the truth of Hun Sen’s leadership, andthat he plans to continue speaking out against the strongman.

“I am concerned about my security, but I don’t know what to do when this regime likes bloodshed,” he said.

Even though Hun Sen ordered his arrest this week, Voeun Veasna said that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court had already charged him with incitement in May and ordered his arrest. He said he would be arrested if he were to return to Cambodia.

Hun Sen, as a public figure, is not immune from criticism, and the government’s role should be to educate the public rather than punish them for their political opinions, Soeung Sengkaruna, spokesperson for the local ADHOC NGO told RFA.

“Our country is not open to criticism and has taken many actions against expression,” he said.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, two months after arresting its president Kem Sokha over an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Scores of supporters of the group have since been incarcerated, awaiting a tortuous legal process made slower by COVID-19 restrictions.

The move came amid a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the country’s political opposition, independent media, and NGOs that allowed the CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in a July 2018 election and drew U.S. sanctions and the suspension of trade privileges with the European Union.

An anti-logging activist was on Tuesday convicted of assault against an alleged timber trader, as rights groups linked the verdict to ongoing harassment and intimidation against environmentalists in the country.

The Kampong Thom Provincial Court sentenced Chan Thoeun, who is in hiding, to two years’ imprisonment, but suspended the sentence, according to his lawyer Sam Sokong.

Sokong said the judge had also downgraded the charge from attempted murder to intentional violence with aggravating circumstances.

Thoeun has previously said that he saw a timber trader hauling timber from a community forest in July last year, but was threatened at knifepoint when he pulled out his phone to capture footage, alleging that he was the victim, not the aggressor.

Sokong said that although the two-year sentence was suspended, he considered the court’s decision unfair because his client was the victim. “We see that [the court] has not yet been given justice to the client,” he said.

Thoeun, who is a member of the Prey Lang Community Network in Kampong Thom province, said he would appeal the conviction.

“It is an injustice against me. When it comes to many huge crimes of timber [trafficking], they do not prosecute them. But they sue me and accuse me, and it is unjust,” he said. “I do not accept it because I did not do anything wrong and they came to take my phone and prosecuted me. I will appeal to the Appeal Court. The decision is unacceptable since I am a victim.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap said members of the Prey Lang Community Network have been facing harassment as well as physical and legal threats. Environmentalists should not be facing such actions under a democracy, she said.

“I hope that the government should reconsider its commitment to the protection of natural resources, and that commitment can only be achieved with the participation of local communities,” Sopheap said. “As long as local communities that are active in protecting the environment remain under threat, it contradicts the government’s claimed commitment.”

The network, which works to protect the massive Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, has been banned from conducting patrols since last year. Environmentalists have been arrested in the protected area, and the U.S. this year pulled funding to the government for Prey Lang-related projects, citing continued logging, failure to prosecute timber traders and silencing of environmentalists. Other environmentalists have also been jailed and charged with plotting against the government.

Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for campaigns, said Thoeun should never have been charged or tried, and his conviction fit a pattern of silencing and intimidating environmental activists in Prey Lang and across Cambodia.

“Chan Thoeun and the PLCN have been standing up against powerful illegal logging interests for years,” Hah said. “They have defended the Prey Lang forest while the Cambodian authorities have turned a blind eye to the rampant destruction of this vital ecosystem, which is an essential part of the culture of indigenous Kuy communities.”

A journalist is being questioned by police after Defense Minister Tea Banh, head of the CPP working group for Koh Kong, apparently instructed local officials about taking legal action and countering the journalist’s criticism of a deputy governor.

Youn Chhiv, who runs the Koh Kong Hot News website, was purportedly part of the land dispute himself while reporting that authorities were evicting people from state land they had farmed for years.

In his reports, Chhiv said authorities were violating Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call last year to grant land titles to ordinary people who had long-standing claims on state land.

An audio recording, shared with VOD, appears to show Defense Minister Banh instructing Koh Kong officials to take action against Chhiv. Several government-aligned media outlets have reported on Banh’s instructions, including some that quoted from the recording. Koh Kong provincial information department director Mom Malika said the recording could have been shared in a group with provincial officials, but declined to elaborate. Banh could not be reached for comment.

Banh’s purported voice in the recording says he told provincial governor Mithona Phouthorng to pursue a lawsuit against Chhiv.

“Just a moment ago I told Mithona to check and to discuss with the provincial law expert to file a lawsuit against him. He twisted the truth and promoted bad ideas, and we need to clarify it,” it says. “We have to make urgent reports to send to all the places about the administration’s actions against encroachers of land.”

He would call on Fresh News staffers to help spread information that would correct Chhiv’s video reports, it adds.

“In there, there is a Fresh News representative, and [we will] send it to him to help disseminate that the video twisted the truth,” the recording says. “Take action quickly, and should not be silent, and they will disseminate it all over the place. It has caused a mess and issues, destroying reputations. [We’re] discussing it with a legal expert and handling it.”

Other media would also be enlisted to help, it says.

“[We] urgently need to discuss with the media in the province and attack him first, directly, with his name,” it says. “All media should publish it in advance, and [then] make a written letter and consult with the legal expert to send the case in time. [We] should not allow this. It is unacceptable.”

Chhiv had made a mistake when he “attacked the administration’s measures,” it says.

“He has violated and attacked the administration’s measures, and if we do not handle this carefully, we cannot control the state, and the state needs to take action against the violator through administrative measures,” it says, noting that villagers were told to leave but failed to follow instructions.

In one of Chhiv’s videos, he interviews three villagers who say they came to live on the land, in Botom Sakor district, in 2007. They say authorities have this year been destroying their cashew trees, sugarcane and cassava plants to try to evict them without compensation. About 130 officers from police, military police and local administrations had come to clear their land, they say.

“People survive through their farmland, but now they have cleared it all. So where can people plant their crops and rice?” one villager asks, pleading for help from Prime Minister Hun Sen and Defense Minister Banh.

“Our authorities have not followed samdech’s remarks. They might know that samdech would lose [power] one day, so they do this and they do not follow samdech,” the villager says in the video. “They do not look after the people and they only destroy people.”

Chhiv says in the video that villagers come to his office and ask for his help, telling him they’ve been threatened with arrest. “Do they not know where the provincial governor is?” he asks.

He also mentions sub-decrees that have privatized over 100,000 hectares of Koh Kong parks, ostensibly to give titles to villagers using the land. He asks why the villagers are not being given titles, but being evicted instead.

In one Facebook post, Chhiv directly criticizes deputy governor Sok Sothy, saying the official is breaking people’s hearts.

Botum Sakor district police chief Sok Phon said on Tuesday afternoon that Chhiv had come in that day for questioning at the police station.

“Our police, with the deputy provincial chief, are in the process of questioning. … We have questioned him for about four hours, and we do not know yet [whether to send him to court]. Wait until the work has finished,” Phon said.

The provincial administration, meanwhile, issued a statement on Sunday saying Chhiv had disseminated “baseless information that is not true.”

The statement highlights one video, “Koh Kong Provincial Deputy Governor Sok Sothy Is Cruel and Abuses Citizens.”

“The publication of this information is intended to tarnish the reputation of Mr. Sok Sothy, Koh Kong deputy governor, and hurts the reputation of the provincial administration, confuses the public and causes confusion and social unrest,” the statement says.

It says authorities went to Thma Sar commune on September 19 after issuing two prior warnings to people who had illegally encroached on state land and built huts. Authorities were “implementing administrative measures” against illegal encroachment, it says.

“Among those encroachers, there is Youn Chhiv, the journalist, the person who tried to disseminate the distorted truth,” the statement says, requesting all journalists to respect the law.

Sothy, the deputy governor criticized by Chhiv, said on Monday that he had submitted a complaint to provincial police and the case was now in their hands.

“The land is a national sanctuary … when he published such distortions of the truth like this — it damages reputations, and most importantly the public misunderstands, especially people who live outside and do not know that the land is a national sanctuary.”

Sok Sovan, a provincial reporter in Koh Kong, said that as far as he knew, Chhiv had a cashew farm on the land in question.

But the heavy-handed response from authorities was chilling, he said.

“It impacts other journalists. As you know, when a journalist posts on Facebook, they can charge [us] saying it is a red-handed crime,” Sovan said. “If the journalist published something wrong, they should pursue [the case] through the Press Law.”

“Journalists face high risks because in our world, publishing some wrong information often happens,” he added. “It’s a challenge when they file a case to court and we face imprisonment.”

Youn Chhiv, journalist and owner of website Koh Kong Hot News, was sentenced to a years imprisonment on September 30 for incitement under Cambodia’s Criminal Code, after reporting on a government land dispute. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA) condemn the imprisonment and intimidation of Youn Chhiv under the Criminal Code and call for the immediate cessation of all charges against him.

The journalist was charged with incitement to cause a felony over publishing alleged misinformation about a land dispute at Botum Sakor National Park. After two days of police questioning without a lawyer, the Chhiv was sentenced to one year in prison under Cambodia’s Criminal Code.

Chhiv claimed that authorities were unlawfully evicting citizens from land they had both farmed and inhabited for years, in direct contravention of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call late last year to grant land titles to those who had long-standing claims on state land. According to Vey Pherom, deputy prosecutor at the provincial court in Koh Kong, Chhiv admitted that the above claims were false.

In a leaked audio recording, a voice, identified as Defence Minister Tea Banh, can be heard instructing Koh Kong officials and state media to act against Chhiv. “[We] urgently need to discuss with the media in the province and attack him first, directly, with his name,” it says. There have been multiple government-aligned media outlets that have reported on Bahn’s instructions, condemning Chhiv’s reports as baseless.

Provincial reporter in Koh Kong, Sok Savan said that the case had been kept extremely confidential, and only family members were admitted into the courtroom. Savan indicated that authorities ought to have used the Press Law, not the Criminal Code, or allowed Chhiv to apologise publicly and remove the videos. “This case is irregular and inappropriate. In a democratic country, when a journalist covers the news for the public interest and society, they should not be punished or imprisoned,” Savan said.

Environmentalist Chhorn Phalla has been arrested by Ratanakiri police after they called him in to update the address on his identification card, his lawyer said.

An arrest warrant against Phalla had been issued in February for allegedly clearing forest land for ownership, but both his lawyer and wife said he had been called in for an administrative update.

Phalla, 42, has previously told VOD that he has been involved in protecting forests since 2016, and since 2017 he has filed eight lawsuits against local officials and villagers he accuses of being involved in encroaching on community forests. He has said that authorities have taken no action on any of his complaints.

In July last year, he was beaten by a group of people at a public forum where he questioned how authorities were allowing forestry crimes to happen under their jurisdictions, he has said. Authorities accused him of disrupting the forum, then stood and watched as people beat him, he has alleged.

Kham Salong, Phalla’s wife, said her husband was arrested at Lumphat district’s Seda commune police station at 11:22 a.m. on Monday after the couple arrived to update the address on their ID cards.

“I feel really sad,” Salong said. “They previously beat him up, and now they come to arrest him. I want to ask the court to release my husband. He is not guilty of anything.”

Phalla’s lawyer, Sam Tith Seiha, said his client had been asked to go to the police station to update his ID, and that he would try to speak to him in prison.

Keo Pheadey, deputy prosecutor and spokesman for the Ratanakiri Provincial Court, could not be reached.

Ny Sokha, president of rights group Adhoc, said authorities must be clear before arresting anyone, and said he had doubts about the forestry charges against him.

“We ask the Ratanakiri Provincial Court to consider dropping or revoking the arrest warrant for Chhorn Phalla and release him, do not accuse him further and release him, do not detain him because he did not commit a crime like the one in the lawsuit or the charges.”

Seng Sary. who had clarified that he does not support forming a government in exile but merely laid out hypothetical conditions for one, told RFA’s Khmer Service Monday it was a good sign that Hun Sen is listening to the opinions of analysts and intellectuals, but he did not feel completely safe yet.

“I have not seen the court drop my case yet, so it is difficult for me to decide whether I should return to Cambodia, because it has to do with my safety,” Seng Sary said.

“I hope I can get my charges dropped soon,” he said.

Seng Sary said he was fortunate to be in Thailand when Hun Sen ordered his arrest. Otherwise, he would never have been able to escape or explain to Hun Sen the meaning of his analysis.

“I hope that in the future, the head of government will more carefully consider posts on social media… Let the government have a high understanding of contradictory views or political views that people want express.”

Political analyst Kim Sok, who lives in exile in Finland, said that Seng Sary is right to remain in Thailand and act with caution about anything Hun Sen says.

“He did request that the court revoke Seng Sary’s arrest warrant, but who knows? When Seng Sary returns to Cambodia and if he is arrested, Hun Sen could say he only made the request to cancel the arrest order, but it is up to the court because the court is independent. So be careful with this game,” Kim Sok said.

RFA was unable to reach Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin for comment on Hun Sen's stance. The spokesman for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Plang Sophal was also not available.

Chak Sopheap, the Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, welcomed the suspension of the arrest warrant and urged the government to be more open to intellectuals and political analysts.

“There must be a guarantee of full freedom of expression, and there should be no indictment or arrest just because citizens are expressing their opinions,” she said.

Some Facebook users wrote in support of Hun Sen’s change of heart, while others pointed out that the Cambodian leader has broken promises to activists in exile, saying they could return to the country without fear of arrest, but arresting them anyway.

The exchange with Seng Sary came a little than a week after Hun Sen Hun Sen crashed a Zoom strategy session of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which Hun Sen had banned in 2017.

“I wanted to send a clear message to the rebels that there are people of Hun Sen everywhere,” the prime minister said of his intervention in the Zoom call.

A reporter for Voice of Democracy said he was harassed by authorities on Saturday while covering a land dispute between a new airport project and affected villagers in Kandal Stung district.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association said a second journalist was warned by villagers to stay away because police were threatening to arrest him.

Pok Kheuy, who is an intern at VOD, told CamboJA that he went to cover a press conference held by residents involved in a land dispute over the new Phnom Penh Airport in Kandal Stung district, Kandal province, on Saturday.

“When I interviewed the people, authorities dressed in civilian clothes took pictures of me and my motorbike,” he said. “After I finished my interviews, I drove my motorbike back to Phnom Penh and about 5 minutes later, I noticed that two people followed behind me.”

Kheuy said as he drove, five uniformed police in the street tried pulling him over but he continued driving.

“They still followed and said they were police and asked me to stop and talk to them, but I didn’t stop, and when I refused to stop, they shouted at me calling me ‘thief’,” he said.

Kheuy said he was frightened for his safety and considered it a threat against the freedom of press.

“I would like to express the sorrow that authorities are abusing the existing law on the press that ensures the safety for journalists and that the journalists have the right to report and cover news anywhere that they are not banned from,” he said. “But the authorities instead continue to restrict, and I think it is a bad thing and is persecuting journalists’ jobs.”

Kandal Stung district governor, Ouch Sao Voeun, said he did not know of the case. However, he said authorities in his area never ban journalists from covering news.

“I don’t know about this but if they are just covering news, nobody banned them, they can cover the news wherever they are allowed,” he said.

Kandal Provincial police chief, Chhoeun Sochet hung up the phone when a CamboJA reporter asked about the incident.

Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn said he did not know about the issue and needed to check with the provincial information department first.

However, he said, in general, journalists are not allowed to enter places where the authorities are in operation.

“Those who have no obligation [to be there] including the journalists are not allowed to enter the place because it may cause an obstacle and obstruct the authority’s operation and also cause danger for authorities as well,” he said. “And authorities have the right not to allow journalists to enter.”

In July, the Ministry of Information gave local authorities the green light to take legal action against journalists that they deem to be unprofessional or spreading false information that obstructs law enforcement.

The ministry made its decision after Kandal provincial authorities wrote to the ministry in June asking it to take legal action against a number of journalists who live streamed a protest against the new airport development.

Luos Seng, the owner of online news station LSN News TV and one of the journalists targeted by provincial authorities, had been warned by authorities after live streaming the protest.

He told CamboJA on Monday that he did not cover the press conference on Saturday because villagers called him and told him not to come or he would be arrested.

A villager told CamboJA that the authorities had been deployed along the streets outside of the press conference. He said authorities chased after Kheuy while about 10 villagers also followed behind to help him in case he was arrested by authorities.

CamboJA Executive Director, Nop Vy said in a statement on Monday that the act represented a serious threat against a journalist’s rights.

“Intimidation of journalists and threats through various forms seriously affects press freedom, the state of freedom of expression in Cambodia, and both journalists’ and the public’s right to information.”

CamboJA has recorded 38 cases of harassment against 56 journalists since the start of the year.

Claiming compensation offers have been too low, for three years now hundreds of families have been locked in disputes over the $1.5 billion airport project developed by Overseas Cambodia Investment Corp (OCIC), which is owned by the well-connected Oknha Pung Kheav Se.

On September 1, the company cut off village roads, making it difficult for residents to access farmland. The Kandal provincial administration issued a statement on September 3, stating that road closures and road blocks are to drain water from the runway construction site.

However, villager Tuon Vannak, who owns 0.40 hectare of land directly affected by the runway project said: “We feel that the authorities have cut off roads to encroach on people’s land because people will not be able to access their land.”

Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association calls on authorities with clear measures against officials who harass and obstruct the work of journalists.

Cambodian authorities have arrested more than 30 villagers during a violent roundup of land protesters in Kandal province where they were protesting against an airport being built by a company owned by a tycoon with ties to the country’s autocratic leader, provincial police and villagers said.

The land at Kampong Talong village in Kandal’s Beung Khchang commune was taken three years ago by the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC), a private Cambodian firm, for construction of the U.S. $1.5 billion airport project.

Around 330 families living on the disputed land refused compensation for their fields, saying the amounts offered in payment by the firm were too low.

Police beat the protesters who rallied Sunday, and 31 were arrested for alleged involvement in violence against authorities during the demonstration.

The land dispute between 330 families and the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) owned by Neak Oknha (honorific) Pung Khieu Se, an affluent business tycoon close to Prime Minister Hun Sen led to authorities to make the arrests.

Villager Nai Phon, who was monitoring the situation, said that authorities arrested three of his family members — his wife, Khim Chetra, and sisters Nay Phea and Nay Phol, and that police were still searching for and arresting other villagers.

“As a land grab victim, it has been three years since I begged the head of government to help solve this land dispute by giving us fair compensation so that we can accept it, Nai Phon said.

“And now we do not dare to claim the market price. We can accept a reasonable price to end the confrontation and have all the detainees released.”

RFA could not reach Kandal’s police commissioner, Chhoeun Socheth, for comment.

‘It is not a good way’

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of monitoring at Cambodian human rights group Licadho, said that this is the first time in the history of land disputes in Cambodia that authorities have arrested such a large number of people.

“We still insist on not choosing that way, and it is not a good way,” said Am Sam Ath, who condemned the resort to mass arrests.

“First, it affects both sides and draws more criticism over the issue of the land dispute as well as other allegations,” he said. “And if the people are imprisoned, their suffering will be doubled. This means that their families will face more problems.”

This arrest and violent crackdown erupted Sept. 12 after hundreds of authorities prevented farmers from accessing the land. They set fire to the rubbish in front of the security barricades used by local police and military police to block the road to their farmland now under the control of OCIC.

In response, Kandal Provincial Hall accused residents of causing acts of violence involving the use of sticks, stones, rubber bullets, and petrol bombs that injured 13 police officers.

Authorities called on residents to stop what they said were illegal activities and return to efforts to resolve the land dispute peacefully.

Acting on behalf of CIOC, Kandal provincial authorities have offered villagers U.S. $8 per square meter for their land, but villagers say that is much lower than the U.S. $70-80 per square meter estimated market price.

Van Sophat, land monitoring officer for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, previously told RFA that OCIC had failed to conduct a proper assessment of their project’s environmental impact or to consult Kampong Talong villagers on the proposed development.

The villagers hold title to their land and deserve justice and fair compensation, he said.

Hundreds of police officers blocked villagers on Sept. 7 from visiting rice fields seized to build an airport, though no injuries were reported.

Villagers stopped cultivating their land three years ago, but had to start farming again because business shutdowns caused by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Cambodia have left them without other ways to survive, a villager told RFA in an earlier report.

A citizen journalist was detained on Monday and later released after filming a police station and preparing to interview family members of 30 Kandal villagers arrested in a land dispute over Phnom Penh’s new international airport.

Chray Nim, who is also a land activist, said she was working as a citizen journalist for the community, though she would not elaborate on where she publishes her reports.

The airport development, in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district, has in recent months become more aggressive about clearing the land of villagers, who are refusing the compensation on offer to relocate.

Villagers have tried to block roads in protest, while police and military police have increased their presence to stop them.

On Sunday, a confrontation between villagers and authorities turned violent, with villagers allegedly hurling rocks at officers before 30 were arrested.

Amid a downpour outside the Kandal Provincial Court on Monday afternoon, a man said he was there with his wife because their 22-year-old daughter, a garment factory worker, was arrested on Sunday. He added that “I will be arrested” if he was named in publication.

“I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to burst out crying,” the man said of the night after his daughter’s arrest. “It’s our land and we’ve been jailed for our land.”

The villagers were angry, he said. But he said he was also annoyed at the children who had hurled rocks at officers. “They couldn’t control their emotions,” he said. “The young were aggressive, and the older people got arrested.”

Two women said they had come from Phnom Penh after their 55-year-old mother was arrested. “I was very upset when I learned that she was arrested, and they prevented us from seeing her,” one of the women said, declining to be named. The two had been outside the police station since 7 a.m., she said.

Another woman said her mother, who was over 60 years old, was also arrested. “I don’t want to talk much because I don’t want to get in trouble,” she said, standing with a full bag of cooked rice and other food she hoped she could give to her mother.

The first man added, speaking to reporters: “I’m worried about you too.”

Chray Nim, 41, was arrested around 11 a.m. outside the police station, according to her daughter Reaksa Reasey. Reasey said she had come with her mother, and saw six officers drag her into the compound.

Nim was filming the police station’s gate as a citizen journalist, Reasey said.

Reasey was also questioned for an hour before being released, she said.

“They questioned where my mother came from and what she does. I told them that I don’t know because I’m just a student,” Reasey said. “I was very, very scared seeing her in handcuffs.”

In the afternoon, a guard at the police station also told VOD: “No pictures. If you continue to take them, I’ll get someone to take you.”

Nim was released in the evening. Nim told VOD after her release that she had only started filming, had not interviewed anyone yet, and had not broadcast live. She was questioned about who she worked for and whether she had sought permission to film. She would only say that she was a “community citizen journalist” and not where her reports were published.

“They asked whether I had asked permission from them or not and I told them that I go to take videos everywhere and I have never asked permission,” she said. “Anywhere people protest we go to cover it.”

“This is a threat and silences the freedoms and rights of independent citizen journalists,” Nim added.

Information Ministry broadcasting director Phos Sovan said he did not have clear information yet about Monday’s detention, and whether it was only for taking video.

“When we write a narrative, it can be too far from the truth, and sometimes the authorities think that it will incite or cause more violence … so they use their mechanism toward journalists who broadcast live,” Sovan said.

There were some challenges regarding citizen journalists not following ethics, he added. “The new group that we call citizen journalists has a lot of challenges,” Sovan said. “We have seen some challenges for online media occurring recently.”

Many small news outlets have appeared on Facebook in recent years — and several have faced trouble with the law over their video broadcasts.

Nim began as a land and women’s rights activist in 2012 after facing problems with her own land near the current Phnom Penh International Airport, according to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and Transparency International.

Kandal officials have been heavy-handed in dealing with journalists covering the dispute. A VOD reporter was followed by two undercover police officers back to Phnom Penh after covering the story and another social media broadcaster was threatened and asked to stop covering the protest.

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, said Nim was a member of the association, though she had never done work for it.

The association would be offering her support as a member, he said.

“Citizens who can produce stories like articles and videos and photos are called citizen journalists. We have been working to build their capacity and ethics,” Vy added. “Some citizen journalists have good knowledge and can write stories. We encourage them and we can sign contracts with them.”

Many journalists in Cambodia were not formally trained, but have gained experience through working in newsrooms and with other journalists. “It is the same for citizen journalists. They are normal people, but they start working as journalists, then they learn and improve to be professional journalists,” he said.

Vy added that based on information he had, Nim had only been taking video. “I think this is part of people’s freedoms, including journalists’ freedoms,” he said, adding that authorities should respect those freedoms. “They have no weapons. They only have smartphones to interview and take photos and videos.”

Sokunthea Chhan, media development director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media — VOD’s parent organization — said Nim was not a citizen journalist for CCIM. But CCIM would be providing a lawyer to support her, Chhan said.

CCIM, however, did have citizen journalists in the disputed airport area, and they were facing threats from police and local authorities, she said.

“CCIM supports CJs and professional journalists when they face challenges by providing legal support and safe houses if they need,” she said. “CJs are just gathering [information about] issues happening at the conflict area. The authorities should open the space for CJs and all journalists to exercise their rights freely.”

Kandal provincial police chief Chhoeun Sochet could not be reached. Pung Khiev Se, chairman of OCIC, which is developing the airport in a joint venture with the civil aviation authority, has not responded to questions.

A group of residents in Oddar Meanchey’s Samraong city say they fear arrest and losing their land after the provincial court summoned 11 of them for questioning early next month over a land dispute.

The summonses come as four villagers were arrested on the land on Tuesday, only to be released that evening after a protest by what villagers said was hundreds of supporters. The land in question is said to have formerly been part of Angkor Sugar, a notorious site of alleged human rights violations that has led to a class-action lawsuit in Thailand.

May Pek, a resident of Konkriel commune, said 1,149 hectares of land were claimed by 293 families in five villages in both Konkriel and Samraong commune.

Pek said the residents had used the land for decades until 2007, when a sugarcane company received a government license for the land and evicted residents without compensation. But the company closed down in 2015, and people moved back on the land, he said.

Since the beginning of this year, a new company, San Heang, was claiming the land, he said.

He and 10 other residents had been summoned to appear at the court on September 1 and 2 over accusations that they falsified documents and encroached on the company’s land, Pek said. They would appear as they had not committed any wrongdoing, he said.

“My people, they support me. When I go in for questioning, they will come too because they are afraid,” Pek said. “I’m worried. It’s not that I’m not worried, but at this stage, if they want to arrest us, we don’t know what to do. But we also have to struggle — if we can’t struggle [and] just bear with it…”

Another summoned resident, Rath Sopheap, said it was not the first incident with San Heang. On Tuesday, a provincial forestry administration official and about 10 armed officers, including some from the company, arrested four farmers building huts in their rice fields, Sopheap said.

Sopheap said there were no arrest warrants, and the four farmers were held at the provincial forestry administration office as hundreds of villagers gathered outside in protest. They were released around 8 p.m.

Authorities tried to stop the people from protesting and taking photos, and confiscated three phones, she said.

“They kicked once, and put their feet while a person was on the ground, shoved into the ground and tied their hands behind their back,” she said. “They acted like this. It was so extreme against the people.”

Oddar Meanchey provincial forestry administration director Im Sao Varith said he had ordered the four arrests because the farmers had illegally encroached on state land, but denied that authorities had used guns to intimidate residents.

He declined to say whether the administration had brought a lawsuit against the 11 people summoned to court.

“We arrested them because they went to encroach on state land, invading state private land with a solid land title,” Sao Varith said.

Oddar Meanchey provincial governor Pen Kosal said he had already established a committee to investigate the dispute between San Heang and villagers. He had some results, and authorities planned to meet and make a decision soon, Kosal said.

“I organized a committee to check what the people have to rely on, and what the company has to rely on. The important thing is what evidence or proof they have so we can solve it,” he said.

San Heang could not be reached for comment. An Agriculture Ministry document dated July 13 gives San Heang a permit to clear forests and harvest byproducts on 1,500 hectares. According to OpenCorporates, the company was registered last year and has since changed its name to San Heang (Kampuchea) Aharon Niharon.

Adhoc official Srey Naren said the land in question formerly belonged to Angkor Sugar. Angkor Sugar was one of three sugar plantations in Cambodia under Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol, which is facing a class-action lawsuit from Cambodian farmers. Farmers’ homes were burned and razed, allegedly with the involvement of military forces hired by the plantation. Mitr Phol has said that it was not a participant.

Two Svay Rieng land dispute representatives, previously fined $1,000 each under Covid-19 regulations for gathering people to rally, have now been charged for obstructing the enforcement of health measures and face up to three years in jail, according to a rights group.

En Soth and Yous Sophorn, representing families seeking compensation for land the Water Resources Ministry wants to turn into a reservoir, were summoned by provincial police on Friday and detained overnight, according to Soth’s husband, Mom Kosal.

They were then sent to the provincial court for questioning on Saturday, Kosal said.

