Cambodia’s activist monk fights on despite threats

Cambodian Buddhist monk Loun Sovath (L) prays before he blesses water for villagers during a protest in Phnom Penh (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian Buddhist monk Loun Sovath films a protest in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodian Buddhist monk Loun Sovath stands next to his painting at the LICADHO office in Phnom Penh (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
By Michelle Fitzpatrick (AFP)

“The people need us to help them. This is what makes me go on.” – Ven. Loun Savath

PHNOM PENH — His saffron robe a rare beacon among protesters, Cambodia’s most outspoken monk has been banned from temples and risked arrest for challenging rights abuses — but he vows not to be silenced.

“The more they threaten me, the more I stand up for our rights,” said the Venerable Loun Sovath, also known as the “multimedia monk” for filming forced evictions and distributing the footage.

In a country where Buddhist monks are hugely respected but rarely seen standing shoulder to shoulder with those fighting abuses, his peaceful activism has attracted praise from rights groups — and condemnation from authorities.

“Seeing a monk amongst the crowd lifts the spirits of people defending their human rights,” the bespectacled holy man told AFP during a recent interview in the capital, where he joined a rally against deforestation.

“Only one of me can make one hundred, 200, 300 people feel strong.”

But his tireless campaigning has made the Buddhist hierarchy and the authorities nervous, say observers, who fear for his safety.

Police have interrupted his meetings, followed him and cursed at him. He has also been warned that he faces arrest for inciting people to protest.

Religious officials have repeatedly ordered him to stop activities or risk being disrobed for disobeying Buddhist discipline, while senior monks have tried to make him sign a pledge promising to cease his activism, Sovath said.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director with the international campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the monk’s championing of villagers who have lost land to “rich and well-connected persons” makes him a high-profile target.

HRW is “extremely concerned” that Sovath, 30, could “face reprisals, and perhaps violence, because what he’s doing is really a challenge to the core of Cambodia’s lawless, might-makes-right political culture”, he said.

Sovath, who entered the monkhood at the age of 13, became an activist after witnessing a land grab in his own village in March 2009, when police fired at unarmed villagers protesting against the confiscation of their fields.

He captured much of the confrontation — during which his brother and nephew were injured — on camera and successfully resisted police attempts to confiscate his material.

Since then, he has broadened his work to speak up for all victims of social injustice, becoming one of the impoverished nation’s leading human rights defenders — and the only one in orange robes.

Pressure on Sovath has increased in recent months amid what rights groups say is a growing crackdown on freedom of expression in Cambodia.

Seven international rights groups, including Amnesty International, Witness and HRW, recently asked key donor nations to urge the government to stop the threats and intimidation against the monk.

“The ongoing government harassment of Venerable Sovath constitutes a veiled attempt by the Cambodian authorities to silence those who speak out on issues that they deem controversial,” they wrote in a letter leaked to AFP.

But Phnom Penh’s powerful chief monk Non Ngeth, one of the country’s highest-ranking clerics, told AFP that Sovath’s actions were “not correct”.

“A monk should not get involved in politics” or “participate in rallies and riot actions,” he said.

In April, Non Ngeth banned monasteries in the capital from hosting Sovath, who lives in northwestern Cambodia — a move that goes against the custom of temples offering shelter to visiting clergymen.

A similar order, signed by Siem Reap’s senior monk Pich San, was issued to all pagodas in Sovath’s own province in late August, effectively evicting him from the temple that has been his home since he was a teenager.

The under-fire monk admitted his current situation was “very difficult”.

“Although I have no pagoda to stay in right now, the pagoda is inside my heart,” he said, before adding laughingly: “The Buddha had no pagoda also.”

Both directives, seen by AFP, claim Sovath is sullying the image of the religion with his activities.

Sovath believes criticism against him is the result of political pressure on his religious elders.

“I’m not doing anything wrong against Buddhism or national law,” he said, adding that he had a right “to educate people and to do good things”.

He said Cambodian monks have been scared off taking a stand on controversial issues after a bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in 1998 left at least two monks dead and scores more injured.

“Many, many monks support me,” Sovath insisted. “They know about human rights in Cambodia, injustice and social problems. But if we want them to show their faces… they are afraid.”

He is determined not to give in to those fears because monks “should be representatives for justice, happiness and peace”.

“The people need us to help them,” he said. “This is what makes me go on.”