Losing Ground - Human Rights Party.

Losing Ground
“What law did I break?”
A monk who compiled videos and photographs of a violent
crackdown on farmers’ attempting to harvest rice on disputed
land in Siem Reap province, as well as the aftermath, faced
intense pressure from district police to turn over his VCDs.
Venerable monk Sovath Loun (whose older brother and
nephew were shot during the March 22 crackdown: the former
in the left knee and shoulder and the latter in both thighs) said
that at one point during his negotiations with district police
they warned him that if he did not turn over his videos and
photographs the military might storm his pagoda in Chi Kraeng
district, Siem Reap, to seize them.
The videos and photographs, including many of gaping
wounds and doctors trying to treat them, as well as bleeding
farmers beaten unconscious and tied together in rows, were
first shown to about 20 monks, nuns
and laypersons at Sleng Pagoda in
Chi Kraeng district on March 29,
2009. The videos blend footage of the
crackdown taken by one farmer (who
had hidden a video-equipped cellphone
under his hat) with the monk’s
cell-phone video footage from the
hospital, a Khmer-language radio
report that had been broadcast on
Voice of America, as well as his own
text and photos.
The first of several police officers
to visit the pagoda arrived on March
30, the monk said. The officer had
been instructed by the district chief
of police to find out how many VCDs
had been made and to take them,
Sovath Loun said.
“I asked the officer ‘what law did
I break?’” he recalled. He broke the
silence that ensued by enquiring
further, “Do you want to borrow it or
do you want to take it?”
“This is my property. I have not edited it. It is real, not fake.
If you want to borrow it you can, but if you want to take it
you can’t,” he added. The officer opted to relay the choice to
his superiors, the monk said. Over the next few days several
officers and district officials visited him at the pagoda and the
district hospital. They told him to stop taking photos of the
injured farmers, turn over his VCD and, during the second
visit to the pagoda, asked him to sign a letter pledging not to
disseminate the images, the monk said. He replied by saying
they could have the VCD if they signed a letter promising to
resolve the land dispute and bring those who shot the four
farmers to justice.
“If you don’t give us the VCD you might have to deal with the
military,” Sovath Loun quoted an officer as warning him. “The
military might attack the pagoda to seize it,” the officer told
him. “What law did I break?” the monk asked again.
The next day the district governor arrived at the pagoda and
sent a layman to ask the monk to turn over the VCD, Sovath Loun
said. He gave one to him, but by this time he had distributed
about 100 copies throughout surrounding villages and had widely
transmitted the videos and images via cell phone, while the one
from the farmer was uploaded onto the Internet by human rights
organizations based in Phnom Penh.
The next day he left his pagoda and went to Phnom Penh. “My
heart was too heavy to remain in Siem Reap. I came here to try
to regain my peace of mind,” he explained at Ounalum Pagoda.
Sovath Loun said he has been struggling to regain his peace of
mind at the pagoda, especially after he was instructed to order
the about 100 farmers from his district who sought refuge with
him to leave the temple and return to
Siem Reap on April 10.
The order came from an
official who identified himself as a
representative of the government
and the Supreme Patriarch, he said.
The official arrived at the pagoda in a
silver Lexus at about 7am on April 10,
told the monk to stop providing food
and shelter to the Chi Kreang farmers
and tell them to return to Siem Reap
that day, Sovath Loun said.
The official told him the farmers
were damaging the image of the
government, the reputation of the
Supreme Patriarch and the order of
the Pagoda, Sovath Loun said.
During the 30 minute conversation
that ensued, he tried to explain to
the official that his claim that the
farmers were “disturbing the pagoda”
was false. “I kept telling him that no
monks had complained while the
farmers stayed at the pagoda,” he said.
“Instead, I told him we were giving them food and blessings. We
felt great sorrow for them.”
The official could not be swayed and after he drove off in his
silver Lexus the monk had to tell the panicked farmers to leave
the pagoda.
By mid afternoon all but four had left to return to Siem Reap in
crowded minivan-taxis that cost 10,000 riel ($2.50) per person.
Monks paid for those who could not afford tickets, Sovath Loun
said.
“There is no truth in [state-run] media,” Sovath Loun said,
explaining his motivation for compiling and disseminating
videos. “Soldiers and police have guns for protecting people not
shooting them,” Sovath Loun said calmly, before beginning his
evening meditation. Two days later he left the pagoda to paint
murals on the inner walls of another pagoda in the countryside.
48 Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia