Police Beatings, Arrests as Lake Resident Protest

(All Photos: CEN)

Residents refuse to take a buyout from the company that they say is too low.

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer

Phnom Penh Thursday, 21 April 2011

“The arrests of children and beatings of elderly women represent a new low in what has already been a hard-fought land conflict.”

Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake development were violently dispersed by riot police outside City Hall Thursday, marking an escalation in their prolonged protest against eviction.

At least 11 demonstrators were arrested and four were injured in police beatings, as around 100 residents gathered to demand a meeting with city officials over their impending eviction from a development site.

More than 100 riot police stormed into the gathered crowd on Thursday morning, hitting protesters with batons and shocking them, while arresting nine women and two underage boys.

“The police beat me with a baton on my head, causing bleeding, and on my right hand, causing swelling,” Ngeth Khun, a 71-year-old resident told VOA Khmer after the incident. “I came here to protest and protect my house, but the police come and beat me like this. I am old. I have no power to fight back against the police.”