Licadho spokesperson Am Sam Ath said they had since been charged under articles 10 and 11 of the Covid-19 Law. Infringement of administrative measures can be fined up to 5 million riel, or about $1,250, and obstruction of enforcement up to 10 million riel, or close to $2,500, and punished by up to three years in jail.

“This is a threat against the community for protesting, and secondly this move impacts other communities from protesting. If they dare to protest, they could face the same charges,” Sam Ath said.

Earlier this month, Soth and Sophorn were fined $1,000 each for posting photos of protesters holding up banners, as authorities deemed the rally a violation of Covid-19 measures.

Kosal, Soth’s husband, said the deadline for paying the fine was Monday, and Soth had planned to hand over the money on Saturday.

Provincial police chief Koeng Khorn would only say that the two land disputants had committed wrongdoing and police had taken action. “If you know, why do you keep asking?” Khorn said when asked about the case.

Provincial court spokespeople could not be reached on Monday about the land dispute, in Svay Chrum district’s Chhoeuteal commune.

Rong Chhun, a long-time activist and unionist, was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in jail at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, and he and two other defendants were ordered to pay a total 400 million riel, or nearly $100,000, in damages to Cambodia’s border committee.

Chhun was arrested at the end of July last year after issuing a statement that Cambodia was ceding territory to Vietnam along the border in Tbong Khmum province, a racially charged and contentious issue. His arrest sparked weeks of small nationalist protests in his support, leading to several other arrests.

On Wednesday, Chhun was found guilty of incitement to disturb social security alongside Ton Nimol and Sar Kanika, who had protested in support of Chhun but told the court during a trial hearing in February that they were only a tuk-tuk driver and market vendor, not political activists.

Chhun was sentenced to 24 months in jail, while Nimol and Kanika were sentenced to 20 months. Together, the three were ordered to pay 400 million riel, almost $100,000, in damages to the national border committee. They were also handed court fines of 2 million riel each, or about $500.

The three defendants reacted to the court’s decision by shouting that the verdict was unjust.

“It is injustice,” Chhun spoke out in the courtroom. “It is implemented based on a plan and order from the ruler. The court is under the influence of a politician, so the court cannot find justice for me.”

Chhun repeatedly clashed with judges and prosecutors during his trial this year, frequently objecting to the legal basis of the case against him.

Government lawyer Koun Saroeun said by phone on Wednesday that the verdict had restored “honor” to the border committee, though it had asked for higher compensation.

“As the government lawyer representing the committee, we gained back our honor and with this. We can accept it is not a problem,” Saroeun said. “For me, the [award for] damages is not really suitable yet, but we will not oppose or be disappointed over the court’s decision.”

Choem Sophal, 58, the mother of Kanika, said outside the court that her daughter had simply been concerned about injustices in society.

“[We] are the same Khmer. There should be an understanding, and she has not committed any serious mistake. And the word ‘incitement, incitement.’ I hate that word the most, incitement,” Sophal said.

She asked the court to release her daughter so she can come back home and restart her business as before.

Ouk Chhayavy, president of CITA, told reporters outside the court that the verdict was politically motivated.

“The court’s decision to sentence Rong Chhun today is a threat to the younger generation to abandon their studies, stop being aware of the country’s social issues, because those who sacrificed for the nation and society were imprisoned,” Chhayavy said.

She condemned the court system and said these decisions make people lose their trust in the judiciary.

Defense lawyer Choung Chou Ngy said the court had ruled without sufficient evidence.

“There is no exact evidence showing that my clients had committed an incitement offense,” Chou Ngy said. “I will meet with my clients to discuss the right to appeal.”

In February, Khmer Win Party leader Suong Sophorn was also sentenced to 20 months in jail and ordered to pay 2 billion riel, or about $500,000, to the border committee for protesting in support of Chhun last year.

Chhun’s trial began in January, with two more hearings in February and a fourth and final session held after a Covid-19 delay on July 30.

On social media, U.S. ambassador Patrick Murphy said the conviction of “respected union leader Rong Chhun” raised serious questions about freedom of speech protected in the Constitution “and essential to the functioning of a democracy.”

“The judicial system should not be abused to silence peaceful activists,” he said.

British ambassador Tina Redshaw also said on social media that she was “seriously concerned and disappointed” about Chhun’s sentencing.

“Freedom of expression is protected in Cambodia’s constitution and the judiciary shouldn’t be used to curtail it. Strong governments are open to hearing and engaging with a range of views from all of society,” she said.

Updated at 2:15 p.m. with additional comments. Notable Arrests Jailed in 2020 VOD and rights groups have tracked at least 46 controversial arrests this year as of October 23 over a range of issues: alleged “fake news” related to the Covid-19 pandemic, protests and statements made about border demarcations with Vietnam, environmental activism, campaigning related to the outlawed opposition CNRP, and more.

Two journalists were stopped and harassed by Phnom Penh police and security agents on Friday while covering a land dispute between authorities and residents along Boeng Tompun lake.

That same day, dozens of Meanchey district authorities used bulldozers and other heavy machinery to clear the homes of about 11 families along the reservoir in the city’s Boeng Tompun 1 commune, one week after ordering the homes be dismantled to make way for a private development. Government officials say the southern Phnom Penh lake is state-owned, but the body of water has become a development hotspot due to large-scale infilling and leasing to outside firms.

An Vichet, a freelance journalist working with CamboJA who was covering the home demolitions, said police confiscated his smartphone and press card and ordered him to delete all images he’d taken of the site.

“I was asked to show a press card and delete all photos,” he said. “They took my press card away and asked me to leave the place immediately or there would be a problem, saying this is their area, so no photography was allowed.”

Vichet said the encounter was a serious violation of press freedom and a restriction on journalists’ work.

“This activity of authorities is not hidden, it is in public, so journalists just have the role to capture the images and disseminate information to the public,” he said.

VOA Khmer reporter Lors Liblib, who also covered the dispute, said about 50 authorities took part in demolishing people’s homes.

“I was taking pictures when people were angry with the authorities,” he said. “Then [police] pointed at me, ordered for me to be arrested and my cell phone confiscated, and deleted all the pictures.”

Liblib said then authorities ordered him to leave the place, otherwise they will take other legal action.

“For me, I think this is a threat to the freedom of the press and they may want to hide this from the public,” he said.

The Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA) denounces the Meanchey district police and security agents for confiscating the identification cards of the reporters and calls on authorities to immediately stop such violations.

CamboJA executive director Nop Vy said in a statement that “the use of any forms of restrictions is a violation of the press law and the Constitution — that is unacceptable”.

“We call on the authorities to immediately stop the acts of harassment, intimidation and threats against journalists, and instead cooperate and pay respect to the role of journalists in order to prove that the government truly pays attention to and respects the rights of citizens, especially the right to information,” he said.

However, Phnom Penh deputy Governor Keut Chhe said the authorities’ actions against the reporters had been legally permitted.

“If we look at the instructions of the Ministry of Information, in the operation locations of authorities, journalists do not have immunity to enter the location,” he said. “Professional journalists must follow the instructions and the law, because it does not mean journalists have the right to access during the operation. It is understandable that the authorities have just deleted the image.”

Families affected by the reservoir project

Friday’s conflict played out in a similar fashion to many land disputes in the capital, where space is at a premium and new construction a booming business.

On February 20, 2018, the Council of Ministers issued a decision to provide 35 hectares of Boeng Tompun to a private company, reportedly Phnom Penh Precast Plants, to prepare the area for commercial and residential development. The company also said it would provide green space and restore the reservoir, which is dwindling in size as developers fill it with sand and earth.

Some residents say they have lived there for more than 30 years with recognition from local authorities.

Sou Chetra, 42, told CamboJA he has lived there since 1991 and that the authorities destroyed people’s houses without providing them with compensation.

“We have sent papers to the commune, district and cadastral department but have received no response. I am so hopeless now,” he said. “Please give us our land and our home, don’t hurt us. Authorities don’t need to feed us, we can live our way, just give us back [our property].”

Sari Vannda, 34, who works as a food delivery driver in Phnom Penh, said he did not know why his home was being demolished but that authorities had given him one week to move.

“Authorities just come and destroy our house by showing one paper. It’s our land and houses that we have lived in since our grandmother,” he said. “They want us to move, I don’t know how to deal with it. My family will have no place to live during COVID-19.”

Keut Chhe said after the government gave the private firm the right to develop the land, the company was obligated to offer compensation to affected families. Since the affected land is along the reservoir, authorities say it is state property and do not provide any compensation for lost property. Chhe denied that the affected homes were there for as long as residents said they were.

“The houses near the lake were just built after 2018, while those families will not receive compensation as they live on the state property,” he said. “We need to restore the reservoir to avoid flooding in the city.”

Still, it is believed that past decisions from the government did require the private firm involved in the Friday demolitions to pay compensation to displaced people at a rate set to the square meter of land lost. It’s not clear how or when those payments will be made.

Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn did not comment.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of the rights group Licadho, said no one rejects infrastructure development under peaceful conditions, but that the impact of projects on citizens must be considered, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis.

“The best choice is peaceful negotiation rather than damage or violence that can affect people,” he said. “To evacuate people is not advantageous based on previous instances, especially during COVID-19. It is a high tragedy for people while they are affected by COVID-19 and then their home is destroyed.”

Sam Ath also said journalists should be allowed to cover without intimidation all public activities by authorities.

“Journalists have the right to report, take photos and video without any barrier,” he said. “[Raising barriers] violates freedom of press and it seriously abuses the rights of journalists.”

An online journalist says he received an anonymous call that he took to be a threat after reporting on land clearing in Siem Reap province.

Sous Chamroeun, head of CHR TV Online, claimed in a July 27 report that a local businessman had cleared hundreds of hectares of state-owned protected forest in Chi Kreng district’s Lveng Russei commune.

He said he received an anonymous call soon after telling him to remove the story and saying they would file a complaint against him. The caller said the land had been bought from citizens.

“They threatened me. First, he said that if you do not delete it, you will have a problem. Second, he said that he will file a complaint about this to the minister of information. He said that my name has not been properly registered as a journalist,” Chamroeun said.

Chamroeun said he had recorded the conversation, but declined to share it as he was waiting to see if there are further developments before filing a complaint to authorities.

A phone number for the businessman named in Chamroeun’s article, Kong Vun, who has a local electricity distribution business among his interests, was answered by a woman who would only say that she was an employee of the electricity firm.

Lveng Russei commune chief Loung Phorn said people had previously cleared land in the area before selling it to a company he could not remember, which then sold it to Vun.

Information Ministry spokesperson Meas Sophorn said he had not received information about the case.

Two land dispute representatives have been fined about $1,000 each for Facebook posts showing a crowd of protesters in a Svay Rieng rice field, a gathering deemed by authorities to be a violation of Covid-19 measures.

“They came to gather more than 200 people in two places,” said Svay Chrum district governor Hem Sarith.

Action would be taken against any gathering that did not have the permission of authorities, Sarith said. “We wear face masks, practice social distancing and avoid gatherings,” he said.

Since late last week, the government has ordered a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people across the country for two weeks in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant.

But a series of Facebook posts by Yous Sophorn on Monday showed villagers and children gathered in fields holding up banners, many without masks. A caption said: “On August 2, authorities came to ask people to give thumbprints to take 900 riel per square meter, but they didn’t accept. Where’s the place that has such a land price?”

The land dispute dates back to 2008, when the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, together with local authorities, decided to use the area to create a reservoir. Since then, residents — who say they have farmed the land since the end of the Khmer Rouge era in 1979 — have sought appropriate compensation so that they can buy new land for farming.

Sophorn was among the two representatives who received a 4 million riel fine on Wednesday.

She said local officials were refusing to solve the problem for residents, instead persecuting them for raising the issue. She did not thumbprint the document ordering her to pay the fine, and she would not stop resisting, Sophorn said.

“I would like to request the government, especially Samdech Hun Sen, to intervene with the subordinate officials to solve the problems for the people. Otherwise, it will be prolonged even more. And the authorities have always accused the people of anything. They have always thought of accusing us without finding any way to solve it for the people to survive,” she said.

En Soth, who was also fined, said authorities were only making people more angry. About 30 people gathered outside the commune hall as Sophorn, Soth and a third representative were summoned for questioning on Wednesday.

“Where is the suitable compensation?” she said. “They said they would not take the people’s land. … If it is development on the tears of people, please do not do so, I do not want it. I want development with a decent exchange. Do not use power to oppress the people. I totally disagree.”

Four protesters seeking compensation from Phnom Penh’s new international airport development have been put in Covid-19 quarantine without cause, allege their wives, who accuse authorities of trying to silence the protests.

A local official, however, says the men were quarantined because they were in contact with a Covid-positive person when they submitted a petition at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet office in the capital.

The dispute in Kandal province has been tense for months since bulldozers attempted to clear farmers’ land. Protesters have camped out on the disputed area to stand guard, and have held a cursing ceremony against the developers, Cambodia Airport Investment, a joint venture between the Civil Aviation Secretariat and the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation, the prominent firm behind Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island and several other projects. Last month, news publisher Los Seng said he was being pressured by authorities to stop reporting on the airport dispute.

Bat Sok Khoeun, 49, a resident of Kandal Stung district’s Boeng Khyang commune, said district police, commune police and commune officials arrived on Monday and gave the four protesters — including her husband — no choice but to enter Covid-19 quarantine for 14 days.

They had just returned from submitting a petition to Hun Sen’s cabinet, Sok Khoeun said.

She said the explanation for quarantine was unclear, and there was no documentation. “First, the doctor came and said that those who submitted the petition were positive. After talking longer and longer, the doctor said he came to take them to quarantine out of fear that they are positive.”

Hum Sokhem, 45, whose husband was also taken into quarantine, said she couldn’t help but feel suspicious. She demanded that authorities release the protesters and stop using Covid-19 as a way to prevent protests.

“They didn’t test anything. They came to accuse us of having Covid,” Sokhem said. “I’m just worried that they were being mistreated in connection with the land dispute with the company.”

Kandal Stung district governor Ouch Savoeun said the quarantine was purely for health precautions.

The four people were in contact with someone positive with Covid-19 when they went to file a petition at the Prime Minister’s cabinet office, Savoeun said.

“We did not arrest people. We followed administrative rules related to health work. We did not tie them up. We went to invite them to conduct quarantine because they had contacted a Covid-19 positive person,” Savoeun said. “We tested and took their sample. I’ve told them that in relation to gatherings, do not gather at all. Protests and settlements, it has been resolved.”

The protesters have been demanding compensation in line with market values — as much as $120 per square meter — rather than the offered $8, determined before the airport project was announced.

Van Sophat, a coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said some authorities appeared to be using Covid-19 as an excuse to ban land protests.

“The company and the authorities have used the pretext or taken the opportunity of Covid-19 to disperse, to deprive the people of the right to assemble and the right of expression in protecting their land. It only makes them more vulnerable. It is a very serious human rights violation,” Sophat said.

The new international airport, spanning 2,600 hectares in Kandal and Takeo provinces including an associated satellite city development, is slated to open in 2023.

A Cambodian court on Monday sentenced nine activists, including a lawmaker from the outlawed main opposition party, to prison terms ranging from 12 to 20 months on incitement charges for issuing pro-democracy petitions last year, the daughter of one of the defendants said.

Police arrested the seven opposition activists in October and December 2020 on incitement charges for staging a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in the capital Phnom Penh last Oct. 23, the 29th anniversary of the singing of the Paris Peace Agreement, marking the official end of the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.

During the demonstration, they tried to submit petitions to the embassies of China, France, and the United States, saying that Cambodia had violated the democratic principles set forth in the Paris Peace Agreement.

Shortly after the arrests, Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly accused lawmaker Ho Van, an opposition official now living in California, of instigating the protests.

Shortly before the verdict was announced at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, one of the detained activists, Lim San, complained about the violation of detainees’ rights, lack of treatment for ill prisoners, and verbal abuse by guards in Prey Sar Prison where she is serving pre-trial detention, said her daughter Phan Sat.

The judge ignored her comments and read the verdicts for former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) lawmaker Ho Vann and activist San Seihak, who is now living exile in Thailand, to 20 months in prison for instigating incitement to cause serious social unrest, Phan Sat said.

Four activists — Hong An, Lim San, Yoy Sreymom, and Ton Nimol — were each sentenced to 18 months in jail for incitement to commit serious social unrest, she said. The three other activists — Pai Ren, Sann Srey Neat, and Sat Pha, were sentenced to 12 months in prison on the same charges.

The judge told the seven activists, who were fined two million riel (U.S. $483) each, that they could file appeals if they were dissatisfied with the verdict.

Phan Sat, who attended the trial, said that the judge’s ruling was unfair. She maintains that her mother was acting legally during the protest and demanded that the court drop the charges and release all the activists.

“I want [her] to appeal because I do not agree with the verdict,” she said. “My mother is innocent. She had done nothing wrong.”

RFA could not reach defense lawyer Sam Sokong for comment.

He previously said that his clients’ protests are a guaranteed form of freedom of expression under Cambodia’s constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The multinational treaty states that everyone has the rights to hold opinions without interference and to freedom of expression.

Civil society groups say that those who participated in the peaceful protest in front of the Chinese embassy were expressing their opinion.

Heng Kimhong, head of the research and advocacy program of the Cambodian Youth Network (CYN), urged the court to reconsider the convictions and sentences and said that unjust detentions would seriously affect human rights.

“Perhaps because they [the defendants] understood that since China was an important signatory to the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement that upheld human rights, democracy, and freedom of expression, they had gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy to demand that [China recognize Hun Sen's violations of the pact],” he said. “Their protests and demands are not a crime.”

Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, two months after the arrest of its leader Kem Sokha for his role in an alleged scheme to topple Hun Sen’s government. The ban, along with a wider crackdown on NGOs and the independent media, paved the way for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party to win the country’s 2018 general elections.

Former CNRP lawmakers, political opposition activists, their relatives, and their supporters still face backlashes. Since early 2020, more than 80 political, environmental, and social activists, including a popular rapper, have been imprisoned on incitement charges as Hun Sen’s government seeks to silence its critics.

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Three environmental activists convicted earlier this year on incitement charges related to a planned protest have been handed a new charge of ‘plotting’ by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in connection with an ongoing case against four other activists.

The trio, members of the environmental group Mother Nature, have been in prison since September 2020, when they were arrested for planning a one-woman march to raise awareness of the impact of filling in lakes for development in the capital. In May, they were sentenced to 18 to 20 months.

Rights group Licadho said Thon Ratha, Long Kunthea, and Phuon Keoreaksmey were handed an additional charge of plotting and questioned by the Municipal Court this week. If found guilty, they could face up to 10 years in prison. Licadho said their lawyers were not informed ahead of time and so the activists appeared at court without representation.

Sam Chamroeun, who represented the three in their last case, said Ratha was questioned on Monday, Kunthea was questioned on Tuesday and Ms Keoreaksmey was questioned on Wednesday, but said they refused to talk without their lawyers present.

“I just knew that they were summoned to be questioned but they did not answer yet because they are waiting for their lawyer [to defend them],” Chamroeun.

Attorney Sam Sokong said that all three activists were summoned for questioning over the new charges, which are connected with a second case involving activists who were arrested in June and charged with plotting and insulting the king, after reportedly taking photos of sewage being released into the Tonle Sap River near the Royal Palace.

Environmental activists Sun Ratha and Yim Leanghy were arrested on June 16 and later charged with both plotting and insulting the king. Another activist, Ly Chandaravuth, was charged only with plotting. All three youths are now in pretrial detention at Prey Sar prison’s CC1 and CC2. Mother Nature co-founder and Spanish national Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who remains abroad, was also charged with plotting and insulting the King. The case has been widely condemned as politically motivated, and represents just the latest in a series of cases against Mother Nature — which has long drawn the government’s ire.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Im Vannak, declined to comment, referring questions to the court spokesman, who could not be reached.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of Licadho, said the charges were clearly aimed at silencing criticism among others.

“That additional charge for them is a threat and [aimed to] pressure environmental activists and other youths who want to join to protect the environment,” he said, adding that the government should support those trying to better Cambodia.

“We saw that the US and the US ambassador in Cambodia also requested the government to release them because they understand that it is not a crime and it is freedom of expression and activity to join the [fight to protect the] environment,” said Sam Ath.

Chak Sopheap, executive directive of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said they strongly condemn the arrests and charges.

“The charges of plotting and lèse-majesté are a blatant illustration of the dangerous and restrictive environment in which activists in Cambodia operate and of the RGC’s [Royal Government of Cambodia] relentless efforts to stifle critical voices in the country,” she wrote in a message.

“CCHR deplores that imprisonment is an increasingly common price to pay for speaking out for human rights in Cambodia. We, therefore, urge the RGC to immediately release all the activists jailed for conducting their legitimate work, including members of the Mother Nature environmental group, and to unconditionally drop all the charges against them.”

A journalist working for Siem Reap Breaking News and arrested on Wednesday was charged with incitement and violations of the Covid-19 Law, the latter punishable by up to three years in prison.

Kouv Piseth, 32, was arrested by provincial military police in Battambang city on Wednesday for alleged incitement. The military police said the arrest was linked to Facebook posts from Piseth, but did not specify exactly what the journalist had said or done on the social media platform to warrant the arrest.

Duong Saron, a spokesperson for the Battambang court prosecutor’s office, confirmed on Friday that Piseth has been charged with incitement, under Article 495 of Criminal Code, as well as Article 11 of the controversial Covid-19 law for “obstruction of measure enforcement.”

While incitement carries up to two years in prison, the Covid-19 law violation carries a six-month to three-year prison sentence for intentionally obstructing or deterring the implementation of measures taken to curb the spread of the virus. It also carries a potential fine of about $500 to $2,500.

Chea Chanreaksmey, a spokesperson for the Battambang Provincial Court, did not say exactly how Piseth obstructed Covid-19 measures.

“Regarding the case, the investigating judge decided to place him in pretrial detention yesterday. Regarding the crime, I did not get more detail about the charges because it is in the process of investigation,” Chanreaksmey said.

In a June 27 Facebook post, Piseth questioned whether Chinese vaccines had been evaluated by the World Health Organization and if the vaccines should be used in Cambodia.

“Have the Chinese vaccines been evaluated by the WHO yet? If it has not, it should not be brought to inject because it has not been recognized,” the post said.

In May and June, the WHO approved the emergency use of the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. The Cambodian government started using both vaccines before their formal approval.

Piseth had other Facebook posts accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of acquiring assets in the country by betraying the nation — an accompanying image has mansions and arrows pointing to forests, a gold mine, an island and other resources.

Rights groups have criticized the Covid-19 Law for being broad and for having severe prison sentences for violations. The incitement charge has been used by the judiciary as a catchall to prosecute any expression of dissent.

Phnom Penh police said last month that 11 people had been charged and jailed in the city under the law at the time, mostly for obstructing the implementation of lockdown rules.

The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) and the Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA) are deeply concerned that VOD reporters have been repeatedly stopped and intimidated by authorities while they are carrying out their professional duties.

On June 18, 2021, Prek Pnov district authorities with more than 10 members led by the district governor stopped and threatened a VOD videographer from the Cambodian Center for Independent Media who had gone to capture a temporary stopping place for Vietnamese people’s floating houses and fish farms after they were evacuated by authorities from a number of locations in Phnom Penh. In addition, the authorities also took photos of the videographer and his press card, and made a threat that he would be in trouble if any photos or videos were published.

This case came just a week after VOD reporters were blocked and threatened in a separate incident. On the morning of June 11, a VOD reporter and a videographer went to report the delivery of petitions by about 10 women, all wives of former CNRP activists, to the European Union. Daun Penh district authorities, with about 60 guards and officials, banned the reporters from taking photos and videos, warning that their equipment would be confiscated and they would be sent to the district hall if they dared to do so.

The Observatory has been informed about the denial of bail to Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika amid a COVID-19 outbreak in many Cambodian prisons. Mr. Chhun, a prominent labour rights defender, is the President of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), and a member of the Cambodian Watchdog Council (CWC) [1]. Ms. Kanika is a member of the youth group Khmer Thavrak [2] and an ex-member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

On June 8, 2021, Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika were denied bail by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, which claimed that the crime for which they have been detained affects social security and is therefore unbailable. Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika were not present at the bail hearing as prison officers requested the court to suspend the transportation of inmates to tribunals due to public health concerns. Since mid-May 2021, many Cambodian prisons have been affected by an outbreak of COVID-19. These prisons include Phnom Penh’s Correction Centre 1 (CC1) and Correction Centre 2 (CC2), where the two human rights defenders remain detained, respectively. Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika have been denied access to their lawyers for over four months, raising concerns over their current health condition.

The Observatory recalls that Rong Chhun was arbitrarily arrested at his home in Phnom Penh on July 31, 2020. On August 1, 2020, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged him with “incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest” (Article 495 of the Cambodian Criminal Court) and ordered his pre-trial detention in CC1. Rong Chhun’s detention came following several public statements he made on behalf of the CWC in which he reported community land loss as a result of the demarcation of the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

Sar Kanika was arbitrarily detained in August 2020, amid a wave of arrests of human rights defenders and activists in relation to their planning of peaceful assemblies that were to take place at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh in September 2020 in order to demand the release of Rong Chhun. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged Sar Kanika with “incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest” and placed her in pre-trial detention in CC2.

The Observatory further recalls that Hun Vannak, Chhoeun Daravy , Tha Lavy, Koet Saray, and Eng Malai (aka So Metta), members of Khmer Thavrak, as well as Muong Sopheak and Mean Prommony, member and Vice-President of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), respectively, remain detained under the same charges in relation to the same acts. Their bail application was likewise rejected by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on May 18, 2021.

The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing arbitrary detention of the above-mentioned human rights defenders and reiterates its deepest concern about the Cambodian authorities’ systematic legal harassment to target all critical voices, and about the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the country, including through increasing obstacles to the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly in Cambodia.

The Observatory is further concerned about the risks for the health of all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in the overcrowded Cambodian prisons and calls on the authorities to immediately take all necessary measures to ensure their access to adequate healthcare and protective equipment, and reduce the prison population through the adoption of non-custodial measures.

The Observatory urges the Cambodian authorities to guarantee the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Rong Chhun, Sar Kanika, Hun Vannak, Chhoeun Daravy, Tha Lavy, Koet Saray, Eng Malai (aka So Metta), Muong Sopheak, and Mean Prommony. The Observatory also calls fortheir immediate and unconditional release, along with all other human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Cambodia, in order to protect their right to health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Actions requested:

Three Mother Nature environmentalists were charged on Monday and placed in pretrial detention at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison, as the mother of one of the activists said she was in shock but buoyed by support on social media, including from celebrities.

Sun Ratha and Yim Leanghy were charged with plotting, which carries a jail term of five to 10 years, and insulting the king, punishable by one to five years. Ly Chandaravuth was charged with plotting, according to municipal court spokesperson Y Rin.

Ratha was placed in pretrial detention at Correctional Center II, and Leanghy and Chandaravuth at Correctional Center I, Rin said.

A fourth activist was also arrested in Phnom Penh but has been released.

Ly Chanavy, Chandaravuth’s mother, said she could not see her son’s face at the court on Monday as he had been brought in through a back entrance. But she had earlier seen all three smiling as they were transferred to and from the court, she said.

“They smiled with tears,” Chanavy said.

She was uplifted by seeing strong support for them on social media, she added.

Thierry Chantha Bin, a France-born footballer on the Cambodian national team, shared a post about the activists with emoji of an upheld fist, Cambodian flag and a sproutling. Comedian Peypey Dy also shared the post.

Singer Kesorrr said: “Hope to get further information and hope that nothing bad happens to them.” Singer Jenny Vee added a message: “Can we join hands together one more time?” #justice4all #justice4Rotha #justice4Daravuth #justice4Leanghy”

“Although I’m upset and shocked, I get power from them, because people who have never paid attention to the environment before and never shared [about it], this time they’re sharing and posting, including singers and a footballer,” Chanavy said.

She said the three arrested environmentalists, including her son, had shown bravery.

“He told me that what he has done for society is [for] a clean environment, no polluted water and no impact on biodiversity, and for people’s health and to keep the forests — he thought this was not wrong,” Chanavy said.

The activists were filming sewage discharge on Phnom Penh’s Riverside at the time of their arrest. On Facebook, Mother Nature posted photos of the activists advocating for environmental issues.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director at rights group Licadho, said Mother Nature’s deported co-founder, Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, was also charged with plotting and insulting the king.

The charges against the environmentalists were severe, Sam Ath said. “We see these charges as a serious threat and intimidation for youth that love and protect the environment and natural resources — this is to break their spirit.”

Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak alleged last week that the group was using environmental issues to try to topple the government.

Three other Mother Nature activists were arrested for incitement last September and sentenced to 18-20 months in jail last month. The latest arrests came just a week after the U.S. ambassador met with Interior Minister Sar Kheng over previous prosecutions against environmentalists.

A community representative in a Preah Sihanouk land dispute was arrested in a case in which three Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community members were also sentenced to jail last year, and which has previously been reported as involving Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly.

Sam Sophat, who the coalition said had represented 68 families in a dispute in Prey Nob district, was arrested on Sunday based on a court warrant from March, said district police chief Hour Yay.

According to a Supreme Court document, Sophat was found guilty by the provincial court on June 17 last year, alongside Sam Samol, Svay Sareth and Nhek Sara. The verdict was upheld by the Appeal Court and Supreme Court last year.

Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community director Theng Savoeun said the three others were members of the coalition, but had not been sent to jail.

He said they had all been sentenced under Article 97 of the Forestry Law, which lists 10 different crimes carrying jail terms of five to 10 years.

According to Savoeun, the case involved the Than Sour company and one of its developments in the area. The company could not be found on Commerce Ministry records, but the Phnom Penh Post reported in 2016 that the company was managed by Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly.

Preah Sihanouk Provincial court spokesperson Yem Bunareth declined to comment on the case and arrest.

Cheap Sotheary, provincial coordinator for human rights group Adhoc, said she had attended last year’s court trial, where Sophat and the others were accused of removing trees from land claimed by Than Sour. But Sophat had argued that he owned the land and that he had planted trees, not removed them. The case had been brought to court by the Forestry Administration, she said.

Sotheary added that Than Sour was involved in several land disputes in the area.

Long Lun, Sophat’s lawyer, said his client was also involved in several lawsuits, and he was not clear on the arrest.

Sophat’s brother Sam Sopheap said Sophat had been called into the commune police station then arrested by district officers.

“Five criminal police officers came to arrest him. They took him to the district police office and one hour later sent him to the provincial police and to the prison yesterday at 11 a.m.,” Sopheap said on Tuesday.

Savoeun, the CCFC director, said the dispute was about people living on forestry land, and the Forestry Administration should grant land to them rather than prosecute them.

Chhay Ly, the deputy prime minister, is also chair of the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development, a governmental body established in 1998.

Kea Sokun, a young Siem Reap rapper jailed for incitement over his nationalist lyrics, had his yearlong prison sentence upheld by the Appeal Court in Battambang on Wednesday.

Sokun was arrested last September in relation to his song “Dey Khmer,” or Khmer Land, which now has more than 4 million views on YouTube. The song spoke about “the bravery to stand up,” while also warning that “the other race is encroaching” — an apparent reference to long-standing, racially tinged fears related to the Vietnamese border that sparked protests and arrests last year. He was found guilty in late December.

Am Sam Ath, monitoring manager for rights group Licadho, said the NGO provided a lawyer for Sokun at the Appeal Court, which upheld the earlier Siem Reap Provincial Court verdict.

“There were a lot of challenges [made] — the key thing that the lawyer raised about this was the freedom of expression of people, including composing songs and singing songs, and that there was no intention to incite chaos in society or serve anybody’s interest. His intention was to earn money on YouTube,” Sam Ath said.

Sokun was talented, and officials should educate him rather than jail him so he can be an artist that contributes to society, Sam Ath said.

“The prosecutor still kept their stance that the song has an inciting nature and is a crime,” he said. “As civil society, we do not see it as a crime as charged. But we see that he has talent in composing songs and expressing his views.”

Sokun’s sister, Kea Channa, said the family was disappointed by the decision.

“He was just expressing his view about his country and the nation, but instead he was given heavy punishment,” Channa said.

Teang Sambo, spokesperson for the Appeal Court in Battambang, confirmed that the court upheld the verdict.

Earlier this week, the American Bar Association issued a report on the case, in which it said that “[t]he charge of incitement is so broad that the government can apply it in a variety of cases.”

“Together, Articles 494 and 495 form a vague charge that some say is left open to politically motivated misuse,” the association said.

In Sokun’s case, he was “held for an excessive period of time prior to his trial,” the prosecution did not “present any concrete evidence” that his songs actually incited crimes, and it failed “to prove Sokun’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” it said.

“The prosecution and court have failed in their legal obligations to perform their roles in finding the truth and providing justice duly in line with Cambodian law and the ICCPR,” or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the association said, and suggested bail for Sokun during the appeal process, among other recommendations.

The association’s senior staff attorney Waris Husain said the ABA had followed some trials in Cambodia over the past two years, including an espionage trial against two Radio Free Asia journalists and prosecutions against six top labor leaders.

“What we have seen recently is the use of Article 495 incitement to violence/crime being used against human rights defenders and those critical of the government. As the case involving Kea Sokun involved a charge like this, we decided to monitor and analyze the case leading to our fair trial report,” Husain said.

The Justice Ministry has repeatedly defended the courts’ independence and due process, and officials have said that free expression is restricted if it is ill-intended or harms society. The Culture Ministry has previously said in the context of Sokun’s case that it works to educate artists who produce improper works but takes stronger action if they do not listen.

“When it comes to arrests and such, it means that you’ve gone beyond the redline, and it’s come to affect social order and public order,” Culture Ministry spokesperson Long Bunna Sireyvath previously said.

Four members of the Mother Nature environmental group – Sun Ratha, Ly Chandaravuth, Yim Leanghy and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson – were charged on Sunday, according to pro-government local media, with plotting and insulting the king (lèse majesté) under Articles 453 and 437(bis) of the Criminal Code, which carry maximum sentences of 10 years and 5 years, respectively.

Ratha and Chandaravuth were arrested alongside another activist, Seth Chhivlimeng, in Phnom Penh. The three were arrested on Wednesday morning, apparently in relation to their activities documenting runoff draining into the Tonle Sap river in the capital’s Daun Penh district. Chhivlimeng was later released from detention after being detained for 24 hours at the Police Private Security Management department of the Ministry of Interior, while Ratha and Chandaravuth remained in detention.

Also on Wednesday, police in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district summonsed environmental activist Yim Leanghy for questioning and he was arrested after arriving at the police station. He was later transferred to Phnom Penh and was sent to court along with Ratha and Chandaravuth. Leanghy, Ratha and Chandaravuth face between 1 and 5 years in prison for insulting the king as well as a fine of between 2 and 10 million riel ($500 to $2,500), and they also face between 5 and 10 years in prison for plotting. Also charged with the same crimes was Spanish national Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported from Cambodia in 2015 in relation to his activities as the co-founder of the Mother Nature Cambodia environmental movement.

Leanghy is a 32-year-old student who obtained a scholarship to study for a Master’s degree at the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Institute of Foreign Languages. Ratha is a 26-year-old accountant who graduated from the University of Cambodia, where she was also studying on a scholarship. Chandaravuth is a 22-year-old law student in his 4th year of studying law at the Royal University of Law and Economics.

Last month, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced three other imprisoned environmental activists associated with the Mother Nature movement to between 18 and 20 months in prison for organising a peaceful, one-woman march to highlight the filling-in of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tamok lake. Two other Mother Nature members, Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson and Chea Kunthin, were also sentenced in absentia at the time.

The wives of Cambodian opposition activists jailed on “incitement” charges were roughed up by police as they staged a protest Friday outside the U.N.’s human rights office in Phnom Penh, demanding that the government drop the charges against their husbands and release them.

The group of about 10 women — known as the “Friday Wives” for their weekly rallies on behalf of their husbands from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) — demanded the release of their spouses following reports that the men had been infected with the coronavirus in prison.

Several police officers roughly manhandled the women as they tried to pry large posters with their husbands’ images from their hands during the protest in the capital’s Chamkar Mon district, the women said.

Prum Chantha, one of the protesters, said it was beyond belief that police resorted to manhandling them while breaking up the group in front of the U.N.’s office.

“They dared to abuse us in front of the U.N office… This is very unjust for the family members of politicians,” she said.

The women submitted a petition to the U.N.’s human rights office to intervene, saying that they were concerned about the health and safety of their husbands because they have been banned from communicating with them for the last three months while the pandemic has spread rapidly in Cambodia.

They complained that their husbands are at risk for contracting the virus because they are being held in overcrowded prison cells and don’t have enough food to eat.

The women have said that authorities should allow them access to their detained spouses during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can monitor their health.

Dos Kimteang, another protester, told RFA that the women did not violate any laws by gathering because they did not impede traffic or disrupt social order, and that they adhered to the Health Ministry’s guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We never provoked any social chaos,” she said. “Please don’t abuse us and then accuse us of violating the law.”

‘They gathered without permission’

A coronavirus outbreak has surged unabated through Cambodia’s prisons in recent weeks amid a nationwide outbreak. As of Friday, the government reported a total 33,075 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 886 news ones, and 242 total related fatalities.

San Sok Seiha, spokesman for the Phnom Penh municipal police, said police prevented the women from gathering because they did not request official permission to assemble.

But when RFA asked him to cite the regulation that requires people to ask for permission to hold public gatherings, he refused to elaborate.

“They gathered without permission,” he said. “This county has laws, so authorities are obligated to implement them. We can’t let a few people to provoke problems in Phnom Penh city.”

On Friday, 20 civil society organizations and unions issued a statement repeating a call for the government to release all prisoners of conscience in light of the growing number of COVID-19 infections.

“In view of the reports of mounting COVID-19 cases within Cambodian prisons, compounded by prison overcrowding, we call on the RGC [Royal Government of Cambodia] to release all nonviolent prisoners of conscience as a mitigation measure to minimize the risk posed by the spread of the virus,” the statement said.

Soeung Sen Karuna, spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) who monitored the Friday Wives protest, said that the police crackdown on the women in front of the U.N’s human rights office indicates a further decline of human rights in the Southeast Asian nation.

“This is yet more evidence showing that … the authorities should consider their actions and coordinate them, so that people can express themselves and their demands,” he said. “It would give the government a better image.”

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday denied bail to five members of activist group Khmer Thavrak and two members of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, as the defendants urged that they had already been in jail for as long as nine months.

Khmer Thavrak members Hun Vannak, Chhoeun Daravy, Tha Lavy, Eng Malai and Koet Saray were arrested in August and September amid protests in support of jailed unionist Rong Chhun; KSILA’s, Muong Sopheak and Mean Prom Mony were arrested in September for their involvement in the same protests.

On Tuesday, Malai, with a visible swollen leg, held hands with Daravy as their lawyers made their arguments for bail.

Vannak spoke out that even though the courts had not found them guilty, it had already jailed them for many months.

Judge Tith Sothy Borachat tried to cut him off, telling him that only lawyers would be permitted to speak.

“Please release us. We have clear home addresses and we are prepared to show up when the court needs to do any interrogation,” Vannak said.

Sam Chamroeun, one of three defense lawyers, argued that the pretrial detention had continued too long. The crime for which they had been charged — incitement to disturb social security — carried a potential jail sentence of six months to two years.

The seven defendants had already been in jail for longer than the low-end of the potential sentence, he said.

Pretrial detention of more than six months also breached the requirement for a quick and fair trial, Chamroeun argued, citing the Criminal Procedure Code.

“The court needs to consider this case as urgent and necessary,” he said.

Bail would reduce challenges for the defendants, including the risk of Covid-19 and mental health pressures, as they could be in the care of their families, Chamroeun said.

Deputy prosecutor Sam Rithy Veasna said the defendants had already had two trial hearings, and their release now would obstruct the court process.

The trial had been delayed due to Covid-19, he added. “We will continue the procedure when the Covid-19 situation is better,” he said.

Prum Mony was questioned during a trial hearing in February, when he was asked about links to a Cambodian-Australian former member of parliament in Victoria, Hong Lim.

Sopheak, the other KSILA member, said on Tuesday that he was chronically ill and he was not getting the care he needed.

“It is very difficult to endure this and it is very difficult to live there,” especially without money to spend in prison, Sopheak said.

He did not want to stay in prison as he was afraid that he would have mental health issues, he said.

During a 15-minute break, the defendants talked with each other and visiting family members. Some family members could be heard asking about their health and seen handing over bundles of 20,000 riel notes, worth about $5 each.

After the break, Sothy Borachat, the judge, said there was not enough evidence to release the defendants on bail, and rejected the defense’s arguments.

“To guarantee their presence for the charges at the upcoming trial, [the court] does not allow their release on bail,” he said.

A specific trial date was not announced.

Chamroeun, the defense lawyer, said he would discuss appealing the decision with his clients.

Soldiers fired bullets at land protesters on Thursday in Kandal province, hitting one man in the shoulder, as a group of about 100 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers faced off against villagers involved in a land conflict in Kandal province, about five kilometres from Phnom Penh. The injured man remains hospitalised, while some local villagers resumed protesting on Friday morning.

The shooting occurred in Tuol Prich commune, Angk Snuol district, in an area that houses several military bases and outposts and has seen a boom in development in recent years. Villagers reported that the soldiers were from the nearby Thmat Pong military school. Videos of the incident show an excavator digging up land while local villagers try to stop it and block National Road 51. Uniformed soldiers can be seen advancing on the villagers and firing dozens of live rounds from handguns and assault rifles into the air, at the ground, and into the crowd of villagers, hitting one man in the shoulder.

The land conflict involves more than 150 hectares that have been farmed for many years by more than 300 local families from at least seven villages. Satellite data shows that the land around the location of the shooting has been farmed continuously since at least 2008, which is the earliest satellite imagery available on Google Earth. Government-produced maps dating from 2001 also mark the area as containing farmland. The Kandal provincial government issued a letter on Thursday saying that all of the land was state land, while some villagers have said they have farmed on the land since 1979.

There have been several shootings of land protesters by mixed forces including military soldiers in recent years. In January 2019, a man was shot in Preah Sihanouk province and left paralysed after mixed forces descended on protesters and opened fire during the enforcement of a Supreme Court decision over a land conflict in the province. In March 2018, three people were shot in Kratie after mixed forces fired into a crowd of 300 villagers protesting a violent eviction.

Several protesters captured the improper deployment of soldiers and excessive use of force using smartphones, and videos of the shooting were posted to Facebook.

For Hong Ly, the dispute over her family’s hectare of farmland in Kien Svay district was frustrating, but it became personal on Monday when authorities arrested her 40-year-old brother.

As the woman recounted his unexplained arrest on Wednesday, dozens of people huddled in the shade of her stilted house, discussing how authorities have disappointed them in their response to a yearlong land dispute and to the residents blocking National Road 1 in protest, and now for a new offense: the arrest of Hong Sok.

“He’s a gentleman. He never hurt anybody,” said Ly, 52.

A Kandal province land dispute that was supposed to be solved in 2017 has continued, as residents of three villages say they’ve been forcefully stopped from using their land, leading residents to block roads in protest of the dispute and one man’s arrest.

In less than an hour after reporters arrived, more than 60 people were murmuring to each other, occasionally raising their voices to explain the two-day protest and vent about the land they feel they’re losing to neighbors.

The dispute ignited on Sunday, when residents of Kien Svay district’s Banteay Dek commune decided to block National Road 1 in order to garner attention to their dispute, over about 3,000 hectares of farmland distributed among three villages.

The residents who were gathered under Ly’s house told VOD that they were awarded 1 hectare of land per family a few years ago, when Prime Minister Hun Sen intervened in their dispute with Lok Hour, a CPP lawmaker, and granted the area back to residents of Prek Pol, Kandal Krom and Samrong Thom villages. However, villagers said they never received titles for the area.

About 3 km away from their homes, past fields of rice, eggplants and other crops, the residents constructed a number of farm shacks to guard their land, marked with Cambodian and Buddhist flags. At the intersection of two dirt motorbike paths, residents hung large laminated posters of Hun Sen, deputy prime minister Sar Kheng and Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany.

But since that government intervention, residents of another nearby village, Chong Ksat, have been trying to stop their community from using the farmland, explained resident Cheang Sinoun, 48. She said she had been able to clear and plow her land but wasn’t able to cultivate it, and some of her neighbors had been attacked with slingshots while trying to clear the land.

When asked why people would be attacking others for their land, Sinoun said she did not know, later adding, “I think someone hired the people to claim this land.” Powerful people have been interested in the area, she said.

Sinoun said a group of villagers — she couldn’t remember how many — gathered at the Kien Svay district office on Sunday at 8 a.m. to meet with officials, alleging that residents from another village were trying to prevent them from using land that was granted to them. They were ignored by district officials, so instead they went to block the national road at about 10 a.m. to demand attention. Sok, the arrested man, was with them during this protest.

“They threatened us to stop blocking the road. Police told us they could arrest us for blocking the road,” Sinoun said, saying this was the first time the frustrated residents took this action.

Recounting what she learned later from peers, Ly said her brother Sok had gone for a meal and coffee early Sunday evening, and was arrested at about 6:30 p.m. He participated in the protest, but Ly said she did not know why he was targeted, saying he wasn’t a community leader.

“We do not know whether someone called him [for a meal] to target him or not,” she said.

The residents then gathered again that night, blocking the road a second time, now to demand Sok’s release as well as for a solution to their dispute, Sinoun said.

“Only this way can break through to them,” she argued, saying authorities ignored their concerns before. “We are ignorant, but we don’t think it’s illegal.”

Sok’s 24-year-old daughter, Sok Kakada, said she saw her father briefly on Monday morning, when the residents reported to the Kien Svay district hall for a discussion. While others were worried about Sok’s health because he has diabetes, he told the crowd he was okay.

“We wanted to ask authorities” what Sok was charged with, Kakada said. “But they wouldn’t talk.”

Sin Siphoeun, another resident who joined the roadblock protest, said the authorities had promised protestors they would release Sok on Monday morning, but they had not. She called Sok’s short visit with the protestors an attempt by authorities to appease the angry residents, but she warned that they could block the road again. Siphoeun said she and her neighbors just wanted an explanation for his arrest.

“He has not killed anybody nor stolen anything from anybody, and what he has done was for all the people to find a solution, but [authorities] accused him of being a bad person and arrested him,” she said. “We’re not scared because we have not done anything illegal. … Why did they arrest [him] and what kind of offense did he commit?”

When asked about the dispute, Kandal’s deputy provincial governor, Nouv Peng Chandara, told reporters to check the provincial administration’s Facebook post from Monday, which said that residents who blocked the road had accepted the government’s mediation.

According to a Phnom Penh Post report from 2017, the Council of Ministers ordered the Land Ministry to return 2,997 hectares of land in Kien Svay and Sa’ang districts to villagers, with some 2,391 hectares taken from CPP lawmaker Hour.

Mao Phirun, a Kandal provincial councilor and former governor, said the land was returned to residents via a sub-decree in 2017 after Hour had taken the land illegally from residents. Hard titles from this area were made, he said, but people who were not granted land by the government could be jealous.

“People know it, and they have no land and they see other people’s land. … They have been provoked by other people,” he said.

“There are brokers behind this … the one who is behind it, they have been known [by the people], and the one who is being detained pushed the cyclo only to be crushed by the car,” he said. “[The protestors] will be the ones to bear the blow.”

Senior NagaWorld union leaders all received dismissal notices amid the casino’s plan to lay off more than 1,000 employees, a union official said, in what some labor and civil society observers labeled an attempt to eliminate the active union from the workplace.

NagaWorld has begun a process of laying off 1,329 employees, which it has explained is due to declining revenues, according to the union. But the workers targeted for dismissal have been long-time union members, and on Thursday the union’s top leadership all received notice, said NagaWorld union vice president Chhun Sokha.

Sokha said on Friday that she and other leaders, including union president Chhim Sithar and more than a dozen core activists, received a dismissal message from the company on Thursday.

As of Friday, more than 600 employees — mostly union members — had received notice, she added.

Sokha said the company wants to eliminate protests, which the union has led. She said recent protests were about protecting workers rights.

“It is a violation of the freedom of association. We have the right to be an independent union, which has been registered and recognized by the Ministry of Labor. And now the company is terminating the leaders as well as the union activists, to make the leaders and activists unable to fulfill their obligations on behalf of workers,” she said.

She added that NagaWorld should not be allowed to do whatever it wanted, and the union was preparing a legal complaint to file to the Labor Ministry.

She said most workers had declined the redundancy compensation offered by the company so they could fight the dismissals together.

“They are also waiting to see what Naga wants to do to the union. They said as they already cut [the leaders], they might as well cut all 8,000 employees in the company. Then let’s wait and see how the company will operate without any employees working for them.”

Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said he hadn’t received any complaint from the union yet, but any dismissals of union leaders needed to be justified.

“In principle, union leaders cannot be fired unless they have made serious mistakes or violated any of the company’s internal regulations, or [due to] the actual financial situation of the company. We need to look at the facts and the root of the problem first,” Sour said.

NagaWorld chief operating officer Mike Ngai could not be reached.

International Labor Organization national coordinator Sophorn Tun, when asked if the ILO would be taking action in the case, said: “It will, as soon as it receives from the union of the workers affected a request detailing the circumstances of the case.”

He added that ILO staff have no authority to pronounce whether the case was a violation of labor rights or Cambodia’s Labor Law — “only its competent supervisory bodies, including the Committee on Freedom of Association [can do that].”

Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said he believed NagaWorld’s layoff plan was not about Covid-19 economic disruptions, but a way to eliminate union activities. The NagaWorld union had been unafraid to strike and protest.

“I can say that there can be some discrimination against the union, and [the company] wants to take advantages of workers’ rights. For example, dismissing old workers, recruiting new workers, eliminating unions, et cetera,” he said. “Laying off unionists in particular sets a bad example for other employers.”

Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said the company was taking advantage of the Covid-19 outbreak to “crush” the union.

“There is nothing other than intent to destroy the union,” Sina said. Dismissals due to genuine financial difficulties were fine, but “dismissals focusing on union activists, union leaders — these show that the real intention is to discriminate against the union.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap said mass layoffs amid Covid-19 went against the Labor Ministry’s advice to support workers during the crisis.

“If the termination refers to active individuals like union representatives, it means that the company has violated and harassed the union representative,” Sopheap said, calling it “revenge against active individuals.”

The casino and hotel company reported a net profit of $102 million in 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis, down from more than $521 million in 2019.

Police detained an informal-workers union official and placed him in two-week quarantine in Banteay Meanchey province as he was gathering names of members facing economic difficulties amid the nation’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

Poipet city deputy police chief Born Seiha said on Wednesday that Kang Nakorn, an official for the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association, or IDEA, was brought in after he went to a noodle shop that had previously been visited by people who tested positive for Covid-19. Nakorn had collected as many as 170 names, Seiha said.

Officers had yet to question Nakorn, as he was placed in quarantine at Nimit High School in the city, Seiha said.

“[We] have not arrested him. We called him in for questioning, called him in for questioning for collecting [names], of 170 people. For what purpose?” the deputy police chief said. “People complained to us.”

Seiha said he could not say whether the authorities would release Nakorn after 14 days of quarantine, as authorities were still investigating.

Vorn Pov, the union’s president, said there were others at the noodle shop, so it did not make sense to only detain and quarantine Nakorn.

“A lot of people,” Pov said. “Why was only he taken in?”

Nakorn had collected names and ID numbers of members linked to or facing challenges in relation to Covid-19 cases, Pov said.

“It is just a matter of charity — purely charitable activities, not political incitement,” he said. “So I think it is unusual to call him in for questioning. Yes — it’s regretful.”

He asked for Nakorn’s release, saying he suffered from health problems like high blood pressure.

Two digital news journalists reported harassment by authorities Tuesday while covering villagers protesting two separate land disputes.

Though government officials dismissed the confrontations with reporters from outlets VOD and TN Hot News as a matter of enforcing public order, media advocates are again sounding the alarm of ever-tightening restrictions of press freedom in Cambodia.

VOD reporter Khut Sokun, 33, said he had arrived at about 11 a.m. at the scene of a dispute in the Krakor district of Pursat province when an armed man in military uniform approached and seized his smartphone, recorder and notebook.

“I parked my motorbike and rushed to report,” Sokun told CamboJA of the day’s work in Ansar Chambak commune. “I turned on my recorder, and wrote what they were saying, but after that one official came to ask my identity, and where I had come from.”

Authorities had come to tell villagers mostly from the nearby Boribor district of Kampong Chhnang province to stop cultivating paddy rice in a location deemed state land, an area that authorities are measuring to reserve as a social land concession. They had come on Tuesday with military police, at least one of whom eventually focused on Sokun.

“I told him that I am a reporter at VOD, and I came to report something related to land issues, and he asked me to delete the pictures I’d taken from my smartphone,” Sokun recalled. “A man with a RCAF uniform and an AK-47 confiscated my recorder and notebook. They also tore up my notes of what I wrote and [deleted] audio from the recorder.”

Sokun said authorities returned his equipment more than a half-hour after talking with Pursat province Deputy Governor Cheng Lai, who had led the meeting to resolve the dispute.

“I tried to ask him why they didn’t allow pictures and reporting, but they did not tell me the reason,” Sokun said. “I think that it was threatening, intimidation, and it has restricted the right of press freedom because I did nothing wrong. I just went down to report and listen to what [the villagers] were saying.”

A VOD colleague who interviewed Cheng Lai after the incident told Sokun the deputy governor had claimed informally that his reporting on Tuesday had caused incitement among the villagers, a potentially serious charge often used to silence dissent. After hearing of this allegation, Sokun said that he is now scared to report land disputes in that area.

“Now, I dare not report this story because I am afraid of the accusation. I am also living near that area,” he said. “And yes, I am worried about my security and safety.”

Lai denied the accusation of harassment to CamboJA, saying officials had confronted the journalist only to learn who he was. Though he confirmed Sokun’s recorder had been confiscated and later returned, he denied that anyone had destroyed the reporter’s notes.

“Our authorities were working [to resolve the land dispute] and we did not know who he was, and at that time there were military police, police and soldiers accompanying me,” he said.

“We just asked what he was doing,” Lai said, adding that any claim otherwise was subjective. “It is just their opinion, because no one threatened him.”

As for the land dispute, Lai said people who have cultivated the area for a long time will be excluded from government action but that newcomers will have their access revoked. He said a directive was issued in 2017 to prepare a 5,400 hectare social land concession to benefit 3,000 families in the Ansar Chambak commune.

Though the deputy governor described the encounter with Sokun as benign, at least one witness described it otherwise.

“In fact, I saw they [authorities] scuffled with him, seized his phone and deleted pictures, and checked his press card,” said Pen Phol, 43, who attended Tuesday’s meeting and said authorities had not allowed photography and reporting. “I feel pity for him because he is a journalist that comes to help villagers who are suffering.”

After the confrontation, Phol said she didn’t see anything else, as authorities then dispersed the gathered villagers.

Phol is now concerned authorities will take her land away, noting that her family has been cultivating about 2 hectares since the 1980s.

“I am worried because I heard that they will revoke our land and provide it to other villagers,” she said.

When asked about the incident at Ansar Chambak, Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn said local authorities had only implemented the law in their jurisdiction to maintain security and public order.

“Authorities and police have their duty to fulfill too,” he said, declining to comment further.

But Sokun wasn’t the only reporter to face a confrontation Tuesday from authorities while reporting on a land dispute case.

Keo Ratana, 36, journalist and publisher of TN TV, or TN Hot News Online, said that he suffered harassment while covering villagers protesting that same day against a decision of the Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court in favor of a wealthier landholder.

The protest was complicated when a bodyguard named Lon Leng intervened apparently on behalf of the landholder and, according to Ratana, physically confronted the journalist at the event. Ratana said Pheng ordered police to detain the reporter, but the officers did not due to the many villagers around him.

“He came and pushed me away and attempted to use violence, and I pushed his hand back,” Ratana said of the bodyguard. “As a journalist, I think it is a threat to press freedom as we carry out our professional journalism.”

Ratana was previously arrested in July 2019 by military police for his role in covering a long-running land dispute in Sihanoukville between local villagers and the Thai Boon Roong development company.

Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, condemned the harassment against working journalists who amplify important viewpoints for the public to hear.

“For me, it seriously threatens press freedom because journalists have just gone to fulfill their duty in reporting land disputes between villagers,” he said of the Tuesday incidents.

Sotheouth, whose center produces VOD, said the media plays a significant role in a democratic society by providing voices for those who can’t express their concerns by themselves to the government or the general public.

“It is an extreme violation of press freedom in Cambodia, while it has already narrowed its space,” he said, pointing to the confrontation in Ansar Chambak.

Nop Vy, executive director at CamboJA, said that any activities that obstruct the work of journalists run directly against government policy to cooperate with the press.

“It is a message of warning and intimidation to the duty of journalists,” he said, urging officials and the head of state to review law enforcement policies of lower authorities and advise them on correct implementation.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said local and foreign media coverage of the red zone has “confused the public and provoked social chaos that will lead to more COVID-19 spreading.”

