ASEAN Summit: Make Rights Central Clinton Message

Tue, 10 Jul 2012
Source: Human Rights Watch

In Cambodia, Human Rights Watch called for Clinton to make it clear in public and private to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that closer ties with the US will not be possible without significant improvements in Cambodia's deteriorating human rights situation. In the last year, the Cambodian government has launched repeated attacks on its critics, including the arbitrary arrest and summary conviction of urban women protesting eviction, a siege by security forces of a village opposing allegedly corrupt land sales during which a 14-year-old girl was killed, and the unlawful use of lethal force against protesting villagers by military personnel working as enforcers for a rubber company. In April 2012, Chut Wutty, Cambodia's best-known environmental activist, was gunned down while researching illegal timber sales.

Human rights should be at the heart of messaging from the United States to regional leaders when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the context of the annual ASEAN meeting.

(Bangkok) - Human rights should be at the heart of messaging from the United States to regional leaders when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the context of the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting.

The 2012 ASEAN summit takes place in Phnom Penh from July 11-13.

"Secretary Clinton is uniquely placed to leverage US influence in Asia, particularly for chronically abusive human rights situations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "The US needs to send a strong message that abuses will not be tolerated, and that US support - including funding - depends on addressing continuing grave human rights violations."

Migrant abuse claims skyrocket five fold

Domestic migrant maids being held against their will at an SKMM Investment Group training centre in Phnom Penh cry while speaking to reporters from the Post in October last year. The women were freed the following day during a police raid. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Friday, 06 July 2012
Bridget Di Certo and David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

Complaints of rights violations of migrant workers had increased more than 500 per cent in the first four months of 2012 compared with the same period last year, rights group Adhoc said yesterday.

The number of individual victims of rights violations, mainly migrant workers in Malaysia and Thailand, had increased by nearly 650 per cent, the group said in its report on the situation of migrant workers, obtained by the Post yesterday.

“Forced overwork, little or no rest time, untreated illnesses, torture, severe physical assault, underpayment, threats [of] being jailed, being forced to continue to work illegally and the cut-off of relationships with family members” were the main violations migrant workers suffered, Adhoc said.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Another Human Rights [Violation] Day

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

Sacrava's Political Cartoon - UN Rapporteur

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

Mol Roeup removed from US comprehensive course on security challenges associated with terrorism: Wikileaks

Reference ID: 09PHNOMPENH529

Created: 2009-07-29 08:06

Released: 2011-08-30 01:44

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Origin: Embassy Phnom Penh

VZCZCXYZ0008

OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHPF #0529 2100806

ZNR UUUUU ZZH

O 290806Z JUL 09

FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0995

INFO RUEKJCS/CJCS WASHDC

RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

RHHMUNA/USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI//JC/J3/J4/J45/J5/FPA// UNCLAS PHNOM PENH 000529

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR PM-HDP, DRL, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP AND S/GHD

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PREL MOPS PHUM MARR MASS CB

SUBJECT: RETRACTION OF VETTING REQUEST FOR MOL ROEUP TO ATTEND THE

COMPREHENSIVE COURSE ON SECURITY CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH

TERRORISM IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AUGUST 17-21, 2009 IN PHNOM PENH,

CAMBODIA

REF: PHNOM PENH 512

¶1. This is an action cable.

¶2. Post retracts the request for human rights vetting pursuant to

the Leahy Amendment for the below-listed individual as a candidate

to attend the Comprehensive Course on Security Challenges Associated

with Terrorism in South East Asia August 17-21, 2009 in Phnom Penh,

Cambodia (Reftel).

NAME: Mol, Roeup (Male)

DPOB: September 25, 1951; Phnom Penh

POSITION: Director of Cambodian Intelligence and Research

RANK: Lieutenant General

DEPT/UNIT: High Command Headquarters

¶3. Action request: Please terminate the vetting request (Reftel)

submitted to the Department for the above-named individual. Please

continue the vetting request for the second named individual, Chhay

Sinarith.

¶4. Post regrets the error and will liaise with the requesting office

to determine if an appropriate alternate can be identified.

¶5. Point of contacts for Amembassy Phnom Penh are Jenae Johnson at

Johnsonjd3@state.gov or tel: 855-23-728-118, or Major Wayne Turnbull

at turnbullpw@state.gov or tel: 855-23-728-219.

