Torture 'widespread' in Cambodian custody

November 8, 2010
AFP

Torture remains "widespread" in Cambodian police stations and prisons, local rights groups said on Monday ahead of a major United Nations review of the country's progress on the issue.

Shackling, intimidation, beatings and electric shocks are among the most common complaints, a group of 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said in a joint report.

Most abuses occur in police custody, often with the aim of extracting confessions, the report said.

Cambodian police stations are characterised by "an environment in which torture and other forms of ill-treatment are widespread," said the report by NGOs including ADHOC, Licadho and the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee.

Torture is also frequently used to punish transgressions in the country's overcrowded prisons, it added.

The report also accused authorities of denying detainees access to a lawyer during their first 24 hours in custody.

"In Cambodia today, there are still no measures available to effectively prevent acts of torture," said the report.

The strong criticism comes a day before the UN Committee Against Torture is scheduled to hold its second review of the situation in Cambodia, 18 years after the country ratified the Convention Against Torture.

For the first 10 months of this year, human rights group Licadho recorded 101 cases of torture in police stations and prisons.

In 2009, it recorded a total of 108 incidents, most of which took place in police stations. In the same year, rights group ADHOC said nine people died in police detention "apparently as a result of torture".

The abuse goes largely unpunished, the NGOs said.

"We are not aware of any prosecutions of law enforcement officials for torture-related crimes in the past five years," they said.

Their report urged authorities to clarify the definition of torture under Cambodian law and to set up an independent body to investigate complaints.

The report comes less than two weeks after Cambodia threatened to close the UN's human rights office in the capital.

Prime Minister Hun Sen told visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the office should have worked "to help the Cambodian government in human rights issues, not criticise", a government spokesman said.

Abuse, Rape Await Sex Workers in Detention: Human Rights Watch

The 76-page report, “Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses Against Sex Workers in Cambodia,” is based on interviews with women and transgendered prostitutes in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap.

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 20 July 2010

“In several instances, police officers raped sex workers while they were in police detention."

Sex workers are facing unlawful arrests and abuse by police and other authorities in government detention, Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday.

Citing interviews with 90 different sex workers, the international organization said the women face rape, physical abuse and robbery at the hands of authorities—charges a government spokesman denied.

“The Cambodian government should order a prompt and thorough investigation into these systematic violations of sex workers' human rights and shut down the centers where these people have been abused,” Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said.

The 76-page report, “Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses Against Sex Workers in Cambodia,” is based on interviews with women and transgendered prostitutes in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Siem Reap.

Sex workers are regularly arrested in sweeps of streets and parks and other sites under a 2008 anti-trafficking law that ill-defines crimes and allows the abuses to occur, the group said. Human Rights Watch found that even members of the anti-trafficking unit were culpable in some abuses.

“Sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police officers beat them with their fists, sticks, wooden handles and electric shock batons,” the group said in a statement. “In several instances, police officers raped sex workers while they were in police detention. Every sex worker that Human Rights Watch spoke to had to pay bribes or had money stolen from them by police officers.”

The group also pointed to “abysmal” conditions in the government center called Prey Speu, where it says at least three people were beaten to death between 2006 and 2008 and where a few sex workers have been detained this year. The center is a collecting point for marginalized groups such as street children, homeless and sex workers.

“The Cambodian government should immediately and permanently close down detention centers such as Prey Speu, where people are being unlawfully detained, beaten up and abused,” Pearson said in a statement. “Prosecuting those who commit these crimes will send a strong message that abuses against sex workers are not tolerated.”

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, denied the reports' findings.

“The sex trade is an illegal business in Cambodia, but our authorities do not use violence to suppress the sex trade,” he said.

Detained sex workers are kept in “social affairs centers” run by the government, where they are trained for “proper professions,” he said.

“If Human Rights Watch directly raises the names of police who committed crimes against sex workers, we will be happy to receive it,” he said. “But we regard the Human Rights Watch report as an accusation against the police that is not factual nor constructive criticism.”

He called the report an act of “defamation” against the government.

Cambodian police abuse sex workers: rights group

Tue Jul 20, 2010

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian police and social workers have beat, extorted and raped sex workers after taking them into their custody, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, adding foreign governments could do more to stop such abuse.

"From beginning to end, those people who should really be protecting sex workers from violence and other abuses are in fact the ones who are harming them," Elaine Pearson, acting director of Asia Human Rights Watch, told a news conference.

Quoting victims, the rights group said in a report that police often abused sex workers arrested during regular sweeps of the streets and parks in the capital, Phnom Penh, following the enactment of an anti-human-trafficking law in 2008.

It called on the government to close down certain detention centers where drug users, beggars, street children, homeless people and sex workers had all been illegally detained.

And it urged foreign donors to review funding to the police and Social Affairs Ministry.

"Donors should not spend their money on abusive officials but instead take steps that will promote accountability from the Cambodian government," Pearson said.

Cambodian police spokesman Kirth Chantharith told Reuters he had not read the report and could not comment.

Lim El Djurado, a Social Affairs Ministry spokesman, said the allegations against his ministry were false, adding government centers did not house sex workers and officials did not abuse them.

"There are no sex workers at our centers. The centers are for the homeless," Lim El Djurado said, adding that prostitutes had in fact been sent to non-governmental organizations for vocational training after police round-ups.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Alan Raybould)

HRW Says Cambodian Officials Abuse Sex Workers

Cambodian sex workers sit on a sidewalk in a street of Phnom Penh (2008 AFP file photo)

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh 20 July 2010

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that the Cambodian government must act to end police abuse against sex workers. A new report by the organization found prostitutes in the country suffer arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, beatings and rape by authorities.

Human Rights says its research was based on interviews with 90 sex workers, in the past year and reveals the problem is particularly acute in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Elaine Pearson is Human Rights Watch's acting Asia director. She says several factors lie behind the unlawful arrest and detention of sex workers and the further abuses that follow detention.

"We found that the 2008 anti-trafficking law somewhat contributes to these abuses because it can provide a pretext for arresting sex workers," she said. "However, we found it can also happen simply because governors order crackdowns against vice and prostitution, periodic efforts to clean up the streets and maintain public order and so on."

Pearson says the government should suspend the provisions in the anti-trafficking law that some police use to arrest sex workers.

Human Rights Watch says the government must distinguish between sex workers and trafficking victims.

It also wants those detention centers where abuses are taking place to be shut down and says sex workers would be better off in facilities run by non-governmental organizations, which it says are better-run than those controlled by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"We don't think that sex workers should be sent to a detention center, where they're at risk of violence, of further abuse. And, really those detention centers are not providing any rehabilitative function at all," said Pearson. "There are plenty of other ways of providing services to sex workers and there are plenty of NGOs and groups that are able to provide that support. So we call on the government to work together with those groups to address these issues."