“In order to protect social security and prevent COVID-19 from spreading, the Ministry of Information is advising journalists to halt all actions immediately,” it said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In the event that people continue to ignore this notice, [we] will take legal action.”

Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn told RFA that journalists who went to “red zone” areas and broadcast live via social media made comments without any medical foundation that might risk the spread of the highly contagious virus. He also said that some reporters chased ambulances during live broadcasts.

“If they comply with the law, then they can continue their work,” he said.

Journalist Leng Det said even though he supports the ministry’s order, he wants the media to work with authorities so reporters can provide accurate news.

“In order to get accurate news, we need many sources,” he said. “We don’t have to chase ambulances and police to tell the news.”

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, said preventing the media from covering news in red zones will not be in villagers’ best interest, and he insisted that those who have received training on reporting on the coronavirus pandemic be allowed to cover news freely.

“I am very concerned that the ministry will completely ban journalists [from covering the red zone],” he said. “So far, journalists have broadcast about food shortages and people’s appeals to get food aid into the red zone. This has shown that journalists have contributed to disseminating news.”

Three Mother Nature environmentalists were sentenced to jail for 18 to 20 months for incitement over their activism, while two others, including the group’s founder, were also found guilty in absentia.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced the verdict on Wednesday morning in a courtroom newly equipped with transparent screens and other Covid-19 preventative measures. Judge Li Sokha, wearing a mask, read out the verdict as the three defendants, Phuon Keoreaksmey, Long Kunthea and Thun Ratha, stood up holding hands.

Sokha said that based on the evidence, witnesses and the answers of the defendants, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court concluded that the three were guilty of incitement.

Ratha was handed 20 months in jail and a fine of 4 million riel, or about $1,000, for incitement to disturb social security. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the group’s co-founder who has been deported from Cambodia, was given the same sentence for being an accomplice.

Keoreaksmey, Kunthea and another activist tried in absentia, Chea Kunthin, were given 18 months and the same 4 million riel fine.

The court also issued arrest warrants against Gonzalez-Davidson and Kunthin and ordered the confiscation of materials belonging to them.

Ratha said aloud to reporters as he departed the courtroom: “This is very unjust. Sentencing people who just care about nature … they are very eager for trials.”

“The Khmer court is like this. Please tell people that we are still strong,” he said.

Defense lawyer Sam Chamroeun said he would discuss the verdict and a possible appeal with his clients.

Kunthea, Ratha and Keokeaksmey were arrested in September while planning a one-woman march by Kunthea to raise awareness about the infilling of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s last lakes.

Kandal provincial authorities have told farmers to stop posting photos of vegetables spoiling in their fields without a market amid lockdowns as they were affecting morale, an official said.

Hor Sophal, deputy director of the Kandal department of agriculture, said his department had visited farmers in Sa’ang district on Friday. There were in fact vegetables that farmers could not find a market for due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns in the major markets of Phnom Penh and Takhmao city, he said.

But the officials had told the farmers to stop posting pictures publicly because it affected the morale of other farmers and affected society, Sophal said.

“This is his second time, so we went to instruct him, and now he took note and said [he would] stop posting in public,” he said about Tai Song, one farmer who had been posting photos to Facebook.

Song has uploaded pictures about having to clear and throw away his vegetables amid the lockdown’s closure of markets.

Song told VOD that he had been pressured to sign a contract saying he would stop.

“I’m very disappointed and have nothing to say to them,” Song said. “I asked them to go take a look at the vegetables in my village, but they didn’t go to look. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane will be plowed in the future as well, and there’s no less than thousands of tons of vegetables that they did not help to find a solution for. They just ordered me.”

“They no longer allowed me to post and use Facebook extensively. Me!” he continued. “I’m just a normal farmer. … I don’t know what they think that they ordered me like this.”

Another farmer, who gave his name only as Bunly, said several farmers had posted the photos so that authorities are aware of problems and can help find solutions.

“They came down to hide the difficulties of the farmers, so we don’t know what to say when they spoke those words. We are discouraged because we give them information so that they can help solve it, but instead they say that [our] posting is [intended] to pollute society,” he said. “There should be encouragement to farmers who are smart in urging superiors to help find a market. But they turned on us to tell us to end the sharing, and not say that there is no market. But every day, there really is no market.”

The letter Song signed says the farmer must first provide information to local authorities, not post it publicly. This is to avoid sharing incomplete information, misleading the public and undermining the efforts of officials, the letter says.

Photos showing the destruction of vegetables affect public morale and feeling, and the photos can incite discrimination, the letter says.

Incitement to discriminate is a criminal charge that applies to inciting malice or violence against a particular ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, and carries a prison term of up to three years.

About 100 residents in a Phnom Penh lockdown zone protested for food on Thursday night, according to a witness, as the local commune chief labeled the protesters an “opposition group” who are “not poor” and “give the authorities headaches.”

Stung Meanchey II commune chief Touch Sam Ol, in Meanchey district, said the protest was in Phneat village, and authorities would be distributing food to the residents on Friday morning.

“We hadn’t been able to [distribute food] in time for them because there have been too many and the supplies have not arrived on time, and there has been only rice so we couldn’t distribute just rice,” Sam Ol said late Thursday.

However, he said there was a “mastermind” behind the protest.

“In short, they are an opposition group and they are not poor,” he said. “The majority are rich, and firstly they were angry with us because we blocked the road … and they could not earn money to support their living.”

A few of the protesters had even received gifts of food from the state already, he added. “It gives the authorities headaches,” he said.

He also denied that the residents were hungry.

“The most important issue is the blocking of the road, which means they cannot do their business,” he said. “So they linked the blocking of the road with starvation.”

Stung Meanchey II is part of Phnom Penh’s red-zone restrictions due to high numbers of Covid-19 cases linked to garment factory workers living there. The government shut down markets and initially said the Commerce Ministry would take over all food sales in red zones, though local authorities have since allowed some vendors to sell in open, outdoor areas. The government has also set up a Telegram group so people in need can ask for donations for food, and it has been flooded with thousands of messages.

Mao Thora, a restaurant worker near Thursday’s protest, said about 100 people had gathered on the street, some carrying banners saying “My village is starving.”

The protesters had said the village had yet to receive food donations from the state, and without the ability to run their businesses they couldn’t pay rent, according to Thora. Some were workers who could not get to their workplaces, while others were small business owners who had been forced to suspend their operations, she said.

“It was crowded so I did not go very close to them since I am afraid of infection since I am in the red zone. They gathered and protested to demand that the authorities quickly provide food donations for them,” she said.

Six youth activists were detained for a night for collecting thumbprints — despite the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak — for a petition calling on the government to ease citizens’ costs of living, the Phnom Penh governor said.

“What they are looking for — thumbprints — that is against the Covid-19 rules,” Khuong Sreng said.

The activists had admitted their guilt and were released, he said, adding that such actions could lead to legal action if they were infected with Covid-19 and had transmitted the disease to others.

The governor added that they were focusing on the wrong issue at the wrong time.

“At this time, they should be holding banners and telling all people to wear masks to protect themselves from Covid-19,” Sreng said. “That would be the most appropriate.”

Keo Tith Lida, president of the Women’s Association for Society, said three of her members had been arrested on Wednesday while making copies of their petition to deliver to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday.

She and two other members went to the Stung Meanchey 1 commune police station to try to secure the others’ release, but they were also detained, Tith Lida said.

The group has been collecting thumbprints for a petition calling on the government to ease people’s financial burdens. The petition suggests suspending payments to microfinance institutions and banks, halting water and electricity bills, reducing the price of gasoline, or halving businesses’ rent for three to six months.

Tith Lida said the six activists were detained overnight and released around 5 p.m. on Thursday.

“We were asked to make a contract … to not gather youths, to not collect thumbprints during Covid, and to not make any propaganda,” she said.

The campaign had now been suspended, she said.

Am Sam Ath, rights group Licadho’s monitoring manager, said everyone should be following the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 guidelines.

“There should be a discussion about solutions, and, in the future, they will follow the measures of the Ministry of Health and of the authorities about preventing the spread of Covid-19. That would be good,” Sam Ath said.

Tith Lida previously said the group had collected more than 200 thumbprints for its petition.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to tens of thousands of job losses in Cambodia, with tourism having plummeted amid disruptions to global travel, and garment factories losing orders due to suppressed worldwide consumer demand.

More than 700,000 households, or about 2 million people, have received emergency cash handouts as part of the government’s IDPoor program, the Planning Ministry said last month.

Sitanan Satsaksit was on the phone to her brother early in the evening on 4 June when he told her to hold the line. Wanchalearm, also known as Tar, was handing over a few dollars for meatballs at a stall opposite his home in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Then Sitanan heard noise coming from the other end of the line.

"I heard a loud bang. At first I thought he had a car accident as he shouted 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,'" she tells the BBC.

Sitanan could hear the screams of her brother as men shouted in Khmer, a language she doesn't understand.

But her brother had not been hit by a car - he was being kidnapped.

Witnesses at the scene say they saw a group of armed men bundling Wanchalearm into a black SUV. As he shouted for help in Khmer, some people started moving towards him, but the armed abductors warned them to back off, before speeding away.

Confused and terrified, Sitanan could hear the muffled voice of her brother for another 30 minutes. Then the line went dead.

A friend of Wanchalearm made some inquiries for her.

"Twenty minutes later, this person called me back to say: 'Keep calm sister, Tar was abducted,'" she recalls.

Wanchalearm Satsaksit, 37, a prominent Thai pro-democracy activist who had lived in exile in Cambodia since 2014, has not been seen since. He is the ninth exiled critic of Thailand's military and monarchy to become a victim of enforced disappearance in recent years.

A popular and colourful character, Wanchalearm's activism started more than a decade ago, primarily focusing on gender and LGBT rights in Thailand. Over time, his interest started to shift to broader calls for democracy in the country, says Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch Asia and friend of Wanchalearm.

By the time of the 2014 military coup led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, Wanchalearm was affiliated with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), also known as the Red Shirts. The group was first formed in 2006 to oppose an earlier military coup which overthrew then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Wanchalearm was angered by what he saw as yet another affront to democracy by the military in 2014. The new junta wasted little time in rooting out its critics.

Soon after the coup, Wanchalearm's face appeared on TV and he was called to attend a meeting at a military camp, Sunai says. He didn't turn up. Wanchalearm knew this meant he needed to flee his homeland and start a new life in Cambodia.

Once in Phnom Penh, Wanchalearm settled into his new surroundings. But while he had swapped the dangers of Thailand for relative safety in the leafy outskirts of the Cambodian capital, he was still building up an online following in his homeland through his witty takedowns of the Thai government.

"He sees himself as a satirist, almost like a political comedian," Sunai says. "He made fun continuously of the military junta. He made fun of Gen Prayuth, who at that time was leader of the coup group, he made fun of other generals.

"He exposed what he considered to be stupid blunders of the junta using the dialect of north-easterners," he adds. "Most of them are poor and he is from that region. He did it to show that a commoner can make fun of those in power. That seemed to be the way of getting even with the oppressors."

But his playful poking did not go unnoticed.

In June 2018, Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for Wanchalearm based on allegations he violated the Computer-Related Crime Act - which criminalises writing that incites unrest - through his Facebook page. The police vowed to bring him back to Thailand.

Wanchalearm was just one of many Thai exiles speaking out from the perceived safety of a neighbouring country. But in reality, doing so is becoming increasingly perilous.

At least eight other pro-democracy activists have disappeared since the 2014 coup.

The bodies of exiled critics Chatcharn Buppawan and Kraidej Luelert were found disembowelled and stuffed with concrete along the Mekong River border with Laos last year. The Thai army says it had no knowledge of what had happened. Jakrapob Penkair, who served as government spokesman under Thaksin Shinawatra, has been living in exile since 2009 after he says he received a tip-off that he was to be killed. He has known Wanchalearm for many years.

Speaking to the BBC from an undisclosed location, Jakrapob says he was shocked by his friend's disappearance due to the light-hearted nature of his activism. He sees almost no chance that Wanchalearm is still alive.

"I think the message is: 'Let's kill these folks. These are outsiders, these are people who are different from us and they should be killed in order to bring Thailand back to normalcy,'" he says.

"But nothing could be more wrong in that interpretation. I believe their decision to kidnap and murder Tar, and others before him, has been subconsciously radicalising the people.

"Like it or not, I think Tar's disappearance and his murder could be a turning point."

Wanchalearm's disappearance sparked protests in Bangkok, with demonstrators accusing the Thai government of involvement, while demanding the Cambodian government investigate the case fully. Posters of Wanchalearm and other disappeared activists have been cropping up around the city.

#SaveWanchalearm was trending on Thai Twitter in the days following his abduction.

The hashtag "#abolish112" was also written or retweeted more than 450,000 times. This is a reference to Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code, which states: "Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, Heir-Apparent or Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years".

Some of the disappeared dissidents were accused of violating the article. Any public questioning of the monarchy in Thailand was until recently almost unheard of.

Many activists believe this abduction is linked to the palace, but the strict laws against any negative comment on the monarchy make this a dangerous link to explore or investigate.

Despite widespread outrage over the kidnapping of Wanchalearm, few are holding out much hope for his return.

"The abduction is not for money, it's not a private matter. There is no need to keep him alive," says Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist who served seven years in jail on charges of lese majeste - or "insulting the monarchy" - and defamation.

"The objective of kidnapping is to kill him and to create the atmosphere of fear in Thailand and other countries where [Thai] people are active in criticising the monarchy," adds Somyot, whose daughter was once in a long-term relationship with Wanchalearm.

Somyot was in little doubt as to who was behind the disappearance.

"The government knows very well about this kidnap and disappearance. I can insist that the government are the ones behind this violation," he says.

Thai government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat told the BBC: "We have no idea what happened to him.

"We don't do anything in that category of invading into other countries. They have their own law and control," she said.

"The person who can answer that question best should be the government of Cambodia because they know what happened in that country to this person."

In response to questions raised by opposition politicians in parliament, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said that Wanchalearm did not have political refugee status, so Thailand had to wait for Cambodia to finish its investigation.

The spokesman of the Cambodian interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A justice ministry spokesman told Voice of Democracy last week that investigations are under way to ascertain "whether the news is true or not".

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Cambodia and Laos have obviously decided to look the other way as now nine prominent Thai exiles have been abducted, and likely killed, by unknown men."

The Thai government is pursuing a "quid pro quo" with its two neighbours, he said, accusing Bangkok of making Thailand "off limits" to Cambodian opposition figures.

"You can be sure there will be more refugees on the chopping block unless governments around the world start publicly demanding answers and accountability from leaders of these three rights abusing governments," he said.

Sunai Phasuk says Cambodia must investigate fully what has happened to Wanchalearm if it expects to be seen as a country that has "improved from a lawless society into a country with due process".

"A crime like this cannot happen in broad daylight. This is a test case for Cambodia," he says.

But Sitanan has little hope of ever seeing Wanchalearm alive again and is just trying to make sense of why someone would want to kill her younger brother.

"I want to know if someone has his own opinion, does he need to be so severely punished?" she asks.

"He didn't rob anyone, he didn't rape anyone. He just thinks differently. Do you really need to kill him?"

A Siem Reap-based journalist says he fears he is being targeted by illegal loggers after being beaten at night as he slept in a hammock outside Beng Mealea temple.

Pran Sean, the publisher of Anachak Khmer, a digital news outlet and quarterly newspaper, said he was driving a car to his home after covering news in Preah Vihear province on Sunday when he became tired and decided to sleep outside the temple in Siem Reap’s Svay Loeu district.

“I was too tired and started to tie up a hammock to rest. Later, around 12 o’clock, two men came out of the forest and attacked me,” Sean said.

A cut on his head required 20 stitches, and the attackers broke two of his teeth, he said.

Sean said he thought the attack was premeditated, and retribution for writing articles about illegal timber trading. “As a journalist, I write a lot of information related to crimes,” he said.

Svay Loeu district police chief Sun Eng said police were working on the case.

“It is difficult, brother. The victim went to sleep in the middle of the forest,” Eng said. “So far, we have not yet identified or arrested any suspects. All in all, we are monitoring and investigating.”

Cambodian Journalists Alliance executive director Nop Vy said he hoped the attackers would be found, as journalists in the country often faced the risk of violence.

Security guards blocked some protesters outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court from buying breakfast, and told a street vendor of noodles, meatball soup, pork and rice to not sell to them, the protesters alleged on Thursday while rallying on an empty stomach.

Mey Sophorn, 41, and Dos Kimteav, 43, sat in the shade around the corner from City Mall, across the street from the court, around 10 a.m. on Thursday. Kimteav appeared dejected, while Sophorn’s face was hidden behind a surgical mask. They still had not eaten, they said.

“The food vendor would not dare to sell to us,” said Sophorn. “We felt hurt. We had money.”

Just before 8 a.m., the pair, among demonstrators calling for the release of jailed opposition members, initially tried to approach the street seller, stationed outside the mall on Charles de Gaulle Blvd., but was rebuffed by guards, Sophorn said.

“The security guards said that if we didn’t leave, they would stop them from selling,” she added

Kimteav said the guards had argued that the breakfast could turn into a larger gathering of protesters if they sat down around the seller.

One guard then approached the cart, allegedly telling the vendor and her two assistants, “Don’t sell it, don’t sell it, be careful, be careful of not being allowed to sell here,” according to Kimteav.

In recent months, guards have increasingly prohibited gatherings near the court, including confining protesters and journalists to the nearby Olympic Stadium grounds during prominent trial dates.

When VOD arrived at the scene around 10 a.m., five security guards sat on plastic chairs around the vendor eating, and this reporter was also able to order pork and rice with a fried egg.

The street vendor later acknowledged that a guard had spoken to her. If she sold to the women and the women caused trouble, she wouldn’t be allowed to continue her business, the vendor said she was told. The vendor declined to give her name or further details, saying she was afraid she would face problems.

It could not be ascertained for which institution the allegedly breakfast-blocking guards worked.

Chan Rithy, Phnom Penh’s chief of municipal security guards, said he had no information about Thursday’s enforcement. Prampi Makara district governor Lim Sophea and deputy governor Chea Sotheara said they were too busy to comment.

Phnom Penh City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey, however, said he would look into the case. He said he needed more time to find out if the allegations were true.

“I will research and ask them if there was such a case or not, so I can comment,” Measpheakdey said on Thursday.

Reached on Friday, the spokesperson said he had checked with local authorities and none had reported the incident described by the two protesters, although Measpheakdey did not specify which authorities he asked about the alleged breakfast ban.

“There is no such case. I do not know​ which security guards would have led them to make these claims. No one forbids anyone to eat. It seems wrong,” he said.

Am Sam Ath, monitoring manager for human rights group Licadho, said that if the protesters’ account was accurate, the actions of a couple of guards could tarnish the image of authorities as a whole.

“There is no right to ban anyone from selling or eating,” he said. “There can be no ban on eating.”

The winner of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize Ouch Leng and four other forestry activists were sent to Kratie Provincial Court yesterday after being accused of putting signs up in a protected area.

On Friday, Leng, Heng Sros, Man Muth, Heng Run and Phong Cheang hung up signs in Prey Lang forest saying: “Please help preserve our ancestral heritage forest”.

Human rights Adhoc senior investigator Soeng Sen Karuna said yesterday if activists enter the forest just to monitor, gather information and hang signs to protect against deforestation, the authorities should not arrest them.

“Environment officials should take action on bad people who go into the forest, but not the activists who just want to prevent deforestation,” he claimed.

“According to the forest law, it will be implemented on people who commit crimes such as the destruction of natural resources, deforestation or killing wildlife,” he said.

Sen Karuna added that the leadership should intervene in this matter and not allow officials to take such action against activists who assist the government in preventing and protecting natural resources in Cambodia.

“Arresting an activist who uses their rights to protect the forests is not right and could be criticised by the international community, plus it is an opportunity for bad people to continue to destroy the forest,” he said.

Choub Sreynuth, wife of Sros, said she has asked the authorities to release her husband and the other activists.

“The activists only participated in protecting natural resources, but they have been arrested like they are perpetrators,” she said.

The provincial Environment Department director Duong Chhay Savuth said that according to Article 11 of the protected area law, all entry and exit to protected areas must be authorised.

He said the five activists went into Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary without asking permission. “The officials detained them for questioning for 48 hours on Friday, and sent them to the provincial court yesterday,” Savuth said.

Prosecutor Keo Socheat said yesterday the five activists are being detained and will be questioned further today.

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said yesterday, park rangers are judicial police officers who have the duty to protect and conserve natural resources in accordance with the law in preventing and suppressing illegal activities that take place in the protected area. No matter who the person is, if the rangers find that the act is not in accordance with the law, they must comply with the law.

“The suspects’ response stated that they were operating in the protected area to take pictures to seek financial support from various donors. This clearly shows the malicious intentions of some groups who take refuge under the label of environmentalists and forest activists who use bad methods to benefit their party and serve a corrupt agenda,” Pheaktra said.

He said that the Ministry of Environment calls on and encourages some donors to provide support to associations and NGOs that are properly registered and encourage law-abiding associations and NGOs.

Pheaktra added that the ministry welcomes the participation of associations and NGOs in the protection and conservation of natural resources, but that they must enter through the legal channels.

Ouch Leng, the working group leader of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force was selected as the winner of The Goldman Environmental Prize 2016, presented by the Gold Fund for Global Environmental Heroes 2016 in San Francisco, United States.

Sneha Cheat journalist Keo Hour is arrested by a group of police officers in Kampong Chhnang’s provincial capital af ter Huo interviewed peaceful protestors who had gathered outside the Chieb commune office over a land conf lict earlier in May. He is not told the reason for his arrest. He was subsequently bailed, but the criminal charges remain over his head.

A member of the Prey Lang Community Network,a local activist group of volunteer forest rangers that has been risking their lives to peaceably protect the area from illegal logging and large-scale land-grabbing since 2007., is threatened by a known timber trader with political connections while taking photos of illegal timber being transported at night. The trader confiscated the forest activist’s phone and filed a complaint at the district militar y police station demanding compensation for having taken photos of him without permission.

Several members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak including human rights activist Hun Vannak are arrested and held for hours of questioning at the Battambang provincial police station for their involvement in a peaceful protest calling on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks to suspend loan repayments among the economic crisis caused by COVID-19. Four monks from different pagodas were also threatened with expulsion from their pagodas for joining the non-violent demonstrations.

Roughly 40 youth and environmental activists including Natural Resources Protection Group (NRPG) president Chheuy Odorm Reaksmey, the son of murdered environmental activist Chut Wutty, are stopped from gathering in Prey Lang forest to commemorate the anniversar y of Wutty’s death by ten armed environmental rangers and threatened with arrest. The armed men were led by provincial environment department chief Meas Nhoem, as well as the Rovieng deputy district governor and accompanied by local health officials who claimed that the ban was intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. The next day, commander of Intervention Brigade No. 3 Srey Deuk sent 50 soldiers into the forest to search for five environmental activists – Ouch Leng, Khem Sokhy, Srey Thei, Srey Tin and Heng Srar – who had attended the event.

A community representative and four CCFC staff are prevented from conducting a training on human rights and farming to a group of 30 villagers in Prey Veng province’s Ba Phnom district. The staff, who were working to set up a community saving group, were threatened with arrest by the deputy commune police chief if they continued with the training.

Ten volunteer staff from a local wild life, forests and fisheries protection and conservation organisation are illegally detained by armed forces in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nob district while monitoring sand-dredging activities in the coastal province. Af ter eight months in pre-trial detention, they are handed a suspended sentence of two years in prison.

Sok Kin, president of the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union of Cambodia (BWTUC) is harassed by local authorities on the orders of Sen Sok district governor Mouv Manit while conducting a meeting with donors and colleagues at his office in Phnom Penh. Authorities demanded to know the reason for the meeting, accused Kin of not having sought permission from local officials and allegedly urged the union official to join the ruling party.

A community representative in Preah Sihanouk province is threatened with arrest by a deputy district police chief af ter more than a hundred people from ten different communities, including six affected by land conf licts across the province, planned to celebrate International Human Rights Day. Members of the communities locked in land disputes had thumbprinted a petition calling on local authorities to find a resolution to the conf licts.

A monk living in a forest pagoda in Kampong Speu province is woken by gunshots fired at the temple’s pillars by an unknown shooter. The monk, who had previously joined in environmental activism alongside the Mother Nature movement and worked to protect the wild trees and animals of his forest home, also found a threatening message stuck on a tree warning that there would be no peace if the “bad monk” continued his activism.

Community land activist Ther Then is arrested by police in Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district and sent to the provincial prison af ter giving an interview to Radio Free Asia (RFA). The warrant, which accused Then of giving false information to the radio station, was issued following a complaint filed by Korm Saroeurn, former advisor to interior minister Sar Kheng. On March 12, 2019, Ther Then had shared with RFA grievances of local residents with regards to access to water to irrigate their fields.

An ADHOC rights worker in Kampong Cham province is threatened over the phone by the commune police chief af ter holding a meeting with 35 local community members to discuss freedom of expression.

24-year-old rapper Chhun Dymey is confronted by two police officers in Siem Reap who demand to see his birth certificate, job and family book. Dymey had recently released a song – “This Society” – lashing out at widespread social injustice including corruption, the plight of poor communities and ongoing land disputes. Dymey later took the song down from his social media accounts.

More than 60 people from four different communities across Kampong Cham province’s Memot district are prevented from celebrating International Women’s Day by Memot district governor Cheng Bunna, who along with commune officials claimed that the communities had not registered their plans with local authorities. A Tunlong community representative is threatened with imprisonment if the celebrations go ahead as planned.

The Venerable Hor Sokhon, the chief monk of Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov pagoda, is forcibly defrocked by high-ranking officials from the Ministr y of Cults and Religion before a mixed force of more than 50 police officers on the orders of the capital’s governor Khuong Sreng. Sokhon had posted content on social media criticising the government’s failure to retain full tariff-free access to the European Union through the Ever ything but Arms (EBA) trade scheme due to ongoing human rights abuses in Cambodia.

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.

Four community land representatives including Hoam Nai, Rom San, Say Tay and Srok Lang in Tbong Khmum’s Memot district are summoned to the Tonlung commune office for questioning over a long-running land dispute with businessman Chhun Savuth. The four representatives were forced to thumbprint a contract agreeing not to organize community protests or gatherings on penalty of legal action.

A spokesman for Cambodia’s Prison Department denied reports that two environmental activists had been attacked and beaten by other inmates after refusing to end a hunger strike launched to commemorate Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

So Metta and Chhoeun Daravy were assaulted on Dec. 6, four days into their eight-day strike, but resumed their protest immediately afterward, So Metta’s sister Eng Vanndy told RFA on Thursday after visiting her sister in jail.

“Prisoners convicted of murder and drug crimes assaulted them, and she was severely beaten, especially around her face,” Eng Vanndy said, referring to So Metta and adding that her sister and the other woman were separated during the attack.

“I worry for her life. Every time I visit, I never hear good news. I am very sad, and I want to see her released,” Eng Vanndy said.

Prison Department spokesman Nuth Savna denied the two activists had been attacked, saying that So Metta had refused to return to her cell after a break, and that guards had ordered other prisoners to “carry her there.”

“I investigated the incident, and was told that other inmates had carried So Metta back inside her cell because it was time for the cells to be closed,” he said, adding that So Metta had attacked other prisoners herself while they were taking her back to her cell.

Also on Friday, a Cambodian appeals court refused to grant bail to five activists arrested in September after criticizing the government’s handling of a border dispute with Vietnam.

Kean Sothea, the mother of activist Tha Lavy—a member of Khmer Tavarak, the Khmer Student Intelligent League, and arrested with So Metta—urged the government and the courts to free her son, now scheduled for trial on Dec. 30.

“I want the court to release him so he can return to school,” she said.

Freedom of expression

Ny Sokha of the Cambodian rights group Adhoc said he was disappointed by the court’s refusal to grant bail to the activists, saying they had only expressed their views according to the law and had not committed the crimes alleged by the court.

“All we can do is urge the government again and again to consider dropping all charges against these detainees, who are simply human rights and political activists,” he said.

“They were exercising their right to freedom of expression to help society and to criticize the government, based on democratic principles.”

Fifteen wives of jailed members of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) meanwhile resumed their weekly Friday protest outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, calling on the court to free their loved ones.

Police confiscated the protesters’ banners and photos of their husbands and blocked them after they tried to march together to the Embassy of the European Union, but members of the group then went separately to the embassy by taxi.

One woman, the wife of jailed CNRP activist Seng Chanthorn, told RFA that police had shoved and threatened her during their protest, adding that authorities should instead help to protect people who peacefully express their views.

