Police block Bopha march

Police block Boeung Kak lake community protesters from attending a demonstration in support of jailed activist Yorm Bopha in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. VIREAK MAI

Thu, 5 September 2013

Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell

P Penh Post

 

Phnom Penh Municipal Hall yesterday defended the actions of police and security guards who blocked protesters as they tried to leave the capital’s Boeung Kak area before they stopped and searched an NGO’s vehicle.
Dozens of Daun Penh district police, security guards and military police blockaded a road near Calmette Hospital as protesters tried to move from their community to Wat Phnom and on to the Supreme Court at about 8am in a march to mark the first anniversary of the arrest and imprisonment of Boeung Kak land-rights activist Yorm Bopha.

After authorities confiscated protest material, District Governor Sok Sambath ordered the combined forces to block a pick-up truck carrying employees of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
“We suspect the vehicle is transporting something for the protesters,” he said to onlookers, without adding why that warranted a search.
The Post heard police officers saying they believed the vehicle was transporting anti-government propaganda and unspecified illegal items.
“Some vehicles we’ve stopped before … have been transporting [rosewood], so now we suspect this NGO vehicle is carrying something illegal,” one officer said.
Another officer told the CCHR’s driver that “if you’re not carrying anything illegal, you should let us check”.
Authorities soon searched the back of the vehicle, which bears the logos of the CCHR and European Union, but only found items such as lotus flowers and T-shirts calling for Bopha’s release.
“We’re not carrying explosives or drugs or anything illegal,” CCHR’s land reform coordinator Van Sophath said. “They’re trying to search the vehicle without following procedure. I’m afraid they will plant something illegal [if they check the cabin]. I demand they invite the prosecutor to come and check, then allow us to go.”
It wasn’t until shortly before midday that municipal deputy prosecutor Chuon Narin arrived and the vehicle was searched in the presence of representatives from other NGOs, the EU and the UN.
Nothing more than items for the Boeung Kak villagers’ demonstrations was uncovered and the pick-up was soon allowed to be driven away.
Despite this, Long Dimanche, Phnom Penh municipal spokesman, claimed the incident was an example of NGOs leading villagers on “illegal protests”.
“NGO officials using their vehicles to take protest materials is illegal,” he said. “When they register as an NGO with the Ministry of Interior, they agree not to get involved in politics. Right now, we’re seeing many NGOs that are political,” he said, without elaborating on how protests over a rights activist’s arrest were political.
Dimanche added that the municipality does “not allow Boeung Kak villagers to demonstrate outside of Boeung Kak” but they always do so “illegally”.
A CCHR statement said the villagers had informed City Hall of their plans to protest and were told they had to keep it confined to Boeung Kak if it involved more than 200 people. But they had proceeded anyway, “believing that there were no legal grounds to prevent them from peacefully demonstrating”.
CCHR added that its staff had been asked by the community to transport their demonstration materials – which included flowers and shirts – saying they believed the items would be confiscated if police spotted the materials being carried out. A Post reporter observed this exchange.
“The CCHR team did as the community asked and drove towards the exit,” the statement said. “The CCHR team asked the police what grounds they had to search the van, to which the police responded that the community activities were not supposed to leave the Boeung Kak area and that the CCHR team was therefore not permitted to transport campaigns [sic] material on the community’s behalf.”
During the blockade, combined forces also confiscated drums, flags and lotus flowers from protesters, resulting in a tuk-tuk driver being struck in the head when he refused to relinquish his load.
“The villagers have hired me to take it for them,” he shouted. “If you take it from me, how can I pay the community for losing it?”
At one point, security guards tried to load the confiscated materials into police vehicles, only for the police officers to tell them to stop.
Eventually, officers permitted residents through, allowing them to continue their march to the Supreme Court.
Rights group Adhoc said authorities had “demonstrated grave incompetence” in how they had handled the situation.
“Not only have they harassed an NGO worker carrying out his legitimate human rights work, they have again shown that they are unwilling to tolerate protest,” Adhoc said in a statement. “The actions of the authorities this morning are in clear violation of Cambodian law.”

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Cambodia: Jailed activist must be released, not forgotten

3 September 2013

Yorm Bopha was arrested on 4 September 2012 on spurious charges and jailed for her activism for the Boeung Kak Lake community.

© LICADHO

“

Yorm Bopha is a prisoner of conscience, jailed for her peaceful activism and defending the rights of those in her community who lost their homes through forced evictions

”

Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia Pacific Director

Cambodian human rights defender Yorm Bopha, imprisoned on spurious grounds last year, must be released immediately, Amnesty International said ahead of the one-year anniversary of her arrest.

