Original report from Phnom Penh and Washington
23 December 2009
Cambodia received nearly a billion dollars from Beijing the day after it deported Uighur asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said, claiming China had pressured the country to violate its international agreements.
Twenty Muslim Uighurs were flown out of Cambodia on Saturday, a day before the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who praised the government for its decision and offered a $1.2 billion aid package.
“When a member of the Security Council so flagrantly pressures another country to violate its international obligations, it’s a matter of concern not just for a handful of asylum seekers, but for the world,” Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Tuesday.
The destination of the 20 Uighurs, who had applied for asylum with UNHCR, is not known. Two remain at large in Cambodia and are being sought by authorities.
“The Chinese government must be pressed as hard as possible to announce the location of the returnees, to allow access to members of the international diplomatic community, and to release them unless it produces credible evidence to show that each one committed acts that could be described as criminal in light of international standards,” Adams said.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak dismissed the Human Rights Watch statement.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told the Cambodia Daily Wednesday UNHCR had a role in the deportation. The agency “kept the Uighurs for nearly one month and did not send them to another country,” the newspaper quoted him saying. “Two or three days would have been enough time.”
However, Adams put the responsibility with Prime Minister Hun Sen.
“Hun Sen’s action makes a mockery of Cambodia’s commitment to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to protect people who have a justified fear of persecution or torture on return,” Adams said.
Twenty Muslim Uighurs were flown out of Cambodia on Saturday, a day before the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who praised the government for its decision and offered a $1.2 billion aid package.
“When a member of the Security Council so flagrantly pressures another country to violate its international obligations, it’s a matter of concern not just for a handful of asylum seekers, but for the world,” Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Tuesday.
The destination of the 20 Uighurs, who had applied for asylum with UNHCR, is not known. Two remain at large in Cambodia and are being sought by authorities.
“The Chinese government must be pressed as hard as possible to announce the location of the returnees, to allow access to members of the international diplomatic community, and to release them unless it produces credible evidence to show that each one committed acts that could be described as criminal in light of international standards,” Adams said.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak dismissed the Human Rights Watch statement.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told the Cambodia Daily Wednesday UNHCR had a role in the deportation. The agency “kept the Uighurs for nearly one month and did not send them to another country,” the newspaper quoted him saying. “Two or three days would have been enough time.”
However, Adams put the responsibility with Prime Minister Hun Sen.
“Hun Sen’s action makes a mockery of Cambodia’s commitment to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to protect people who have a justified fear of persecution or torture on return,” Adams said.
3 comments:
It's time for the Cambodian gov't to point finger.
Once again, the Cambodian gov't failed miserably.
The Cambodian govt deport them with absentia of court preceding. They'd failed to seek the status of their warrant and went ahead and deport them against the UNHCR request.
We Americans say enough is enough! Let's check off Cambodia from our list of Foreign Aids Donation.
Leave Cambodia to either swim or sink.
It´s hard to condem hun Sen for deporting the Uighurs.
Why didn´t those people go to the neighboring muslim Countries?
They already know that Cambodia is not a safe heaven, that Hun Sen is a dictator, a Kleptocrat...
Between Billions of Dollars from China and the Uighurs who give you only problems, Which one is the BEST?
I hat Hun Sen, but in this case I agree with him.
.......and that money is benefiting whom? Exchange money for human life? You need to re-assess your thought.
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