The court should free her husband and all other prisoners detained only for criticizing government actions, she said.

“Even though we were harassed, we will continue to protest to demand they give our husbands back, because they are innocent,” she said.

'They still stand up'

Local rights group LICADHO in a report released this month said the arrest and imprisonment of more than a dozen human rights defenders in the second half of the year had “capped off three years of increasing repression by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of peaceful advocacy and activism.”

But Cambodians across all sectors of the country still stand up to demand their basic rights in the face of repressive laws enforced by government-controlled courts, LICADHO said.

“Many have lost years of their lives to Cambodia’s overcrowded prisons,” the rights group said. “Others have faced physical attacks and life-threatening injuries.”

Reached for comment, government spokesman Phay Siphan slammed LICADHO’s report, saying that Cambodian authorities base their actions in cases like these on the country’s laws, and that LICADHO was only trying to secure more funding from its donors by releasing its report.

“This is just a way for them to get money for staff salaries,” Phay Siphan said.

“These are only LICADHO’s thoughts and recommendations, and there is nothing here that we need to consider. The government enforces the laws, and the courts have the right to make their own decisions on whether to release suspects or not,” he said.

The latest wave of arrests comes three years after CNPR President Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government with the help of Washington. Cambodia’s Supreme Court banned his party in November that year for its supposed role in the scheme.

The move to dissolve the CNRP marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People’s Party to win all 125 seats in the country’s July 2018 general election.

A Cambodian court convicted two rappers and sentenced them to up to a year and a half in prison on Tuesday on charges of incitement over their rhymes about social injustice and loss of sovereign territory.

Yin Srang, a spokesman for the Siem Reap provincial court, told Reuters that rapper Kea Sokun, 23, was found guilty of incitement to commit a felony and sentenced to a year and a half in prison, of which six months were suspended.

Another rapper, Long Putheara, who was 17 when arrested last year, received five months in jail, about six weeks of which was suspended, Yin Srang said.

Their convictions come during a wave of arrests of activists and opponents of the government, which started in July with the detention of a unionist who accused it of ceding land to neighboring Vietnam.

Others held include members of environmental groups, a politician and a Buddhist monk, according to human rights group Licadho, which tracks arrests of dissidents and activists.

Several Western nations have condemned that crackdown as well as treason charges against scores of opposition party supporters, warning that Cambodia's democracy is under threat.

Kea Sokun's father Kea Phal said the conviction of his son was an injustice and the two rap songs - "Khmer Land" and "Sad Race" - had positive meaning.

"The songs were educational and just remind youths to be loving of own nation," Kea Phal told Reuters.

Kea Phal said his son had made no apology during court proceedings because he did nothing wrong.

Lyrics in Khmer Land and Sad Race - which have over 2 million and 700,000 views respectively - say Cambodians are starving and the country is losing territory to its neighbors.

They urge people to stand up against oppression and unite to bring the country greatness.

Cambodia's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the convictions.

A Kampong Chhnang radio station owner was convicted for incitement on Tuesday and sentenced to 20 months in prison for reporting on an ongoing land dispute between villagers and the military in the province.

Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court presiding judge Y Thavrak found Sok Oudom, owner of Rithysen radio station, guilty of “incitement to commit a felony” and sentenced him to 20 months in prison and 20 million riels, around $5,000, in punitive damages, according to Un Chanthol, a lawyer for the journalist.

The complaint was filed by Nou Samrith, deputy commander of Kampong Chhnang military operation area, for allegedly inciting villagers against the military. The journalist had broadcast a Facebook Live report on a contentious land dispute in Kampong Chhnang province’s Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary, according to Sok Oudom’s wife, Nuth Sovanthou.

Un Chanthol, his lawyer, said the court should not have used the Criminal Code to jail his client, provisions in the Law on the Press could have been used to issue a correction if there was an error in the reportage.

“I think he is a journalist and his profession allows him to speak. But the court judged the opposite,” he said.

Long Sitha, Kampong Chhang court’s spokesperson, and Nou Samrith, the plaintiff, could not be reached for comment.

Oudom often posted stories on the Rithysen Radio News Station Facebook page about land disputes, clashes between people and police, and provincial court cases.

Nuth Sovanthou, 36, said her husband was among a group of journalists who were covering the land issues, but that Sok Oudom was the only one to face legal repercussions.

“It is very unfair and I don’t have any belief in the Cambodian court system,” said Nou Sovanthou, who is a mother of three.

She too questioned why the court did not use the Press Law to decide if her husband had committed a journalistic error.

“Why should we have the Law on the Press if we don’t use it to protect journalists?” she said. “He didn’t hide or incite anything.”

Article 10 of Press Law states that following a civil complaint if a court finds that the publication was false the court may order the press entity to publish a retraction, pay compensation, or publish a retraction.

Chab Sokhun, a villager from Kampong Chhnang’s Teuk Phos district, said Sok Oudom should not be accused or arrested because of his reporting since he didn’t incite people. He speculated that a mention of the provincial governor in the news report could have caused this entire episode.

“He said something affecting the provincial governor. That is why he was arrested,” said Chab Sokhun, who is involved in the land dispute.

Oudom is the third journalist in recent months to be convicted of incitement. The vaguely defined charge is often used to target detractors and critics of Hun Sen and the Cambodian government, rights groups say.

Last month, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced a Cambodian newspaper publisher who made critical comments about Prime Minister Hun Sen on Facebook to 18 months in prison. In October, Sovann Rithy, who founded social media news outlet TVFB, was convicted of incitement and given a suspended sentence.

Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, said the authorities should not jump to file criminal charges and instead should try to use other ways to get corrective measures.

“The [authorities] should understand the role of journalists in doing their work rather than suing them in court,” she said. “It is another threat to journalists.”

Vann Vichar, 35, a freelance journalist, said the excessive use of incitement charges was a concern, because he was never sure which story would be considered incendiary, pointing out there was little chance of getting a fair verdict in these cases.

“[Incitement charges] are a concern for me because as a journalist I do not know which article can be assessed to be incitement,” said Vann Vichar, who has worked as a journalist for some 10 years.

Authorities in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh broke up yet another protest by more than a dozen wives and relatives of jailed opposition activists Friday, less than a week ahead of a scheduled court hearing for more than 100 of the party’s members and representatives of nongovernmental organizations.

Friday’s protest marked the third time family members of detained activists with the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) gathered in front of the Royal Palace, calling on King Norodom Sihamoni to grant clemency to their loved ones—most of whom have been jailed on “incitement” charges after expressing views critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s leadership.

The “Friday Wives,” as they are increasingly referred to, have held weekly demonstrations in the capital demanding that they be freed.

However, before the protesters could deliver a petition to representatives of the king, around 50 security personnel from Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district violently dispersed them, pushing them and threatening them with arrest. The authorities also used loudspeakers to denounce local rights groups and the United Nations Human Rights Organization (UNHCR), who they accused—without presenting evidence—of facilitating the protest.

Ouk Chanthy, the wife of CNRP member Yim Sareth, told RFA’s Khmer Service that authorities kicked her in the leg during the confrontation, leaving her unable to walk.

She said it had been eight months since her husband lost his freedom and that she has been protesting in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for his release, insisting that he committed no crime. She added that she has suffered both mentally and physically after being violently dispersed by the authorities during several protests.

Ouk Chanthy said she is very worried about the health of her husband, who suffers from high blood pressure and other ailments.

“I would like to call on national and international organizations, as well as the king, to please help us—we are women!” she said.

“All of us have suffered grave injustice. Since our husbands were incarcerated, the life of each family has deteriorated. Coming out to protest, we never know what we will face. But for the sake of our husbands, for the sake of our families, we must speak out to demand their release.”

Prim Chantha, the wife of CNRP member Kak Komphear, said authorities prohibited her group from shouting on the pretext that it “disturbed the king,” all while the authorities used loudspeakers to disperse people.

“The Phnom Penh Municipality should not have sent district security guards to disperse us violently like this,” she said. “We are women and every day we are like the living dead because they arrested our husbands.”

After being dispersed from the Royal Palace to a stupa in nearby Wat Botum pagoda, the women decided to proceed to the British Embassy to inquire about a past petition calling for London’s intervention. However, the authorities used vehicles and motorbikes to chase them as they walked to the site.

A representative of the embassy told the women that British Ambassador to Cambodia Tina Redshaw was not in her office.

Speaking to RFA, Ny Sokha—a worker with the Cambodian rights group ADHOC—slammed the authorities for their actions on Friday.

“The government, especially state authorities, has failed to guarantee that people enjoy their rights to non-violent protest, in accordance with the principles of human rights,” he said. “We have seen some liberal countries condemn these acts.” Nov. 26 hearing

Friday’s protest comes as the Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced plans to hear cases en masse against more than 100 CNRP members and NGO representatives on Nov. 26.

Political Commentator Meas Nee said the move could indicate that Hun Sen’s government hopes to conclude cases with the opposition and move towards political reconciliation.

Kem Sokha, president of the CNRP, was arrested in September 2017 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government with U.S. help. Cambodia’s Supreme Court banned his party in November that year for its supposed role in the scheme.

The move to dissolve the CNRP marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in the country’s July 2018 general election.

“The move by the court occurs at the same time when there are rumors saying that some CNRP officials who don’t apply for political rehabilitation could be automatically granted such political rights by the government so that they could form a new party,” Meas Nee said.

“But we are still waiting to see whether only subordinate-level CNRP officials could be granted such political rehabilitation, leaving the top leaders of the CNRP to be charged so that the two leaders [Kem Sokha and Acting President Sam Rainsy] are divided.”

Another political commentator, Ly Srey Sros, disagreed, however.

“I see it differently—it may be adding further burdens against CNRP supporters,” she said.

“I don’t see that there will any political reconciliation. I don’t believe that there will be many CNRP members able to attend the hearing on Nov. 26. The court may prolong the cases and move to ruling by convicting all these CNRP members.”

Two community representatives from Koh Kong province have been placed under judicial supervision as hundreds of community members from Sre Ambel district gathered outside the Koh Kong Court of First Instance to call for the charges against their representatives to be dropped. Both women face up to two years in prison if found guilty.

Phav Nherng and Seng Lin had appeared before an investigating judge on charges of defamation and incitement to disturb social security. The women, who will now have to report monthly to district police, appear when summoned by court authorities and will not be able to move house without the court’s permission, represent almost two hundred families who have had hundreds of hectares of vital farmland seized by the Heng Huy Agriculture Group since 2008 to make way for a sugar plantation.

Both representatives were the target of a complaint launched by former community representative Chhay Vy. Vy’s brother, the late commune chief, was accused by the three women in 2019 of having seized land for himself during the unresolved land dispute. Another woman, Khorn Phun, had also been summoned for questioning over defamation charges. However, judicial supervision is not applicable for this charge.

Ten more community representatives have been put under judicial supervision in connection with the Heng Huy land dispute in the past two weeks alone.

Chhay Vy, a former representative of “Community 175,” a group of villagers in a land dispute with the Heng Huy sugar plantation, accused three residents of incitement and defamation over claims that she was working to sell the community’s land.

After a hearing on Wednesday morning, the Koh Kong Provincial Court placed two of the defendants under court supervision, prohibiting them from changing residences and requiring them to check in with district authorities once a month, according to a monitor at rights group Licadho.

About 200 protesters from six communities gathered outside the court for the hearing.

“She stole the land — I have both witnesses and evidence,” said Pao Nherng, from Sre Ambel district’s Chi Khor Krom commune.

A group of villagers filed a complaint about Vy to Interior Minister Sar Kheng last year.

Vy responded on Wednesday that she had not sold any community land, and demanded that her accusers present concrete evidence.

“If I do not see the evidence of what they have accused me of, I want them to pay me $20,000 and go to jail for five years,” Vy told VOD.

The three defendants in the case are Nherng, Sen Lin and Khon Phon. Nherng and Lin were placed under court supervision.

Licadho’s Koh Kong provincial coordinator, Hour In, said all three were questioned by judges on Wednesday.

“It is a threat to break the spirit of the people from protesting,” In said.

The court issued a statement saying that Wednesday’s case was unrelated to land disputes.

However, a separate case involving the same sugar plantation was heard at the court the previous day on Tuesday.

The case was brought by Heng Huy against 10 land disputants, five of whom were placed under court supervision on Tuesday. The five others were put under court supervision last week.

Dek Hour, one of the defendants, said the 10 were also accused of incitement and defamation.

The dispute between villagers and Heng Huy is long-standing, with villagers saying land encroachment started in 2007. Villagers were also summoned to court last year for incitement and defamation.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted newspaper publisher Ros Sokhet and handed him an 18-month prison sentence on Wednesday, five months after he was arrested for Facebook posts criticizing Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Ros Sokhet, the publisher of the “Cheat Khmer” newspaper, was arrested on June 25 for critical Facebook posts about Prime Minister Hun Sen, accusing him of not helping people affected by indebtedness.

Sam Sokong, Ros Sokhet’s lawyer, said the newspaper publisher had been convicted for incitement and sentenced under Article 494 and 495 of the Cambodian Criminal Code. He was also asked to pay a $500 fine.

“He was sentenced for 18 months in prison and a fine of two million Riel,” Sam Sokong said.

Sam Sokong said Ros Sokhet had asked him to appeal the decision on the grounds that the Facebook posts were his personal opinions and that the conviction affected his freedom of expression.

According to rights groups, Ros Sokhet was arrested for two posts addressing Prime Minister Hun Sen’s succession plans and rising indebtedness among Cambodian households.

Ros Sokhet is the second journalist in the last month to be convicted for incitement, a vaguely-defined charge often used to target detractors and critics of Hun Sen and the Cambodian government. In October, Sovann Rithy, who founded social media news outlet TVFB, was convicted for incitement and given a suspended sentence under Article 494 and 495 of the Cambodian Criminal Code.

Sovann Rithy was arrested in early April and charged with incitement after he reported comments made by Hun Sen at a National Assembly press conference. The prime minister had said that informal workers, including motorcycle taxi drivers, should sell their vehicles to buy rice because the government could not help them during the COVID-19 economic downturn.

Shortly after, Sovann Rithy posted a photo of a motorcycle driver on Facebook, with the accompanying text: “If the moto-taxi driver is bankrupt, they can sell their moto because the government is unable to help.”

Radio station owner Sok Oudom, who runs Rithysen Radio News Station, was also tried last week for allegedly inciting villagers against the military, in a long-standing dispute in Kampong Chhnang province. Sok Oudom faces similar charges to Sovann Rithy and Ros Sokhet and his verdict is due on November 17.

Rights groups have criticized the Cambodian government for its frequent use of the incitement legal provision to curtail press freedom. Activists say these arrests and convictions send an ominous message to independent news outlets and reporters.

Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, said the recent conviction of two journalists sends a threatening message to journalists working on controversial stories.

“I think the sustained conviction of journalists can be a threatening signal to other journalists who are doing their work,” he said.

A statement released on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists earlier this month called for an end to attacks on free expression and protection of journalists critical of the Cambodian government.

The statement, released by more than 50 local and international groups, listed at least 13 journalists who have faced court complaints for their news coverage and the revocation of four media licenses during the coronavirus pandemic for the alleged sharing of fake news.

“In the past years, the Cambodian government adopted a series of repressive laws that have enabled a crackdown on independent media and social media and resorted to provisions in the penal code – in particular articles 494 and 495 – to silence critical reporting and its reporters,” read the statement, referring to the criminal code provisions on incitement.

In an ongoing media crackdown that started after the 2017 commune election, independent newspaper The Cambodia Daily was closed for alleged tax violations and The Phnom Penh Post was sold to a Malaysian investor with links to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Also, two former Radio Free Asia reporters were charged with espionage and two former Cambodia Daily reporters are awaiting trial for alleged incitement over a 2017 election story.

Mixed security forces violently broke up a protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh to mark the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement, with two former Cambodia National Rescue Party officials being detained on Thursday to prevent their attendance.

The protest was called by senior leadership of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party to mark the 29th anniversary of the Peace Paris Agreement and to protest against China’s potential military presence in Cambodia.

About 30 protestors gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in the capital’s Chamkarmon district, where they were met by dozens of district security guards, uniformed police, and plainclothes security personnel.

“People who protest here with the banners, please leave this area in five minutes,” said an official on a loudspeaker. “If you don’t, we will use administrative measures.”

Protestors continued their protest and called for China to respect the peace agreement and refrain from having a military presence on Cambodian soil. Security personnel then started to drag and carry protestors away from outside the embassy, with these images and videos broadcast on social media platforms.

Three women were dragged onto the back of a flatbed truck used by district guards and another woman was carried away.

The Chinese Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Former CNRP members were also marking the peace agreement anniversary in different cities across the world, with Prime Minister Hun Sen warning Cambodians not to protest outside the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh.

The protestors were reacting to an increasing number of reports suggesting that Cambodia had allegedly signed a secret deal with China to allow a military presence at two likely locations: Ream Naval Base in Preah Sihanouk province and the Dara Sakor Resort in Koh Kong province.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director at rights group Licadho, said the government’s actions had effectively forbidden people from assembling and expressing their views.

“It has become involved with politics now. It affects the freedom of assembly and peaceful protests,” he said.

On Thursday, two former CNRP members were detained and prevented from participating in the protest outside the Chinese Embassy. Vann Sophat was detained by Tbong Khmum police officials at noon, without a warrant, and questioned till 5 p.m., he said. He was released only after signing an agreement promising to not partake in the protest.

“I just wanted to protest, and not start a coup to topple anyone,” he said. “We want people to understand about the Paris Peace Agreement on October 23.”

Vann Sophat was one of seven former opposition officials who was convicted by Tbong Khmum court last month and given a five-year suspended sentence. They were charged with “plotting” to overthrow the government and the case was linked to Sam Rainsy’s unsuccessful return to Cambodia in November 2019.

His former CNRP colleague, Sou Yean, was also detained by Tbong Khmum police on Thursday and remains in detention, according to his family.

Hong Kim Hoeun, Memot district police chief, said he was on a two-day mission to Preah Sihanouk province and refused to comment on the detention.

Pen Rath, Tbong Khmum provincial police head, and court spokespersons could not be reached for comment on Friday.

In a joint statement, journalists’ association CamboJA and the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, VOD’s parent organization, said at least six journalists had been “intimidated and threatened” at the rally.

They were told to give up their phones, stop shooting live video or had their camera taken away, the statement said.

Journalist Gerry Flynn said he was covering the protest for Thmey Thmey on Friday, and was being pushed back from observing the protesters when a walkie-talkie hit him in the face.

He turned around and an officer yelled at him, he said. A U.N. observer at the scene intervened, and told him that the guard had shouted, “Better watch out because you’re in the land of Cambodians,” Flynn said.

A freelance cameraman he was with also had his lens grabbed, and authorities tried to get into the cameraman’s bag, Flynn added.

Khan Leakhena, a VOD reporter, said she saw a protester fall on the sidewalk, and pulled out her phone to take pictures. A man in civilian clothes approached her, shouting and ordering her to stop shooting, and tried to grab the phone from her, Leakhena said.

Mech Dara, another VOD reporter, said he and several other reporters were repeatedly ordered to stop filming, including a journalist working for Reuters.

An Asia spokesperson for Reuters declined to comment. The Khmer Times has not responded to emailed questions. The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also did not respond to questions.

Chanyada, the deputy governor, on Saturday denied knowledge of the incidents and referred questions to the City Hall spokesperson.

City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey said he did not know the details of what happened on Friday and did not answer questions about the deputy governor being personally involved in the harassment.

“Generally, I can say that journalists have the right and ability to take pictures if it doesn’t affect or block authorities from implementing their duties,” Measpheakdey said.

CCIM’s media director, Ith Sothoeuth, said the work of journalists was supposed to be guaranteed under law. “These threats will further pressure and restrict the freedom of journalists in Cambodia.”

Nop Vy, CamboJA’s executive director, said the authorities’ actions were “unacceptable.”

“This is a sign of unacceptable intimidation as journalists were fulfilling their professional work,” said Vy, who was CCIM’s previous media director. “Authorities likely consider journalists to be an important observer who make it difficult for them to crack down on protesters.”

According to the Criminal Code, extortion — the act or attempt to obtain any asset by violence, threat of violence or coercion — is punishable by two to five years in jail.

On 20 October 2020, the Court of Appeal in Phnom Penh denied the bail motion against the detention of three human rights defenders from Mother Nature Cambodia; Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea and Phoung Keorasmey. They were charged with “incitement to commit a felony or social unrest” on 6 September 2020. The charge is based on information they shared on social media about their plans to organise a one-woman march to the Prime Minister’s house to raise environmental concerns over the filling in of the Boeung Tamoke lake in Phnom Penh. The defenders are currently under pre-trial detention at Phnom Penh's Correctional Centres 1 and 2.

Four local online news journalists were attacked on September 28 by a group of men who they say were timber traders seeking revenge after the reporters had singled them out to police for committing forestry crimes.

The group of reporters from PMN news, Chakrapop news and Eysan Post filed a complaint at the Memot district police station in Tbong Khmum province against several suspects who they say threw a log through the window of their car and beat them with sticks and axes, injuring two.

Memot District Police Chief Hong Kim Hoeun confirmed receipt of the journalists’ complaint.

“Yes, we have received it and [we] are working on that case,” he said before declining to comment further.

One victim, Ren Samnang, a reporter at PMN news, said he was asleep in his car along with Muok Saren from Chakrapop news, and Ran Khorn and Teng Norin from Eysan Post news, when the attack occurred.

“I was traveling from Snoul district to Phnom Penh and upon arriving in Memot district, we pulled over to take some rest and fell asleep,” said Samnang, 29.

“We were sleeping [in the car] for about an hour when at about 12:30am, we heard a sound hitting the car,” Samnang said.

Upon realizing that someone had hurled a log through the front driver’s side window, he started the engine and began to drive away.

The group of about five suspects then returned to their truck to chase after the journalists, eventually crashing into their car and running it off the side of the road.

“I jumped out of the car and started to run away,” he said, adding that the log thrown through the window had injured his left rib, and that the timber traders had also smashed off one of the vehicle’s mirrors and dented the exterior.

Samang said he had recognized the attackers and realized the assault was in retaliation to the journalists’ investigation of forest crimes in the area. On September 26, the group had reported an incident of illegal logging to military police in Memot district, which resulted in the officials stopping a truck transporting timber through the area.

He said the journalists were present to report on the case when military police stopped the vehicle, but that the four or five men on board had gotten away.

“[Before running], the driver took a picture and said ‘Either your car will be damaged or we will cause you harm,’” Samnang recalled.

“I think that they wanted to kill us,” he added.

He called on police to take legal action and arrest the suspects so that they would not repeat their crime in the future.

Saren said his leg was slightly injured in the attack, and echoed Samnang’s assertion that the attackers were part of the group of timber traders that they had encountered two days prior.

“They [suspects] came to beat us up without even asking us anything and damaged our car,” he said.

“I think that it is a threat to all journalists not to report [forestry] crimes in the future,” Saren said, emphasizing that the attack would not deter his future work.

Sar Sina, director of the provincial information department said September 29 that his department has already forwarded the case to the Information Ministry.

“Police are working on that case, we have not yet investigated it,” he said, adding that those journalists had filed a complaint with the district police.

“It is a violent act that should not happen to journalists,” Sina said.

Nop Vy, executive director at Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA), said he was disappointed in the use of violence against the journalists, noting that reporters play an important role in monitoring and preventing illegal acts, including forestry crimes.

“We know that forestry crimes are continuing to happen, and some cases involve local authorities and people who are powerful and rich,” he said.

“It is dangerous and risky for journalists, so I think that local authorities have to take effective legal measures to arrest the culprits,” Vy said, adding that if authorities decline to take legal action, it will encourage the suspects and they may even attack other journalists in the future.

Vy said that the persecution of journalists “is a serious threat to their life and personal safety.”

In a separate case in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district, Kouy Piseth, 24, a reporter for CBN TV Online, died in a traffic accident in the early hour of September 29.

Theng Kosal, Choamchao III commune chief, clarified that the death was caused by a road collision, and was not a murder, as public people had originally suspected.

The victim had driven his motorbike very fast up a hill and had been thrown off, hitting his head on a rock on the ground, Kosal said.

“It is not a murder case, but it was a traffic accident he caused himself,” the commune chief said, explaining that police were initially unsure because the body was found 40 meters away from the victim’s motorbike.

CBN TV Online General Director Chhai Sochet said he had not seen Piseth since the reporter had left the office at about 11:30pm, and that he was saddened to hear of his death.

Four Koh Kong villagers were detained for about 12 hours after camping outside the provincial hall in a group of about 60 land protesters since Monday, they said.

The group say they are in a 12-year-long dispute with the Union Development Group, or UDG, which has been developing the $3.8-billion Dara Sakor tourism resort in the province. The villagers said they were calling on the provincial administration to act on the case.

Chhay Kimthuch, one of the protesters camping outside the hall, said four villagers had been detained in the dark at about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday after dozens of officers arrived to disperse the encampment.

“The authorities arrived quietly and grabbed [people] in the tents,” she said.

The four villagers, including a village representative, Preab Roatha, were held at Khemara Phoumin city police headquarters until their release around 3 p.m., Kimthuch said.

Saing Puy, from Koh Sdach commune, added that the tents outside the provincial hall were removed and authorities said they would not be allowed to stay there.

“The Koh Kong provincial authority should not have done this to the people,” she said.

Deputy provincial governor Sok Sothy told VOD that there were no arrests; authorities simply took an administrative measure to maintain public order.

The four villagers were “questioned to note down what their real intentions were in coming,” Sothy said.

UDG’s 45,000-hectare overall economic land concession, granted in 2008 and 2011, pushed families to abandon and dismantle more than 1,500 homes on 10,000 hectares of land, according to a 2012 report from the Community Legal Education Center.

Last month, the U.S. sanctioned the Chinese-owned company, alleging it “used Cambodian military forces to intimidate local villagers and to clear out land necessary for UDG to build the Dara Sakor project.” It also suggested that the resort could be converted to host military assets.

Cambodian officials and UDG have denied the claims.

Hour In, provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho, said people who had lost land were being further victimized by the suppression of protests.

“People became victims of losing land, and when they protested, they became victims even more because of the authorities’ actions,” In said.

Provincial governor Mithona Phouthorng said provincial officials and the Land Management Ministry were studying the dispute to clearly identify the people involved and make other clarifications in order to move toward a solution.

Prime Minister Hun Sen urged the country to commit to protecting peace as hundreds of land disputants protested in Phnom Penh on Monday, saying that while they remain marginalized, threatened and “in tears,” the people don’t have peace.

Land protesters from the provinces of Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk, Svay Rieng and Tbong Khmum blocked traffic in front of the Land Management Ministry for at least 20 minutes, with reporters estimating that as many as 1,100 people participated in the demonstration.

About 50 police officers and district security guards prevented the protesters from entering the ministry’s compound, and pushed them to the opposite side of the road. The protesters were later blocked from marching to Hun Sen’s house.

Sam Chamnan, from Tbong Khmum, said people in his village had lost community land to Harmony Win Investment over the past decade. Men Davy, from Svay Rieng, said she represented 152 families locked in a dispute with a Chinese company since 2014. Kan Chhorn, from Koh Kong, said his Sre Ambel district villagers had no land left to farm after 10 years fighting with a sugar plantation.

The villagers chose the International Day of Peace to protest so the government could finally fulfill its promise to bring peace to the country by resolving their disputes, Chamnan said.

But rather than peace, land protesters had been experiencing only arrests and threats, he said. “We have no rights,” Chamnan added.

Davy said it was time for the government to act rather than simply repeat the word “peace.”

“Today, I think Samdech will find a solution for people, in order to make our country have peace as it was promised,” she said, using an honorific for Hun Sen. “We think there’s no peace. There is only peace in their mouths because people are still in tears in all the provinces.” ​

Chhorn said he didn’t want to have to protest. “I am poor. … If I were rich, I wouldn’t come,” he said. “I’m a farmer but I don’t have the land to grow crops.”

City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey said authorities had prevented people from marching to maintain public order and avoid traffic jams.

“They shouldn’t need to gather and disrupt public order” if the aim was simply to submit petitions, he said.

Meanwhile, to mark the International Day of Peace, Hun Sen recalled the country’s past struggles and said only peace could be the foundation for development.

“If we lose peace, we will lose everything. … Commit strongly to protecting the peace that we’ve just achieved,” he said in a letter issued on Saturday. “Endure, be strong and remain intact forever. Do not allow any reactionary force to destroy it at any cost.”

Acknowledging the economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hun Sen said his two priorities were maintaining stability in politics and the microfinance sector.

