Cambodian [women] land protesters begin jail hunger strike

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Associated Press – The Seattle Times – Friday, 15 June 2012 (originally published 11 Jun)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Four Cambodian women imprisoned for protesting their eviction from the land where their homes once stood have begun a hunger strike, a rights group said Monday.

They are among 13 women sentenced last month by a Phnom Penh court to two and half years in prison for aggravated rebellion and illegal occupation of land. They claimed the government broke promises to give them new land.

The women were arrested when they tried to rebuild their homes on the land where their houses were demolished by developers in 2010. They lived in Phnom Penh’s Boueng Kak lake area, which the government awarded to a Chinese company to develop a hotel, office buildings and luxury houses . . .

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