Illegal timber warehouses raided by the police belong to Oknha Sok Kong and other powerful oknhas

Hun Xen's cronies: Sok Kong (L) and Lao Meng Khin (R)

Saturday, 27 March 2010
By Khmerization
Source: RFA

Police and military police raids in the last few days have found thousands of cubic metres of illegal timbers stockpiled in warehouses across the country, especially in Siem Reap province, reports Radio Free Asia.

In raids in Siem Reap town on 24th March, the police had found 100 cubic metres of timbers in warehouses belonging to Oknha Sok Kong (pictured), chairman of Sokimex Petroleum and one of Cambodia's richest men, 100 cubic metres of illegal timbers belonging to Senator Lao Meng Khin, chairman of Shukaku company and husband of Yeay Phu who is the chairwoman of Pheapimex.

During other raids on 25th March, police had found 10 cubic metres of timbers belonging to Mr. Ko Sum Saroeuth, Secretary of State of Ministry of Tourism, and in another raid on Friday 26th in Siem Reap, police had found hundreds of cubic metres of timbers belonging to Oknha Ang Try, owner of Tiger Beer and in a separate incident, Oknha Te Taing Por, owner of a development site near Pochentong Airport, was sued by Mrs. Doeur Sokhon for defrauding her by refusing to pay for the orders of timbers from her company that he used for the developments of his site near Pochentong Airport, which could be illegal timbers.

Sok Kong is a very powerful businessman and a good friend of Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy PM Sok An who had been awarded concessions to develop Bokor Mountain Resort and to manage the entrance fees to visit Angkor Wat and other temples in Siem Reap town.

Radio Free Asia reports that Sok Kong's case had reached Siem Reap Magistrate Court. However, Sok Kong claimed that the timbers are for the construction of his Bokor Resort Hotel. Mr. Ty Sovin Thal, the court prosecutor, said he had received the reports of the raids on Sok Kong's warehouses forwarded to him by officials from the Forestry Department, but he had not yet conducted the investigations.

Mr. Nhim Seila, Deputy Commander of Siem Reap Military Police, said Sok Kong had permits to log and to own those timbers to use in the construction of hotels at his Bokor Mountain Resort in Kamport province.

Prime Minister Hun Sen called illegal loggers "traitors" and has resolutely declared during a cabinet meeting on Friday 26th March that his government will pursue illegal loggers to the end, no matter who they are and what positions they hold.

Human Rights Situation Still Poor: US

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
12 March 2010

Cambodia remains a country with a poor human rights record and endemic corruption, whose citizens can face extrajudicial killings or abuse in detention, the US State Department said in a report released Friday.

Land disputes, forced evictions and a lack of democratic freedoms remained problems, according to the 2009 Human Rights Report.

“Although civilian authorities nominally controlled the security forces, in many cases security forces acted under directives of the [Cambodian People’s Party] leadership,” the rights report says. “Security forces committed extrajudicial killings and acted with impunity. Detainees were abused, often to extract confessions, and prison conditions were harsh.”

Cambodia’s judiciary remains weak, with human rights workers reporting “arbitrary arrest and prolonged pretrial detention,” according to the report. “Land disputes and forced evictions were a problem. The government restricted freedom of speech and the press through defamation and disinformation lawsuits and at times interfered with freedom of assembly.”

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the report, which runs 29 pages, was “not fully complete.”

Cambodia was still dealing with vestiges of its civil wars and as a result lacks some human rights protections, he said Friday.

Rape risk rises in Cambodia, says Amnesty International

Most Cambodians live with a weak justice system and few rights

Monday, March 08, 2010
By Guy DeLauney
BBC News, Cambodia

Human rights organisations in Cambodia have called for the government to tackle the rising incidence of rape.

A report by Amnesty International says victims have limited access to justice, medical services and counselling.

It claims that rape cases are often settled by cash payments to the victim - or bribes to the authorities.

Official statistics show a significant increase of the number of rapes reported to police last year - almost a quarter more than in 2008.

But Amnesty says the true figure may be much higher - because many victims never tell the authorities about their attacks.

