The United Nations' rights office in Cambodia is
investigating the case of a local man who has been missing since the
day after he was arrested in northern Preah Vihear province in late
January, the office's country representative said on Wednesday.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
carried out a fact-finding mission earlier this month "with respect
to one man who is missing since 21 January after being arrested...the
day before," Simon Walker, OHCHR Representative, said in an email.
The missing person, Sum Meun, 54, has been accused by the government
of illegal logging and fleeing custody.
Meun was a main community representative in an ongoing land conflict
between hundreds of families and a company granted an 8,000-hectare
land concession, which includes a rubber plantation, local rights
group Licadho told dpa.
Meun "has now gone missing for over a month," said Naly Piliorge,
Licadho's director.
"The arrest took place as conflicts between
locals and the company had been worsening."
The day before he went missing, Meun was "beaten and arrested
alongside his son" by soldiers who were guarding the concession
granted to the Metrei Pheap Kase Ousahakam company, Pilorge said.
The soldiers brought the two men to environment officers from the
Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary who detained them overnight. Meun
was last seen in the environment office, Pilorge added.
Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said Meun had fled
custody on January 21 after he and his son were arrested by local
authorities and company security guards a day earlier.
"He is believed to have escaped from the office and his relatives
communicated with him and know that he is in the capital," Pheaktra
said, citing a provincial environment department report.
The Preah Vihear provincial court charged Meun and 14 others - the
latter have been detained pending court proceedings - under the
nation's protected areas law for allegedly felling trees, encroaching
or clearing forest land, the spokesman said.
They face maximum fines of about 62,500 dollars if convicted.
Authorities are appealing for Meun to appear in court, Pheaktra said.
The Environment Ministry granted the Metrei Pheap Kase Ousahakam
company a 8,520-hectare land concession from the Kulen Promtep
Wildlife Sanctuary for a term of 70 years in 2012 to invest in
rubber, other crops and animal husbandry, according to
OpenDevelopment Cambodia's website.
A company representative could not be immediately reached for
comment.
Land conflicts between villagers, private companies and politically
connected tycoons have been a lingering problem in the aftermath of
Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which eliminated individual
property rights and land titles in the 1970s.
Some 1.7 million people
died from starvation, torture, execution and forced labour under the
regime.
Defence Ministry spokesman General Chhum Sucheat told dpa that the
government was "very worried" about the event that occurred in Preah
Vihear, but it was not the ministry's duty to investigate.
Sucheat said Meun's relatives should file a complaint with local
authorities.
International / US/Latin America
UN investigating case of Cambodian man missing since January arrest
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) carried out a fact-finding mission earlier this month