Phnom Penh is in total denial: What a SHAME!!!

Surya Subedi (L) speaks to the media in Phnom Penh, May 9, 2012. (AFP)

Om Yentieng (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

Officials Slam Rights Report

Cambodia’s government rejects a UN report seeking electoral reforms and respect for human rights.

2012-08-29

AFP

Cambodian government officials have rejected a report by a United Nations expert pushing for electoral reforms and accusing the authorities of rights violations over economic land concessions.

They said that the report by Surya Subedi, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, does not paint an accurate picture of the current status of human rights in the country.

Subedi warned in the report that Cambodia may plunge into violence if it does not reform the current electoral system to allow for fair and free elections.

He also said that the human costs of economic land concessions in the country has been high, adding that the absence of proper consultation and negotiation with the people affected when granting such concessions has been a major concern.

Another Press Council charade in Phnom Penh?

Cambodia to Pursue Self-regulating Press Council

15 June 2012
ScandAsia.com

Senior Minister Om Yen Tieng, head of the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit, speaks at a joint Sweden-Cambodia workshop on press freedom and media ethics in Phnom Penh. He supports an idea of having a press council that would act as a self-regulating body with the power to field complaints as well as sanction reporters and their media organisations.

Many local reporters and editors from various radio stations and newspapers attended a joint workshop between Cambodia and Sweden on press freedom and ethics yesterday in Phnom Penh.

As a high-ranking Cambodian official proposed an idea of having the self-regulating press council, Minister Om Yin Tieng endorsed the idea.

“We don’t want the court to judge,” Om Yin Tieng said, although he said the court would not be taken completely out of the equation.

Hypocrite Freedom Fighter - Opinion by Khmer Guardian

https://www.box.com/s/2eba4f1d84da1e69dbff

CCHR Press Release - CCHR Welcomes First Draft of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaratio​n But Urges Full Transparen​cy and Meaningful Consultati​on with All Stakeholde​rs

CCHR Press Release – Phnom Penh, 8 January 2012

CCHR Welcomes First Draft of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration But Urges Full Transparency and Meaningful Consultation with All Stakeholders

One of the key steps in the development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) – creating an ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (“AHRD”) – is one stage closer to fruition. The first draft of the AHRD has now been completed and is set to come before the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (the “AICHR”) during its 11th meeting to be held on 8 and 9 January 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. While CCHR welcomes the AICHR meeting and discussion of the AHRD, it calls upon the AICHR to ensure meaningful consultation with all stakeholders during the drafting process by making the draft AHRD available to the public as soon as possible.

The drafting process of the AHRD to date has been marred by a lack of transparency and consultation with either the public or civil society. Neither preliminary drafts of the AHRD nor even the terms of reference of the Drafting Group, which was established by the AICHR to oversee formulation of the AHRD, have been shared with the public. Consequently, no interested parties have been given the opportunity to provide input on the first draft of the AHRD. It is not clear, for example, whether there will be any enforcement mechanism at a national level as regards the AHRD.

This is an historic moment for Cambodia, as it will see the creation of the first regional human rights instrument in Asia on its watch – the AICHR Chair for 2012 is Om Yentieng, senior minister and president of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee. However, in order to make the most of this legacy, Om Yentieng must ensure that the drafting process for the AHRD is transparent and open to meaningful public and civil society consultation, as it is an issue of vital importance to all people of Southeast Asia.

Ou Virak, President of CCHR, says:

“The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration is of huge significance to the people of Southeast Asia, and CCHR welcomes its existence. Hopefully it can fulfill expectations and be a benchmark for all ASEAN member states to abide by. However, in order for it to have the right impact, the beneficiaries and all interested parties must be given the opportunity to partake in the drafting process, which unfortunately has not occurred to date. The AICHR should also provide civil society with the chance to make a valid contribution – it should therefore make drafts of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration available to the public and organize a meaningful civil society consultation process.”

For more information, please contact CCHR President Ou Virak via telephone at +855 (0) 12 40 40 51 or e-mail at ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org.

http://www.box.com/s/vg0u5jevx5m7oe0xll3l


http://www.box.com/s/qaxm6i7adzprd1b1p0re

Will ASEAN police Hun Xen's regime human rights abuse in Cambodia?

(All Photos: Reuters)

Cambodia vows to finalize ASEAN human rights declaration this year

Sat, 01/07/2012
Rasmei Kampuchea Daily, The Asia News Network

Phnom Penh, Cambodia | Cambodia aims to finalize the drafting of an ASEAN Human Rights Declaration this year as it chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodian Human Rights Committee chairman Om Yin Tieng said.

