NGO WORKERS ACCUSED OF INCITEMENT IN LAND CASES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000538 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL USAID FOR ASIA BUREAU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM EAGR SENV KDEM CB SUBJECT: NGO WORKERS ACCUSED OF INCITEMENT IN LAND CASES REF: PHNOM PENH 379 AND PREVIOUS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Five human rights NGO workers investigating two land dispute cases may face criminal incitement charges, in what some civil society groups fear may become a new trend in restrictions on NGO activities. In the past, Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) entities and private companies have typically leveled incitement charges against community members in land disputes, rather than the NGOs that support them. Whether prosecutors follow through with formal charges, trials, and convictions in these incidents or use them as an intimidation tactic to restrict civil society activism remains to be seen. However, these two cases are consistent with the larger trend of high-level officials using the judiciary to restrict the activities of real or perceived critics and opponents. END SUMMARY. NGO WORKERS CHARGED WITH "INCITING" COMMUNITIES -------------- -- ¶2. (SBU) The Ratanakiri Provincial Court has summoned two representatives of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) for questioning August 4 regarding a complaint from Cambodian firm The DM Group that the representatives were inciting villagers in a dispute over the company's economic land concession. After the questioning, the provincial prosecutor could bring formal charges of incitement against the two NGO workers. The DM Group's concession has led to disputes with two villages, which claim to own part of the land in the concession area. A confrontation between villagers and company representatives in June escalated to the point where a provincial police sergeant shot and injured one individual when trying to remove a group of protestors. ¶3. (SBU) In a separate case, the Bantey Meanchey Provincial Court charged three employees of local NGO Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA) and one Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) commune councilor with incitement and placed them in pre-trial detention on July 24. The four were among a larger group of 30 individuals arrested on incitement and other charges stemming from a protest in a Poipet land dispute that turned hostile. Two of the IDEA staffers have been released on bail, but the third employee and the commune councilor remain in pre-trial detention. Both claim to have been observers during the protest, in which a group of families tried to resist eviction by burning tires and throwing stones, burning objects, and acid at police. INCITEMENT CHARGES AGAINST COMMUNITY MEMBERS -------------- ¶4. (SBU) According to civil society representatives, the filing of incitement charges in land cases is not new, but those charges have typically been leveled against community members, rather than NGOs. In the first six months of 2009 alone, ADHOC recorded ten land dispute cases where incitement charges were filed against community representatives. In four of the cases, community members are in pre-trial detention, and the defendant in a case in Kratie Province has gone into hiding to avoid arrest. Provincial courts have dropped the charges in two of the other cases. ¶5. (SBU) Incitement charges against NGO representatives following land disputes have been rare, with the two most noteworthy cases occurring two years ago. In 2007, a representative of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) working with a community engaged in a land dispute in Preah Sihanouk Province faced incitement charges, which were eventually dropped. In a Ratanakiri case, Keat Kolney, sister of the Minister of Economy and Finance, filed criminal incitement charges against lawyers from the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC),who were representing a group of ethnic minority villagers engaged in a land dispute with her company. The Ratanakiri provincial court dropped the charges in April 2009, although several of the lawyers had already left CLEC, after Keat Kolney's lawyers filed a complaint against them with the Cambodian Bar Association. COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) It is too soon to tell how widely local prosecutors will pursue incitement charges against civil society representatives involved in land cases. Authorities may drop the charges when they perceive that the NGOs have toned down their community activism. However, the use of incitement charges is consistent with the current political environment in which high-level officials leverage the judiciary to try to silence critics and opponents. A trend of incitement charges against civil society representatives in land cases could intimidate NGOs and prevent them from providing the support that many communities with insecure land tenure require. PHNOM PENH 00000538 002 OF 002 RODLEY