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| Villagers block a road in Kratie province. Photo by Heng Chivoan |
Monday, 09 April 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
About 700 villagers in Kratie province’s Kampong Damrei
commune will continue their protests today to persuade provincial
authorities to release one of their representatives, villagers said yesterday.
Representative Bun Sithet said the villagers, who are involved in a land dispute with Kasotim company, would protest outside the provincial prison and court.
If the provincial governor and local authorities did not release
representative Bun Ratha after two hours, villagers would move to block the road from Kratie town to Chhlong district, he said.
“This time we would rather die at the protest place. We
will not return home and open the road for traffic if our representative
is not released,” he said.
About 200 villagers protested on Friday and blocked the road after Bun Ratha was arrested at his house, Bun Sithet said.
Ly Hout, Kasotim representative, said his company had filed a
complaint against Bun Ratha because he had incited villagers to burn the
company branch office on March 12.
“We have enough evidence to show the court . . . villagers have never respected the law,” he said.
In 2008, Kasotim was granted a land concession of more than 15,000 hectares in the area.
According to Ouch Leng, land reform project coordinator for the
Cambodian Center for Human Rights, villagers blocked roads a total of 32
times last year in protest.
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