Five People Released in Kratie Insurrection Case
The Kratie Provincial Court has released on bail five of the eight people charged after a military-style operation by security forces on a small village alleged to be the home of a secessionist movement, a court official said yesterday. On May 16, a 14-year-old girl was shot dead when armed soldiers, police and military police descended on Broma village in Chhlong district to evict villagers embroiled in a long- running land dispute with a rubber company in the area. Eight men were detained during the operation and later jailed. Police say they are still looking for five others in connection with a group they accuse of attempting to set up an area outside the control of the Cambodian government, a claim scoffed at by human rights groups who say the villagers were merely protesting against the loss of their land to a private company. …
