Envoy Yash Ghai said the humanrights situation has not fundamentally improved in Cambodia. (Photo: HKU)UN human rights envoy wants to return to Cambodia
Yash Ghai says he wants to go back to Cambodia to continue his work despite opposition by the Cambodian Prime minister.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – United Nations human rights envoy Yash Ghai said he wants to go back to Cambodia to complete his mandate despite demands by Cambodian Prime minister Hun Sen he be fired.
Mr Hun Sen said that he won’t meet Mr Ghai since the UN envoy suggested he ran the country with an iron fist and was driving it into the ground and poverty. He warned Mr Ghai that should he come back he would be ignored by the authorities.
“Mr Ghai has accused me of using an iron fist to violate the independence of the courts. What he said is wrong. He should not give me advice,” Hun Sen said.
Cambodia’s PM also described the United Nations human rights panel and its special representative as “long-term tourists” and called Professor Ghai “totally deranged”, asking UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to fire him as a special envoy.
“Kofi Annan should remove him. He knows nothing [about Cambodia],” Hun Sen said.
Mr Ghai said on Tuesday that “one individual” continued to control all the levers of power in Cambodia despite its gradual recovery from the Khmer Rouge era.
“I have been quite struck by the enormous centralization of power, not in the government but in one individual,” he told reporters. “That’s not really a precondition under which human rights can flourish”.
What is more, “I am appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations under an agreement that was endorsed by the Security Council and, indeed, all the particular factions in Cambodia,” Ghai said. “So I have all these obligations to report and therefore I will have to go back.”
Yash Ghai says he wants to go back to Cambodia to continue his work despite opposition by the Cambodian Prime minister.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – United Nations human rights envoy Yash Ghai said he wants to go back to Cambodia to complete his mandate despite demands by Cambodian Prime minister Hun Sen he be fired.
Mr Hun Sen said that he won’t meet Mr Ghai since the UN envoy suggested he ran the country with an iron fist and was driving it into the ground and poverty. He warned Mr Ghai that should he come back he would be ignored by the authorities.
“Mr Ghai has accused me of using an iron fist to violate the independence of the courts. What he said is wrong. He should not give me advice,” Hun Sen said.
Cambodia’s PM also described the United Nations human rights panel and its special representative as “long-term tourists” and called Professor Ghai “totally deranged”, asking UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to fire him as a special envoy.
“Kofi Annan should remove him. He knows nothing [about Cambodia],” Hun Sen said.
Mr Ghai said on Tuesday that “one individual” continued to control all the levers of power in Cambodia despite its gradual recovery from the Khmer Rouge era.
“I have been quite struck by the enormous centralization of power, not in the government but in one individual,” he told reporters. “That’s not really a precondition under which human rights can flourish”.
What is more, “I am appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations under an agreement that was endorsed by the Security Council and, indeed, all the particular factions in Cambodia,” Ghai said. “So I have all these obligations to report and therefore I will have to go back.”
2 comments:
How can we be a country if we agree with bodies outside of Cambodia on everything from human rights to how aid should get across to the poverty stricken and sick? It was the U.N. who let Hun Sen come into power without ever using their peace keeping forces when Funcenpic was elected as the ruling party! The U.N. and UNTAC is a big hypocrite.
While I agree that the UN's track record in Cambodia is mixed at best, I also believe that Ghai's work is important and a meaningful contribution to the advancement of human rights in Cambodia. Surely one would like to see more Cambodian institutions contributing towards that end but sadly, many of these mechanism and institutions are missing or dysfunctional, such as independent courts or human rights commisions and a professional buerocracy.
Stefan
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