Human Rights Watch also wants a full investigation into the allegations of abuse by police and other government officials. Pearson says donors - who have provided funding to combat trafficking and to train the police - must play their part, too.

"So we're calling on donors to support these recommendations and to review their funding to the Ministry of Social Affairs and to police until their efforts to investigate these abuses and close the centers," she said.

For its part the government denies that it is unfairly targeting sex workers and says it will investigate allegations of abuse that are submitted to it.

Chou Bun Leng is the secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, in charge of combating trafficking. She says the government wants to hear of such abuses, but it needs complainants to name those deemed guilty, to ensure an effective investigation.

She says the police are subject to the law and will be prosecuted if abuse allegations are substantiated in a court of law.

Rights group urges Cambodia to end sex worker abuse

PHNOM PENH, Tuesday 20 July 2010 (AFP) - Sex workers in Cambodia are routinely unlawfully arrested and taken by police to government detention centres where they face beatings, rape and extortion, a rights group said Tuesday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that interviews with more than 90 female and transgender sex workers in capital Phnom Penh and three Cambodian provinces found they faced regular abuse by authorities.

"For far too long, police and other authorities have unlawfully locked up sex workers, beaten and sexually abused them, and looted their money and other possessions," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"The Cambodian government should order a prompt and thorough independent investigation into these systematic violations of sex workers' human rights and shut down the centres where these people have been abused."

The group's 76-page report said police beat the prostitutes with their fists, sticks, wooden handles and electric shock batons and, in several instances, raped them while they were in detention.

All reported paying bribes or having money stolen by police officers, the report added, while they were held in dismal conditions.

The Cambodian government began prosecuting a new "Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation" in 2008 after years of pressure from the United States to clamp down on sex trafficking.

Since then authorities have conducted brothel raids and street sweeps, but rights groups complain the new law has in many ways worsened exploitation and HRW said police at times use the law to justify harrassment of sex workers.

"The government should go back to the drawing board -- starting first by consulting extensively with sex workers and other groups -- before continuing to implement the provisions which have been abused by police," Pearson said.

Report: Sex workers face array of rights abuses in Cambodia

Tue, 20 Jul 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that sex workers in Cambodia face an array of abuses including beatings, extortion and rape at the hands of the authorities.

Elaine Pearson, HRW's acting Asia director, called on the government to investigate alleged violations and close detention centres where abuses have taken place.

She said donors, which fund anti-trafficking measures and police training, should also get involved.

"Those people who should really be protecting sex workers from violence and other abuses are in fact the ones who are harming them," Pearson said at the launch of the report "Off the Streets."

HRW interviewed more than 90 female and transgender sex workers in Phnom Penh and three other provinces, and said all had either paid bribes to the police or been robbed by them.

The group said the situation in Phnom Penh was particular dire.

"For far too long, police and other authorities have unlawfully locked up sex workers, beaten and sexually abused them, and looted their money and other possessions," Pearson said.

Chou Bun Eng, the secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior in charge of anti-trafficking measures, said the government wanted to hear about specific cases of abuse to allow it to investigate allegations of criminal activity by police.

"If it turns out the same as the complaint, then that means we have to take action," she said.

"But the complaint should directly name the person, because not all policemen do the same. We have to address that (complaint) directly to the person who does something wrong," Chou Bun Eng said.

Pearson said research showed that police routinely use the 2008 anti-trafficking law to justify harassment.

"The government needs to recognize that criminalizing soliciting is a recipe for continuing human rights abuse," Pearson said, adding that the authorities should reconsider the current approach and consult with sex workers and other interested parties.

Pearson said the law's provisions were so broad they could be misused even to criminalize HIV education work.

HRW singled out a Phnom Penh-based detention centre run by the Ministry of Social Affairs for particular criticism, saying conditions there were "abysmal."

The facility, which holds sex workers, homeless people, beggars and street children swept up in sporadic police raids, told how staff had beaten and raped detainees. HRW said witnesses had claimed at least three people had been beaten to death by guards at Prey Speu between 2006-08.

Cambodia: Sex Workers Face Unlawful Arrests and Detention

20 Jul 2010
Source: Human Rights Watch

(Phnom Penh) - The Cambodian government should act quickly to end violence against sex workers and permanently close the government centers where these workers have been unlawfully detained and abused, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch also urged the Cambodian government to suspend provisions in the 2008 Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation that facilitate police harassment and abuses.

Human Rights Watch's 76-page report, "Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia," is based on more than 90 interviews and group discussions with female and transgender sex workers in Phnom Penh, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap. It describes how sex workers face a wide range of abuses, including beatings, extortion, and rape at the hands of authorities, particularly in Phnom Penh.

"For far too long, police and other authorities have unlawfully locked up sex workers, beaten and sexually abused them, and looted their money and other possessions," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Cambodian government should order a prompt and thorough independent investigation into these systematic violations of sex workers' human rights and shut down the centers where these people have been abused."

Police arrest sex workers in regular sweeps on the streets and parks of Phnom Penh. Some of the violence is opportunistic, while other abuses commonly occur in periodic crackdowns and raids by police and district authorities, at times targeting sex workers specifically and other times picking up sex workers along with other groups of marginalized people on the streets.

Police abuse sex workers with impunity. Sex workers told Human Rights Watch that police officers beat them with their fists, sticks, wooden handles, and electric shock batons. In several instances, police officers raped sex workers while they were in police detention. Every sex worker that Human Rights Watch spoke to had to pay bribes or had money stolen from them by police officers.

A 2008 Cambodian law on trafficking and sexual exploitation criminalized all forms of trafficking, including forced labor. Human Rights Watch found that police officers at times can use those sections of the law that criminalize "solicitation" and "procurement" of commercial sex to justify harassment of sex workers. The provisions are also broad enough that they can be used to criminalize advocacy and outreach activities by sex worker groups and those who support them.

Human Rights Watch urged the Cambodian government to consult with sex worker groups, United Nations agencies, and organizations working on human rights, trafficking, and health to review and address the impact on the human rights of those engaged in sex work of provisions in the 2008 law on trafficking and sexual exploitation, before implementing those provisions.

"In an environment where police already act with impunity, the Cambodian government needs to recognize that criminalizing soliciting is a recipe for continuing human rights abuse," said Pearson. "The government should go back to the drawing board - starting first by consulting extensively with sex workers and other groups - before continuing to implement the provisions which have been abused by police."