Commander's block

Its report highlights a lack of faith in law enforcement officials and the judicial process.

One incident cited involved a policeman accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a karaoke bar.

His commanding officer refused to press charges - and insisted the attack could not be considered rape, as the woman had not been a virgin.

The government has acknowledged that sexual violence is a problem.

In a speech last week, the minister of women's affairs said there were increasing fears of gang rape.

She suggested that increasing access to alcohol, drugs and pornography was responsible.

Social workers say that a change in attitude towards victims of sexual violence is sorely needed.

Sun Maly runs a women's safe house in Battambang province.

"When they become victims of rape like this they become stigmatised by their own community. Especially in the case of children - when they've been sexually assaulted they drop out of school because of discrimination or embarrassment," she said.

Amnesty says that that many cases are currently settled by cash payments - or not pursued because the victim cannot afford to pay police and court officials.

It is calling on the authorities to make sure that those who commit rape or sexual violence are punished through the judicial process.

Basic freedoms restricted in Cambodia: Surya Subedi

Surya Subedi (Photo: Reuters)

Basic freedoms restricted in Cambodia, UN rights expert reports

Source: UN News Centre

1 October 2009 – An independent United Nations expert today voiced concern about the human rights situation in Cambodia, noting in particular that the judiciary is not as independent as it should be and the basic freedoms of expression and assembly are being restricted.

Reporting to the UN Human Rights Council, Surya Subedi called for improvements to the overall human rights situation in the South-East Asian nation.

“The rule of law is weak in the country. The judiciary is not as independent as it should be. Some of the core political rights such as the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly have been undermined,” said the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia.

Mr. Subedi noted that the country’s defamation laws have gone beyond what is a permissible level of restriction on freedom of expression under the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Cambodia is a party.

He added that the spirit of the provisions guaranteeing freedom of speech in international human rights treaties is to treat any matters relating to restrictions on such freedom, including defamation issues, under civil law rather than criminal law unless such matters are of a grave nature and pose a threat to national security or public order.

Also of concern is the issue of impunity and land evictions, which he said have not been addressed as thoroughly as they should be.

Nevertheless, he said he is encouraged by the fact that the Government is willing to constructively engage with him and other UN human rights entities, calling it “a major step in the right direction.”

He added that the Council should encourage the Government to take concrete action to implement its obligations under various human rights treaties under a strict timeframe.

Mr. Subedi, like all Special Rapporteurs, carries out his mandate in an independent and unpaid capacity, and reports to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

Brutal Acid Attacks on the Rise

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 March 2009

Imagine the pain of someone pressing burning steel to your face or body. Chiev Chenda experienced such suffering when a woman poured litres of nitric acid on her.

“Before I used to see, look after and play with my children, but now I can’t since I’ve become blind,” she said, trying to recall in a recent interview what happened to her last month when she was attacked near her house in the outskirt of Phnom Penh.

Chiev Chenda is just one of hundreds of other acid attack survivors in Cambodia, victims of a crime that observers say is increasing.

The Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity supports roughly 200 survivors of acid burns since 2006.

Acid Survivors Director James Gollogly said most victims are women, who account for 60 percent, while men and children make up 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

“The motivations [of acid attacks] are many different types,” Gollogly said. “The classic one is revenge for some young women who are the mistresses of some older guys, and his wife either pours acid on them herself or gets someone to do it.”

According to a Licadho’s 2003 “Living in the Shadows,” a report on acid attacks in Cambodia, the perpetrator usually does not want to kill the victim but wants to destroy her face, to make the victim look like a monster so that nobody will ever love her.

The acids most frequently used in the attacks are sulfuric or nitric. These acids can melt human flesh and even bones, causing excruciating pain and terror and leaving victims mutilated and scarred for life.

Ung Bunthan, who compiled the Licadho report and has been monitoring acid attacks in Cambodia since 1999, said attack survivors not only suffer physically but they also have to live in a state of being worse than death.

“Some acid attack victims become blind; some lose their nose, ears and even skull,” he said, adding that some victims confine themselves at home as a result of shame, or to avoid social discrimination.

