Is Cambodia the criminal haven it once was? (Part 2)

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is inspected by a security guard at Phnom Penh International Airport earlier this month. Photograph supplied

Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Stuart White
The Phnom Penh Post

The Cambodian government has often come under fire from rights groups for alleged pay-for-play deportations, thanks to certain soft loans and aid packages coming immediately before or after high-profile arrests.

In 2009, for example, the government cancelled the asylum proceedings of 20 ethnic Uighurs, and summarily extradited them to China. Two days later, China agreed to US$1.2 billion in economic aid for Cambodia.

Last June, China granted Cambodia US$430 million in loans on the same day Cambodia arrested and initiated extradition proceedings against Patrick Devillers, the French architect wanted in China in relation to the Bo Xilai scandal. Devillers, however, was never formally extradited, choosing instead to go to China willingly to serve as a witness in the case.

Even more recently, Cambodian and Swedish officials denied insinuations that a US$57 million loan made on September 5 was related to the deportation of Pirate Bay founder Svartholm Warg five days later. Sweden said at the time that the loans were approved before the extradition proceedings began.

Siphan called the allegations untrue and unfair.

“Why don’t we accuse other countries of doing this?” he asked.

Siphan also suggested that the rise in deportations is simply an example of technology catching up to the government’s good intentions, with new passport-tracking devices making it easier to spot incoming criminals.

However, these devices didn’t help officials block the entry of Nishizawa, the accused Japanese thief, who entered the country in July despite having his passport invalidated by the Japanese government in 2011.

Political analyst Lao Mong Hay noted Cambodia’s apparent laxness in visa enforcement.

“Especially people from developed countries, they can enter without any restrictions, so we are too open. People tend to abuse [that],” he said. “So we see criminals coming in and out.”

However, Mong Hay added, recent deportations are not indicative of a sea change in Cambodia’s culture of impunity, but rather the direct result of foreign governments’ influence.

“You see the pressure from those countries that are concerned, not from inside Cambodia,” he said, noting many deportations, such as that of the Uighurs, failed to follow due process of law.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay expressed similar views on Cambodia’s attractiveness to fugitives.

“I think it has become normal for the fugitives or the criminals to find a country which is corrupt like Cambodia to hide themselves in,” he said.

“They know that they can get away because they can bribe the government officials. They are able to get away from the law by bribing the judge and prosecutors.”

He, too, pointed to the hands of outside actors driving the current spate of deportations.

“Let’s look at these cases,” Chhay said. “The related ministries aren’t doing their job. The countries are making requests and doing their own investigations. We never heard of one [case] where the government was able to do the job, at least in keeping the criminals out of the country.”