Khieu Kanharith: Ghai insulted his host country by "eating its rice and then smashing the pot on the ground"; Didn't Yash Ghai pay for his own meals?

Groups Urge Hun Sen to Consider UN Rights Recommendations

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
18 December 2007

Five leading human rights groups appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen Tuesday to give his support to human rights commitments, including meeting with UN rights representatives.

The appeal follows a trip by the UN special human rights envoy Yash Ghai, whom the government shunned in December and Hun Sen said should be fired.

But Human Rights Watch, the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization against Torture said Tuesday it was time for the government to end its antagonism against the envoy and look to solutions for Cambodia's rights abuses.

"Professor Ghai has drawn attention to critical concerns shared by the wider international human rights community," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, in a statement. "There's no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia's poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm."

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said Ghai had "looked down" on Hun Sen's senior human rights advisor, Om Yentieng, by not meeting him.

Ghai had insulted his host country by "eating its rice and then smashing the pot on the ground," Khieu Kanharith said.

Human rights groups criticize Cambodia for snubbbing UN envoy

Dec 18, 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Five international organizations Tuesday demanded the Cambodian government 'respect its international human rights commitments as well as UN officials mandated to monitor them' after it refused to meet a UN rights envoy this month.

Human Rights Watch, Asian Human Rights Commission, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation against Torture said they were concerned about the Cambodian government's refusal to engage with the UN special envoy on human rights to Cambodia, Yash Ghai.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that even if he lives for 1,000 years, he will not meet with the Kenyan and called him a tourist in speeches broadcast on state radio and television.

Following his last fact-finding mission earlier this month, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith joked that Ghai, who linked arms with non-government representatives and people facing eviction during his visit during International Human Rights Day rallies, should become an opposition party spokesman.

Ghai jas raised concerns that the government using the term 'development' as a euphemism for land grabbing and forced evictions, the groups said in a press release.

'Professor Ghai has drawn attention to critical concerns shared by the wider international human rights community,' Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, said in the statement.

Sara Colm of Human Rights Watch said Ghai's findings are consistent with those of most donors, international rights groups and UN organs for many years.

'Yash Ghai is not an isolated maverick,' she said in the statement.

On Monday, Ghai said he remained willing to meet with government representatives, but the local Cambodia Daily newspaper Tuesday quoted senior lawmaker Nguon Nhel as saying Ghai had already shown very clearly that he was biased.

Rights groups fault Cambodia's stance

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen drew criticism from human rights activists Monday for his dismissal of a U.N. official as a "human rights tourist."

Sen made the comment about United Nations special representative Yash Ghai, a Kenyan law professor, Dec. 12, vowing never to meet with him. Sen lashed out two days after Ghai voiced concerns that the Cambodian government has engaged in land grabbing and illegal forced evictions of its poor citizens under the guise of development needs. Ghai spent 10 days in the country.

Human Rights Watch, the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization against Torture all expressed concern about Sen's unwillingness to talk to Ghai.

"Yash Ghai is not an isolated maverick," said Sara Colm of Human Rights Watch. "All of his findings have been repeatedly raised in the past by local and international rights groups, U.N. agencies, and bilateral and multilateral donors."

Basil Fernando of Asian Human Rights Commission said Ghai drew attention to problems shared by the international human rights community.

He said land-grabbing is "reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm."

Rights groups urge Cambodian leaders to meet UN envoy

UN special representative of the Secretary General for Human Rights in Cambodia Yash Ghai

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Five international human rights groups Tuesday urged the Cambodian government to meet with a UN special envoy and to stop denying the problems facing the country.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week he would never see UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai, following his scathing appraisal of the nation's judicial system.

Hun Sen called Yash Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer, "a long-term tourist" and said "every time he comes, he always causes trouble."

In a statement, five top rights groups called on Cambodia to engage with Ghai to resolve critical issues, including improving the judicial system and ending the nation's land grabs.

"Rather than publicly rebuking the UN, the Cambodian government should meet with Yash Ghai and start seriously working on the recommendations included in his report," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.

"There's no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia's poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm," Fernando said in a joint statement.

Human Rights Watch, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation against Torture also signed onto the statement.

Ghai ended a 10-day visit last week without obtaining a single meeting with any Cambodian officials.

