NGO Workers Blocked, Detained

[geovalin]

Seven civil society organizations criticized the government yesterday after a working group was harassed by provincial authorities and blocked from making a video about a land dispute in Sangkum Thmey village in Pursat province. The Pursat provincial hall claimed they did not detain the members of the working group and only questioned them because they wanted to “strengthen management and protection of natural resources.”
 

Civil society groups, they said, were trying to distort information about simple “administrative measures” and were accusing the provincial government “of covering a bad purpose.” They wrote in a statement that civil society groups wanted to “incite people and cause chaos” under the guise of human rights protection.
 

Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) staff member Buth Vanndy and three film producers were hired by international NGO ActionAid Cambodia to make a video and interview local residents affected by forced evictions and agro-industrial development projects operated by timber tycoon Try Pheap, according to a statement released on Saturday by the seven civil society organizations involved. The four were stopped at a checkpoint in Veal Veng district and authorities said filming in the area was banned, despite no existing ban on filming.

 

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