The country’s microfinance debt hit $7.3 billion in June to more than 2 million borrowers, according to the Cambodia Microfinance Association, with an average microloan size of $3,804 that researchers have said is the highest in the world.

“The great achievements that Cambodia has achieved have never been applauded or praised by some superpowers and Western countries, which have a specific agenda to use Cambodia as a stepping stone to serve their political ambitions,” Hun Sen continued in his letter.

In a statement issued on Monday while protests were ongoing, the Land Management Ministry said about 800 disputants from Koh Kong had no legal basis for their complaints, rejecting their petition for intervention in disputes with sugar plantations Heng Huy, Koh Kong Plantation and Koh Kong Sugar Industry as well as Chinese-owned tourism resort Union Development Group.

UDG — a massive, $3.8-billion development that spans 45,000 hectares and 20 percent of Cambodia’s coastline — was sanctioned by the U.S. last week over alleged human rights abuses and forced evictions, following accusations that it could be turned into a Chinese military base.

Environmental group Mother Nature’s founder alleges that the advocacy group’s Facebook page was hijacked after authorities arrested three activists earlier this month, one of whom was a page administrator.

Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported in 2015 and blocked from reentering the country, said he realized the group’s Facebook page was compromised on September 4, when he found an email saying he had been removed as a page administrator.

The Spain-based activist said he received the email at 1:20 a.m. in his local time, one day after three Mother Nature activists were arrested while producing a campaign video to call for lake Boeng Tamok’s conservation. Gonzalez-Davidson said he suspected that the activists were threatened or coerced to give authorities the password to the group’s Facebook page.

He sent a request to Facebook to suspend the page temporarily, as well as the personal pages of the three detained activists, Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea and Phuong Keorasmey, he said.

“I hope that in two or three weeks, I can manage the Mother Nature pages again,” Gonzalez-Davidson said.

Via a public relations representative in Cambodia, Facebook said it had received a request from a human rights actor to suspend the Mother Nature Cambodia page after some members, including a page administrator, were detained by government security officials. The company said it had secured the page under the same procedures it follows when a page is hacked.

Phnom Penh municipal police spokesperson San Sokseyha said he was not familiar with the specifics of the Mother Nature case, but in general the police would confiscate all evidence related to a case, including technology, and then the court has the “right to investigate” the accused persons’ devices.

Chea Pov, the head of the Interior Ministry’s technology crimes department, did not respond to questions.

Gonzalez-Davidson activist also said he had noticed two pages trying to impersonate Mother Nature Cambodia: a page called Father of Nature Cambodia with 1,447 followers, and another called Mother of Nature Cambodia with 708 followers. Both pages, which were started on June 17 and 18, respectively, have profile pictures stylized like Mother Nature’s logo.

Gonzalez-Davidson called the impersonating accounts “crude,” but he said he is hoping the social media company will remove the accounts. The accounts remained active as of Monday morning, but neither had posted since September 1, when both accounts posted the same four nature photos.

Based on archived links in Google searches, the real advocacy group page had more than 353,000 followers, and Gonzalez-Davidson said in a Facebook post that the group’s videos had been seen more than 20 million times over the past four years.

Among its campaigns, the groups’ sustained criticism of sand mining in Koh Kong province for export preceded Cambodia’s decision to ban sand exports for environmental reasons.

Another activist was arrested in Phnom Penh on Thursday as the U.N., international rights groups and dozens of local civil society organizations condemned the government�s �campaign of fear and repression� against human rights defenders.

Police arrested Muong Sopheak on Sothearos Blvd. in Chamkarmorn district�s Tonle Bassac commune around 3 p.m. by court order for incitement to disturb social security, municipal police spokesperson San Sokseyha said on Friday.

His brother, Muong Sony, said Sopheak had been taken by authorities from outside the minor Khmer Will Party�s headquarters. Sopheak and Sony both belong to the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, two other members of which were arrested last weekend in relation to protests in support of jailed unionist Rong Chhun.

Sopheak�s arrest marks at least 10 activists arrested over the past month amid a series of small street protests, most in support of Chhun. At least four of those detained were members of youth activist group Khmer Thavrak.

Chhun was arrested in late July after alleging that Cambodia was losing territory to Vietnam along their shared border, a controversial and ethnically charged issue.

In a statement on Friday, the U.N.�s human rights office said it had documented the arrests of 24 human rights defenders since Chhun�s arrest, 12 of whom remained in detention.

Several activists also reported being followed and receiving threatening phone calls, including death threats, it said. �Numerous human rights defenders are currently in hiding for fear of being arrested.�

�The current situation marks a deepening of the Government�s intolerance to dissent and repression of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association,� it said, calling on the government to release the arrested activists and end the intimidation against civil society actors.

Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson also called for the activists� release in a statement on Friday, and urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to �end the de facto ban on critical protests in Phnom Penh.� On Thursday, Amnesty International condemned the arrests as �a shocking, all-out assault on Cambodia�s youth.�

Thirty-nine civil society groups signed a similar statement earlier this week. �We urge the government to end its campaign of fear and repression against peaceful youth and environmental human rights defenders,� they said on Wednesday.

The government�s permanent mission in Geneva this week responded to related criticism from U.N. envoy Rhona Smith.

�Cambodia cherishes freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in line with the law, and is deeply conscious that plurality of voices, including the critical one, matters in the development of the country,� it said in a statement, according to state media outlet Agence Kampuchea Presse. �However, article 31 of the Constitution of Cambodia underscores that exercise of personal rights and freedom by any individual shall not adversely affect rights and freedom of others. The exercise of such rights and freedom shall be in accordance with the law.�

Police have targeted seven unions and associations for a �survey� of employees and their documentation, though a police official said the project has been put on hold for now after investigating two of the groups.

Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA) director Ouk Chhayavy said six officers came to investigate her organization on September 3, questioning her about the scope of its work.

�They should not come to ask because we have already submitted [documents] to the Interior Ministry about what sectors we work in,� Chhayavy said on Tuesday. �The goal of the survey is to threaten associations and unions.�

The government appeared to be cracking down on any group that might lead a protest, she said.

Rong Chhun, a unionist and former president of CITA, was arrested in late July over claims he made in a radio interview about Cambodia losing territory to Vietnam along the border. At least nine youth activists have been arrested since, some for protesting in support of Chhun.

Vorn Pao, president of tuk-tuk drivers union Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA), said his organization had been next in line for the survey.

According to Pao and a police document seen by VOD, the seven organizations listed on the survey notice were CITA, IDEA, labor rights group Central, the Cambodian Youth Network, the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, and unions the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union and the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU). CITA and CATU are the only groups that have been surveyed so far, according to Pao and a timetable on the document.

IDEA was scheduled for an inspection on Monday, but local authorities had delayed the survey, Pao said.

�They said they just want to update the number of Cambodian people, foreigners, workers, employees, and check the director�s documents and other personal documentation for the director � and ask each staff [for documentation],� he said.

He said he did not think the survey was legal. �It causes fear, because the political situation is getting more complicated,� he said.

A deputy Meanchey district police chief, listed as a contact on the survey document, said it was the job of authorities to oversee organizations.

�I instructed the local commune police and commune officials to make a report. � Our unit needs to know the structure of the NGOs, including director, deputy director and how many � we are a controlling unit.�

He added that the survey had been suspended, and hung up without giving his name.

Interior Ministry administration department director-general Prak Samoeun could not be reached for comment.

U.N. human rights special rapporteur Rhona Smith said in a Facebook post that she was monitoring the situation.

�I have also been closely following reports that seven different CSOs have been searched or informed of pending visits by the authorities since last week,� Smith said in the post, which also highlighted the arrests of three environmental activists on incitement charges.

Young rapper Kea Sokun, 22, was charged with incitement after his arrest on Friday, Siem Reap Provincial Court spokesperson Yin Srang said.

Sokun�s father Phal Kea, told VOD that Sokun had been arrested in relation to his rap song �Dey Khmer,� or Khmer Land.

The song, posted to YouTube in April, has been watched more than 270,000 times.

�If we run out of land, there is nothing left,� Sokun raps. �Listen to me calmly: Wake up, we are heroes, handcuffed to catch thieves. Destroy the exploiters, put them in jail and lock them up. Take our freedom. Don�t be afraid, do not panic.�

Kea said his son, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade, had written the song himself without any influence from political parties.

He had spoken to his son about the police questioning, which focused on who was behind the song, Kea said.

�He said they only asked about the song, who was behind it � which party do you belong to, and which party does it belong to,� Kea said.

Licadho monitoring manager Am Sam Ath said Sokun�s detention came amid a wave of arrests against young activists that could be considered violations of free expression.

�I don�t think anyone should detain him for the song, because this is a work of art,� Sam Ath said.

A group of four Khmer Thavrak protesters on Monday believed their tuk-tuk was being tailed by police on motorbikes and asked the driver to make random turns before heading to the U.N.�s human rights office for help. After about five hours, including two at the U.N. office hoping they could get refuge, one of the group was finally arrested outside her Chbar Ampov home, according to a member of the group.

Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesperson San Sokseyha said on Tuesday that Eng Malai, also known as So Metta, was arrested based on a court order around 6 p.m. Monday in Chbar Ampov district. The court charged Metta with incitement to cause chaos in society, but he did not know if she had been sent to prison.

National Police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun also confirmed that Metta was arrested yesterday evening and that the arrest was made based on a court order.

Metta was the fourth member of youth activism group Khmer Thavrak to be arrested since mid-August, with the group participating in a wave of protests to release unionist Rong Chhun. Chhun was arrested for making comments on the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

The Interior Ministry on Monday called the group�s activities illegal.

When San Sreyneat, a 39-year-old member of Khmer Thavrak, boarded a tuk-tuk with Metta and two other activists on Monday afternoon, she found herself followed by plainclothes officers for half a day leading to Metta�s arrest.

�We could not escape,� she told VOD on Tuesday. �If they want to arrest us, we cannot escape no matter where we go.�

Sreyneat said the group of four hired a tuk-tuk about 1:30 p.m., following Monday�s half-day rally, which was monitored by a crowd of authorities double the size of its protesters. Sreyneat�s group wanted to go home to Chbar Ampov from the Japanese and Chinese Friendship bridges, where protesters dispersed after being blocked by authorities, but she said they were afraid police would follow them home.

�I thought of going back home but when they kept following us, we decided not to go home, because we didn�t want them to know my house and come to disturb us at home,� she said.

Sreyneat said they noticed plainclothes officers were following the tuk-tuk, and activists asked the driver to make random turns in an attempt to throw officers off their tail. She said at least one motorbike followed the tuk-tuk for the entire afternoon, but there appeared to be up to six or seven motorbikes at some moments in their ride.

At one point, one of the four passengers urged the tuk-tuk to stop and asked the officers why they were following them.

The group eventually went to the U.N. human rights office in Chamkarmorn district�s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune, where they spent two hours talking with officials, Sreyneat said.

She said they knew they faced arrest upon leaving and the group asked an official for shelter, but the U.N. official denied the request, saying the development organization wouldn�t want to be accused of colluding with Khmer Thavrak or acting outside its role.

�I asked a U.N. officer to help monitor when we are being followed. I told them that I was being harassed and asked whether I could stay there or not, but they said they couldn�t allow that,� she said.

The U.N. did not respond to a request for comment about the events. Earlier on Monday, its human rights office expressed concern over the reported arrests, and said in an email that they were monitoring developments.

Sreyneat said the group left as the office closed, and when they arrived at the house in Prek Pra commune, Metta was immediately arrested by six plainclothes officers.

�I do not know why they arrested only Metta,� she said. �They think Metta is a leader who is inciting or whatever.�

Sreyneat said she was relatively new to the group, initially just supporting Khmer Thavrak from a distance before joining recent protests. She said she was nervous after being followed and then witnessing her colleague�s arrest, but Sreyneat said it was not enough to deter her.

�I am determined not to panic, and I have persuaded myself to be strong because we have not stolen or robbed anyone. We [campaign] for the nation and only demand justice, freedom and democracy,� she said. �So I have done nothing wrong and if [authorities] think of violating my rights � let them arrest [me] and let them be happy to arrest [me].�

Three activists � including a monk � were arrested over two days at a series of small protests ongoing in Phnom Penh, with the Interior Ministry ordering action against two groups �causing chaos in society.�

In a statement released on Monday, the Interior Ministry accused Khmer Thavrak and Mother Nature of inciting instability and disrupting security and public order.

They were �causing chaos in society using social media and some news media to broadcast articles, leaflets, photos and videos as well as holding demonstrations without legal permission,� the statement said. The groups were not registered as an association or NGO with the ministry, it added.

�The Interior Ministry would like to appeal to people to please not participate in the illegal activities of these groups,� it said, ordering relevant authorities to �take action in accordance with the law to guarantee public order and national security.�

They must prevent �all causes of anarchy and chaos in society as all Cambodian people celebrate Pchum Ben,� it said.

Khmer Thavrak has been engaged in a series of protests since last month, sparked by the arrest of unionist Rong Chhun in late July over comments he made alleging that Cambodia was losing land to Vietnam. In August, Khmer Thavrak attempted to march under the banner of �I Love the Nation,� a celebration of �patriotic heroes� arrested for protecting the country�s borders.

Six of its members were arrested last month after protests held in support of Chhun, and two of them, Chhoeun Daravy and Hun Vannak, have been charged with incitement and are still in jail.

A third member, Tha Lavy, was arrested on Monday.

National Police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun confirmed the arrests of Lavy, Mean Prummony, and Koet Saray on Sunday and Monday amid protests in Phnom Penh.

Kim Khoeun said they had staged protests without permission and in violation of Covid-19 public health measures, but the reason for the arrests was that they had endangered national security.

�If it did not affect social security, [authorities] would not have made the arrests,� Kim Khoeun said.

�Their arrests are not related to their demonstration � don�t confuse it. It�s different,� he said, but declined to say what the national security concerns were.

Prummony and Saray � members of another group, the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association � were arrested on Sunday, while Lavy was arrested Monday, he said.

About 50 protesters gathered near Freedom Park in Russei Keo district on Monday around 8:30 a.m. They faced barricades and a force of about 100 officers from police, military police and security guards hired by local authorities.

After verbal exchanges and being pushed away from entering the park, the protesters walked to the U.S. Embassy to submit a petition before returning. Failing again to enter Freedom Park, the small protest disbanded around 1:30 p.m.

So Metta, a Khmer Thavrak activist who participated in the demonstration, said the authorities� actions violated their rights.

�Where is our freedom? This is a public place for people,� Metta said.

Muong Sopheak, a young protester, said the goal was to lead nonviolent demonstrations demanding social justice, and the participants had no intention to incite opposition against the state�s authority.

�I came to express myself peacefully,� Sopheak said.

In a statement on Saturday, Khmer Thavrak said it would protest every day until September 15. �The demonstrations we lead are an exercise of the freedoms stated in the Constitution of Cambodia, which is the nation�s top law,� it said.

Cambodian Center for Human Rights director Chak Sopheap, said the space for freedom was dwindling. Politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, unionists and ordinary people were finding it hard to fulfill their work without fear, she said.

�When people are afraid, there will be less accountability, and Cambodian governance will have no checks and balances,� Sopheap said.

The government should listen to people�s concerns and give them the opportunity to express themselves, she said.

One of the two activists arrested on Sunday, Saray, was a monk and therefore defrocked at Wat Botum ahead of his arrest, said Khim Sorn, Phnom Penh�s chief monk.

Monks may not hold demonstrations, Sorn said.

�When asked, he said holding demonstrations was his principle, and he has to do it, so we need to let him leave the monkhood to become an ordinary person,� he said.

Meanwhile, three activists from Mother Nature, an environment group, were arrested on Thursday amid plans to raise awareness around the conservation of Boeng Tamok, one of the capital�s �last lakes.�

On 6 and 7 September 2020, three human rights defenders and members of Khmer Thavarak,Koet Saray, Tha Lavy and Eng Malai were arrested by police in Phnom Penh, for planning to takepart in a peaceful demonstration to ask for the release of several imprisoned human rightsdefenders. The three defenders have since been appeared in court,charged with �incitement tocommit a felony or cause social unrest� and moved to Phnom Penh Correctional Centres (CC) 1and 2.Khmer Thavarak is a youth group that was set up in early 2020. The movement advocates againstsocial injustices and raises concerns about pressing environmental issues in Cambodia. They havebeen at the forefront of raising human rights concerns in the country, and have also been reachingout to large audiences through their social media platforms to educate and raise awareness onvarious social issues.On 6 September 2020, Phnom Penh police arrested human rights defender and Buddhist monk,Koet Saray over his plans to participate in a peaceful assembly that was to take place on 7September 2020 at the Freedom Park in Phnom Penh. The demonstration was to call for therelease of imprisoned human rights defender Rong Chhun, and to call for the release of imprisonedmembers of Khmer Thavarak, Hun Vannak and Chhoeun Daravy. Koet Saray was presentedbefore the Phnom Penh court on the same day, where he was charged with �incitement to commita felony or cause social unrest� and later sent to pre-trial detention in Phnom Penh�s CC 1.The following day, on 7 September 2020, two other members of Khmer Thavarak were arrested byPhnom Penh police. Human rights defender Tha Lavy was arrested while exiting a tuk-tuk at theFreedom Park, while he was on his way to the demonstration. Woman human rights defender, EngMalai was arrested on the same evening, after leaving the local Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights in Phnom Penh. On 8 September 2020, both defenders werepresented before the Phnom Penh Court, where they were charged with �incitement to commit afelony or cause social unrest� and sent to pre-trial detention, Eng Malai in CC2, and Tha Lavy inCC1.These events closely follow the arrest of three environmental rights defenders, Long Kunthea,Phoung Keorasmey and Thun Ratha of Mother Nature Cambodia, who were also charged withincitement, for planning to organise a one-woman march to the Prime Minister�s residence to raiseawareness about the filling in the Boeung Tamok lake.Following the initial arrest on Monday, the Ministry of Interior released a statement accusing KhmerThavarak of inciting instability and disrupting security and public order, and appealed to the publicto not participate in any of the youth movement�s �illegal� activities. The Ministry called for legalFront Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the progressively hostile environment for humanrights defenders in Cambodia. Front Line Defenders condemns the arrest of human rightsdefenders, Koet Saray, Tha Lavy and woman human rights defender, Eng Malai, as it believes theyare being targeted for their legitimate and peaceful work for the protection of human rights.

Authorities on Sunday charged three youth environmental activists with incitement and ordered them to pre-trial detention over the trio�s peaceful activism calling attention to the government�s filling in of Phnom Penh�s Boeung Tamok lake.

The three environmental activists - Thun Ratha, a 28-year-old man, Long Kunthea, a 22-year-old woman, and Phuong Keorasmey, a 19-year-old woman � are members of the Mother Nature Cambodia movement and were charged on Sunday over their organising of a planned peaceful march from Wat Phnom to Prime Minister Hun Sen�s house by Kunthea to express her concerns regarding the filling and construction inside Boeung Tamok.

They were arrested on Friday, interviewed by the prosecutor and investigating judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court over the weekend and charged on Sunday with �incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest� under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code, which carries a prison sentence of between six months and two years as well as a fine of up to 4 million riel. Ratha was sent to pre-trial detention in Correctional Centre 1, and Kunthea and Keorasmey were sent to Correctional Centre 2.

In a separate case, authorities on Sunday also arrested two members of the Active Citizens for Justice youth movement, which had organised a gathering at Freedom Park next week to call for the release of imprisoned union leader Rong Chhun.

Venerable Koet Saray, an ordained Buddhist monk, and Mean Prommony, the vice-president of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, were arrested in Phnom Penh over their plans to gather at Phnom Penh�s Freedom Park and call for the release of union leader Rong Chhun. Chhun was arrested in late July and charged with incitement over remarks he made to a radio station about the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

Phnom Penh Municipal Hall had previously issued a statement prohibiting the planned gathering, claiming organisers would not be able to control the number of attendees and accusing them of �inciting� members of the public to protest. The Active Citizens for Justice announced on Saturday that they would go forward with their planned gathering between September 7 and September 15.

With the arrest of Venerable Koet Saray and Mean Prommony, a total of eight people have been arrested for organising or participating in peaceful demonstrations calling for the release of Rong Chhun. More than 142 civil society groups have called on the government to release Chhun and drop all charges against him.

Authorities on Sunday charged three youth environmental activists with incitement and ordered them to pre-trial detention over the trio�s peaceful activism calling attention to the government�s filling in of Phnom Penh�s Boeung Tamok lake.

The three environmental activists - Thun Ratha, a 28-year-old man, Long Kunthea, a 22-year-old woman, and Phuong Keorasmey, a 19-year-old woman � are members of the Mother Nature Cambodia movement and were charged on Sunday over their organising of a planned peaceful march from Wat Phnom to Prime Minister Hun Sen�s house by Kunthea to express her concerns regarding the filling and construction inside Boeung Tamok.

They were arrested on Friday, interviewed by the prosecutor and investigating judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court over the weekend and charged on Sunday with �incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest� under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code, which carries a prison sentence of between six months and two years as well as a fine of up to 4 million riel. Ratha was sent to pre-trial detention in Correctional Centre 1, and Kunthea and Keorasmey were sent to Correctional Centre 2.

In a separate case, authorities on Sunday also arrested two members of the Active Citizens for Justice youth movement, which had organised a gathering at Freedom Park next week to call for the release of imprisoned union leader Rong Chhun.

Venerable Koet Saray, an ordained Buddhist monk, and Mean Prommony, the vice-president of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, were arrested in Phnom Penh over their plans to gather at Phnom Penh�s Freedom Park and call for the release of union leader Rong Chhun. Chhun was arrested in late July and charged with incitement over remarks he made to a radio station about the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

Phnom Penh Municipal Hall had previously issued a statement prohibiting the planned gathering, claiming organisers would not be able to control the number of attendees and accusing them of �inciting� members of the public to protest. The Active Citizens for Justice announced on Saturday that they would go forward with their planned gathering between September 7 and September 15.

With the arrest of Venerable Koet Saray and Mean Prommony, a total of eight people have been arrested for organising or participating in peaceful demonstrations calling for the release of Rong Chhun. More than 142 civil society groups have called on the government to release Chhun and drop all charges against him.

A 49-year-old woman was rushed to hospital this morning after being hurled to the ground by district security guards while peacefully calling for the release of her imprisoned husband.

[Woman assaulted by Prampi Makara district security force] Play this video Woman assaulted by Prampi Makara district security force

Seng Chanthorn, the wife of former Kampong Thom provincial council member and Cambodian Independent Teachers� Association unionist Sun Thon, was blocked by Prampi Makara security guards from publicly demonstrating outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday morning alongside a group of wives and relatives of members of the forcibly dissolved opposition party. As a number of security guards grappled with the women, one guard violently threw Chanthorn to the road. She was taken to Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital for treatment and further tests.

Chanthorn�s husband was imprisoned in early June on charges of conspiracy, incitement to commit a felony and inciting military personnel to disobedience. Some of the charges relate to actions allegedly committed as far back as July 2018.

Since early June, family of the imprisoned former opposition members have been dragged, kicked and assaulted during the course of peaceful demonstrations calling for their release. 23 former members of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party remain behind bars.

Members of the environmental group Mother Nature spent Thursday trying to trace the whereabouts of three of its prominent activists, who were arrested by Phnom Penh police in the middle of producing the group�s latest campaign video.

Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesperson San Sokseyha confirmed Thursday afternoon that Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea and Phuong Keorasmey had been arrested and detained for questioning. Ratha faced questions over broadcasting without permission from his house, while Kunthea and Keorasmey were arrested for posting news about Boeng Tamok lake, the spokesperson said.

�Our Chbar Ampov police questioned them related to the post that can be seen on the Mother Nature Cambodia page,� he said. �They posted news about the filling up of the lake and so on and they broadcasted and planned to meet leaders at home.�

On Tuesday, Mother Nature�s Facebook page posted that Kunthea planned to march by herself from Wat Phnom to Hun Sen�s house next to Independence Monument from 11 a.m. on Thursday. She wanted to express to the premier her concerns over filling and construction in Tamok lake, one of the last substantial wetlands in Phnom Penh.

Mother Nature founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported in 2015 and has been consistently denied re-entry to Cambodia, told VOD he was coordinating with the activists from his home in Barcelona.

He said the group was still trying to piece together details of Kunthea and Keorasmey�s arrest.

The three activists had planned to keep the demonstration to one person in order to avoid causing disruptions to traffic and drawing crowds, either of which might have been considered a disturbance of public order, Gonzalez-Davidson said.

Kunthea, dressed in white, was to walk the route to Hun Sen�s central Phnom Penh estate on her own, with Keorasmey streaming from her phone for the group�s live social media show. Ratha would be broadcasting from a simple studio set up in his home, Gonzalez-Davidson said.

But by the end of the day, all three were in police custody.

Gonzalez-Davidson said he did not know how Kunthea and Keorasmey were arrested, but he had found out that the two women were being held for questioning at the Chbar Ampov district police station.

�You�re sending 20-year-old girls to jail for wanting to meet the prime minister � they�re not even protesting,� he said.

Ratha was arrested at his home in Pur Senchey district�s Choam Chao I commune, he said. Though he was unsure whether officials confiscated any equipment from Ratha, officials left a handwritten, thumb-printed note on the door, saying that the house was closed by authorities for broadcasting news without permission.

�I�ve never seen anything like this,� Gonzalez-Davidson said. �No journalist or activist has been arrested for saying they plan to post things on Facebook.�

The note taped against the house was signed by deputy municipal police chief Bun Soksekha, deputy chief of the municipal information department Chheang Buntha, Phnom Penh municipal court deputy prosecutor Kuch Kimlong and other officials.

Information Ministry spokesperson Meas Sophorn said the ministry had received information about the three arrests, but he declined to give any details, saying authorities were processing the case.

�The ministry has no additional comment on this work since the case is in the procedure of the authorities, and the ministry will continue to follow this case,� he said.

Authorities have taken strict measures against youth protesters in recent months, most recently arresting four activists who were prominent in demonstrations calling for the release of unionist Rong Chhun. Authorities have also thwarted a bicycle tour and a photo exhibition to raise awareness about the conservation of Koh Kong Krao island, as well as memorials and marches for murdered political analyst Kem Ley.

There were not many people left who were willing to voice their criticisms of the government, Gonzalez-Davidson said, but he felt that the arrests were stirring anger among the general public.

�The status quo is changing,� Gonzalez-Davidson said. �Cambodia is becoming more and more of a Stalinist [government], very similar to Laos and approaching North Korea territory in terms of jailing people for posting on Facebook. But that doesn�t mean we will stop talking about it.�

Pat Rasmey, the wife of Ratha, said she believed her spouse�s arrest was due to his social work, and she would make her voice heard too.

�He dares to speak straightforwardly on the current social issues,� she said. �If they do not release my husband, I will protest the next day.�

Authorities in Cambodia have arrested a second rapper on charges of “incitement” in days, a court official in the country’s Siem Reap province said Tuesday, after he released songs suggesting that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lack of leadership had led to economic decline.

Long Puthera, who penned the track “Wipe Your Tears and Continue Your Journey, Khmer Eyes,” was arrested “late last week” and jailed on charges of “incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest” under Article 495 of Cambodia’s Penal Code, Siem Reap Provincial Court spokesperson Chhuon Sopanha told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“The judge ordered him detained on charges of incitement,” he said. “The accused has the right to an attorney.”

The rapper had regularly posted songs on his YouTube page under the name Thxera-Kampuchea and had thousands of followers.

Long Puthera’s acquaintances told RFA that they had been unable to contact his family members since his arrest, as they live in a different province.

The young musician is also friends with fellow rapper Kea Sokun, known for his song “Khmer Land,” which touched a political third rail by criticizing the Cambodian government’s handling of its border dispute with Vietnam.

Kea Sokun was arrested Sept. 4 in Siem Reap province and also charged with incitement after authorities booked his wedding photography business for a pre-wedding photo shoot and took him into custody when he arrived, his brother Chheang Chhat told RFA last week.

Chan Chamroeun, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, told RFA Tuesday that his organization is investigating the two cases and working to provide lawyers to defend the pair of rappers.

He said that the two young men had simply sang songs reflective of current Cambodian social issues and had not breached any laws.

“The authorities should have allowed for their freedom of expression—this freedom is important because it helps the government understand the concerns of the public,” he said.

“The authorities should allow for constructive criticism so that the government can identify loopholes in the system and fix them.”

Wave of arrests

Last week, amid an ongoing wave of arrests of voices critical of Hun Sen’s leadership, Rhona Smith, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Cambodia, wrote in a Facebook post that “the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly are protected by international human rights norms and standards as well as by the Cambodian Constitution.”

