[Human Rights] Party Urges King's Help in Border Crisis

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
24 July 2008

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Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha has asked King Norodom Sihamoni to consider intervening in the ongoing border crisis at Preah Vihear temple.

"We believe that only Your Majesty can solve the issue, because the royal families of the two countries have a good relationship, and have no political interests or partisanship," Kem Sokha wrote in a letter to Sihamoni.

Kem Sokha sent the letter following failed bilateral negotiations Monday and an impending UN Security Council meeting over a situation Cambodia has called "an imminent state of war."

Royal spokesman Oum Daravuth declined to comment on the letter, but said "we all" should join the government to solve the issue of sovereignty, not political gain.

CPP Village Chief Blocks Forum, Party Claims

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
23 January 2008

A ruling party village chief moved to block a scheduled political meeting by the Human Rights Party last week, officials said Wednesday.

The Human Rights Party was meeting to rally political support in Chhouk district, Kampot province, ahead of national elections in July.

Local authorities moved to block party officials from entering the village, said Sen Sov, a Human Rights Party official in Kampot.

“They said if we dare to hold any political meeting, they will dare to arrest us,” Sen Sov said. “My activists are worried and afraid of the arrest, as they would suffer in prison.”

Chey Sena Village Chief Chek Eng declined involvement in threats, but said in order to hold such meetings need permission.

“I didn’t threaten,” he said. “I don’t have a problem; just do it, but I ask that you have permission.”

The Human Rights Party has been blocked from a series of scheduled public meetings in recent weeks, by what it calls political intimidation.

Any prohibition of such activity is against electoral law, said Chhin Savuth, a rights investigator for the Cambodian Human Rights Center.