RODLEY

---------

KI-Media Note: A "Leahy Amendment" designates an element of a foreign government who fails to comply with human rights standards.

A "Leahy Amendment" is a provision in an authorization act (such as an annual Foreign Operations Authorization Act, or an annual National Defense Authorization Act) either limiting support to foreign countries or certain elements of a foreign government (such as a particular military unit) for failure to comply with human rights standards. Leahy Amendments are commonly attached to security assistance and defense authorizations. (Source: Opslaw.com)

Situation of Human Rights Violation by​ the Economic Concession Chinese Company in Kirisakor, Koh Kong province

Source: ADHOC Land Program

Situation of Human Rights Violation by​ the Economic Concession Chinese Company in Kirisakor, Koh Kong province

After Government granting Economic Land Concession over 36000 ha to Union Development Group Co., Ltd for development of Tourist Resort, China Town since 2008; 1143 families affected significantly and until now living condition of people is stepping down to zero, they lived in fear, vulnerable,in bad situation, unpleasant rights and freedom; especially they were marginalized with no support from Government or Donors at all.

Rights to speak up, to assembly, to protest legitimately of villagers were entirely infringed,it seems that they lived in side territorial secession area take place with terrible. Both economic and social sections are under protectorate by authoritarian group stay behind the Chinese company. Meanwhile, local authorities: village,commune, district and provincial level also incapable to protect villagers. The travel to inside and outside the compound was prevented or checked up thoroughly; cultivate products, crops and yields of fishing were not allowed people to collect, gather; prevented by armed forces. The barricades were setup prohibited human rights NGO, journalist, tourism, and travelers from passing to inside of old villages, the real situation of old village was hidden where remaining people are still living there.

Recently,although Chinese company try to construct and pave road, to construct working sites but it is for sake of company it was not done for people; the such development make livelihood and living condition of farmer and fishing people get devastated and ruined down because of the Economic Land Concession granted to Chinese company. The hard and long time manufacture humanly of pagoda, school, market and town by community forces was destroyed completely.

Maid deaths hit nerve in KL

Friday, 11 November 2011David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

A Malaysia parliamentarian has lashed out at his own government and police for their “callous approach” in failing to take proper action in response to the deaths of nine Cambodian domestic workers in their country this year.

Charles Santiago, a member of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said yesterday his government and police had “totally disrespected” its own laws by conducting, at best, only cursory investigations into the deaths and generally failing to properly regulate the industry.

“This is not acceptable. It is too much, given that these migrant workers are coming to work in Malaysia, and it’s just not acceptable that they go back in body bags,” Santiago said.

He vowed to use a sitting of parliament next week to push his government to pursue a “much more humane” approach to migrant domestic workers following Cambodia’s decision to temporarily ban labour firms from sending them to Malaysia.

Rights Groups Say Pressure on Land Protesters Increasing - ក្រុមសិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស​បញ្ជាក់​ថា​ការ​គាប​សង្កត់​ទំនាស់​ដីធ្លី​កើន​ឡើង

In this photo taken on March 17, 2011, rubble are scattered around houses on the edge of Boeung Kak, Phnom Penh's largest lake. The residents of the area are being evicted from their homes to make way for upscale villas and office buildings. (Photo: AP)

Wednesday, 09 November 2011
Chun Sakada
VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“This violates the people’s rights to justice, fair trial and fair hearings.”

Dozens of land protesters have been detained and hundreds were charged in the courts in the first nine months of this year, indicating an increase in pressure by the judiciary in land disputes, rights groups said Wednesday.

In separate calculations on cases related to land disputes, Adhoc said it recorded 46 detentions and 173 court charges, Licadho said it counted 35 detentions and 163 charges and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said it counted 26 court charges, all from January to September.

Charges included incitement, for land protests, and the destruction of property related to protests, demonstrations and disputes.