In Phnom Penh, police refer sex workers to the municipal Office of Social Affairs and from there to NGOs or the government Social Affairs center, Prey Speu. Conditions in Prey Speu are abysmal. Sex workers, beggars, drug users, street children, and homeless people held at Prey Speu have reported how staff members at the center have beaten, raped, and mistreated detainees, including children. Local human rights workers, citing eyewitness accounts, allege that at least three people, and possibly more, were beaten to death by guards at Prey Speu between 2006 and 2008.

Following advocacy by Cambodian and international organizations, in 2009 and 2010 the municipal Social Affairs office began sending most sex workers picked up in sweeps to the custody of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) rather than Prey Speu. However, since May 2010, at least eight sex workers have been detained there. Sex workers detained in Prey Speu in June 2010 were locked in their rooms, only allowed to leave their rooms to bathe twice a day in dirty pond water, or, accompanied by a guard, to go to the toilet.

Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to permanently close Social Affairs centers such as Prey Speu where people are being unlawfully detained. In a January 2010 report, "Skin on the Cable," Human Rights Watch also documented horrific abuses at drug detention facilities in Cambodia against people who use drugs. The Cambodian government should also establish a special commission to investigate abuses thoroughly and independently, and hold the perpetrators accountable. So far, police and other authorities have evaded accountability for these abuses.

"The Cambodian government should immediately and permanently close down detention centers such as Prey Speu where people are being unlawfully detained, beaten up, and abused," said Pearson. "Prosecuting those who commit these crimes will send a strong message that abuses against sex workers are not tolerated."

Donors supporting anti-trafficking efforts and police training, especially the US, Australia, Japan, the European Union, and the UN, should review funding to the police and Ministry of Social Affairs until there is a full independent investigation into allegations of abuses and prosecutions of those found responsible and the Social Affairs centers such as Prey Speu are permanently closed. Despite years of training for police, police abuses continue, even by units that have been trained with international donor support, such as specialized anti-trafficking police units.

"Donors should not spend their money on training abusive officials, but instead take steps that will promote accountability from the Cambodian government," said Pearson.

Testimony from sex workers in "Off the Streets"

Neary, a male-to-female transgender sex worker described being tortured by police:

"Three police officers beat me up seriously at Wat Phnom commune police station after I was taken from the park. One of the police officers pointed his gun at my head and pulled the trigger, but the bullet did not fire. They kicked my neck, my waist, and hit my head and my body with a broom stick. It lasted about half an hour. I begged them not to beat me. The police officers were cruel and they did not tell me any reason why they did this to me. "

Twenty-year-old Tola described how police extort money from sex workers:

"At the [Daun Penh district] police station, police asked us if I have a "me-ka" [manager]. Police allowed me and other sex workers to call our me-kas to come pay the lous [bribe] in exchange for our release. Fifteen out of 20 [sex workers] were released after their managers came to pay the police. The rest of us were kept at the police station for three days before being sent to the Social Affairs office and then an NGO shelter."

Srey Pha, age 27, described her experience at Prey Speu:

"[Prey Speu] was like hell. I was among 30 people in one locked room of men, women, and children. No toilet in the room, but two buckets served as toilet for all of us to share. There were blood stains all over the walls. I could not sleep at night as I was so scared and worried. I received little food to eat in two meals per day - rice with Prahok (fermented fish paste) and some tamarind. No plate or spoon, I had to eat from a plastic bag. At night, the guard seriously beat up a man who tried to escape."

Nika, age 28, describes a beating by municipal park security guards:

"First one guard came and kicked me and said, "Why?" Then three other guards came. Two guards held my arms while the other two beat me. They slapped me in the face. They seemed a bit drunk. They beat me with bamboo sticks and their radio on my head and all over. They ripped my clothes. The police came by, but they didn't do anything. The guards continued to beat me for almost half an hour. Many people saw, but everyone was too scared to intervene. The head of the security told the other guard if they see me there again, they should beat me to death."

When a Problem Comes Along, You Must Whip It

June 26, 2010
Joe Amon
Director of the health division at Human Rights Watch
The Huffington Post

"[H]e started to whip me on my back with twisted electrical wire," said Kakada, recalling his detention in a so-called "youth rehabilitation center" in Cambodia. "I was in such pain. Sometimes I cry alone, after the beating, because it was so painful. I did not commit any mistake: why did they beat me like this?"

Picked up, suspected of using drugs, confined to a drug dependency "treatment" center without a trial, judge or jury, Kakada was forced to do unpaid labor and vigorous exercise to "cure" him of his addiction. Any violation of the rules - stepping out of line, not moving fast enough, smoking a cigarette - can lead to being whipped, beaten or given an electric shock.

Kakada is just one of hundreds of thousands of people in one of a number Asian countries locked in so-called drug "treatment" or "rehabilitation" centers. Inside these centers, at best, the treatment is ineffective. At worst - physically and psychologically scarring - it drives people to use drugs.

The fact that June 26 is both "International Day against Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking" and "International Day in Support of Victims of Torture" has become more than a coincidence. Evidence from around the world indicates that people who use drugs are all too often victims of torture.

A number of governments in Asia run drug detention centers where people are at risk of routine mistreatment or torture in violation of international human rights law. Authorities in these countries often consider drug use a moral failing that must be "disciplined out" of people. Run by public security, military or other forces, such centers strive to build up discipline through marches, strict internal rules, and long hours of compulsory labor. In such settings, further abuses are inevitable and medically trained experts in drug dependency treatment are not a feature or a requirement.

Even children are not safe from risk of torture in so-called treatment and rehabilitation centers. M'noh, a 16-year-old detainee in Choam Chao Youth Rehabilitation Center in Cambodia, told Human Rights Watch that a staff member "would use the cable to beat people... On each whip the skin would come off and stick on the cable." Other child detainees said they had been shocked with electric batons and experienced sexual violence by staff members.

International health and drug-control agencies, such as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization, all endorse comprehensive, evidence-based drug dependence treatment services, including opioid substitution therapy, harm reduction, and psychosocial support. An important aspect of these services - from both an ethical and effectiveness perspective - is that people should have a choice of whether to use them. But in many countries, treatment - such as it is - is involuntarily.

In China, one former detainee said, : "I've tried to get clean and have been in compulsory labor camps more than eight times. I just cannot go back to a forced labor camp - [it is] a terrifying world where darkness knows no limits."