She urged authorities to ensure that those arrested are promptly tried and that their due process rights be fully respected.

On Friday the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said it had documented the arrest of 24 human rights campaigners since popular labor leader Rong Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, was taken into custody July 31, including eight in September alone.

While 13 were released after pledging to refrain from further rights activities, 12 remain in detention—most of whom face charges of “incitement to commit felony,” including three environmental activists.

The wave of arrests come three years after opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) President Kem Sokha’s September 2017 arrest over an alleged plot to overthrow the government with the help of Washington. Cambodia’s Supreme Court banned his party in November that year for its supposed role in the scheme.

The move to dissolve the CNRP marked the beginning of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country’s July 2018 general election.

Protesters calling for the release of jailed unionist Rong Chhun were prevented by authorities from marching toward the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh on Monday, just days after Japan’s foreign minister met with top Cambodian officials in the capital.

Before the group of about 30 union members, relatives of Chhun and youth activists were stopped, the demonstrators had submitted a petition to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Phnom Penh seeking intervention in the case of Chhun.

The president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions was detained about three weeks ago on a charge of incitement to commit a felony over his comments about border markers between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Em Bunnarith, a unionist who worked alongside Chhun, said the group abandoned its attempt to deliver a petition at Japan’s embassy on Monday because they did not want additional trouble with authorities.

“This obstruction gives a bad image, and an image of the decline of respect for human rights, showing the international community that our Cambodia’s democracy really dropped below zero,” Bunnarith said.

Chhun was arrested late on July 31 and provisionally jailed the following day in relation to statements he made on the alleged loss of Cambodian territory to Vietnam, which officials have denied and called “fake news.” His arrest has triggered a spate of demonstrations, with youth activists arrested and injured during protests before last week’s rescheduled Khmer New Year holiday.

Chamkarmorn district deputy governor Keo Samnang, who led the district authorities’ effort to halt the protesters on Monday, said demonstrators were not banned from submitting a petition to the embassy, but authorities stopped the march because it disturbed public order.

“We wanted them to take tuk-tuks in order to avoid [disturbing] public order and [causing] traffic jams,” he said. “We requested them to take tuk-tuks only.”

Long Rim, a Phnom Penh schoolteacher who joined the march, said he hoped to see Chhun released, adding that he supported the unionist’s activism related to Vietnam border issues and his concern for workers and teachers.

“The government and some civil servants already said that we are a country with the rule of law,” Rim said. “[So] why did [authorities] come to arrest Rong Chhun at night like that? It is an immoral act that we cannot accept.”

The group’s petition said that Chhun’s arrest was unjust because he had been merely expressing concerns over the border, adding that he served as an internationally-recognized union leader.

“We all hope that his excellency and her excellency, and all democratic countries will intervene for the release of Rong Chhun immediately and without conditions,” the petition states.

Bunnarith, Chhun’s colleague, said similar petitions had been submitted to the embassies of the U.S., France and the E.U. The group also appealed in their petition to diplomatic representatives of Germany, the U.K. and Thailand, as well as the International Labor Organization.

In 2018, Japan was among a few countries that declined to send election monitors to Cambodia after the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition CNRP the year prior, a move that some nations called democratic backsliding.

Japan continues to support Cambodia with new health and social development aid, and has not taken measures to sanction the government or Prime Minister Hun Sen’s close associates as the E.U. and U.S. have.

President of the outlawed CNRP Kem Sokha met with Japanese Ambassador Masahiro Mikami in May, along with a range of other nations’ ambassadors in recent months.

During his first visit to Cambodia on Friday and Saturday, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu praised cooperation between the two countries in the fields of politics, health care, the economy, security and culture in a post on the Japanese Embassy’s Facebook page.

He did not directly address the arrests of Chhun or other activists amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but said that Japan would continue to support Cambodia’s democratic development, adding that youth were a pillar to this process.

In a statement on Thursday, Human Rights Watch urged Motegi to raise the issue of rights abuses while visiting Cambodia, and “express grave concerns about harassment, intimidation, physical attacks, and arbitrary arrests against the country’s union leaders, land rights activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and the political opposition.”

Before Motegi’s arrival, Justice Ministry spokesperson Chin Malin welcomed the foreign minister in a Facebook post, saying that the Japanese government focused on development and respected other countries’ sovereignty.

“So, any group trying to ask Japan to put pressure and interfere in the internal affairs of Cambodia, a sovereign state, will inevitably suffer embarrassing failures,” Malin said.

The Appeal Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court decision to arrest and jail unionist Rong Chhun over his claims that Cambodia had ceded land to Vietnam, denying him release on bail as his supporters continued to rally outside the court.

Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions and a representative of the border-focused advocacy group Cambodia Watchdog Council, was arrested on the evening of July 31, then charged with incitement to commit a felony and detained the next day over his statements about border markers between Tbong Khmum province and Vietnam.

Speaking to reporters after the closed-door hearing, defense lawyer Chuong Choungy said Appeal Court Judge Khun Leang Meng rejected Chhun’s bail request and petition against his provisional detention sentence.

Choungy said the judge claimed the imprisonment was to prevent Chhun from committing further offenses and to ensure the accused followed court procedures, which Choungy called a violation of his client’s freedoms.

The attorney also questioned the legality of Chhun’s nighttime arrest.

“[We] lawyers think that authorities violated the law, so that’s why [we] appealed this imprisonment,” he told reporters.

Choungy said his client had posted on social media last month after visiting border markers 114 and 119 in Tbong Khmum, saying that Chhun wanted to know the truth about the area and urge the government to prevent Vietnam from encroaching on Cambodian territory at the border — long an incendiary political issue.

“Authorities based [the charge] on a post on social media and accused him, and he claimed that what he did is for the benefit of society and for [national] territory,” he said. “Rong Chhun said he did not incite to cause chaos.”

But officials have denied Chhun’s claims that Cambodians have lost land at the border to Vietnam, and called his statements “fake news.”

During the hearing, about 50 people, including Chhun’s relatives and youth activists, gathered outside the court, holding pictures of Chhun and other detained activists to demand their release.

Chhun’s arrest has sparked several protests near the Phnom Penh Municipal Court this month, which culminated in the arrests of youth activists, including Hun Vannak and Chhoeun Daravy, as well as Khmer Win Party president Suong Sophorn after he too commented on border issues.

Long Rim, a teacher who joined Wednesday’s protests, echoed statements from Chhun’s lawyer, saying he felt the union leader’s comments were intended to improve society and his imprisonment was unjust.

“I do not think that what he did was a mistake [worth] being charged, being punished and being persecuted,” Rim said. “So I cannot be silent. I have to participate. I have to demand [the court] to drop all charges and let him be free.”

During a speech earlier this month, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned that anyone who continued to criticize the government’s actions at the Vietnam border, and claimed demarcation was resulting in Cambodia losing land to its neighbor, would be arrested.

On Tuesday, the premier tasked the government’s Joint Border Committee to visit Cambodians in Tbong Khmum who claimed to have lost their land to Vietnam due to border demarcation, and potentially hold a seminar to explain border issues to anyone concerned.

Six youth activists have been rounded up and arrested hours after rallying for detained unionist Rong Chhun, including a young woman dragged by her hair into a vehicle from outside a cafe.

So Metta, an activist who requested to use a pseudonym, told VOD that a group of about 10 officers � some of whom were plain-clothed and some in Prampi Makara district guard uniforms � grabbed one of the six, Chhoeun Daravy, around 4 p.m. on Thursday outside an Amazon coffee shop near the court.

Daravy had been sitting with about 10 people when the plain-clothed officers dragged her by the hair from behind and pushed her into a black Lexus SUV waiting outside, Metta said. The officers beat Daravy as they put her in the car, she said.

�They grabbed her hair and beat her up,� said Metta. �The authorities beat � people without mercy.�

Reached again Thursday evening, Metta said another of those arrested, Hun Vannak, had returned to the rented house where some of the activists were staying after Daravy had been arrested. Vannak recorded a live Facebook video while police surrounded the house, she said.

Metta said five of the six activists arrested were members of Khmer Thavrak, which translates to �Khmer Strong,� a youth group that has been central to many of the recent protests against the detention of Chhun, as well as environmental and social causes.

Municipal police chief Sar Thet said the six youth activists arrested on Thursday included three men and three women, five of whom were arrested at a rented house in Pur Senchey district.

�One was arrested based on the court�s order while others were based on red-handed crimes because they went and caused disorder and insecurity,� Thet said, adding that the activists remained in municipal police custody.

He earlier said that Daravy had been arrested for incitement to disturb social security based on a court-ordered arrest warrant, and officers were searching her house for evidence.

She was currently in the hands of municipal police and would be sent to the court for prosecution, he added. The incitement charge carries a potential jail sentence of up to two years.

Naly Pilorge, a spokesperson for human rights group Licadho, confirmed protesters Chhoeun Daravy, Hun Vannak and Heang Hai were among those arrested.

The arrests came after authorities and protesters again clashed outside the municipal court as Chhun, the union leader, was questioned inside over charges of incitement.

About 50 protesters, including members of Chhun�s family, had gathered in the morning outside City Mall, near the court, holding banners and wearing T-shirts with Chhun�s image.

At around 9:30 a.m., about 50 officers, including Prampi Makara district guards, advanced on the protesters to move them away from the corner. For about 10 minutes the guards were seen beating and kicking protesters who refused to leave.

Chea Kunthin, one of the protesters who said she was injured during a rally last week, was treated by a doctor after the demonstration at the office of Licadho, which was monitoring the protest, Pilorge said.

Pilorge declined to describe Kunthin�s injury, citing medical confidentiality rules, but said the woman left Licadho�s office on Thursday afternoon. Later, Pilorge said the organization could not reach Kunthin, but could not confirm if she was among those arrested.

Chhun, a prominent unionist and former head of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, was arrested two weeks ago in relation to statements he made on U.S.-run Radio Free Asia that Cambodia was ceding hundreds of hectares to Vietnam as part of border demarcations � a topic that has long been a lightning rod for ethnically charged opposition fervor. Government officials said Chhun�s claim was false, and the courts charged him with incitement to commit a felony.

His arrest sparked ongoing protests and criticism from rights groups. In response, City Hall on August 3 announced a ban on gatherings outside the court for reasons related to public order, traffic and Covid-19.

Kunthin, who is a member of Khmer Thavrak, said earlier on Thursday that she had suffered bruises in the clash.

�We didn�t do anything against the law,� Kunthin said. �Why do they use violence against us again and again? It�s shameful that the authorities don�t love the people, and use violence against them.�

Another protester, Yin Moliny, said the demonstration had been peaceful.

�I had no intention to clash with the security guards � but they came and pushed us. So what can I do as an innocent person? We did not fight back. Where is the law?� Moliny said. �They came here to mistreat people, not to protect people. They get a salary from the people and they mistreat the people. It�s unacceptable.�

Prampi Makara district governor Lim Sophea could not be reached for comment.

Four opposition activists were also arrested last week after participating in protests calling for Chhun�s release.

Sam Sokong, Chhun�s lawyer, said the court had questioned the unionist on Thursday morning about why he had been investigating the border issue. Chhun had told the court that he had merely interviewed witnesses, and he did not intend to cause trouble in society, Sokong said.

�Patriotic� Protest

A day earlier on Wednesday, about 20 protesters, including members of Khmer Thavrak, briefly marched in Phnom Penh holding Cambodian flags and wearing T-shirts proclaiming �I Love the Nation.�

They started at Boeung Keng Kang district�s Olympic market under the watch of about 100 security officers. They were stopped around 11 a.m. between the market and Wat Moha Montrei, less than 500 meters away, as guards shouted at the protesters, blocked their path and took their flags.

A protester, Tha Lavy, said the march was about supporting �patriotic heroes� arrested trying to protect the national border.

�When they arrested those who demonstrated patriotism in protecting the national border, our people did not concern themselves with the national problem, and let powerful people use their power to arrest our patriotic heroes,� Lavy said. �We cannot accept it, and want to spread a message for people to love our nation.�

Vannak, another of those arrested on Thursday and also a member of Khmer Thavrak, said on Wednesday that the group was turning its protests about Chhun�s release into a campaign for Cambodians to care more about their country.

�Most people are not very patriotic yet compared to other countries,� Vannak said. �So we have changed our plan from [only] demanding the release of Mr. Rong Chhun into a campaign to encourage Cambodians to love their nation more, think of common interests, think of heroes who sacrificed their lives, who sacrificed their time for our common interests.�

City Hall spokesman Met Measpheakdey told VOD on Wednesday that authorities had blocked the march because the protesters had not sought permission beforehand.

�They gathered and marched and did things that were not in accordance with legal principles that require them to do better than this,� he said.

Authorities and protesters clashed outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday as a group of about 20 demonstrators � at least two of whom were injured � called for the release of jailed union leader Rong Chhun.

Security guards stopped a group of protesters from approaching the court, where officers blocked the sidewalk on the other side of the street to prevent protests following a judge�s order on Saturday to detain Chhun on incitement charges in Phnom Penh�s Prey Sar prison.

As the protesters marched away from the court along Sihanouk Boulevard, a group of about 10 uniformed security guards forcefully tried to surround them and stop their movement, a VOD reporter observed. Guards were seen pushing, dragging and kicking protesters, with some demonstrators resisting, and two individuals said they received minor injuries.

University student Chea Kunthin, 18, said she was injured on her arm and leg when she was kicked by guards, and urged the international community to respond.

�[Security guards] get salaries from the people, [so they need] to serve the people, but they instead used their authority to beat people and beat young girls,� she said. �I have just become an adult but got three or four kicks [for protesting].�

So Metta, a protester from youth group Khmer Thavrak, said she was also kicked and stomped on by guards, and was disappointed that authorities responded with such force against a peaceful protest for Chhun�s release.

�We held a peaceful [march] and we did not cause any violence, but authorities tried to push and abuse us women,� said the 31-year-old coffee seller. �They dragged, kicked, and they seriously violated our rights. I would like to condemn the authorities. I cannot accept this.�

Chhun was arrested on Friday night last week on incitement charges in relation to comments he made on the alleged loss of Cambodian territory to Vietnam, which officials have denied and called �fake news.� Since his detention, protesters have tried to gather in front of the courthouse, though both City Hall and the Justice Ministry issued statements on Monday calling unpermitted gatherings and demonstrations illegal.

Prampi Makara district governor Lim Sophea could not be reached on Wednesday while City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey declined to comment, saying he was in a meeting.

Ny Sokha, from human rights group Adhoc, said authorities were violating protesters� constitutionally-guaranteed rights by using violence against a crowd that was peacefully voicing dissent.

�Meeting, gathering and holding a peaceful demonstration are all freedoms that are stated in the law,� he said. �If people using their rights were restricted and abused, we think that it is a kind of serious human rights violation for a democratic country like our Cambodia.�

A group of police officers showed up at the home of detained Cambodian union leader Rong Chhun on Tuesday demanding to speak with members of his family, according to his nephew, who accused authorities of harassment in retaliation for his uncle�s criticism of the government.

Rong Chhun was officially charged with �incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest� under Article 495 of Cambodia�s Penal Code and jailed at Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh Saturday, a day after his arrest for claiming the government has allowed Vietnam to encroach on farmland along their shared border.

The arrest and formal charging of the outspoken president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) and former member of the country�s National Election Committee (NEC) prompted protests over the weekend and again on Monday in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, where he faces two years in prison if convicted.

On Tuesday, Rong Chhun�s nephew, Rong Vichea, told RFA�s Khmer Service that a group of some 10 police officers arrived at the family home in the capital and insisted that they question the union leader�s relatives.

�They also asked for the identity of anyone who had come in or out of our house,� he said, adding that while police did not verbally threaten them, �their appearance made us feel intimidated.�

�Please, NGOs, help facilitate uncle Rong Chhun�s release and get him justice.�

Rong Vichea said he had traveled to Prey Sar Prison to visit Rong Chhun, who asked to convey his gratitude to his supporters.

�He said, �don�t be intimidated, stay strong, and continue to fight for social justice,�� Rong Vichea said.

On July 20, Rong Chhun�a member of the Cambodia Watchdog Council (CWC) umbrella NGO of unions representing teachers, workers, farmers, and students�had visited Trapeang Phlong commune, in Tbong Khmum province�s Ponhea Kraek district, where Cambodians claimed recently placed border posts had caused them to lose land to neighboring Vietnam.

The following day, he issued a statement on behalf of the CWC in which he cited irregularities with the placement of border posts 114 to 119 that resulted in the loss of �hundreds of hectares� (one hectare = 2.5 acres) of ancestral land belonging to area farmers.

On Friday, Cambodia�s official Cambodia Border Committee rejected Rong Chhun�s claims that any farmers had lost land, saying his organization had disseminated �fake news� based on �groundless accusations.�

The CWC says that farmers are losing land because Cambodia is demarcating the border based on a 1985 treaty from Vietnam�s 1979-89 occupation of the country following its ouster of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Unresolved border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam, former French colonies from the 1860s to 1954, have sparked incidents in the past, with the construction by Vietnam of military posts in contested areas quickly challenged by Cambodian authorities in Phnom Penh.

A joint communique signed by Cambodia and Vietnam in 1995 stipulates that neither side can make any changes to border markers or allow cross-border cultivation or settlement pending the resolution of outstanding border issues.

Threat to Hun Sen

Rong Chhun has been arrested twice before�once in October 2005 over comments he made about a border agreement with Vietnam, which led to a three-month stint in prison, and again in January 2014 while calling for the release of demonstrators detained during protests over the 2013 national election.

He last week had joined a group of more than 200 garment workers who gathered to submit a petition outside the home of Prime Minister Hun Sen to ask for his help following their factory�s closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts say Rong Chhun posed a threat to Hun Sen because of his recent activities, which included writing to the prime minister last month calling on the government to proactively address issues that the European Union has said prompted it to end a preferential trade scheme with Cambodia.

The EU in mid-February announced plans to suspend tariff-free access to its market under the �Everything But Arms� (EBA) scheme for around one-fifth of Cambodia�s exports, citing rollbacks on democracy and human rights�a move that would reinstate tariffs on garments and footwear beginning Aug. 12, unless it is overturned by the bloc�s governments or its parliament.

Hun Sen has said that EU demands to maintain the EBA are unreasonable and an encroachment on Cambodia�s internal affairs.

Rong Chhun has also drawn praise for giving up a position of power with the NEC to return to leading the CCU after the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

The move to dissolve the CNRP was part of a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the political opposition, NGOs, and the independent media that paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People�s Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country�s July 2018 general election.

Fresh calls for release

Reports of police intimidation against Rong Chhun�s family came as observers continued to excoriate Cambodia�s government over the union leader�s arrest and demand his release.

His case also received attention from Washington which, in a statement delivered to RFA by the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, said it is �closely following� the situation.

�We have consistently raised concerns with the Cambodian government about taking meaningful steps to reopen the political and civic space,� said Chad Roedemeier, the embassy�s spokesperson.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a strongly worded statement demanding that authorities immediately drop charges and release Rong Chun.

Phil Robertson, HRW�s deputy Asia director, said the union leader�s charges appear to be linked to his recent advocacy for the land rights of villagers living near the border with Vietnam, as well as other activities.

�The arrest of Rong Chhun is the latest example of unrelenting government repression against activists trying to protect ordinary Cambodians� basic rights,� he said.

�The European Union should add this outrage to the long list of rights abuses that need to be resolved in negotiations over �Everything But Arms� trade preferences.�

HRW noted that in recent years, Cambodia�s government has increased its harassment of independent union leaders and labor advocates, including through the 2016 Trade Union Law that the group said has severely curtailed the ability of unions to register, bargain collectively, and represent workers.

�Prime Minister Hun Sen should stop muzzling labor unionists, human rights defenders, and other critics of government policies,� Robertson said.

�Foreign governments should publicly raise the plight of Rong Chhun and jointly appeal to the Cambodian government to put an end to this onslaught on human rights.�

�A blatant attack�

The growing chorus of voices calling for Rong Chhun�s release was also joined Tuesday by the Global Union Federations, a consortium of global labor organizations which noted in a statement that the former president of the Cambodian Teachers� Association �has always been at the forefront of struggles for the protection of workers� rights.�

The groups called Rong Chhun�s arrest amid his trade union activities and criticisms of Cambodia�s handling of the coronavirus pandemic �a blatant attack by the government� on freedoms of expression and association.

They urged the government to follow recommendations by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, including ending harassment of civil society organizations, and allowing peaceful demonstrations and stopping excessive use of force by police monitoring such gatherings.

They also called for several recently passed laws that restrict political parties, nongovernmental organizations, and trade unions to be brought into line with international standards.

Authorities in Cambodia arrested outspoken union chief Rong Chhun from his home in Phnom Penh on Friday in connection with a statement he made claiming that the country had ceded land to Vietnam along their shared border, according to officials.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions and a member of the Cambodia Watchdog Council, was taken into custody on charges of �incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest� under Article 495 of Cambodia�s Penal Code, Ministry of Justice spokesman Chhin Malin told RFA�s Khmer Service, confirming an earlier report by government-aligned Fresh News.

Fresh News had quoted Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesperson Kuch Kimlong as saying Rong Chhun had been arrested �for allegedly distorting news on [the] border issue,� adding that he had committed a crime �in flagrante delicto,� or was caught in the act.

On July 20, Rong Chhun had visited Trapeang Phlong commune, in Tbong Khmum province�s Ponhea Kraek district, where Cambodians claimed recently placed border posts had caused them to lose land to neighboring Vietnam.

The following day, he issued a statement on behalf of the Cambodia Watchdog Council in which he cited irregularities with the placement of border posts 114 to 119 that resulted in the loss of �hundreds of hectares� (one hectare = 2.5 acres) of ancestral land belonging to area farmers.

However, on Friday, Cambodia�s official Cambodia Border Committee rejected Rong Chhun�s claims, saying his organization had disseminated �fake news� based on �groundless accusations.�

�Rong Chhun colluded with bad actors who claimed their ancestral land was taken by Vietnamese soldiers who ousted them from their farms,� the committee said in the statement.

Kuy Pisey, vice president of the Cambodia Border Committee, told RFA following the release of the statement that the current border demarcation is �based on documentation� and that no farmers have lost land.

She said the government controls around 60 hectares (150 acres) in Ponhea Kraek district that area farmers never controlled and accused the Cambodia Watchdog Council of trying to �confuse people with fake news.�

�What the government has done is not a joke�we are committed to protecting our territory,� she said.

Rong Chhun, who is also the former president of Cambodia�s Teachers� Association and a former member of the country�s National Election Committee, stood by his July 21 statement in an interview with RFA on Friday.

�I am only a union member�I don�t need to be popular,� he said, adding that the Cambodia Border Committee�s accusations �do not reflect my statement.�

�It is the truth, based on the villagers who said they lost around 500 meters (1,640 feet) of their land to the border � The border committee must be brave enough to accept the truth.�

Not long afterwards, police took Rong Chhun into custody for questioning. He is currently being held at an undisclosed location within Phnom Penh, according to family members.

Whereabouts unknown

Soeung Sengkaruna, a spokesman for local rights group Adhoc, told RFA that he visited the Phnom Penh Municipal Police headquarters, but learned little of Rong Chhun�s situation.

�We want to find out his condition�is he safe and healthy,� he said, adding that it was too early for him to comment on the charges facing Rong Chhun.

Um Sam An, a former lawmaker from the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) who once served a prison term for criticizing the country�s handling of the border issue, told RFA that �the government is shutting up nationalists.�

He claimed that farmers are losing land because Cambodia is demarcating the border based on a treaty from 1985, when Vietnam occupied the country following its ouster of the Khmer Rouge regime six years earlier.

�What Rong Chhun was trying to do was to protect villagers from losing their land,� he said.

�I praise Rong Chhun�s conscience and condemn the government for his arrest.�

Border dispute

Rong Chhun�s arrest follows the discovery by Cambodian authorities of 31 military shelters, housing armed Vietnamese soldiers, in Kandal province�s Koh Thom and Leuk Daek districts, which prompted Cambodia�s embassy in Hanoi to issue a May 13 diplomatic d�marche, demanding that the structures be taken down.

By the end of May, only three had been removed, according to Cambodia�s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Authorities in Vietnam�s An Giang province had claimed troops were deployed to guard the area against illegal entrants who could potentially cause an outbreak of the coronavirus, but border activists, including Rong Chhun, said the move amounted to an invasion of Cambodian territory.

Unresolved border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam, former French colonies from the 1860s to 1954, have sparked incidents in the past, with the construction by Vietnam of military posts in contested areas quickly challenged by Cambodian authorities in Phnom Penh.

In June 2015, activists from the CNRP were attacked by Vietnamese villagers when they went to inspect an area in Svay Rieng province where they said a road built by authorities in Vietnam�s Long An province had encroached into Cambodian territory.

A joint communique signed by Cambodia and Vietnam in 1995 stipulates that neither side can make any changes to border markers or allow cross-border cultivation or settlement pending the resolution of outstanding border issues.

Police and security guards blocked about 100 workers who attempted to march to Prime Minister Hun Sen�s house on July 23 to submit a petition seeking a resolution after their factory shut down without providing benefit payments.

Some 50 police officers and Tuol Kork district security guards stopped the workers on Kampuchea Krom Boulevard in Phsar Depot 1 commune while they were on their way to the prime minister�s house after departing from the Labor Ministry, where they had first submitted their petition.

The workers decided to proceed to Hun Sen�s house as the government had failed to find a solution to their problems after employees had submitted a complaint with the Labor Ministry earlier this month. The Violet Apparel workers are asking that the ministry come to an agreement with the factory owner that would guarantee them seniority indemnity and compensation pay in the wake of the factory�s suspension and subsequent closure due to economic strain in the wake of Covid-19.

The workers previously protested at the factory in Phnom Penh in early July, when the owners suddenly announced that the company would close permanently, and would not pay employees full benefits. More than 1,000 workers have been affected by the closure.

�The Labor Ministry just received the complaint and they did not resolve our problems,� said Kin Chreb, a 32-year-old employee of the factory who participated in the march.

�We peacefully walked toward uncle�s [Hun Sen�s] house but they [police] do not allow us to walk,� she said.

�We demand that the factory owner pay our compensation and other benefits after closing the factory,� Chreb said, adding that workers are owed about $1,000 each, depending on how long they had worked at Violet Apparel.

�As of now, we have not received anything,� she said.

Another worker, Chhor Lin, 34, said she was displeased that authorities and police officials had blocked the group from seeking a resolution from the prime minister.

�Yes, we are angry [that police blocked the march] because what we were doing is in accordance with the law,� she said.

�We had no choice but to march to seek help from Samdech Hun Sen because the Labour Ministry has not resolved the problem for us,� Lin said.

She added that because the factory had abruptly shut down without warning, providing notice pay was essential.

�All workers have not yet received money since the factory closed,� she said. �For me, I am owed about $2,000.�

After police blocked the march, the demonstrators returned to the Labor Ministry where they later met with officials who had promised to find a solution for them.

Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said via Telegram that the ministry was working on the case.

�The ministry will continue to resolve this according to the law,� he said, declining to explain further.

Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), said she had begged the Labor Ministry and government leaders to reach a settlement for workers at Violet Apparel factory.

She said that in May, the factory owner had promised to pay workers their last salary and all bonus pay including seniority indemnity payment, notice payment, and compensation. But on July 1, they rescinded their offer to cover notice payments and compensation, in line with a recent Labor Ministry directive permitting factory owners to forgo bonuses that they can�t afford to cover.

�The law clearly states that if the factory closure is unreasonable, workers are owed all benefits such as last salary, seniority, indemnity, notice payments, and compensation,� Sophorn said.

�In this circumstance, the workers really need money to support their daily lives,� she said.

Earlier this month, the Labor Ministry sent CATU President Sophorn a warning letter for engaging in activities that violate the Law on Trade Unions, accusing her of inciting garment workers to pressure and threaten their employers. The ministry requested that she stop organizing for workers at Violet Apparel (Cambodia) Co., Ltd factory immediately, saying she had broken the law by leading workers in a protest.

According to a GMAC statement from June, about 400 factories have suspended operations and more than 150,000 workers have lost their jobs due to the global Covid-19 outbreak.

Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) have again released evidence against the �human rights group� LICADHO, this time finding �misleading and biased methodology� in their latest anti-MFI briefing paper.

Khmer Times has also found faked and misleading donations published on their official website as questions are now raised about LICADHO�s true status as a civil society organisation.

The most recent briefing paper in question was released on June 30 and entitled: �Worked to Debt: Over-Indebtedness in Cambodia�s Garment Sector.�

It was co-authored by the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL) and Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO).

