Kratie Village Sealed After Girl’s Killing

Kratie city – Soldiers and military police yesterday blocked all access to a village where a 14-year-old girl was shot dead by security forces on Wednesday while the authorities launched a massive operation to evict hundreds of families from the area under a cloak of secrecy. Human rights groups also continued their condemnation of the government’s claim that the villagers were part of a secessionist movement, calling such statements a fabricated excuse to evict the families on behalf of a rubber plantation company, which the villagers have accused of stealing their farmland. Kratie provincial governor Sar Chamrong said more than 600 families from Kompong Cham and Prey Veng provinces who had moved into the village in recent years had been rounded up and sent packing. Mr. Chamrong said that an “original” group of 360 or so families were not expelled from the province, but he failed to explain how authorities made the distinction between the new and old villagers. “The original villagers—more than 360 families—living there are very happy with our operation because they had been extorted by those anarchists for a long time,” Mr. Chamrong said. “We could not let them stay longer, otherwise those ringleaders would gather more and more people from everywhere to grab the state land and secede,” he said. … About 200 soldiers, police and military police accompanied by a helicopter swept into Chhlong district’s Broma village on Wednesday morning, arresting at least four men and reportedly injuring several others. Heng Chantha, 14, was shot in the abdomen by the security forces and died on the way to the hospital. Authorities claimed they had met resistance as they descended on the village, though no members of the security forces sustained any injuries. Interior Minister Sar Kheng and national police commissioner Neth Savoeun had planned the operation days in advance. “The secession allegations are a very transparent pretext, and not a very persuasive one, to justify the unlawful use of the military against civilians,” Pung Chhiv Kek, president of human rights group Licadho, said in a statement. “Are we to believe that a few hundred villagers armed with sticks and crossbows are trying to start their own country? The more reasonable explanation is that they simply want to farm their own land.” …