In Vietnam, 600 detained drug users recently escaped from a rehabilitation center. Vietnamese officials endorse a treatment regimen of "therapeutic labor," in which detainees work for long hours and are severely punished if they do not meet production quotas. "[T]hey beat people up, kicked the face, kicked the chest," a former resident of a rehab center near Hanoi told the BBC in 2008. "Later, people were made to work very hard. They said work to forget the addiction, work is therapeutic." These centers involuntarily detain people for up to four years.

These abuses are starting to get the attention of global leaders. The UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture recently visited three drug detention centers in Cambodia; the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has made detention of drug users a key focus for 2010. What is really needed, though, is clear, unequivocal statements by world leaders that these countries should ensure that drug users are never subjected to torture and that involuntary drug detention centers should be closed.

Unlike prisons, involuntary and abusive drug "treatment" centers can be abolished: they operate outside of the law and play no role in an evidence-based approach to drug issues. Detention and discipline are not a means of drug treatment- and allowing such centers to remain open ensures they will continue to abuse people whenever the monitors leave. These centers do not need to be revamped or modified; they need to be shut down.

On June 26, the UN should do more than recognize that drug policy and human rights abuses are overlapping issues; it should instruct governments to close involuntary drug detention centers where the rights of drug users are routinely violated, to end the abuse inherent in such settings.

Torture at Prey Sar: Heng Pov

Former municipal police chief Heng Pov is led into the Appeal Court before a hearing on Friday. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Monday, 03 May 2010
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

DISGRACED former Phnom Penh municipal police chief Heng Pov has accused Prey Sar prison workers of overseeing the torture and beatings of inmates.

Speaking Friday while awaiting an Appeal Court hearing during which he sought to overturn a conviction on attempted murder charges, Heng Pov said he has seen prison guards at the prison “torture” inmates.

“They even ask outsiders to beat the prisoners,” Heng Pov told a Post reporter. “I would like the Ministry of Interior as well as Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng to know about this and look into the problem.”

Heng Pov said he also has evidence demonstrating that prison guards were responsible for the 2008 death of 24-year-old Heng Touch, whose family has long believed he was beaten to death while in custody.

“Heng Touch was beaten to death,” Heng Pov said. “But [authorities] pretended to save him by sending him to hospital and accusing him of committing suicide. I have enough evidence and witnesses.”

At the time, local rights groups and UN officials urged authorities to investigate the death, but prison officials called the claims “an exaggeration” and insisted Heng Touch died while trying to commit suicide.

Despite the allegations, Heng Pov said he believes most guards at Prey Sar are well-behaved; it is only “bad officials” who commit crimes, he said.

Prison officials and government authorities on Friday rejected Heng Pov’s claims.

“What he said is his right,” said Mong Kim Heng, the director of Prey Sar prison. “But the fact is, his accusations aren’t true. Prisoners receive healthcare like any other person, even though they have lost their freedom to go into the outside world.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak defended prison officials, calling Heng Pov’s claims unacceptable.

“Heng Pov is a prisoner, so prisoners will never say something good about prison officials,” Khieu Sopheak said.

However, rights groups say they believe questions linger over Heng Touch’s death.

“The court has not issued any charges for any suspect yet. It is quiet,” said Am Sam Ath, the senior monitoring supervisor for local rights group Licadho.

“Justice has not been given in this case for the family of the victim.”

And he said that although his monitors have not witnessed in-custody torture or beatings with their own eyes, they have heard many allegations from incarcerated inmates.

“What Heng Pov and the letters we received said about torture are similar,” he said. “So the torture may exist.”

In court on Friday, Heng Pov denied any involvement in a 2005 attack that left an Electricite du Cambodge employee, Kim Daravuth, paralysed, saying he had never even met the victim.

“I did not order, facilitate or execute the plan to kill him,” Heng Pov told the court. “I never knew Kim Daravuth.”

Appeal Court Judge Chuon Sunleng said a decision on the appeal would be handed down on May 20.

Heng Pov has proved to be a controversial figure in recent years. He was widely feared while he was the police chief of Phnom Penh’s municipal police force. Following his arrest in 2006, he was eventually convicted on a slew of charges including extortion, kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to more than 90 years in prison cumulatively.

Before his arrest, Heng Pov said he was the victim of government persecution for what he said were his efforts to speak out about human rights violations and rampant corruption.

But Heng Pov appears to have had a recent change of heart, and has authored a book, released in April, that praises Prime Minister Hun Sen as a skillful leader.

Holiday in Cambodia?

April 6, 2010
Joe Amon
Director of the health division at Human Rights Watch
The Huffington Post (USA)

"The law don't mean shit if you've got the right friends"

A couple of weeks ago, the Sunday New York Times ran an article in the travel section about gay hot spots in Cambodia: "...men in their 30s and 40s wearing unbuttoned collared shirts and checkered krama scarves sipped fruity cocktails and jostled for space with the young Khmer crowd."

I couldn't help but feel a certain dissonance because it is exactly this demographic that might best remember the Dead Kennedys' song "Holiday in Cambodia." When the song was released in 1980 it felt rebellious to sing along with the refrain: "It's a holiday in Cambodia, it's tough kid but it's life." And while for tourists the idea of a Cambodian vacation has become an idyll, for young Cambodians, the Dead Kennedys' lyrics are still very much alive.

"A holiday in Cambodia, where you'll kiss ass or crack"

Each year, Cambodia sends thousands of people to drug detention centers, where they are physically and sexually abused and made to do manual labor and exhausting military drills in the name of "treatment" and "rehabilitation."

Detainees are subject to harsh physical punishments. Breaking a rule could result in being whipped with electrical wire, electrocuted, or being chained to a pole in the sun. Human Rights Watch interviewed Cambodians who had been detained in these centers. One explained:

"[The staff member] would use the cable to beat people. He had three kinds of cable, made from peeling off the plastic from an electrical wire. One cable was the size of a little finger, one is the size of a thumb and one is the size of a toe. He would ask which you prefer. On each whip the skin would come off and stick on the cable."

"For a bowl of rice a day, slave for soldiers till you starve"

Former detainees told us they were given insufficient food, sometimes rotten or insect-ridden. They described symptoms such as difficulty walking, or swelling and numbness in their extremities, all consistent with beriberi - a lack of vitamin B. "I could never get full," one person told us." You were full for a short period of time, and then you start starving again."

"A holiday in Cambodia, where you'll do what you're told"

One of the most heartbreaking things we found was that UNICEF was funding one detention center where these abuses were taking place. The children were sent there from street sweeps or were arrested at the request of a family member. For between US$200-300, the police will arrest your child. There is no formal charge, no lawyer and no opportunity to appeal. As long as the family keeps paying the monthly treatment costs the child is kept.