Yorm Bopha, a 30-year old mother of one who has defended her community’s housing rights, was arrested on 4 September 2012 and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment after an unfair trial in December last year.
“Yorm Bopha is a prisoner of conscience, jailed for her peaceful activism and defending the rights of those in her community who lost their homes through forced evictions,” said Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia Pacific Director.

“She should be released immediately and unconditionally.”

Cambodia is in the midst of a tense political standoff following the country’s disputed elections on 28 July 2013, with both the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party claiming victory.

“Yorm Bopha must not be forgotten during the current political deadlock,” said Arradon.

“Her case and that of her community is representative of some of the issues that have led to growing dissatisfaction in Cambodia – unequal development, land conflict and forced evictions, and a justice system that fails to protect the rights of the poor and is used to stifle free speech.”

Yorm Bopha had been actively defending her community’s rights at the former Boeung Kak Lake in the capital Phnom Penh, where thousands of people have been forcibly evicted from their homes since the land was leased to a company in 2007.

She played a leading role in the campaign to release 13 women activists – the “Boeung Kak 13” – when they were convicted and sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in May 2012, after they took part in a peaceful protest.

Yorm Bopha was accused of planning an assault on two men in August 2012, and convicted in December last year for “intentional violence with aggravating circumstances”.

But witness testimonies during her trial were inconsistent, sometimes conflicting with each other, and some witnesses were apparently intoxicated when the alleged crime occurred. 

Although an appeal hearing failed to resolve these inconsistencies in June 2013, the court upheld the original verdict while suspending one year of Yorm Bopha’s three-year sentence. 

Yorm Bopha has since appealed to Cambodia’s Supreme Court.

“The lack of evidence against Yorm Bopha makes it difficult not to conclude that she has been unfairly targeted by the authorities,” said Arradon.

“She is just one of many human rights defenders who have been harassed, threatened, attacked and locked up over the past years. The new government, once formed, must halt this disturbing trend as a matter of urgency, and ensure there is space in Cambodia for peaceful activists to conduct their important and legitimate work.”

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Yorm Bopha marks one year in jail

Lous Sakhorn, husband of imprisoned Boeung Kak lake land activist Yorm Bopha, speaks about his wife’s first year in prison. PHA LINA

 

Wed, 4 September 2013

Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell

P penh Post

 

Borei Keila activist Tim Sakmony, 66, spent months by the side of Boeung Kak lake land-rights activist Yorm Bopha when the two were locked in Prey Sar prison together last year.
To this day she does not believe the 30-year-old mother is capable of ordering an ax and screwdriver attack on two motodops, let alone is guilty of such a crime.
“I don’t believe Yorm Bopha did this. I know her as a kind woman,” an emotional Sakmony told the Post yesterday. “We became friends during my four months in prison. She offered to pay for me to sleep in better conditions. I declined because it would have left her with no money.”

Today marks a year since Bopha was arrested by plainclothes police in the capital’s Daun Penh district. She was charged with intentional violence and sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly masterminding a vicious assault.
Bopha’s husband, Lous Sakhorn, 57, was also arrested and charged on September 4, 2012, but walked free hours later as his wife was ushered into pre-trial detention.
“We were charged with the same offence,” he said yesterday. “I don’t know why they decided to keep the woman in pre-trial detention and release the man – I still wonder about this.”
Like many others, however, Sakhorn suspected from the start that his wife – and Sakmony – had been targeted because of their activism.
Bopha became a recognisable face in the long-running Boeung Kak dispute when she led protests in June last year calling for the release of 14 women and one man from prison.
As the usual protest leaders languished in Prey Sar, Bopha went on radio to publicly decry comments made by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong alleging six of the 15 were not from Boeung Kak at all, Sakhorn said yesterday.
“Some local authorities later pointed at my wife during a protest and said: ‘Your name is on the blacklist and you’ll go to prison.’”
Bopha was sentenced to three years in prison in late December when judges at Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled she had ordered her brothers Yorm Kanlong and Yorm Sith to attack Nget Chet and his cousin Vath Thaiseng.
“The case against Yorm Bopha was entirely dependent on the assumption that her brothers had carried out the assault and yet her brothers were not even present in court to defend themselves,” the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said in a statement yesterday.
Kanlong and Sith – who remain at large – were sentenced in absentia to three years’ prison, while Bopha’s husband was given a suspended three-year sentence.
In an adjacent courtroom, Sakmony walked free after she was given a suspended sentence.
Testimonies in Bopha’s case included those of the two motodops, who admitted they had been drinking for hours before the alleged attack, and those of witnesses whom rights groups accused of following a script written by outsiders.
“At no point has the prosecution presented any credible evidence or witnesses proving Bopha committed – or plotted – any violent acts with respect to the alleged assault in the drink shop,” a statement from a coalition of NGOs including Licadho and CLEC released yesterday says. “On the contrary, a neighbour reliably corroborated both Bopha and her husband’s consistent testimony regarding their actions that evening.”
In Bopha’s appeal trial in June, the motodops contradicted themselves when telling the court which of the brothers had attacked them.
Judges, however, upheld the guilty conviction but reduced Bopha’s sentence to two years.
“The courts did not have any evidence against us, but found us guilty and then kept charges when we appealed,” Sakhorn said. “We weren’t involved and neither were Bopha’s brothers – they have not lived in this village since 2010.”
In a statement released late on Monday, Amnesty International made a plea for the activist’s release.
“Yorm Bopha must not be forgotten during the current political deadlock,” said Isabelle Arradon, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific deputy director. “Her case and that of her community is representative of some of the issues that have led to growing dissatisfaction in Cambodia – unequal development, land conflict and forced evictions, and a justice system that fails to protect the rights of the poor and is used to stifle free speech,” she said.
Others made similar calls yesterday, urging authorities to send Bopha’s case to the Kingdom’s final court of appeal.
“There is no reason for the Supreme Court not to process Bopha’s case and set a date for her hearing,” Ee Sarom, programs coordinator at NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, said in a statement.
But Srah Chak commune police chief Khan Virak, whose beat includes Boeung Kak, deflected suggestions that Bopha had been targeted for her activism. “Generally, people convicted by a court always say it is an injustice,” he said. “But I don’t want to comment more.… You should ask the court.”
Bopha’s family has already done that in the hope justice can be found at a higher level, Sakhorn said.
“On August 12, I lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court. One of the judges and a court clerk said their court is independent and doesn’t care about outside influences,” he said.
“We hope it will lead to my wife being released.”

