Speak Truth To Power Series in KI-Media - Martin O’Brien (Northern Ireland) “Human Rights in the Midst of Conflict”

Speak Truth To Power Series in KI-Media - Martin O’Brien (Northern Ireland) “Human Rights in the Midst of C...
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Response from Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheál Martin

Letter to Irish Foreign Affairs Minister

Micheál Martin, TD,
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Dáil Éireann,
Leinster House,
Kildare St.,
Dublin 2.

14th October 2010

Dear Minister,

I am writing to you about the Cambodian politician Sam Rainsy. He is leader of the main opposition party in Cambodia.

I attach a copy of recent correspondence from Mr. Rainsy which outlines the continuous and ongoing unfair and questionable treatment he has been subjected to, apparently due to his criticism of corruption and human rights abuses. As you will see from the attached correspondence, he has the support of many international human rights and democracy organisations. The most recent obstruction by the Cambodian Government is to sentence Mr. Rainsy to 15years in prison.

I am writing to you, Minister, to ask that you consider the correspondence and take the time to express, to the Camboidan Government, your unhappiness and concern at Mr. Rainsy’s treatment.

I believe it is critical that you use your position as Foreign Affairs Minister to convey such feelings/opinions to foreign Governments and to make it clear that this type of politics is unacceptable. It would be a small but vitally important gesture on by the Irish Government. However, it is only by making it clear that such behaviour has no place in international democratic politics that any changes might occur.

Minister, I would be grateful for a response and indication of your proposed action on this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Senator Joe O’Toole.
Enclosure

Cambodia: Selling The Killing Fields

What's On the Box this week?

Wednesday, 18th March, 2009
Excerpt from The Meath Chronicle (Ireland)

'Cambodia: Selling The Killing Fields’ (Channel 4, Friday) - This week’s 'Unreported World’ reveals how, 30 years on from the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and at the same time as Pol Pot’s accomplices are put on trial for war crimes, Cambodia’s people are once again being brutally driven from their land. This time, however, it is capitalism, not communism, that is displacing them as growing numbers of tourists fuel a property boom that is having devastating results.