Families are often desperate for help managing drug dependency problems, and the government promotes the centers as treatment centers. Without voluntary, community-based alternatives, where else can families go? Tragically, we also heard that the police would arrest and detain children regardless of whether or not they even used drugs - if parents thought that their kids were gay they might be at risk. The centers also hold alcoholics, gamblers, and the mentally ill.

As rebellious youth go, young Cambodians today are far from hard-core punks. When Human Rights Watch talked with these kids, they were almost invariably softly spoken and polite, often from poor families or broken homes. The majority used ya ba (methamphetamine) or ice (crystal methamphetamine) recreationally. Some may have been dependent on drugs; many did not seem to be. Some had a genuine desire to stop using drugs. Others were open about their past drug use, but told us that they had stopped using drugs weeks or even months before they were thrown into detention.

"The law don't mean shit if you've got the right friends"

Last week, facing intense criticism from our report, UNICEF went out to the detention center they fund for a visit. They told the Phnom Penh Post, that they too found the kids to be polite and engaging. They concluded that no abuses could be taking place because the kids just didn't look brutalized.

By contrast, Cambodian government officials pushed back hard on our conclusions. The Interior Ministry spokesperson, Khieu Sopheak, insisted that those in detention "need to do labor and hard work and sweating - that is one of the main ways to make drug-addicted people become normal people." Nean Sokhim, the director of one drug detention centre in Phnom Penh said that his center was voluntary - it was only if people tried to escape that they were drugged.

"It's time to taste what you most fear"

Hard work and sweating - or beatings and starving - do not treat drug dependency, and effective drug dependency treatment is not one-size- fits-all. Medical professionals, not Interior Ministry staff, should be responsible for defining approaches to drug treatment. And defining who is "normal"? That's a slippery slope to widespread detention and abuse; better to take another sip of your fruity cocktail than to think about that.

Rather than quoting again from "Holiday in Cambodia," let me switch to another song, sung by kids at the "Youth Rehabilitation Center" that UNICEF supports. Children we interviewed told us that they were forced to sing it two mornings a week:

Before I was handsome; I was a soldier
Babe the salary I had
I was a soldier; with 2500 [riel]
On the first imprisonment eating the ox's penis three times is exercise....

"Eating an ox's penis" is slang for being beaten with a policeman's baton.

Cambodia is a beautiful country and a wonderful place for a vacation. For too many young Cambodians though it still more hell than haven.

Cambodian Addicts Abused in Detention, Rights Group Says

A woman in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, prepared to inject herself with heroin in a back alley used by addicts, like those in the background. (Photo: Justin Mott for The New York Times)
Treatment for the addicts "involving both the physical abuse and the involuntary administration of an experimental drug" have stirred concern in Cambodia since they were documented recently by the New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch. (Photo: Justin Mott for The New York Times)

February 15, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Nguyen Minh Tam said he got used to the routine during three months in a government drug detention center, although he sometimes lost consciousness: three punches to the chest when he woke up in the morning and three more before he went to bed.

Addiction in Cambodia Another heroin addict said he was whipped until he passed out with a twisted metal wire as thick as his thumb. “They used a blanket to cover me, and they beat me,” said the detainee, who insisted that only his first name, Chandara, be used. “There were 10 of them beating me.”

Ban Sophea, on the other hand, an emaciated man who supports his heroin habit by collecting used cans and bottles, said things were quite different for him during a carefully monitored 10-day detention.

“They gave us medicine three times a day from a bottle that looked like a whiskey bottle,” he said. “The rest of the time we just wasted time and ate. They let us dance and eat cake. We were eating all the time.”

These treatments — both the physical abuse and the involuntary administration of an experimental drug — have stirred concern in Cambodia since they were documented recently by the New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch described in detail abuses in 11 government-run centers that included electric shocks, beatings, rapes, forced labor and forced donations of blood.

“Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate,” the report said. “Human Rights Watch found the practice of torture and inhuman treatment to be widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”

This description echoes a separate Human Rights Watch report, also issued in January, about compulsory drug detention centers in China that it said denied inmates treatment for drug dependence and “put them at risk of physical abuse and unpaid forced labor.”

In Cambodia, the government dismissed the report as being “without any valid grounds” but did not address most of its allegations.

“The centers are not detention or torture centers,” said Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, at a news conference this month. “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.”

In December, the government tried another approach that also drew criticism from rights groups and health professionals: administration of an experimental herbal drug imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia.

Twenty-one drug users were taken to one of the drug treatment centers and administered a potion called “bong sen” for 10 days before being released to their homes or to the streets. No systematic follow-up was done, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.

“No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs,” said Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, in a briefing note in early December.

Like its neighbors, Cambodia has experienced a surge in recent years in the use of methamphetamines, known here and in Thailand as “crazy medicine.” A smaller number of people are heroin users.

Vietnam has a network of drug treatment centers and is reported to be widely using the herbal drug in detoxification treatments. In 2003, Thailand embarked on a “war on drugs” in which an estimated 2,800 people suspected of being dealers were summarily shot and killed.

Apart from the 11 government-run centers, drug users in Cambodia have few places to turn for help with addictions. In some cases, desperate families commit their relatives to the centers, but most former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had been locked up there against their will.

The centers appear to be used not only for drug users but also as a means to clear the streets of vagrants, beggars, prostitutes and the mentally ill, according to Human Rights Watch and the reports of other former detainees.

Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000. The United Nations has estimated that as many as half a million people in Cambodia may be drug users.

In 2008, the National Authority for Combating Drugs reported that 2,382 people were detained in government drug detention centers, almost all of them involuntarily. Some families, with no other recourse, pay the centers to take in relatives for what they hope will be a cold-turkey cure.

“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”

Like other former detainees, Mr. Tam, 25, an ethnic Vietnamese, said he was committed involuntarily along with other drug users and street people. He confirmed allegations in the report that a number of the detainees were children.

He described what he called the “eight punishments” — painful and humiliating exercises that included rolling shirtless on the ground, running into walls and a series of physical contortions with names like leopard crawl, hopping like a frog, vampire jumping and shooting Rambo.

“I think this is not treatment,” he said. “This is torture.”

As soon as he was released, he said, he resumed his heroin habit.

“Inside, you are thinking of drugs all the time,” he said. “When you come out, you are free to use again.”

Abuses of Cambodian Addicts in Detention Is Widespread, Report Says

February 15, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

PHNOM PENH — Nguyen Minh Tam said he got used to the routine during three months in a government drug detention center, although he sometimes lost consciousness: three punches to the chest when he woke up in the morning and three more before he went to bed.

