Original report from Washington
23 August 2007
Across Cambodia, detentions without probable cause are a common occurrence and a concern to rights groups, a leading rights investigator said Thursday.
People can be jailed for political affiliations, for personal grudges, for mistaken identities, and relatively few safeguards are implemented to prevent extended detention of the innocent.
Suspects often lose their rights when they are arrested, said Chan Saveth, a leading rights investigator for the independent group Adhoc. This includes the rights to a lawyer, access to family members and other visitors and medical treatment.
Torture and confession under duress are also common, Chan Saveth said, as a guest on "Hello VOA."
A recent case of mistreatment could be found in the death of Oum Chhay, the suspected drug trafficking who fell to his death earlier this week, Chan Saveth said.
Oum Chhay was a key suspect and witness in a case against drugs production in Cambodia, but fell from a high building where he was being questioned, reportedly while his guards—three of them—were gone using the toilet.
Rights investigators for Adhoc and other groups, as well as journalists, were not permitted to verify his cause of death, Adhoc has said.
It was unclear if Oum Chhay was mistreated after his arrest earlier this month.
People can be jailed for political affiliations, for personal grudges, for mistaken identities, and relatively few safeguards are implemented to prevent extended detention of the innocent.
Suspects often lose their rights when they are arrested, said Chan Saveth, a leading rights investigator for the independent group Adhoc. This includes the rights to a lawyer, access to family members and other visitors and medical treatment.
Torture and confession under duress are also common, Chan Saveth said, as a guest on "Hello VOA."
A recent case of mistreatment could be found in the death of Oum Chhay, the suspected drug trafficking who fell to his death earlier this week, Chan Saveth said.
Oum Chhay was a key suspect and witness in a case against drugs production in Cambodia, but fell from a high building where he was being questioned, reportedly while his guards—three of them—were gone using the toilet.
Rights investigators for Adhoc and other groups, as well as journalists, were not permitted to verify his cause of death, Adhoc has said.
It was unclear if Oum Chhay was mistreated after his arrest earlier this month.
1 comment:
This is malice culture, and we need to get rid of it. This culture was identified long ago by a Khmer poet, Krom Ngoy. This poet said in verse something like this: the rich use their wealth to ill treat the less well off; the powerful use jails and chains to incarcerate the weak; they also use guillotimes to cut off the head of those poeple. (Arng meas, arng prak; arng kook, arng chrovak, arng masin katt kor).
Krom Ngoy added, among other things: My children! This is so because religion remains far away.
I understand Krom Ngoy referred to Buddhism which teaches among other things, loving kindness (netta), compassion (karuna), sympathic joy (muddita)and equanimity (uppeka).
Buddhist Monk Phikhu Som in his Tum Tea story also identified the savagery of the rich and powerful in one of his character, Or Choon: Oknha Or Choon moam muorn pek; thormada krom mek teap cheang phnom; mean rith omnarch et chumnum; kap chak veay dom poom proney.
Our current miilitaristic culture has even aggravated this malice culture.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong.
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