"This is a big job and needs a lot of discussions. However, we are confident that we can finalize it by this year," said Om Yin Tieng, who is also a senior minister and chair of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights in 2012.

He said the commission would hold its first meeting on the declaration in Siem Reap on January 8 and 9, immediately ahead of a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers.

ACU declines to set deadline for officials [-Does ACU stand for Ah See Yoo (eat for a long time) in Khmer?]

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 15:02
Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

The government’s anticorruption unit has declined to set a new deadline for about 300 high-ranking government officials who failed to lodge an asset declaration before an April 7 deadline as part of an effort to tackle graft in the Kingdom.

“We found that individual officials who failed to lodge an asset declaration because of personal problems such as illness or living far away …[that] it is an appropriate reason,” ACU President Om Yentieng said yesterday.

“Therefore we cannot force them [to respect the law], we will wait until they can come.”

A lack of real human rights [-Shame on CPP Om Yentieng!!!]

"We want an independent human rights committee that is accountable and not a mouthpiece of the government that is part of the problem."

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
By Mu Sochua
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

The very troublesome remark made by Mr Om Yentieng reported in The Phnom Penh Post article Beatings no human rights violations, on May 12, 2011, points to the lack of neutrality, of independence and legitimacy of the Cambodian Human Rights Commission that is chaired by the closest advisor to prime minister Hun Sen. It is worth entioning that this same advisor represents Cambodia in the ASEAN Committee on Human Rights.

Even criminals should not be subject to police beatings and brutal assaults. To deny that the beatings of women, children and the elderly in front of the office of the governor are violations of human rights further diminishes the credibility of this national institution in charge of reporting and addressing human rights in Cambodia.

These Boeung Kak lake residents were seeking peaceful solutions to their community sold by the government? One of the women who were detained by the police suffered a miscarriage two days later.

On May 8, eight female workers were injured by anti-riot police as they requested fair compensation for lost wages at the June factory.

Sacrava' Political Cartoon: Human Rights Violations?

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Cambodia’s Free Press At Risk?

Sovan Philong (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

February 3, 2011
By Luke Hunt
The Diplomat

They’re doing it tough in Indochina. Le Hoang Hung, a 50-year-old Vietnamese journalist who was set on fire while sleeping, has died from his injuries while across the border in Cambodia.

Hung had worked for The Worker newspaper mainly covering the southern Mekong Delta, and earned himself a reputation for investigating official corruption. According to reports, he was scheduled to cover a court case involving a local official being sued for misappropriation of land.

Vietnam is a tough place for journalists. The government treats those who stray from the official line as pariahs and the country’s bullies and gangsters are notorious thugs. Hung’s wife, describing the attack, says she was sleeping in another room when an intruder broke into their home and doused him with chemicals. Minutes later he was alight.

Sinatoons No. 6: The Cleaning

Cartoon by V. Sina

Cambodia suppresses question on '97 grenade attack

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Bangkok, January 24, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Cambodian officials deleted digital recordings and confiscated recording equipment from a number of journalists who covered a January 21 government press conference in Phnom Penh.

Om Yentieng, head of the government's anti-corruption unit and Human Rights Committee, ordered an aide to confiscate the property after a reporter asked a question about an unsolved grenade attack that targeted an opposition rally in 1997, according to a statement released by the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. Sixteen activists were killed in the attack.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan later told news media that the government was within its rights to confiscate reporters' recordings and equipment to protect the "privacy rights" and "dignity" of officials. The Press Club noted in response that the confiscation of tapes and recorders constitutes censorship in violation of Article 3 of the 1995 Press Law, which broadly guarantees press freedoms.

The censorship generated some coverage in the Cambodian press. The independent English-language daily, The Phnom Penh Post, reported the question and Om Yentieng's reponse. The official called the question a "trap," labeled the reporter a "Khmer child," and asserted that recordings required permission, the Post reported.

Ong Yen Tieng confiscated reporters’ voice recorders: A ruthless and high-ranking CPP official

Just like his boss, Hun Xen, who threatened reporters...

Ong Yen Tieng also behaves ruthlessly toward reporters

Press group expresses concern

Monday, 24 January 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia said yesterday it was “seriously concerned” about the actions of the government’s anti-corruption head, Om Yentieng, who on Friday ordered his staff to confiscate voice recorders from reporters at the end of a press conference.