Another heroin addict said he was whipped until he passed out with a twisted metal wire as thick as his thumb. “They used a blanket to cover me and they beat me,” said the detainee, who insisted that only his first name, Chandara, be used. “There were 10 of them beating me.”

Ban Sophea, on the other hand, an emaciated man who supports his heroin habit by collecting used cans and bottles, said things were quite different for him during a carefully monitored 10-day detention.

“They gave us medicine three times a day from a bottle that looked like a whisky bottle,” he said. “The rest of the time we just wasted time and ate. They let us dance and eat cake. We were eating all the time.”

These treatments — both the physical abuse and the involuntary administration of an experimental drug — have stirred concern in Cambodia since they were documented recently by the New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch described in detail abuses in 11 government-run centers that included electric shocks, beatings, rape, forced labor and forced donations of blood.

“Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate,” the report said. “Human Rights Watch found the practice of torture and inhuman treatment to be widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”

This description echoes a separate Human Rights Watch report, also issued in January, about compulsory drug detention centers in China that it said deny their inmates treatment for drug dependency and “put them at risk of physical abuse and unpaid forced labor.”

In Cambodia, the government dismissed the report as being “without any valid grounds” but did not address most of its allegations.

“The centers are not detention or torture centers,” said Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, at a news conference early this month. “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.”

In December, the government tried another approach that also drew criticism from rights groups and health professionals: administration of an experimental herbal drug imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia.

Twenty-one drug users were taken to one of the drug treatment centers and administered a potion called “bong sen” for 10 days before being released to their homes or to the streets. No systematic follow-up was done, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.

“No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs,” said Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, in a briefing note in early December.

Like its neighbors, Cambodia has experienced a surge in recent years in the use of methamphetamines, known here and in Thailand as “crazy medicine.” A smaller number of people are heroin users.

Vietnam has a network of drug treatment centers and is reported to be widely using the herbal drug in detoxification treatments. In 2003, Thailand embarked on a “war on drugs” in which an estimated 2,800 people said to be dealing drugs were summarily shot and killed.

Apart from the 11 government-run centers, drug users in Cambodia have few places to turn for help with their addictions. In some cases, desperate families commit their relatives to the centers, but most former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had been locked up there against their will.

The centers appear to be used not only for drug users but as a means to clear the streets of vagrants, beggars, prostitutes and the mentally ill, according to Human Rights Watch and the reports of other former detainees.

Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000. The United Nations has estimated that as many as half a million people in Cambodia may be drug users.

In 2008 the National Authority for Combating Drugs reported that 2,382 people were detained in government drug detention centers, almost all of them involuntarily. Some families, with no other recourse, pay the centers to take in relatives for what they hope will be a cold-turkey cure.

“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”

Like other former detainees, Mr. Tam, 25, an ethnic Vietnamese, said he was committed involuntarily along with other drug users and street people. He confirmed allegations in the report that a number of the detainees were children.

He described what he called the “eight punishments” — painful and humiliating exercises that included rolling shirtless on the ground, running into walls and a series of physical contortions with names like leopard crawl, hopping like a frog, vampire jumping and shooting Rambo.

“I think this is not treatment; this is torture,” he said.

As soon as he was released, he said, he resumed his heroin habit.

“Inside you are thinking of drugs all the time,” he said. “When you come out you are free to use again.”

Cambodian detention centres 'torturing kids'

Authorities are accused of taking children off the streets and delivering them to detention centres. (AFP : Rob Elliott)

Tuesday, February 02, 2010
By Conor Duffy in Bangkok for PM
ABC News (Australia)

Audio: Cambodian authorities accused of torturing prisoners (PM)

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a scathing report accusing Cambodian authorities of locking up and torturing thousands of people a year in drug detention centres.

The human rights group says many of the detainees are children and that they suffer abuses such as rape and electric shocks.

HRW has also accused UNICEF of involvement in one of the detention centres, saying one of the organisation's vehicles has been used to transport children to the drug treatment centre.

HRW says there are 11 drug detention centres scattered across Cambodia and that more than 2,000 people are detained inside each year.

The organisation has been trying to peer inside the jail cells for more than a year and has now released a detailed report.

NRW New York-based director Joe Amon says the group has spoken with more than 50 recently released detainees who suffered violence he describes as sadistic.

"We found a pretty uniform set of abuses being reported across all of the centres where we talked to people," he said.

"People reported being beaten, being whipped with electrical cables. There were reports of being raped or witnessing other rapes and also the use of electric shock."

Mr Amon says many of those imprisoned are children and that the centres breach Cambodian and international law.

"There were two different ways in which people ended up in the centres. One was through street sweeps, where the police would detain people and bring them to the centres and drop them off," he said.

"In those cases there was no formal charge, there was no lawyer, there was no judge, there was no process for appeal.

"And the second main way was through family members who would pay the police to arrest their loved ones, their children or spouses or brothers."

UNICEF implicated

UNICEF has been working closely with the Cambodian government at one of the detention centres.

A Cambodian newspaper has published a photograph which it says shows a UNICEF van being used to transport illegally detained children to a detention centre.

Mr Amon has called on UNICEF to denounce the centres.

"The van very clearly says 'provided with the support of UNICEF and the European Union' and there was another picture also which wasn't published, but which I saw that said 'in support of child friendly justice'," he said.

"The idea that these centres are child friendly justice is really outrageous. These centres are abusive and they're torturing kids."

A European Union spokesman said he was concerned at any use of EU assets in illegal activities and has called for an immediate investigation.

Richard Bridle, the UNICEF representative in Cambodia, says his organisation has put questions to the Cambodian Social Justice Ministry over the use of the van.

"We are also concerned if a vehicle was provided partly with UNICEF funding," he said.

"The main source of funding actually came from the European Union delegation here, so the vehicle doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the government; we're looking into the terms in which it was transferred."

However Mr Bridle has resisted the calls from HRW to close the prisons down because he says it would lead to children being locked up in adult prisons.

"What would worry me about shutting down this centre is that then the only alternative that's left is closed detention and we have seen period round-ups by the police of street children," he said.

Mr Bridle told ABC Radio's PM that he would not be surprised if abuses were occurring in the drug detention centres, but that HRW's call to close the centres down immediately is simplistic.

"I understand where Human Rights Watch is coming from. I understand it is an advocacy organisation and that from our point of view it tends to see things in black and white," he said.

"We have much more difficult calls to make here with regards to the best interest of all children who come into conflict with the law."

Similar drug detention centres exist in many other Asian countries and it may be an argument that plays out across the region.

Rights Group Urges Review of Drug Detentions

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 February 2010

A leading rights group has urged the United Nations to reconsider its support of government drug rehabilitation centers, following allegations of abuse.

