 |
| An elderly Boeung Kak residents was savagely beaten up Hun Xen's cops (Photo: RFA Khmer Service) |
KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA
The Phnom Penh Post
Police beat and arrested villagers including elderly women and children as young as 11 yesterday as they protested their impending eviction from land surrounding the capital’s Boeung Kak lake, an incident observers called a “new low” in the lakeside debacle.
The violence came one day after a meeting with government officials in which donors flagged land rights and resettlement as among the Kingdom’s biggest development challenges.
About 100 villagers gathered yesterday morning in front of City Hall, calling for a moratorium on the filling of the lake and new talks on resettlement and compensation plans. More than 100 local and military police subsequently surrounded the gathering as the villagers blocked Monivong Boulevard in Daun Penh district.
Municipal Cabinet chief Koet Chhe and Daun Penh district governor Sok Sambath later appeared, urging the villagers to return home and rejected their requests for talks.
When the crowd refused to disperse, police dragged several villagers into a police van while beating others with electric batons.
0 comments:
Post a Comment