The Phnom Penh Post
POLICE and military police used guns and electric batons to drive roughly 100 villagers in Kampong Cham province from 41 hectares of disputed rice fields yesterday, injuring three in the process, villagers and rights workers said.
Chear Thearith, deputy police chief in Stung Trang district, where the altercation occurred, said the police and military police had been hired by the Long Sreng Company, a firm that has been trying to develop the site into a rubber plantation since April.
“The police were hired by the company,” Chear Thearith said. He had not arrived at the site in time to witness the altercation himself, he said.
“When I reached there, everything was finished already, so I don’t know much about this case,” Chear Thearith said.
We were working on our farmland, but [police and military police] did not allow us to do this.
No Almath, a 29-year-old villager who witnessed the incident, said two elderly women and a 24-year-old man suffered bruises and other minor injuries at the hands of police, who he said had tried to convince about 100 villagers to stop cultivating the disputed land and leave the area.
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