Land dispute demonstration in Siem Reap (Photo: RFA)October 21 2009
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok
Financial Times (UK)
“There is no country among Asean nations that has a positive human rights trend at the moment ... There is lip service to free speech but the reality on the ground is very different” - Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights WatchA law passed on Wednesday by Cambodia’s legislature limiting the size of demonstrations is the latest example of rising intolerance in south-east Asia, say advocates of free speech.
Cambodia’s parliament, which is dominated by the Cambodian People’s party of Hun Sen, prime minister, passed the law limiting public demonstrations to 200 people to ensure “public order and national security”.
Public demonstrations are popular in Cambodia. The opposition, outnumbered comprehensively in parliament, uses them but they are also a last resort for farmers and slum-dwellers who say they are victims in land disputes with developers and powerful allies of the government.
Mu Sochua, an opposition MP, said: “It is limiting freedom of assembly and that will severely limit freedom of expression.”
The MP recently lost a libel case against Mr Hun Sen in a contentious court decision.
Human rights advocates have long accused Mr Hun Sen and his administration of using the courts to stifle opposition, a charge that the government denies, saying it is using universally available legal remedies to protect its reputation.
The parliament in Phnom Penh altered the penal code last week to make it easier to bring libel actions.
UN human rights observers were not allowed to attend the debate because of procedural problems in the admission of visitors, according to the ruling party, and a live television feed broke down because of technical hitches.
Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the Cambodian laws were only the latest in a worrying regional trend, something he said is paradoxical given that the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations is to launch its intergovernmental commission on human rights this week.
“There is no country among Asean nations that has a positive human rights trend at the moment,” he said. “There is lip service to free speech but the reality on the ground is very different.”
Reporters Without Borders has downgraded neighbouring Thailand in its survey on freedom of the press to 130th in the world, from 124th, as the result of renewed use of laws against insulting the royal family, which can carry a 15-year prison sentence.
Vietnam came under fire this month after nine democracy activists were given prison sentences of between two and six years for challenging the regime.
10 comments:
Was Hun Sen stuck in the Kindergarten school? "Deforestration does not cause climate change", what an incompetent and uneducate leader.
He should commit suicide right now. It ashames to have leader with a peanut brain.
If any journalist out there read my comment, please have Hun Sen explain the Water Cycle. And maybe then he would comprehend the the Climate Change, IT'S NOT RICH COUNTRIES WITH MOTOR VEHICLES!
EARTH IS THE ONLY PLANET WITH LIFE AND EVERYTHING ON THIS ROCK IS INTERDEPENDENT.
Hun Sen and Family of Thieves needed to get out of the Cave into the modern world.
These wild people deserve to be evicted. They settled in illegally. They used force again authorities.
8:40 AM
U have to use your education to win Hun Sen first before you can teach him a lesson, lol...
Brad Adams said:
Hun Sen has nothing in ECCC.
Only the poor's anger that can defeat the rich, just as the Khmer Rouge defeated the Republican. Now it is time to start the second revolutionary when the poor cannot bear the pressure.
Robbing lands by manipulative power is legal, isn't it?
You have to be stupid to hide all these facts.
concerns
Samloat riots soon will be repeated!
No one can win Hun Sun becasue he is a person who get more powerful in Cambodia,if you want said something you will stay at jail and your family no life, no home, no land to live,. :-(
Demonstration is limited to 200 people? This is called democracy Hun Sen's style. Unlike Thailand which allowed demonstration to be staged against the government, Cambodia under Hun Sen never allow demontration at all. Remember when Viet Premier visited Cambodia a year ago some Khmers request a permit to demonstration against the Viets Premier for his government's oppression against Khmer Krom. The Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokeperson said that people can do it but it has to be done at the workplaces or homes only and not on the streets. Never in the world history a government of a country encourage its people to demonstrate from workplaces or homes. Naive government.
Ah Kwack hun sen tries to abolish Democracy in Cambodia. Remember!!!Khmers, if you let ah kwack get his way. Cambodia soon will be Khmer Krom under ah Youn evil.
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