Speak Truth To Power (Courage Without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Van Jones (US) "Police Brutality"

http://www.box.net/shared/mzhf78m377me1qk5tsj1

Speak Truth To Power (Courage Without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Anonymous (Sudan) "Political Freedom"

Speak Truth To Power (Courage Without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Anonymous (Sudan) "Political Freedom"
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/56275844?access_key=key-1gkn0yec6aaolrtaiick

Speak Truth to Power (Courage without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Senal Sarihan (Turkey) "Political Rights"

Speak Truth to Power (Courage without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Senal Sarihan (Turkey) "Political Rights"
http://www.scribd.com/full/55040939?access_key=key-11ycs9p6ir0f5rnl5xwk

Speak Truth to Power (Courage without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Kailash Satyarthi (India) "Child Labor"

Speak Truth to Power (Courage without Borders) Series in KI-Media - Kailash Satyarthi (India) "Child Labor"
http://www.scribd.com/full/54863005?access_key=key-28xwlxkb68kz460zi6q6

Speak Truth To Power (“Courage without Borders”) Series in KI-Media - Sister Dianna Ortiz (Guatemala/USA) “Torture”

Speak Truth To Power (“Courage without Borders”) Series - Sister Dianna Ortiz (Guatemala/USA) “Torture”


http://www.scribd.com/full/53408350?access_key=key-1ku295cf78k41o0gx7cc

Thailand, Cambodia Border Fight Moves to UN

Ron Corben, Voice of America
Bangkok February 11, 2011

Thailand and Cambodia plan to present their positions next week to the United Nations Security Council over recent fighting on their border.

A ceasefire held Friday along the Cambodian-Thai border, though the armies of both governments remain on alert.

Latest fight

A week ago, fighting erupted near a 900-year-old Hindu Khmer temple on the border. Several died before fighting halted Tuesday, and thousands on both sides were forced to flee their homes.

On Monday, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Thailand’s Kasit Piromya appear before the United Nations Security Council to set out their respective positions. Each country blames the other for starting the battle.

Politiktoons No. 132: China 2011

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com
and also at http://sacravra.blogspot.com)

Cambodia: Judicial harassment against Mr. Sam Chankea

Suy Sem, the CPP minister of Mining and Energy, and Chea Kheng, his wife who is accused of harassing Sam Chankea

URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

KHM 001 / 0111 / OBS 002
Judicial Harassment
Cambodia
January 18, 2011

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Cambodia.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the judicial harassment faced by Mr. Sam Chankea, Coordinator of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) in Kampong Chhnang, a human rights defender active in land rights issues.

According to the information received, Mr. Sam Chankea will face trial today, January 18, 2011 before the Kg. Chhnang Provincial Court in Cambodia for allegedly defaming the work of KDC International Company, owned by Lauk Chumteav Chea Kheng, wife of Minister of Mining and Energy.

The complaint against Mr. Sam Chankea follows a radio interview broadcast on December 26, 2009 in which he expressed his opinion over a land case conflict opposing dozens of villagers and the KDC International company in Kampong Chhnang province. In this interview Mr. Sam Chankea stated that “what the company has done is an act of violation since the court has yet to rule on the merits of the case. Therefore the company should suspend the activity and await the ruling on the merits of the case”. He was subsequently quoted in Koh Santepheap newspaper on December 30, 2009.

Chinese company involved in Boeung Kak Lake with CPP Lao Meng Khin's Shukaku Inc.

A young barefooted boy looks pensive while behind him workers employed by Shukaku Inc pump a mixture of sand and water into the northeastern edge of Boeung Kak lake. (Photo by: Will Baxter)

China firm in lake deal

Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Vanessa Ko
The Phnom Penh Post

A Chinese company has invested tens of millions of dollars in the controversial development of the Boeung Kak lakeside, in connection with firms linked to a powerful ruling party senator Lao Meng Khin, according to Chinese-language news reports.

The reports from September say that the involvement of the state-owned Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Co dates back to July, when it signed an agreement with two local companies to develop the lake.

According to the reports, the Boeung Kak development – known in Chinese as wanguhu, or “10,000 Valley Lake” – was included in a US$3 billion package of investment deals that also included a 750-megawatt power station in Sihanoukville and the exploration of bauxite in Mondulkiri.

The announcement of the deals followed a September 8 meeting between Wang Linxiang, the company’s chairman, and Prime Minister Hun Sen. At the time, Eang Sophalleth, a personal adviser to Hun Sen, told The Post that the meeting was to discuss the power station project and real estate developments, but did not identify Boeung Kak lake as one of the projects.

