Two More Uyghurs Get Life Sentences [-Does Cambodia still deserve a seat at the UNSC???]

Top row: Three of the four Uyghurs sentenced to life imprisonment, from left, Mutellip Mamut, Nurahmet Kudret and Islam Urayim. Bottom row: Ilyar Hamut (jailed for 20 years), Musa Muhamad (17 years), Helil Abdugheni (16 years) and Abduqadir Abdugheni (16 years).

More details emerge on the Uyghur asylum seekers deported to China by Cambodia.

2012-01-27
Radio Free Asia

Chinese authorities have sent another two Uyghurs to life imprisonment after Cambodia deported them to China, family members and lawyers said Friday, as more details emerged regarding 21 Uyghur asylum seekers who were forcibly sent home.

News of the sentence came a day after it was reported that two Uyghurs from the same group had been ordered to spend the rest of their life in prison in punishments meted out in secret and described as severe by rights groups.

The four and 12 others, who were ordered jail up to 20 months, faced charges of splittism, terrorism and illegal travel.

The Uyghurs from China’s volatile Xinjiang region had fled to Cambodia more than two years ago and sought asylum in the Southeast Asian state following ethnic riots involving the minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese in the region's capital Urumqi in July 2009.

Exile group presses China on Uighur deportees

Friday, January 27, 2012
AFP

...the UN special rapporteur on torture called the expulsion from Cambodia of the Uighurs "a blatant violation" of anti-torture rules...

BEIJING — An exile group has urged Beijing to explain the fate of 20 ethnic Uighurs who escaped to Cambodia but were deported back to China, amid reports some were sentenced to death or life in jail.

The deportees, members of the mainly Muslim minority Uighur group who have long complained of oppression in Xinjiang, fled China after ethnic rioting in the remote, northwestern region in 2009.

They applied for UN refugee status in Cambodia, but were forcibly repatriated back to China in December 2009, in a move that triggered strong international condemnation.

Cambodia's decision to deport the Uighurs was quickly followed by a 1.2-billion-dollar aid and loan package from Beijing. China has rejected accusations of a link between the two.

Two Uighurs deported from Cambodia to China get life

Fri Jan 27, 2012

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has jailed two Muslim Uighurs deported from Cambodia for life, Radio Free Asia reported on Friday, showing no sign of loosening its grip on far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region which holds rich deposits of oil and gas.

The sentences -- and deadly clashes this week between police in Sichuan and ethnic Tibetans -- come at a sensitive time for China for whom ensuring stability ahead of a leadership transition later this year is a top priority.

They also precede a visit to the United States by Vice President Xi Jinping, who is seen as China's leader-in-waiting and who could come under criticism for the government's handling of the unrest.

Cambodia, the recipient of increasingly large amounts of Chinese investment and trade, was sharply rebuked by human rights groups for deporting the asylum seekers.

Two days after Cambodia deported the Muslim Uighurs in December 2009, Chinese Vice President Xi visited Phnom Penh and signed 14 trade deals worth $850 million.

Hun Sen expects stronger Sino-Cambodian friendship ties [-Kowtowing seems to work with the Chinese?]

December 13, 2010
Xinhua

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Sunday that his official visit to China on Dec. 13-17 will further strengthen the friendship relations between the two countries with more than a dozen agreements to be signed.

"Fourteen agreements will be signed with China, possibly the 15th agreement on exporting cassava from Cambodia will also be signed" during his visit, Hun Sen said during the inauguration of new premises in a pagoda in Sen Sok district of Phnom Penh.

Some of the agreements related to China's financial assistance to construct a 300 km national road off the national road 4 to Chhumkiri district of Kampot province and a canal, he said.

And the agreements also include the construction of the second Chruoy Changvar bridge in Phnom Penh and a bridge across Tonle Bassac in Takhmao district of Kandal province, as well as the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Preah Sihanouk province, he added.

"In the past, we signed rice export agreement with China already, and we hope to sign the cassava exports to China during the visit and we are suggesting for corn export deal with China also," he said.

"Our farmers will make use of rice and cassava exports because Chinese market is very big."

Hun Sen said the visit is to strengthen friendship relations between Cambodia and China.

Prime Minister Hun Sen will pay an official visit to China from Dec. 13 to 17 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. He will be accompanied by Hor Namhong, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Cham Prasidh, minister of commerce, and other Cambodian high ranking officials.