The group concluded that, based on the hardship of the 162 garment workers surveyed, without immediate debt relief, many of the employees will resort to selling their land or their homes, eating less food or taking out even more loans to repay their debts.

However, after a detailed study of the paper, the CMA found that the survey methodology was lacking in scientific terms, biased and lacked understanding of microfinance and that there was not enough information to be verified.

As mentioned, the survey only collected information from 162 people from three of the hundreds of thousands of factories and hundreds of thousands of workers, it stated.

Other interviewees were also recruited through �union leaders in each factory,� not randomly, which is not a reliable method because of their possible bias.

In addition, they said, the data presented in this report is inconsistent with the details of the Credit Bureau of Cambodia and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). The report also does not disclose the size of loans, sources of income other than factory salaries, the data of which is necessary to assess the actual impact.

The findings come only two weeks after Khmer Times reported that LICADHO had also misled the plight of cross border migrants in a video released in early May this year entitled �Driven Out: One Village�s Experience with MFIs and Cross-Border Migration�.

As blatant evidence showed, two interviewees, among the four featured in the four-minute video, had their financial situations seriously misled or possibly faked. They had also been staged to look more destitute than they were.

Khmer Times has also been investigating LICADHO�s claimed financial donors, because it lists several well-known and respected organisation as �gold donors� (USD$5,000 or more) such as the World Food Programme (WFP) on their official website signed by its president Kek Galabru.

However, when contacted to verify those listed, the WFP said, �We have no relationship with LICADHO. �Our pipeline officer who has been with the WFP for more than 20 years also confirmed we have never provided any contribution to LICADHO,� it added.

The UK and Australian embassy�s in Cambodia said that their donations had been given in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The US embassy, which provided funding through USAID, said, �The US embassy has a long history of support for Cambodian civil society groups, including LICADHO.�

However, it did not reply to direct questions asking whether the embassy fully supported the validity of LICADHO�s research nor give exact timings or amounts of donations.

German and European Union offices acknowledged Khmer Times� request for LICADHO donation claims but did not provide any response.

There are now questions as to the real political agenda of LICADHO and its status as a civil society organisation because its briefing papers are increasingly now being quoted as factual evidence by those with an established anti-government agenda.

Ex-President of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy has been quoting LICADHO in various international media outlets as evidence that the government needs to overhaul the industry.

He wrote, �Research published jointly by LICADHO and local trade unions in June shows the realities of microfinance during COVID-19. Without immediate debt relief, thousands of Cambodian workers will have to sell their land or their homes, or eat less to repay their debts�.

He added foreign financial institutions that �invest� in Cambodian microfinance including, French bank BRED, Triodos of the Netherlands, and Sumitomo Mitsui of Japan, all of which have stakes in ACLEDA Bank are a part of the problem too.

Human Rights Watch also quoted LICADHO this week when it said, the Cambodian government and the NBC should urgently suspend debt collection and interest accruals for micro-loan borrowers who are no longer able to meet their debt payments because of COVID-19.

The micro-loan providers are likewise failing in their human rights responsibilities to borrowers, they added.

That said, various government bodies have already acknowledged � that like any financial industry around the world � Cambodia�s microfinance industry can make improvements in regulation and policy.

They outlined the need for lenders to assist struggling borrowers at all times and especially as the COVID-19 pandemic hits the global economy.

The NBC understood this when it enforced, against industry requests, regulations of an 18 percent per annum interest ceiling in 2017. This decision was based upon long-term and widespread discussions and in consultation with verified independent research.

The Association of Banks in Cambodia in April expressed its full support to implement the NBC�s �Circular on Loan Restructuring� to maintain financial stability and relieve the burden of borrowers whose main sources of income are affected by the pandemic.

Khmer Times has and will continue to report fairly on any shortcomings of the microfinance industry as well as the shortcomings of organisations such as LICADHO, in the hope to truly understand and better assist the enterprises.

For reasons only known to the Director of LICADHO Naly Pilorge � who has written extensively for international publications on the importance of transparency and openness in Cambodia � LICADHO refuses to enter into any dialogue with this publication.

Khmer Times has even offered to organise an open policy discussion between Cambodia Microfinance Association, LICADHO and any relevant organisations to discuss any recommendations or concerns with the industry, but Pilorge has again chosen not to comment.

This can be seen to be to the detriment of those she purports to stand up for.

One forestry activist was beaten and another died after he was injured in a motorbike crash while both had been investigating illegal timber transportation in two separate incidents in which the activists had attempted to confront those they accused of forestry crimes.

Environmental activist Heng Sros said on Friday that Sen Sothea, a forestry activist in Stung Treng province, died after the two men crashed their motorbike Thursday evening while investigating a company they believed to be behind forest clearing in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.

Sros said that he and Sen Sothea, 46, had traveled to Boeng Char commune in Kratie province�s Sambor district to investigate timber transporting near the Think Biotech concession, which also stretches into Stung Treng province on the eastern border of the Prey Lang sanctuary.

Sros said he and Sen Sothea were threatened by guards from Think Biotech and they decided to retreat.

�We started taking photos for about half an hour and suddenly, the head of the company�s security guards came and threatened us to leave from that area and go to another place,� Sros said. �They did not allow us to get close to the company and they did not allow us to be in the path that timber was being transported.�

�They threatened that if we did not leave, they would bring more security guards and round us up and mistreat us by all means. So, we decided to drive the motorbike to escape from them and find a safe place,� Sros said.

As they were leaving the area on the same motorbike, Sros said the pair hit a hole in the road causing them to crash. Sen Sothea, who was driving, was seriously injured. He died later on Thursday while he was transported to the Sambor District Referral Hospital. Sros said the two had drank a small amount of locally made wine before they were confronted by guards. Sros said Sen Sothea was survived by his wife and two children in Stung Treng province.

Lu Chu Chang, director of Think Biotech and its sister company Angkor Plywood, said he learned of the incident on Friday morning. He said he had attempted to contact commune authorities to find out what happened, but had not received information from them.

Forest monitoring group Prey Lang Community Network said in a statement that Sen Sothea had been a participant and core group member since 2005 and had regularly investigated and reported illegal forest encroachment and other forestry crimes.

Think Biotech and Angkor Plywood have been frequently accused of forest clearing and road building within the 430,000-hectare Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary, which spans Kratie, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear and Kampong Thom provinces, lost at least 7,500 hectares of forest cover last year, according to satellite data.

Soeng Senkaruna, spokesperson for human rights group Adhoc, urged authorities to investigate the case to determine if there was a threat made by the company�s guards against the two activists.

�Even though he died related to a motorbike accident, it is related to the [alleged] threat. This threat made him leave the place where they were investigating forestry crimes in that area,� Senkaruna said. �Whether there is a threat or not, authorities should clarify it and if there is a threat against them, [authorities] should take action against those who threatened them.�

Bun Chhoeun, Sambor district�s police chief, told VOD that he assigned local officers to investigate the allegation.

�Just wait for the commune police administration to investigate and if we find it is true, I will get approval from my superiors and might take action,� Chhoeun said.

In a separate case, Chhorn Phalla, a forestry activist in his early 40s from Lumphat district�s Seda commune, said on Thursday that Ratanakiri officials had consistently ignored his complaints about forestry crimes, and he was beaten by villagers last week over his accusations.

During a press conference organized by Adhoc in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Phalla said he had filed eight complaints in about four years to the Ratanakiri Provincial Court, accusing provincial officials and other residents of condoning and benefiting from forestry crimes.

At a public forum in Seda commune on July 8, the activist told attendees that authorities were ignoring his legal complaints. Then, Phalla was beaten until he lost consciousness by individuals who he said he had filed complaints against.

After the alleged assault, the activist said he asked Lumphat district governor Nou The for help, but The told him to stop filing complaints against provincial authorities.

�District governor Nou The, he threatened me. He said that if I still protest over forestry crimes, he will arrest and imprison me,� Phalla said.

When contacted by VOD on Thursday, The said he would not comment on the case over the phone.

�I don�t have a habit of talking through the phone,� he said. �As a request, please gather four, 10 or 20 journalists to visit Seda commune to hold a press conference with people. Hold a press conference like Phalla and come to hear the real words from people that tell the truth.�

Ratanakiri Provincial Court spokesperson Keo Pisoth could not be reached for comment.

Phalla also appealed to national authorities to stop forestry crimes throughout the province and said he would submit a report about the attack to officials once he recovered from his injuries.

�I would like Samdech [Prime Minister Hun Sen] to help find justice for us,� Phalla told reporters on Thursday. �[I invite] all ministries to visit and inspect directly at the site, and if Samdech has heard [my complaint], I can hand over documents directly to Samdech because I am a victim. I am a protector [of forests] with him.�

At the press conference, Adhoc�s human rights officer Ny Sokha said it is a crime for public officials to threaten citizens who make complaints, and he worried the governor�s actions could prevent individuals from trying to protect Cambodia�s natural resources.

According to the Criminal Code, any intimidation or threat that is meant to persuade someone not to file a complaint is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 6 million riel ($1,500), while an �effective� threat is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 10 million riel ($2,500).

�If there is no action, I think that from now on, those human rights protectors, forestry protectors, state property protectors, natural resource protectors might no longer dare to act because when they come out, they are abused and authorities do not find justice for them,� Sokha said. �This has a bad influence [on activism]. So, I think the government might not ignore [this case].�

Sokha said Phalla and seven other activists from Ratanakiri were staying outside their village, Samut Krom, for fear of possible repercussions.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan said he was not familiar with Phalla�s case, but he encouraged the activist to contact Environment Minister Say Samal.

�[Samal] is very welcoming of help to protect the forests,� Siphan said. �The government as well as the Environment Ministry are always welcoming of such things.�

Ministry spokesperson Neth Pheaktra did not respond to requests for comment.

Youth activists and monks were prevented from commemorating the 4th anniversary of the killing of political commentator Kem Ley on Wednesday at the Caltex gas station in Phnom Penh, where the popular figure was shot.

Chamkarmon District Administration on Tuesday banned any public memorial services in remembrance of Kem Ley, who was shot by Oeut Ang on July 10, 2016, drinking his morning coffee at a Caltex gas station in Phnom Penh.

Youth activists, monks and Kem Ley�s supporters said they would continue with their plans to remember the political commentator, which is expected to last four days, till July 10.

Around 50 mixed security forces tried to prevent Kem Ley�s supporters from conducting a small wreath laying ceremony, and instead slowly pushed them across the street to Monivong Boulevard. The activists and monks were then forced to pray on the street, with dozens of security personnel watching over them.

Security personnel also detained a 34-year-old man named Khan Chanthorn and who was wearing a t-shirt with Kem Ley�s image. He was questioned at Boeung Trabek commune police station before being released later, with Police Chief Hong Chanthen calling it an �invitation� to speak.

�So, he wore a [Kem Ley] t-shirt, we called him to be questioned, and then we ordered him to return. There was nothing,� Hong Chanthen said.

Last year, Kung Raiya, a local activist, was arrested a day before a similar commemoration for Kem Ley for selling t-shirts with the commentator�s picture and popular quotes. He was convicted in May for incitement but had already fled the country.

Khan Chanthorn said multiple police officials questioned him about his reason for attending the service and who paid for his expenses. He said he had known Kem Ley for five years, before the latter�s murder.

�They asked me �how much did you get paid to come?�� he said. �They said if I used my time to do business or take care of my wife and children, it will be better. It�s useless to have protest because there is progress in social development.�

Thun Ratha, a member of the environment network Mother Nature Movement, said the police should not have stopped the activists and monks, because their activity was lawful.

�If our act is illegal, you all will not see me speaking. I will be lifted up to put in the police truck. But what I did is legal. It�s 100 percent legal,� he said.

Some of the monks and activists then began a march to Takeo province to Kem Ley�s home, where is a memorial to the political commentator. Kem Ley�s family had to leave the country after his death and were later relocated to Australia.

The Labor Ministry this week warned a labor leader and her union that it could be dissolved over her allegedly illegal incitement of workers to protest over a garment factory closure that left workers without contracts and compensation.

The same union, Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), and two rights groups were also accused by one of the nation�s largest banks of trying to damage financial institutions� reputations.

About a thousand workers from Violet Apparel (Cambodia) Co., Ltd. in Phnom Penh�s Toek Thla commune protested at the factory on Wednesday, demanding benefits that the union said its members were owed after the company announced an immediate termination of their contracts, CATU president Yang Sophorn told VOD on Thursday.

Violet Apparel�s management had said the company would end workers� contracts on Wednesday, saying there were no orders from buyers due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related economic crisis, after employees returned to the factory following a two-month work suspension, Sophorn said.

The workers were calling for additional compensation under the Labor Law, which was not promised by the company, the union leader added.

Bou Samnang, administration head at Violet Apparel, declined to comment late Friday. The factory employed more than 1,400 workers, according to the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia�s website.

In a letter dated Wednesday, the Labor Ministry accused Sophorn of inciting and leading workers to hold an illegal protest at the shuttered factory.

The ministry letter said Sophorn had encouraged workers to threaten and put pressure on employers in order to get a settlement against the spirit of the Labor Law and related regulations.

The letter claimed that Sophorn led workers to hold activities that caused a traffic jam on the road into the factory and caused trouble for her own personal gain, which was against the law. The ministry also accused her of encouraging workers to gather, which went against the Health Ministry�s Covid-19 health safety guidelines.

�Starting from the day of receiving this warning letter, please immediately stop the above listed illegal activities. In case there is no change or defiance against this warning letter, your professional organization could face a complaint to dissolve or other actions under the law,� the letter states.

Speaking with VOD, Sophorn expressed her disappointment and denied the ministry�s accusations against her, saying that she had not incited workers or conducted illegal activities.

Based on the law, as the union�s leader, she had the right to meet with and find solutions for her members, Sophorn said.

Her presence at the factory on Wednesday was to meet, discuss and find a solution for union members because the company had promised workers final wages, severance pay and year-end bonuses, but they were also entitled to compensation for late notice of termination and damages, according to Sophorn.

�The letter was addressed to me and accused me strongly. It said I have threatened the employer and that I have incited workers to hold an illegal protest. So, at this point, I denied and can ask workers which one I incited and which employer I threatened,� she said. �I have never threatened anyone.�

She added, �If someone says something unreasonable and doesn�t allow me to respond�where is my freedom of speech? What happened to the law?�

Ung Chanthoeun, a union worker employed at Violet Apparel for 17 years, said Sophorn had not incited workers to protest, but came to meet them after they had started protesting over the termination of their contracts.

�I was there and Yang Sophorn did not incite or lead the protest. Workers were already gathered,� Chanthoeun said. �In this case, workers asked Ms. Sophorn to take their case to the Arbitration Council.�

Khun Tharo, a program manager at labor rights group Central, said the ministry�s warning letter to Sophorn was a kind of threat to union leaders who participate in protests and a violation of basic labor rights.

�The ministry should conduct an inspection or urge employers to fulfill their legal duties properly,� Tharo said.

Sophorn�s union, CATU, and rights groups Licadho and Central said in a report this week that tens of thousands of garment workers, who are facing slashed work hours and wages amid the global economic downturn, will struggle to repay mounting microfinance debt. The organizations cited a survey of more than 150 microloan-holding CATU workers, the majority of whom said they were already eating less food or had taken another loan to repay their debts.

�Garment workers have worked tirelessly to provide food for their families,� Sophorn said in a statement released with the report on Tuesday. �Now they can barely afford to feed themselves. Without debt relief or social protections, I�m worried that things are going to get worse and worse for these workers.�

On Thursday, Acleda Bank, which offers microloans, issued a statement in response to Tuesday�s report from CATU, Central and Licadho, accusing the civil society groups of trying to infringe on people�s rights and dignity, confusing those using financial services and claiming the groups were causing social disorder in order to gain benefits from donors.

Acleda said the report lacked professional research and an understanding of banking and financial laws, as well as affected the reputation of the bank and other financial institutions.

The report has �incomprehensive information� and �does not reflect the real situation� of the country, Acleda said.

Acleda appealed to the groups to cease their research activities, which have critically examined the microfinance sector, and to authorities to �take legal action against any person or group that incites to cause instability,� and harms the national economy and investor confidence.

Licadho�s monitoring manager Am Sam Ath told VOD on Friday that the survey of union workers was conducted after seeing the impacts on workers after they were suspended from work.

The civil society groups� report aimed to bring more attention to the effects on workers while they were facing an economic crisis, Sam Ath said, adding that he was not worried about any legal action from Acleda.

�We are not afraid over the statement to take action because in that statement, it did not point at the three civil society groups. It points to any person who incited and caused negative impacts on the banks and microfinance institutions,� said Sam Ath, explaining that the groups had not caused harm.

On Friday, the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) issued a statement criticizing a separate May report from Licadho that highlighted the experience of one village in Banteay Meanchey province with microfinance debt and cross-border migration.

CMA said it had reinterviewed two of the villagers who Licadho spoke with last year � even though the rights organization did not disclose the subjects� identities nor the village where they live � and found �irregularities� in their stories compared to what Licadho�s report detailed.

�In addition to the irregularities, from CMA�s observation and interviews, villagers and local authority, all claimed that formal loan service from MFIs was crucial in improving everyday economic activities and livelihood of the people in the area which also contributed to community development. The claim is completely opposite from LICADHO�s report conclusions,� the industry association said.

Licadho�s director Naly Pilorge said on Friday that the group stood by their research methodology, findings and recommendations, and respected the wish of people interviewed by the group last year to remain anonymous.

�We take this opportunity to once again urge the CMA to conduct an independent, countrywide survey of indebted borrowers and publish the results publicly,� Pilorge said.

Today, on 22 June 2020, a group of six environmental activists, including one monk, presented at Botumvatey Pagoda Park to exhibit images of Koh Kong Province�s Koh Kong Krao Island to the public. The exhibition of the pictures of Koh Kong Krao Island which started at around 4.30pm is part of their campaign called �Save Koh Kong Krao� in which they demand the Cambodian government to classify this island as a protected national sea park to enable it to preserve its natural resources. Authorities arrived to prevent the exhibition declaring that the youth group required prior permission from the Phnom Penh Municipality in order to display the images.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday convicted and sentenced in absentia the activist Kong Raiya to two years in prison. However, he will only serve four months and 18 days. This is over the sale of t-shirts bearing the images and quotes of slain political analyst Kem Ley in July last year. Raiya has already served more than four months in pre-trial detention.

Judge Ouk Reth Kunthea said Raiya, 28, was charged with �incitement to commit a felony and committing a misdemeanor� under Articles 494, 495 and 88 of the Criminal Code.

�The court convicts and sentences Kong Raiya to two years in prison. But he will only serve four months and 18 days prison time. The rest of his sentence will be suspended. He is now out on bail,� Judge Kunthea said.

Raiya was arrested on July 9 last year after he urged activists to participate in marking the death anniversary of Mr Ley which was banned by City Hall. He also put up t-shirts for sale on Facebook.

On the t-shirts Raiya wrote �If you do nothing, you will be victimised. It is just not your turn yet,� quoting Mr Ley.

He was released on bail from Prey Sar prison on November 29 last year.

Mr Raiya could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Mr Sam Sokong, Raiya�s lawyer, said yesterday the judgment was unjust because his client only wanted to sell t-shirts, not call for a change of government.

He said his client did not incite anyone to commit a crime. He only printed Mr Ley�s quotes and portrait on t-shirts based on freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The Siem Reap Provincial Court has launched a preliminary rape investigation into prominent activist monk Luon Savath, in relation to Facebook videos released last week alleging the monk had inappropriate relations with four women, a charge he has denied.

The alleged videos were released on a Facebook account called �Srey Da Chi-Kraeng� and purportedly showed Venerable Luon Sovath having salacious conversations with a woman and her three daughters. Apart from posting these videos, the account, which was created two weeks ago, has had no other activity.

The activist monk, who is in hiding, has �vehemently� denied the accusation calling it politically motivated. However, the Monk Council in Siem Reap announced on June 3 that he had been expelled from the clergy, accusing him of having sexual intercourse.

Additionally, local police executed a search warrant this week and confiscated materials from the monk�s home.

On Friday, Siem Reap court spokesperson Chuon Sophanha said a victim had complained about the monk and that authorities were investigating the monk for rape.

�We suspect rape since we have the complaints from the victim,� he said.

He refused to provide any details of the alleged crime or if the court had evidence to proceed with the investigation. He also denied confirming if the court had issued an arrest warrant.

�You should not ask who are involved with this since it can affect the investigation and [Luon Sovath] can flee,� he said.

Siem Reap Police Chief Tith Narong said on Friday that Luon Sovath was suspected of committing an offense, but directed queries to the Siem Reap court.

�It is related to audio messages and a complaint from the victim,� he said. �[We] followed the court warrant which is to bring [Luon Sovath] to court.�

On Wednesday, Tith Narong told VOA Khmer that Luon Sovath had not committed a crime, but changed his response on Friday.

According to Article 239 of the Cambodian Criminal Code, a person can be imprisoned for five to ten years for rape, and up to 15 years if the crime was committed under aggravating circumstances.

On Wednesday, Luon Sovath, who had not spoken publicly since the videos were published, said the videos were doctored and that he had not committed any of the alleged crimes. He said the case was politically motivated.

In a long Facebook post, he said police had seized a lot of his property, including an SUV, an icebox, refrigerator, phones, camera equipment and had even questioned two of his �nephews.�

On Friday, Luon Sovath briefly responded to a request for comment, again denying the allegations leveled against him and calling the Facebook account �Srey Da Chi-Kraeng� fake.

�I haven�t chatted or called anyone from my Facebook accounts,� he said. �[I want] to be silent so this can pass.�

�They can accuse anyone since they have the extreme power to create this setup,� he added.

The four videos in question have been circulating on Facebook, and seemed to originate from one account, �Srey Da Chi-Kraeng� that was created on May 30. The videos, according to the accompanying text on Facebook, are recordings with four women � a mother and three daughters.

The video recordings are of an unidentified person, or persons, sitting in a dimly-lit room and having Facebook audio conversations, ranging from 7 to 10 minutes each. The video is shot so that only the person�s hand holding the smartphone can be seen.

This Facebook account links to three other accounts, suggesting they are the three daughters. However, on one of these accounts, the user posted last week that she and her family were being wrongly involved in this issue.

�The page Srey Da Chi-Kraeng is badly intended to mistreat me,� the user said in the post.

In another post from June 2, the user said her sisters and mother had not done �bad things� with Luon Sovath. These Facebook users did not respond to requests for comment.

Today, on 3 June 2020, a group of 18 youth environmental activists were banned from cycling from Koh Kong to Phnom Penh by Koh Kong district authorities. The activists were taking part in a campaign to �Save Koh Kong Krao Island� where they were attempting to cycle to the capital to submit a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Their petition requests the government to classify Kong Kong Krao island as a protected national sea park to enable it to preserve its natural resources.

When authorities interfered with the procession, each activist was required to undergo a temperature check. Activists refused the authorities request to present their identity cards, however agreed to write and submit a list of their names. The authorities also wanted to review their petition and asked them to thumbprint a letter declaring that they would not submit the petition to the local authority � but the activists refused both requests. At around 11:30am 10 of their bicycles were taken by Koh Kong district police. At around 2:00pm Koh Kong district police invited all the activists to have a discussion over the confiscation of their bicycles, requesting to meet with one activist at a time, but they refused the police�s request because they had already informed the authorities of the purpose of their campaign.

Koh Kong provincial hall spokesman Sok Sothy told The Post that authorities had taken the bicycles and blocked the group from moving forward because they had not cooperated with the authorities.

“We asked them to come in for a Covid-19 screening and they did not cooperate,” he said. He said the group had gathered without legal permission.

“They said they want to submit the petition to Samdach, but the government has announced a ban on large gatherings. They come from many groups and areas, including Koh Kong, Battambang and Preah Sihanouk and we have to restrain them,” he said.

Sothy said if the youth group intended to submit a petition to Hun Sen, they should have submitted a letter to the provincial administration to follow up on their journey and avoid any unpleasant incidents.

He said if the group had cooperated with the authorities from the beginning, there would have been no problems.

A Ratanakkiri province-based TV3 reporter has requested an extension to a court summons he was issued last week which stemmed from a story he covered about a land dispute at an abandoned Ratanakkiri airport site.

The summons, issued by deputy prosecutor Ra Borandy and dated June 3, said Phal Dam, the 52-year-old journalist, was due to appear in the provincial court at 9am on Monday to respond to allegations made by Banlung town deputy governor Put Dany, who accused Dam of �incitement to commit a crime�.

Dam told The Post last week that he had not committed any crimes and he did not know why he was being accused.

Concerning the story that caused the controversy, he said he interviewed residents who criticised the authorities� for allowing land grabs at airport sites and their refusal to deal with land disputes.

Dam said: �I don�t know Put Dany, but I�ve just found out that he is the deputy governor of Banlung town. Now I am preparing the relevant documents concerning the case and researching facts.

�Moreover, I am looking for a lawyer to help, as I do not yet understand what charges are being brought against me.�

He said on Sunday that he had applied to postpone his appearance last Friday in court and mentioned the summons was unclear.

Dany could not be reached for comment.

Provincial Department of Information director Kol Phanna said last week he had received information about the case, but he did not know the reason for the lawsuit. He urged the two parties to settle the matter out of court.

He said there had been prior complaints against the reporter concerning clarification in his reporting, although they had never led to legal action.

Phanna said: �I do not see this summons as a threat to the freedom of the press. Every person has his or her reputation to consider, so if reporters are reporting professionally and ethically, I don�t believe that they will be sued, and if they have enough evidence, they should not be afraid.�

Nop Vy, the executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Association (Cambo-JA), said the lawsuit was a violation of the rights of the press.

According to the law on journalism, Vy said, if journalists write or publish something that is not clear, those involved should clarify or write a letter to the media organisation.

�If there�s an error related to news writing, we correct it by using the journalism laws, not by using the courts. If journalists face issues like this over small things, no journalist would dare write about the inaction of officials, and more officials would become corrupt,� he said.

Banteay Meanchey police officials detained and later released human and environmental rights activist Hun Vannak on Monday, as security forces were deployed for a planned protest by market vendors in Poipet town.

Poipet residents, most of whom are market vendors in Rong Kleu Market in Thailand across the border, planned to demonstrate on Monday morning requesting that the border to be reopened to resume trade in the market. The Thai border has been closed since March to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Hun Vannak, who was at the protest as an independent observer, was documenting the planned demonstration, especially the heavy security presence that had been deployed by provincial authorities. While taking photographs and videos of the security presence, Hun Vannak said he was arrested and taken to a site near the train station for questioning.

�If there is violence against the people, then that would be a human rights violation,� said Hun Vannak, who is also part of a newly-formed youth movement called Khmer Thavareak. �And as a human rights activist, I need to monitor that.�

Hun Vannak told VOA Khmer that he was accused of collecting information for the opposition party, a reference to the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party. He was forced to delete all the photos and videos he filmed on Monday, but he refused to sign an agreement with the police nor did he speak during his questioning, which was filmed by the police.

The youth activist previously worked for environmental protection NGO Mother Nature, and was imprisoned for 18 months in early 2018 for his activism against sand dredging in Koh Kong province.

Seth Los, deputy chief for the Banteay Meanchey provincial police, said authorities only wanted to question Hun Vannak and had not arrested him. He added that they educated Hun Vannak and released him after asking him not to indulge in any �illegal activities.�

�We invited him to sit with us to ask him where he come from and what his work is,� said Seth Los. �After we got the answers, the deputy prosecutor educated him and allowed him to go back to his house.�

Asked about the heavy security presence in Poipet, Seth Los said it was in response to the planned demonstration, refusing to provide additional details.

Din Puthy, head of the Cambodia Informal Economy Reinforced Association which helps informal workers in the border town, said the protest on Monday was canceled because of the heavy security presence.

The civil society member said market vendors and transportation workers were hurting financially because of the border closure and authorities needed to open the checkpoint to allow vendors to trade.

�So, if we cannot earn, we don't have money to spend,� Din Puthy said. �They have to spend on their bank loan, children�s school fees, food, electricity, and everything. That is why they worry that they might have to go hungry.�

VOA Khmer could not reach Banteay Meanchey Governor Um Reatrey for comment on Monday.

Local publication VOD English reported last week that authorities had deployed security forces across the border town after a request for the protest was rejected by the province, especially a heavy presence of security personnel at Din Puthy�s residence.

Sum Chankea, rights civil society group ADHOC�s Banteay Meanchey monitor, said preventing residents from protesting and the detention of Hun Vannak was a serious violation of human rights.

"It is the violation of liberties and the freedom of expression, including dissemination of information,� he said.