The Tonle Bassac Eviction: A woman removes some of her belongings under the watchful eyes of two policemen. The Police were deployed on the site to monitor the destruction of houses and evictions of the inhabitants. (Photo: LICARDHO)2010-03-18
By SOPHENG CHEANG
The Associated Press
Police and villagers clashed Thursday in Cambodia, when authorities tried to evict residents of land awarded to a Taiwanese man by a court, leaving 27 people injured.
Brigadier Gen. Keo Pisey, chief of Kampong Speu province's police, said 100 police officers charged with the eviction were met by some 400 villagers, who attacked the officers as they arrived at the disputed land and wounded 14 of them.
"We were assigned to implement court-ordered eviction proceedings by asking those villagers to move out of the disputed land but once we arrived, we were welcomed by stones, sticks and slingshot," Keo Pisey said.
A representative of the villagers, Son Bun Chhuon, said police arrived with AK-47 rifles, shields and electric batons and beat them. He said 13 villagers were hurt, including a pregnant woman and a 12-year-old boy. He said four of them were in critical condition.
All 13 injured people are being treated at their homes because they fear that if they go to the hospital, the police will return and succeed in ousting them from their land, he added.
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