Hun Xen's kowtow visit to Beijing

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, shakes hands with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen before their meeting in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, 2008. (Photo: AP)

Hun Sen Scheduled for Five-Day Chinese Visit

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 10 December 2010

Prime Minister Hun Sen will spend five days in China next week at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao.

Hun Sen will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders and will pay a visit to former king Norodom Sihanouk, who is in Beijing for medical treatment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website Hun Sen would pay an official visit Dec. 13 through Dec. 17.

China has become a large supporter of Cambodia, providing millions of dollars in aid packages and investment in infrastructure, power and mining.

Cambodian officials say they expect Hun Sen to sign even more deals with China on this visit, though they declined to give details.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh are both expected to accompany the prime minister.

China pledges more military aid to Cambodia [-China-US influence competition game?]

PHNOM PENH, May 2 (AP) - (Kyodo)—China has pledged military aid to Cambodia worth 100 million yuan ($14 million), a senior government official said Sunday.

Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, told reporters upon return from China on Sunday that Chinese President Hu Jintao offered 256 military trucks and 50,000 military uniforms to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, worth 100 million yuan.

He said the pledge was made at a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday while Hun Sen was on a three-day visit to China to attend the opening of the Shanghai World Expo.

Another senior government official who accompanied the premier told Kyodo News the new Chinese aid was "a kind of" complement or replacement for military aid the United States had pledged but later suspended.

The United States had offered about 200 military vehicles and trailers to Cambodia under its Excess Defense Articles program.

But in early April, the U.S. government suspended military aid to Cambodia to protest the Cambodian government's deportation of 20 Uygur refugees to China.

The United States had tried to prevent the deportation but failed.

The refugees arrived in Cambodia via Vietnam and were placed under the protection of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

But Cambodia deported them anyway on the eve of the arrival of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on an official visit in December last year.

Critics say the Cambodian act underlined its growing ties with China, which has provided more aid and, unlike many Western donors, voices no complaints about corruption, democracy or human rights in Cambodia.

Cambodia has stated the deportation was "just implementing its policy and laws as a sovereign state."

Hun Sen tells Cambodians not to fear China [... just beware of the Siems and Yuons first]

PM: Cambodians not to fear economically strong China

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia should view China's economic prosperity as an opportunity but not a threat, national media Wednesday quoted Prime Minister Hun Sen as telling the two-day Fourth Asia Economic Forum here Tuesday.

"Don't wish that China should be poor. We should wish that China should be rich. It isn't a threat. It will help us ... (China's ) neighbor Cambodia and ASEAN will receive benefits," English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted him the president as saying.

In addition, the premier said that China could help deal with the current global financial crisis because China still has a large amount of foreign-exchange reserves and potential of economic growth".

According to the Chinese Embassy, the bilateral trade volume between China and Cambodia increased from 12.95 million U.S. dollars in 1992 to 933 million U.S. dollars in 2007.

China is currently the second largest investing country and the fourth largest donor country for Cambodia.

Chinese company completes restoration of Cambodia's National Road No. 7

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia, April 29 (Xinhua) -- National Road No. 7 in northeastern Cambodia totally opened Tuesday, after an over-three-year restoration work by the Shanghai Construction Group of China.

The 186.648-km-long road, running through Kratie and Stung Treng provinces and directly leading to Laos, was refurbished brand new, thanks to the interest-free loan provided by the Chinese government and its construction team.

"It is the latest achievement during the 50 years of diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday at the end of the road bordering Laos.

The restoration of National Road No. 7 will help improve the economic development of northeastern provinces including Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri, Hun Sen told the ceremony attended by hundreds of officials and local residents.

After it has enough infrastructures, the northeastern provinces of Cambodia will be a region of development from 2015 to 2020, he said, adding there are various mines here, which are a very important factor for investment.

It will also help advance the internal integration of the road network of the neighboring countries, especially the triangle are of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, he said

It is part of the road linkage for the ASEAN countries and also perfects Asian Highway No. 11, he added.

Also at the ceremony, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jinfeng said that the Cambodian-Chinese friendship bore another fruit, as the road is renovated to provide convenience for the local people, upgrade the regional road network and help materialize China's will to consolidate ties with its neighboring country and strive for common development with them.

Later at the ceremony, Hun Sen presented National Construction Medals to Zhang, some Chinese experts and Cambodian government officials.

The restoration of National Road No. 7 started on Nov. 8, 2004. It has 13 bridges, including the 1,057-meter-long Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge over the Sekong River near the border with Laos.

Currently, China is still helping Cambodia build National Road No. 8 and two bridges respectively over the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap River.