VZCZCXRO1003
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0538/01 2120854
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310854Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1002
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

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