“UN officials agree that these centers are illegal and abusive,” Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Now Unicef and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime need to make clear to the Cambodian government that the centers should be shut down.”

A new Human Rights Watch report alleges that government rehab centers forcibly detain suspected drug addicts, who are “often forced to work at hard manual labor or exercise as a means of ‘treatment.’”

Anand Chaudhuri, project coordinator for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Cambodia, said treatment could not be effective in an environment of detention.

“You cannot detain somebody and say that it is treatment,” he said. “We have to have some evidence, and we have to give the choice. Then only it works.”

Khieu Samon, deputy director of the Ministry of Interior’s traffic and crime department, said Monday the report by Human Rights Watch was “not true.”

“The drug center is not a place to detain or commit abuse to drug users,” he said. “Normally, we receive the request from drug users and the parents of drug users to cure the child in the center.”

Cambodia: UN Should Review Role in Drug Detention

Source: Human Rights Watch
For Immediate Release

Cambodia: UN Should Review Role in Drug Detention

Press Government to Investigate, Close Down Abusive Programs, Hold Torturers Accountable

(New York, January 31, 2010) – The United Nations should conduct a thorough review of its support for Cambodia’s drug detention centers, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch issued a 93-page report, “Skin on the Cable,” on January 25, 2010, with reports of widespread beatings, whippings, and electric shock to detainees, including children and individuals with mental disabilities, in seven Cambodian drug detention centers.

In response, several United Nations agencies, including the joint UN program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have spoken out about the abuses. But the two UN agencies that work most closely with the government in detention centers and on drug policy, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have been less vocal.

“UN officials agree that these centers are illegal and abusive,” said Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Now UNICEF and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime need to make clear to the Cambodian government that the centers should be shut down.”

The Cambodian government is in the process of finalizing a new law on drug control, with technical support from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. But the draft law, a copy of which was obtained by Human Rights Watch, does not provide adequate protection against abuse for children and adults forcibly detained under the guise of providing them with treatment for drug dependency.

In particular, the draft law purports to offer immunity from prosecution to "officers who implement drug treatment and rehabilitation measures in accordance with the right to drug treatment." International law does not permit immunity for officials who commit serious abuses – including ill-treatment and torture – in the course of their duties.

“The UN agency responsible for drug control should forcefully oppose any laws that do not meet international standards,” Amon said. “The draft law on drug control would protect abusers and violate Cambodia's human rights obligations.”

According to its web site, the UNODC office in Cambodia has supported the government since 2001 in developing “effective approaches and techniques to deal with drug abuse” and “coordinated, community-based drug abuse counseling, treatment and rehabilitation care programs." Part of that support has involved technical assistance, with more than US$1 million earmarked for the development of community-based treatment.

The Human Rights Watch report revealed that, among other abuses in the detention centers, detainees are often forced to work at hard manual labor or exercise as a means of “treatment.” Human Rights Watch said that comments to the press by Interior Ministry spokesperson, Khieu Sopheak, that labor and “sweating” were “one of the main ways to make drug-addicted people to become normal people,” demonstrated that the Cambodian government is not committed to international standards. The remarks also show that the UN Office on Drug and Crime’s engagement with the government has not yet built sufficient understanding and capacity to provide effective treatment, Human Rights Watch said.

Since the release of the Human Rights Watch report last week, UNICEF has faced intense public scrutiny for involvement in the Choam Chao “youth rehabilitation centre.” A representative of the European Union has called for an investigation to determine if EU funding for UNICEF has supported human rights violations in the centers. UNICEF officials have said that they have supported government monitoring of the facilities and have not been aware of any abuses. The project is in the final year of funding, and plans for continued engagement are under review.

“We met with UNICEF in Cambodia last September about these abuses, and they told us they would investigate,” Amon said. “But they haven’t, and they continue to claim that children are in these centers voluntarily.”

UNICEF also refused to share with Human Rights Watch their reports of past assessments conducted in collaboration with the Cambodian government.

Cambodian government officials have refused to meet with Human Rights Watch since the report was released and did not respond to written requests for information as the report was being prepared. Government and detention center officials have been quoted in local and international press reports denying the most severe abuses, though acknowledging physically punishing and drugging detainees.

In an interview with Radio Australia, Nean Sokhim, director of a center in Phnom Penh, said that detainees are given drugs to keep them from escaping. The commander of the military police detention center in the province of Banteay Meanchay described to the press how detainees at his center were forced to stand in the sun or "walk like monkeys" as punishment for attempting to escape.

“The Cambodian government needs to investigate these centers and hold those responsible for these abuses accountable,” Amon said. “Instead of remaining silent, the United Nations should review its programs and support for these centers, and work with the government to shut them down.”

“‘Skin on the Cable’: The Illegal Arrest, Arbitrary Detention and Torture of People Who Use Drugs in Cambodia” is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/node/87692

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Joe Amon (English): +1-917-519-8930 (mobile); or amonj@hrw.org
In New York, Rebecca Schleifer (Spanish, English): +1-646-331-0324 (mobile); or schleir@hrw.org

Southeast Asia: Human Rights Watch Charges Torture, Rape, Illegal Detentions at Cambodian Drug "Rehab" Centers, Demands Shutdown

From Drug War Chronicle, Issue #618
1/29/10

In a scathing 93-page report released today, the international human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Cambodian drug detention centers of torturing and raping detainees, imprisoning children and the mentally ill, and illegally detaining and imprisoning drug users. The centers are beyond reform and should be closed, the group said.

"Individuals in these centers are not being treated or rehabilitated, they are being illegally detained and often tortured," said Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights division at HRW. "These centers do not need to be revamped or modified; they need to be shut down."

The report cited detailed testimonies from detainees who were raped by center staff, beaten with electric cables, shocked with cattle prods, and forced to give blood. It also found that drug users were "cured" of their conditions by being forced to undergo rigorous military-style drills to sweat the drugs out of their systems.

"[After arrest] the police search my body, they take my money, they also keep my drugs... They say, 'If you don't have money, why don't you go for a walk with me?... [The police] drove me to a guest house.... How can you refuse to give him sex? You must do it. There were two officers. [I had sex with] each one time. After that they let me go home," said Minea, a woman in her mid-20's who uses drugs, explaining how she was raped by two police officers.

"[A staff member] would use the cable to beat people... On each whip the person's skin would come off and stick on the cable," said M'noh, age 16, describing whippings he witnessed in the Social Affairs "Youth Rehabilitation Center" in Choam Chao. The title of the HRW report is "Skin on the Cable."

More than 2,300 people were detained in Cambodia's 11 drug detention centers in 2008. That is 40% more than in 2007.

