Police in Cambodia arrested at least eight people yesterday for painting messages on their homes near the capital’s airport asking for help from US President Barack Obama because they face eviction before he visits the country next week.
The villages involved around the perimeter of the airport in Phnom Penh are home to 182 families.
Residents said they were told in July they had to move out because of security concerns when world leaders, including Obama, fly in to attend summit meetings in coming days. They have not been offered compensation for the loss of their homes.
Photo: Reuters
Armed police moved into the villages on Wednesday night and residents were told to remove the messages they had painted beside pictures of Obama or face the consequences, a worker for rights group Licadho said.
At least six women and two men had been taken into custody, Licadho and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said. Cambodian police declined comment.
“I put up the picture of Obama because I want him to help us get fair compensation from the government,” resident Chuong Socheata, 33, said. “And that’s because the government has no plans to solve this peacefully.”
Forced evictions have been rife in Cambodia in recent years and are frequently criticized by rights groups, even if the authorities may have legitimate security concerns in this case about buildings so close to the airport.
Only about 20 percent of Cambodians have land titles — a hangover from the Khmer Rouge’s abolition of private property during its 1975 to 1979 reign of terror — leaving many defenseless when the authorities hand their land over to big companies for development.
The World Bank, which had been helping the Cambodian government rebuild a land registry, froze fresh aid to the country last year because of the eviction of families in Phnom Penh.
International rights groups met US officials last week to try to get Obama to bring up rights issues with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen during his trip. They did not come away with high hopes of any public statement.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese