US Congressmen Eni Faleomavaega (left) and Mike Honda field questions Thursday during their three-day visit to Cambodia. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)Friday, 08 January 2010
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
A VISITING delegation of three American congressmen met Thursday with Prime Minister Hun Sen, during which they offered encouragement for the Kingdom’s business community while also raising concerns over the government’s controversial deportation of a group of Chinese Uighur asylum-seekers last month.
Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Mike Honda of California and Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting Congressional delegate from American Samoa, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam.
The discussion with Hun Sen, Faleomavaega said, focused largely on financial concerns. Cambodian garment manufacturers are currently seeking duty-free access to the United States, the largest market for Cambodian exports. Government officials, meanwhile, want the US to cancel US$300 million in debt accrued during the Lon Nol era.
Though the congressmen made no specific commitments, the three men – members of the US Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus – said they would advocate on Cambodia’s behalf when they returned to Washington.
“In studying the history of the debt, it seems like it’s something that we as a caucus can deal with in Congress ourselves,” Honda said during a press conference following the meeting.
The discussion with Hun Sen also touched briefly, Faleomavaega said, on Cambodia’s controversial deportation of the 20 Uighur Chinese back to China last month, where activists say the group may face arrest or persecution in connection with riots between Uighurs and ethnic Chinese last July.
“The feeling of the international community is that they will likely be executed if they were to return to China, and this has been our very serious concern,” Faleomavaega said.
The US State Department released a statement last month saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which came just days before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and senior Cambodian officials signed 14 economic aid agreements totalling US$1.2 billion, adding that it would “affect Cambodia’s relationship with the US and its international standing”.
Cao questioned whether China had “imperialistic intents”, while Faleomavaega noted the country’s “tremendous influence” in the region, acknowledging questions about the timing of the aid package.
“I don’t know if this was a quid pro quo ... but a lot of people would take that as there seems to be a connection,” he said, adding that the Cambodian government deserved the chance to publicly explain its decision to the international community.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA
Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Mike Honda of California and Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting Congressional delegate from American Samoa, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam.
The discussion with Hun Sen, Faleomavaega said, focused largely on financial concerns. Cambodian garment manufacturers are currently seeking duty-free access to the United States, the largest market for Cambodian exports. Government officials, meanwhile, want the US to cancel US$300 million in debt accrued during the Lon Nol era.
Though the congressmen made no specific commitments, the three men – members of the US Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus – said they would advocate on Cambodia’s behalf when they returned to Washington.
“In studying the history of the debt, it seems like it’s something that we as a caucus can deal with in Congress ourselves,” Honda said during a press conference following the meeting.
The discussion with Hun Sen also touched briefly, Faleomavaega said, on Cambodia’s controversial deportation of the 20 Uighur Chinese back to China last month, where activists say the group may face arrest or persecution in connection with riots between Uighurs and ethnic Chinese last July.
“The feeling of the international community is that they will likely be executed if they were to return to China, and this has been our very serious concern,” Faleomavaega said.
The US State Department released a statement last month saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which came just days before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and senior Cambodian officials signed 14 economic aid agreements totalling US$1.2 billion, adding that it would “affect Cambodia’s relationship with the US and its international standing”.
Cao questioned whether China had “imperialistic intents”, while Faleomavaega noted the country’s “tremendous influence” in the region, acknowledging questions about the timing of the aid package.
“I don’t know if this was a quid pro quo ... but a lot of people would take that as there seems to be a connection,” he said, adding that the Cambodian government deserved the chance to publicly explain its decision to the international community.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA
5 comments:
Cambodia will be the next battle fields of the fourth Indochina war.
The westward of Ho Chi Minh dreamed come true, the next vietnam
moves will be Thailand, which surrounded by Myamay, Laos and Cambodia.
This stupid king has killed its own nation by having to listen to the chinese's dictatorship Chairman Moa. Little did this stupid king know that the chineses were only pretenting to be nice to him by treating him like their king such as building a house for him and called him brother but behind his back they stabbed him by telling him to kill his own people even from the craddle and the aim was to eliminate khmer in order to take their land as chinese population increases. So, the best we can do right now is to learn from this dark path and avoid these things from ever happening again. We must create amonument to remember them and show them that their death are not invine. The world has learnt from this and has come to term with their death and hopefully we will be smarter and better than before. The answer to these are in the Bible, 'love one another as i have loved love' 'treat others just like you want to be treated' Jesus said. All gov't around the world have used the Bible as a guideline to run their country. So, Khmer gov't need to learn to adapt with this new way of life, that is, do the right thing for the righteous will live forever and the wicked will be terminated as said in "Proverbs". And about deporting people, this is wrong! everywhere has human right approaches why not khmer? kh need to learn to protect the most vulnerable people just like other who have helped all other khmer around the world! therefore be kind and try to do the same just like they did. k. intellegent
The 3 American are so crazy!!!
That is China against USA cold war.
Myanmar with China.
Thailand with USA.
Vietnam with USA.
Cambodia with China or USA ?
If Cambodia is with China,
USA will allow Vietname and Thailand to divide Cambodia in 2 parts. Half for Vietnam and another for Thailand.
Poor Cambodia.
Seeing that as the real possibility 1:22am, what would China do to save Cambodia? Nothing, may be $ 1.2b which is good for nothing except big government's private bank account.
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