The Chinese reports reveal that Hung Jun’s lake development agreement involved both Shukaku Inc – which is owned by Lao Meng Khin – and the Cambodia International Investment Development Group.

The latter firm also appears to be linked to the senator. According to an undated government investment publication available online, the firm runs a special economic zone in Sihanoukville, with Lao Meng Khin listed as the “zone developer”.

Also present at the September 8 meeting between Hun Sen and the Hung Jun representatives, Eang Sophalleth said at the time, was Lao Meng Khin’s wife Choeung Sopheap, the head of local conglomerate Pheapimex.

The reports confirm longstanding suspicions of Chinese involvement in the 133-hectare housing and commercial development.

In January, The Post revealed a long history of Chinese links to the project, following the signing of a US$79 million lease agreement between City Hall and local developer Shukaku Inc in February 2007.

It remained unclear, however, whether Chinese firms were still linked to the project after one Kunming-based company withdrew from the project after undergoing restructuring.

Chinese news reports state that Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Co was registered in Inner Mongolia in June and has two parent companies, each holding a 50 percent stake.

One of the companies is Erdos Holding Group, based in Inner Mongolia, whose primary businesses are cashmere and energy investment. The other is the Qingdao-based Dezheng Resources Holdings Co Ltd, an aluminium and energy development firm.

The Chinese articles also reveal that the joint venture between Hung Jun and Cambodia International Investment Development Group, which was not named, had registered capital totalling $72 million.

Hong Jun owns 51 percent of the company, contributing cash and equipment, while the Cambodian company owns 49 percent and provides the land and resources.

It is unclear what role Shukaku plays in the deal, though it has been in charge of the Boeung Kak project since work began in 2008.

Since then, the project has come under fire from housing rights groups, who claim as many as 4,000 families will be forced to make way. Protests by lakeside residents have become a weekly occurrence in Phnom Penh, fuelled by complaints of inadequate compensation, the lack of transparency and the flooding of homes due to the filling of the lake.

“It has been difficult for the residents to figure out who they should appeal to,” said Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force. “The government tells them to go to Shukaku, Shukaku tells them to go to the government. They just throw them back and forth.”

Sia Phearum said the Chinese involvement will likely have a negative impact on the residents’ plight. “[The Chinese] care about business more than human rights,” he said.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said there should be tough laws on loans from abroad. “We have to be very careful of those who only look at their own benefit and exploit Cambodian natural resources,” he said. “I don’t know if the Chinese investors have considered the reputation of their company name ... or if they just want to invest in a poor country.”

Chinese Embassy spokesman Qian Hai had not responded to queries as of press time. A Shukaku official declined to comment.

Military prevent villagers from attending public Human Right forum in Kampot province

Report Links Businesses With Rights Abuses

Children sit on top their inundated homes, where Shukaku, Inc., has been pumping fill into Boeung Kak lake, in early November 2010. (Photo: by Heng Reaksmey)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 02 December 2010

"Evictions are regularly conducted by armed Cambodian troops and police, while the political and economic elite benefit from forced evictions.”

Government spokesman Phay Siphan called the report an “attack from a non-governmental organization.”

Government officials and businesses, backed by a biased court system, are behind many of the most egregious rights violations in the country, a new report has found.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights found what it called a governance gap, where the authorities are unable to protect citizens from rights violations brought about by powerful business interests.

The group also found financial ties between individuals in government and businesses responsible for rights violations, exacerbating the problem. In some situations, it was hard to tell the difference between the government and business, the center said in its report, “Business and Human Rights in Cambodia.”

Land rights violations brought on by economic motives have become endemic, the report said. And land cases and their respective crackdowns have meant curbs on land and labor rights and the freedom of expression and assembly, the report said.

“Victims of evictions are rarely given an opportunity for participation or consultation beforehand and any information which is provided to residents is often incomplete and inaccurate,” it said. “When consultations with communities facing the threat of eviction do occur, they are often manipulative or coercive. Evictions are regularly conducted by armed Cambodian troops and police, while the political and economic elite benefit from forced evictions.”

Rights activists, meanwhile, face regular threats of physical violence or criminal charges when they voice their opposition to harmful developments, it said.

Victims of land or labor violations who seek to demonstrate or protest meet “public and private forces [that] collude to deny them these rights,” it said, adding that the courts were also not free of political or financial influence.