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Calls for Boeung Kak Activist’s Release Renewed on One-Year Anniversary

2013-09-03

RFA

Yorm Bopha (C) with her son at the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh, March 27, 2013.

Photo: RFA

Cambodian and international rights groups have renewed their calls for the release of Phnom Penh housing rights campaigner Yorm Bopha one year after her arrest, saying her plight should not be forgotten during the country’s current political crisis.

Global watchdog Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday that Yorm Bopha should be released “immediately and unconditionally” and warned the government against imprisoning other peaceful rights campaigners in the future.
Yorm Bopha, a longtime activist for members of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake community displaced to make way for a real estate development, has been held since Sept. 4 last year when she was arrested in connection with a skirmish that broke out near her home.

The activist, who has been named an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, is serving a two-year prison term for causing “intentional violence” in a case rights groups say has seen flagrant legal violations and was aimed at intimidating her and other activists into silence.
'One of many'
“She is just one of many human rights defenders who have been harassed, threatened, attacked, and locked up over the past years,” Amnesty International's deputy Asia Pacific director Isabelle Arradon said.
Rights groups are concerned Yorm Bopha's case could be sidelined amid the political uncertainty following July 28 national elections that have seen both Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party claiming victory.
“The new government, once formed, must halt this disturbing trend as a matter of urgency, and ensure there is space in Cambodia for peaceful activists to conduct their important and legitimate work," Arradon said.
“Yorm Bopha must not be forgotten during the current political deadlock,” she said.
Letters of encouragement
Twenty-five local civil society organizations issued a joint statement Tuesday calling on the Supreme Court to hear Yorm Bohpa’s pending appeal “without delay” and overturn her conviction.
One of the groups, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), has launched a campaign to get Cambodians to send Yorm Bopha letters of encouragement in Prey Sar Prison, in order to let her know she is not forgotten, the group said.

Ramana Sorn, coordinator for CCHR’s Freedom of Expression Project, said the “Voices for Freedom” campaign team met with Yorm Bopha on Friday to deliver some of the 365 messages, one for each day since her arrest.

“This is a form of encouragement, and it is also an appeal for the court and the government to release her,” Ramana Sorn told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“She didn’t commit any crime; she only demanded land rights for herself and her community.”

“She is happy when she knows everyone is not forgetting her.”

In June, Cambodia’s Court of Appeals suspended one year of Yorm Bopha’s original three-year sentence, but upheld the conviction against her.

Shortly afterward, she filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Rights groups have said legal proceedings in her case have been marred by flagrant violations and that there has been no concrete evidence to warrant her conviction.

“The continued imprisonment of Yorm Bopha despite the sheer lack of evidence against her just goes to show that she was never afforded her right to remain innocent before proven guilty and that this was a political case in which the verdict was pre-determined,” CCHR president Ou Virak said in a statement Tuesday.

"As a grassroots activist Yorm Bopha faces a high level of risk; we must continue to rally together to demand her release and to put pressure on the Supreme Court to overturn her unjust conviction.”

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

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