Before leaving, Ghai said that Cambodia's judiciary has failed to provide justice, leaving the population in fear of going to court.

Ghai has repeatedly clashed with Cambodian leaders in the past due to his unusually blunt assessments of Cambodia's reform failures.

Hun Sen has never met Ghai, who was appointed as the UN rights envoy in November 2005.

The premier has called Ghai "stupid," "rude" and a "god without virtue."

Cambodia: Leading Rights Groups Support UN Envoy

Human Rights Watch

(Washington, DC, December 18, 2007) – Five leading international human rights organizations today called upon the Cambodian government to respect its international human rights commitments as well as United Nations officials mandated to monitor them.

The five organizations – Human Rights Watch, the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) – expressed deep concern about the Cambodian government’s ongoing unwillingness to engage with the UN secretary-general’s special representative on human rights in Cambodia, Professor Yash Ghai.

Following critical remarks by the special representative at the end of a 10-day fact-finding mission to Cambodia, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on December 12 called Ghai – a distinguished professor of constitutional law in Kenya who has been special representative since 2005 – a “human rights tourist” and vowed to never meet him.

In his closing press conference on December 10, Ghai raised concerns that the government is acting under the cover of “development” to justify widespread land grabbing and illegal forced evictions of Cambodia’s urban and rural poor. He noted that communities forced off their land have little judicial recourse or legal protection because the judiciary is corrupt and the Land Law is not properly implemented. Ghai noted that victims are increasingly ending up in prison for trying to defend their land and their human rights (see [English] or [Khmer]).

“Professor Ghai has drawn attention to critical concerns shared by the wider international human rights community,” said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission. “There’s no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia’s poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm.”

Government officials charged that the UN envoy was trying to incite Cambodians to oppose the government and rejected as “inaccurate” and overly negative Ghai’s assessment of Cambodia’s rights situation.

“Yash Ghai is not an isolated maverick. All of his findings have been repeatedly raised in the past by local and international rights groups, UN agencies, and bilateral and multilateral donors,” said Sara Colm, senior researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. “Donors who commit millions of dollars to Cambodia each year for poverty alleviation, judicial reform and economic development should not condone government policies that result in thousands of Cambodians losing their homes, their livelihoods, and in some cases their lives.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesman told the press on December 11 that government officials were unable to meet Ghai during his visit because they were “busy trying to develop the country.”

In Ratanakiri province, armed soldiers and police attempted to disrupt a meeting between Ghai and indigenous villagers facing confiscation of their land, claiming Ghai had no right to meet villagers because he had not received written permission from local authorities. Ghai’s terms of reference authorize him to travel freely within Cambodia and to visit prisons without prior approval.

“When gun-toting soldiers threaten a UN official, one can only imagine how much more difficult it is for impoverished farmers in the countryside to assert their rights,” said Eric Sottas, director of the Geneva-based World Organization against Torture.

“Defenders of economic and social rights in Cambodia are also facing high risks, particularly when they defend the victims of forced evictions,” said Souhayr Belhassen, president of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.

In a public speech on December 12, Hun Sen said that Ghai’s missions to Cambodia only “caused trouble” and criticized him for not focusing on problems in Kenya, which he said was “one hundred times worse” than Cambodia. Hun Sen extended his criticism of the UN’s human rights mechanisms by admonishing the United Nations to stop issuing negative reports about Burma and said that Cambodia would defend Burma at the UN Human Rights Council, making him the first world leader to express support for the Burmese government’s recent crackdown.

“Hun Sen’s attacks on Professor Ghai were outrageous, especially since the prime minister did not question the veracity of Ghai’s findings,” said Anselmo Lee, executive director of Bangkok-based FORUM-ASIA. “Hun Sen’s statements show contempt not only for the United Nations, but also the Burmese democracy movement.”

The 1991 Paris Agreements provided for the UN secretary-general to appoint a special envoy to monitor the human rights situation in Cambodia. As a party to the Paris Peace Agreements and numerous international human rights treaties, Cambodia has committed itself to respect and protect the rights of its population.

“Hun Sen’s tirade against the UN is the latest in a long series of attacks and lack of cooperation with Ghai and the three UN Special Representatives who preceded him,” said Fernando. “Rather than publicly rebuking the UN, the Cambodian government should meet with Yash Ghai and start seriously working on the recommendations included in his report.”