“The judicial mechanisms in Cambodia are in practice utilized by the political, economic and social elite to ensure impunity,” the report said.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan called the report an “attack from a non-governmental organization.”

Ban-ki Moon has U.N. 'drifting into irrelevance'

Ban Ki-moon visiting Cambodia (Photo: Robert Carmichael, VOA)

November 13, 2010
By JOEL BRINKLEY
StAugustine.com

He also stopped in Cambodia and met with Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ordered Ban to close down the U.N.'s human-rights office in Phnom Penh. The office has been pointing out that Hun Sen's government is depriving its citizens of one human right after another as the prime minister consolidates his elective dictatorship. We can't know what Ban said about that during the meeting. Probably not much. But neither he nor his spokesmen had anything useful to say when the meeting was over.

Iran has stepped up the use of brutal, medieval punishments, like stoning people to death and chopping off the hands of thieves. Late last month, authorities cut off a man's hand and sentenced another one, 21 years old, to the same fate for stealing a bag of chocolate.

And while world leaders denounce Iran's death-by-stoning sentence of a woman accused of adultery, in recent weeks at least two other women have been stoned to death, one of them because she was seen in the company of an unrelated man. Eight more sit on death row awaiting the same fate.

"As the regime grows more insecure, they're growing more erratic, more violent," said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University.

Women are taking the brunt of this. Iran has a special rule for stoning-execution victims. They are buried, standing up in a pit, but if the condemned person can somehow wriggle out of the hole, he or she can go free. By law, men are buried up to the waist -- but women up to the chest.

So this week the nation almost became a director of the new United Nations agency to promote equality for women. How could that possibly happen?

The United Nations is supposed to be all about human rights. In 1948, the U.N.'s founders wrote one of the world's most important documents: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But by its behavior today, you'd think its leaders had never read it.

Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, just returned from a trip to Asia, where among other stops he met with President Hu Jintao in Beijing. Around the world, presidents and prime ministers have been standing up to protest China's treatment of Liu Xiaobo, the jail inmate who just won the Nobel Peace Prize. But Ban never even mentioned the subject during his meeting with Hu.

That's egregious enough. But there's more. He also stopped in Cambodia and met with Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ordered Ban to close down the U.N.'s human-rights office in Phnom Penh. The office has been pointing out that Hun Sen's government is depriving its citizens of one human right after another as the prime minister consolidates his elective dictatorship. We can't know what Ban said about that during the meeting. Probably not much. But neither he nor his spokesmen had anything useful to say when the meeting was over.

If not human rights, what exactly does the United Nations stand for? It's quite hard to tell with Ban running the show. He is, of course, Korean and seems to embody the Confucian values of modesty, self-effacement and non-confrontational behavior. Are these the character traits of a world leader?

Last summer, the Associated Press acquired a 50-page internal memo written by the U.N.'s auditor general, Inga-Britt Ahlenius. Under Ban, her memo said, the U.N. leadership office "is now in a process of decay. It is not only falling apart," it's "drifting into irrelevance." Ban's performance, she wrote, is "seriously embarrassing for yourself."

In July, the U.N. decided to combine four women's-rights agencies into a single powerful body advocating the interests of half the world's people. Women's-rights groups cheered -- until they began hearing the names of the states that will govern it. Among them was Iran, which treats women worse than house pets. At the last minute Wednesday, the U.S. managed to block Iran's election. But the U.N. did select another malefactor state: Saudi Arabia, which in recent times sentenced a 75-year-old women to 40 lashes and three months in jail for asking two men to bring her some food -- and twice refused an 8-year-old's request for a divorce. Her husband is 50.

How can Ban stand by and let this travesty go forward?

For that matter, why did Ban have nothing to say a few days ago when the United States had its turn for a human-rights review by the U.N. Human Right's Council?

Cuba managed to stack the speakers list "with rogue regimes and other vehement critics," including "Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, China, Algeria, Bolivia, Nicaragua," UN Watch, a nongovernmental organization, reported. "Several Muslim states accused America of genocide, war crimes and systematic anti-Muslim and anti-African racism."

American officials shrugged, as they should. Who really cares what these people have to say? But if I were Ban, once again I would be humiliated. What kind of respect should the world accord the U.N. when it permits mockeries like this to occur -- in its own offices?

--------

Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent for the New York Times.