Cambodia: Crackdown on youth environmental defenders
Long Kunthea (22), Phuon Keoraksmey (19), and Thun Ratha (29) - have been imprisoned in Phnom Penh since their arbitrary arrest in September 2020. In May 2021, they were sentenced to between 18 and 20 months in prison for seeking to protest government plans to fill and privatize a major lake in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The three were arrested soon after publicly announcing a plan to undertake a two-person march to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house to express concerns regarding plans to privatize and develop Boeung Tamok lake, Phnom Penh’s largest remaining lake.
Long Kunthea and Phuon Keoraksmey were sentenced to 18 months in prison for “incitement to commit a felony or disturb social order” under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code and fined 4 million riel each (approximately $1,000 USD). Thun Ratha was sentenced to 20 months under the same charges and also fined 4 million riel.
Sun Ratha (26), Ly Chandaravuth (22) and Yim Leanghy (32) were arrested on June 16, 2021 while two of them were investigating river pollution in the Tonle Sap river in Phnom Penh. On Monday 21 June, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Investigating Judge Im Vannak confirmed that Sun Ratha and Yim Leanghy were charged with both “plotting” and “insulting the King”, under articles 453 and 437 (bis) of the Cambodian Criminal Code, which carry maximum prison sentences of 10 years and 5 years, respectively, while Ly Chandaravuth was charged with “plotting” only. Yim Leanghy and Ly Chandaravuth were sent to pre-trial detention in CC1 prison and Sun Ratha was sent to CC2 prison.
These activists are all affiliated with environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia, a prominent campaign group which has won several major environmental victories. Using a combination of community mobilization, direct action and public awareness raising, in 2015 they successfully convinced the Cambodian authorities to drop plans to build a major hydroelectric dam in Cambodia’s Areng Valley, which had gravely threatened local Indigenous communities.
In 2016, their work to expose widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses linked to the mining and export of sand from coastal areas of Cambodia led to yet another major victory – a total export ban on coastal sand announced by the Cambodian government.
Mother Nature Cambodia activists have faced a litany of repression in recent years, with many activists arbitrarily charged and imprisoned. Several of its activists have been imprisoned on baseless criminal charges of “incitement”. The group has been accused of “causing chaos in society” and characterized as “illegal” by Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior because it is not registered under Cambodia’s notorious NGO Law.