Om Yentieng, a close advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen, called a press conference to detail the Anti-Corruption Unit’s investigation and arrest of anti-drug czar Moek Dara.

Om Yentieng answered several questions following the event. A Cambodia Daily reporter asked him about a shelved United States Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the deadly 1997 grenade attack that left 16 opposition Sam Rainsy Party activists dead and over 100 wounded.

The Daily has published articles about recently obtained FBI files relating to the investigation.

“Don’t put me into your trap, how much you know about the FBI report”, he said. “You are a Khmer child with Khmer blood, and you recorded my voice without permission”, Om Yentieng said, adding that the reporter could face a court complaint.

Officials then confiscated the reporters’ voice recorders and deleted material from the Q&A.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Ruthless Hyena

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Ong Yen Tieng ordered confiscation of tape recorders from reporters asking questions on 30 March 1997 grenade attack

Aftermath of the coward 30 March 1997 grenade attack on peaceful SRP demonstrators

Om Yen Tieng (Photo: Ly Meng Huor, RFI)

VOA Khmer Service reported that on Friday 21 January 2011, reporters asked Om Yen Tieng questions on the FBI's investigation report on the grenade attack on SRP supporters on 30 March 1997. Following the questioning and most likely the rude answers provided by Ong Yen Tieng, the latter decided that all recorders belonging to reporters present during the questioning be confiscated. The audio portion of the questioning was erased from all the recorders. What does Ong Yen Tieng have to hide? Is he trying to hide the involvement of his boss in this coward attack?

Click here to listen to the VOA report in Khmer:

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Big Fish

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Anti-Corruption Unit Considers 90 Tax Complaints

Om Yentieng, the director of the Anti-Corrupiton Unit. (Photo: VOA Khmer)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 08 October 2010

“The tax agents overcharged for the annual vehicle tax with invoices and without. We are putting the complaints on the table to prepare a procedural process.”

The Anti-Corrupiton Unit is preparing to examine some 90 complaints of graft by tax officials from the Ministry of Finance.

Ninety complaints from 2,700 people across 14 provinces were filed with the unit last month, after a watchdog group claimed people were paying too much for annual vehicle tags.

Om Yentieng, the director of the ACU, told a roundtable of media representatives on Tuesday the unit had prepared all of the complaints for formal processing.

“The tax agents overcharged for the annual vehicle tax with invoices and without,” he said. “We are putting the complaints on the table to prepare a procedural process.”

Om John, deputy chief of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's tax department, said the department too is studying the complaints for possible investigation.

San Chey, a project coordinator for the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability In East Asia and the Pacific, which helped collect and file the complaints, welcomed the news.

“This unit is not ignoring the complaints from people” he said. “I strongly encourage the Anti-Corruption Unit in helping an additional investigation and taking action to eliminate corruption in the collection of annual vehicle taxes.”

San Chey said he had not included the names of tax officials in the complaints but would provide them if requested.

Groups Prepare Complaints for New Corruption Investigators

The Cambodia Independent Anti-Corruption Committee will also file a complaint over a 5-hectare land dispute in Phnom Penh, the committee's president. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 03 September 2010

“The ACU officials were sworn in as corruption investigators, but they have not sworn to withdraw from the [ruling Cambodian People's Party] yet”, Chan Soveth, Adhoc human rights group investigator

At least three local organizations say they are preparing a stack of complaints of graft and misdeeds for submission to the new national Anti-Corruption Unit.

Fourteen members of the unit were sworn in on Tuesday, vowing to uphold an anti-corruption law that was passed earlier this year.

The complaints, which will be the first test of the Anti-Corruption Unit, encompass allegations of corruption within the police and courts and in illegal logging and land disputes.

San Chey, the Cambodian coordinator for the regional Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, said he had 60 complaints of tax agents demanding excessive fees for vehicle taxes.

“All the complaints have the names and IDs of corrupt tax agents, and in each complaint there are about five to 15 complainants,” he said. “All the complaints will be submitted to the Anti-Corruption Unit in late September to stop and punish corrupt tax agents.”

The most serious complaints are of tax agents in the provinces of Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Kandal and Takeo and will be a “test” of the Anti-Corruption Unit's willingness to tackle the problem, he said.

“The Anti-Corruption Unit is starting its work,” he said. “We want to see the 2010 annual tax collection for all vehicles have transparency and be a good example in the fight against corruption.”

The National Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization, which monitors natural resources and human rights, will also lodge a complaint accusing 241 people of illegal logging in Kampong Speu's Oral National Park.

Chea Hean, the director of the organization, said he was preparing even more similar complaints for officials and park rangers in Koh Kong province's Botum Sakor National Park and Kampot province's Bokor National Park.

“I'll lodge these complaints with the Anti-Corruption Unit to create more investigations, because I've lodged them with the Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provincial courts...but the courts did not take action,” he said. “If we gather the evidence and the Anti-Corruption Unit cannot find corruption, I won't have faith in the government institution.”

The Cambodia Independent Anti-Corruption Committee will also file a complaint over a 5-hectare land dispute in Phnom Penh, the committee's president, Mom Sitha said.

Yet more civic groups have complaints to file, said Chan Soveth, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc. However, many are waiting because they do not have faith the Anti-Corruption Unit is politically neutral, he said.

“The ACU officials were sworn in as corruption investigators, but they have not sworn to withdraw from the [ruling Cambodian People's Party] yet,” he said.

Om Yentieng, a senior government adviser and the head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, said he welcomed the complaints, provided they contained enough evidence.

“We can investigate all kinds of complaints,” he said.

NGOs ready a slew of graft complaints

Chheng Sophoan, 23, Banking student

“I think that it is hopeless because corruption is a very big problem. We must cooperate. We must especially take action at the top first. If the leaders are not corrupt, the lower officials will also not be corrupt. I think only about 30 percent of corruption can be eliminated successfully because the rule of law in Cambodia is not as strong as in other countries.”

Vong Vanna, 22, Student of Khmer literature

“I think that they created this law and it can be effective. Cambodia has a lot of corruption, so sometimes the law might be effective, but corruption cannot be totally eliminated. I have only a 75 percent belief this will work because the corruption takes place in secret.”

Pich Chea, 45, Tuk-tuk driver

“If leaders have the will to eliminate corruption they can do it, but if they don’t have the will, they won’t be able to. For example, traffic police often levy fines over the legal limits of the traffic law. This is one example of corruption.”

Thursday, 02 September 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Kingdom’s newly formed Anticorruption Unit potentially faces a busy start, as two local organisations are preparing to file more than 50 corruption complaints to the body this month.

A group of 14 ACU officials were sworn in Tuesday during a ceremony at the Appeal Court.

During the ceremony, the officials took an oath stating that they were willing to face death by lightning strikes and car accidents, and suffer other grisly fates if they failed to faithfully discharge their duties.

Local NGO representatives said yesterday that they had filed or were preparing to file complaints ranging from allegations of widespread illegal logging to irregularities in the collection of traffic fines.

I don’t have any concern. If I work to serve the national interest, I will die with closed eyes.

Chea Hean, director of the National Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation, a national watchdog, said he lodged a complaint on Monday accusing 241 officials of involvement in the illegal timber trade in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district.

“I have the documents,” he said. “The perpetrators have confessed in front of me, and I have recorded that they have paid some money to the officials stationed in the region.”

Those in his sights, Chea Hean said, include Oral district forestry officials, park rangers, district governor Chem Sarim and district police chief Dos Sim. He said he also plans to file a complaint alleging similar operations in Koh Kong province later this month.

“I don’t have any concern. If I work to serve the national interest, I will die with closed eyes,” Chea Hean said. “I dare to face to all kinds of danger.”
Chem Sarim and Dos Sim could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Also yesterday, a local representative of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, a regional organisation, said he had received more than 50 complaints in 10 provinces related to the alleged levying of illegal fines by traffic police.

San Chey, the organisation’s Cambodia-based network fellow, said he would forward them on to the ACU next week.

San Chey said many of the complaints accused traffic police of levying fines that were greater than those prescribed in the Land Traffic Law.

“Based on the swearing-in of the 14 [ACU] officials I think that they can find justice for the people,” San Chey said. “It is time to eliminate corruption in Cambodia.”

ACU chairman Om Yentieng said he welcomed all complaints lodged to the body, but could not guarantee that every complaint filed would be pursued by the body.

“All complaints will be received and looked at,” he said. “We do not deny anyone’s complaint.... We must have a look because they have trusted us enough to lodge a complaint with us.”

Om Yentieng said that the ACU would choose whether or not to investigate particular complaints based on their merit.

Chan Soveth, a senior investigator for local human rights group Adhoc, said that as long as ACU officials are members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party it would be impossible to eliminate corruption in the Kingdom. “ACU officials must not be controlled by the party. [They] must be independent, neutral. But those officials have not announced their withdrawal from the party,” Chan Soveth said.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Rats-Unit

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Xmer Judicial Police

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)