"The government of Cambodia must stop the torture occurring in these centers," said Amon. "Drug dependency can be addressed through expanded voluntary, community-based, outpatient treatment that respects human rights and is consistent with international standards."

Cambodian officials from the National Authority for Combating Drugs, the Interior Ministry, the National Police, and the Social Welfare Ministry all declined to comment when queried by the Associated Press. But Cambodian Brig. Gen. Roth Srieng, commander of the military police in Banteay Meanchy province, denied torture at his center, while adding that some detainees were forced to stand in the sun or "walk like monkeys" as punishment for trying to escape.

Children as young as 10, prostitutes, beggars, the homeless, and the mentally ill are frequently detained and taken to the drug detention centers, the report found. About one-quarter of those detained were minors. Most were not told why they were being detained. The report also said police sometimes demanded sexual favors or money for release and told some detainees they would not be beaten or could leave early if they donated blood.

The report relied on testimony from 74 people, most of them drug users, who had been detained between February and July 2009.

Duch's prison torture legacy still lives on under Hun Xen's regime

Police Continue Interrogation Torture: Expert

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07 August 2009

Cambodia’s legacy of violence is continuing to manifest itself in the penal system, leading to a high number of abuse cases of suspects and detainees, a rights expert said Thursday.

Police officials are following the example of those who have gone before them, using violent interrogation tactics, and they lack training on the proper questioning of suspects, said Chhiev Huor Lay, a senior prison researcher for the rights group Licadho. And the abuse occurs with impunity, he said.

“Torturing for answers results in poor justice, because when a person is hurt, he will say anything to avoid a beating,” Chhiev Huor Lay said, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

In 2008, there were 85 cases of reported torture in police interrogation, including one female, he said. In the first 8 months of 2009, there have been 42 reported cases, including three women.

Cambodian and international law are both designed to protect prisoners from torture in interrogation, but Chhiev Huor Lay said he had found that suspects often feel they deserve to be tortured because they’ve committed a crime.

As a result, many instances of torture go unreported.

“They are afraid of revenge [from police], and that no one can find justice for them,” he said. “That’s why they don’t file a complaint.

To eliminate torture, police reform must be given a central place in the human rights concerns of Asia

ASIA: To eliminate torture police reform must be given a central place in the human rights concerns of Asia

AS-140-2007
June 25, 2007

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission on the Occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

ASIA: To eliminate torture, police reform must be given a central place in the human rights concerns of Asia

"They heard the thud of wood on flesh. Boot on bone. On teeth. The muffled grunt when a stomach is kicked in. The muted crunch of skull on cement. The gurgle of blood on a man's breath when his lung is torn by the jagged end of a broken rib. Blue-lipped and dinner-plate-eyed, they watched, mesmerized by something that they sensed but didn't understand: the absence of caprice in what the policemen did. The abyss where anger should have been; the sober, steady brutality, the economy of it all."
-- Extract from "The God of Small Things", by Arundhati Roy

The International Day for the prevention of torture should serve as a reminder that in the following countries of Asia torture remains the primary mode of criminal investigations; they are: Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, China, Vietnam and the Maldives. In all these countries, the image of the policeman is that of a tyrant and a torturer. In times of conflict the military also engage in extraordinary forms of torture; the police engage in torture in times of both peace and conflict.

The political establishments of these countries tolerate torture and often, directly approve of it. The fact of the ratification of the UN human rights treatises makes no difference to the actual business of using the police as an instrument of brutality. The gap between the ideals proclaimed in constitutions and by signatures to UN conventions and the day to day reality of the routine use of torture coexist. The legislature and even the judiciary of these countries have been unable to take a firm stand to reform and to modernize their police. Thus, in the practical operation of the legal system, torture is considered an indispensible instrument.

Sadly, those who stand as spokesmen and representatives of morality and ethics in these societies have failed to make any noticeable attempt to stand firmly against the use of torture. Their talk of love, compassion, brotherhood and sisterhood and loving kindness is not associated with abhorrence for the use of torture by their law enforcement agencies. Thus, the moral and ethical education of the young takes place in an environment in which torture is not considered an unacceptable practice. The mentalities of the young are shaped by the old who find no shame in allowing their law enforcement agencies to use torture and to humiliate human beings in the worst possible ways.

This compromised position of the political, legal and social leadership in these societies is rooted in a reluctance to touch on the issue of police reforms, in order to bring the policing of their societies into conformity with the modern aspirations of their own people. Resistance to modernity expresses itself in the sharpest way by the attempt to keep the policing system in a very primitive state. A search into the causes of such resistance to reform the police will reveal patterns of abuse of power and corruption in these societies. It is the police that provide the very backbone of the skeleton that supports the abuse of power and corruption. Torture is therefore a political product. The politics of abuse of power and corruption resist change into more rational forms of government, which are accountable to the people. The police are the guardians of those abusive and corrupt practices that the powerful people in these societies struggle hard to maintain.

The disapproval of torture is a common feature among the vast masses of these countries that are prevented from sharing the benefits of the natural resources of their lands. It is in this context that the common man sees the police as their enemy. On the other hand, the hardcore corrupt elements in these countries see the police as a friend. Democracy and rule of law, which are the aspirations of the common people cannot be realised due to the alliance among the abusers of power, the corrupt and the law enforcement agencies.

Under these circumstances, demands for the elimination of torture, whether they come from local or international groups, remain meaningless unless these are accompanied by an uncompromising call for police reforms. The elimination of torture and the modernization of the police are two sides of the same coin. As long as the police remain enemies of democracy and the rule of law, and friends of those who abuse power and are corrupt, torture will remain a very important ingredient of policing in Asian countries. To democratize a society its police must be democratized. To establish rule of law in a society, the police must be made to be law abiding. Law breakers by the night, who turn police stations into torture chambers, cannot by the day defend law and order or the moral values of society.

This brings the greatest challenge to the human rights community both local and global on the issue of the elimination of torture, which is one of the core aspects of the defense of human rights and without which, the concept of human rights is itself meaningless. Unless the human rights community makes police reforms one of the central pieces of their agenda, human rights will have little appeal to the populations of these countries. The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, the UN Human Rights Council, all UN treaty bodies and all international human rights organisations to make a very special attempt, on an urgent basis to bring police reform to the centre of their work for the protection and promotion of human rights in Asia. We also call upon all human rights groups in Asia and also all people who are concerned with the protection and promotion of human rights in their countries and in the region to expose the duality involved in the declarations made by their governments regarding the prevention of torture, and who, at the same time refuse to reform and modernize their policing systems.


# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.