“They live neither as a human nor as a ghost,” he said.

Licadho recorded 44 cases of acid attacks between 1999 and 2003, but the recent record shows 114 new cases for the past five years, according to Ung Bunthan.

But the actual number of acid attack cases may be higher, as some cases go unreported, he said.

“The increase in acid attacks may result from the police’s incapability to arrest perpetrators,” Ung Bunthan said. “So when a perpetrator can walk free after committing an acid attack, he can still do the same with other victims later.”

Reached by phone, Chief of Penal Police Maj. Gen. Mok Chito did not respond to questions about acid attacks.

But Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng said the authorities can work on the issue only with court and victim cooperation.

“To arrest someone, we have to work with a prosecutor to have an arrest warrant first, and then we also need the victim’s complaint,” she said.

Centre for Social Development Executive Director Seng Theary, however, said the authorities still fear the rich and the powerful in their implementation of the law.

“We can all see that the role of police is still limited,” she said. “Most of the time, they only punish the poor and the weak, but they dare not do the same with the rich and the powerful. This is unjust.”

Under the Cambodian law, a perpetrator can face up to 10 years in jail and a life sentence if the acid attack victim dies or becomes disabled.

An acid attack on a karaoke singer Tat Marina in December 1999, allegedly by the wife of a a senior government official, attracted a lot of publicity, but the alleged perpetrator and accomplices have never been arrested and brought to justice.

Similarly, the woman who attacked Chiev Chenda remains at large.

“It should never have happened to me,” the 34-year-old mother of three said, tears streaking down her badly scared face. “I am really suffering.”

Teuk Krott Avuth Tumnoeub - "Acid, the modern weapon": A Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea

Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea (on the web at http://kamnapkumnou.blogspot.com)

Acid attacks in Cambodia: dangerous liaisons, punitive operations and overt impunity

13-03-2009
By Stéphanie Gée
Ka-set

Cambodia is amongst the countries where the highest numbers of acid attacks have been numbered. These aggressions, characterised by their unusual barbarity, mainly target young women, who are most of the time the victims of domestic violence or the vengeful anger of wives who will try to oust forever their youthful rival because they got themselves into a relationship with their husband. Generally speaking, the authors of such attacks are identified but most of them manage to dodge justice. The issue was brought out in the open in December 1999 with the story of Tat Marina, a rising star in the Cambodian showbiz discovered in karaoke films, who was in turn doused with acid by the wife of a member of the government. Her tragic story was internationally acknowledged and is still heard today as shown by the preview screening of a documentary about her story, presented on Wednesday March 11th at the International Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva.

Click to Read More...

Film Explores Impact of Acid Attacks

Karaoke star Tat Marina in 1999.
Sequndo shows Marina's picture to the family for the first time in more than eight years.
A song performed by Marina before the attack took place which disfigured her for life.
Svay Sitha, Cambodia's secretary of state at the Council of Ministers.
Marina: "It is my son who gives me courage to live on."

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
12 March 2009

A new documentary exploring the impact of acid attacks premiered Wednesday at a film festival and human rights forum in Geneva, raising questions of impunity that persist in Cambodia.

“Finding Face” investigates acid attacks through the story of victim Tat Marina, a karaoke star who was doused with a liter of nitric acid by the jealous wife of a senior government official.

Tat Marina was attacked on December 5, 1999 in Cambodia while she was having porridge with her niece at a Phnom Penh market.

Nearly 10 years have passed, but her family continues to seek justice for the attack.

“Once the film is out, there must be a frustration, and I am absolutely sure that they will not leave my family in peace,” Tat Sequndo, the star’s brother, told VOA Khmer Tuesday in a phone interview. “However, for the sake of justice, we have to release the film”.

In the documentary, Tat Soqundo is heard telling his family members to watch for their safety and he gives them phone numbers of international organizations in case of a possible threat.

Tat Marina appears more calm and mature in the film, a contrast to the mischievous face she put on in her performances some 10 years ago. Despite several reconstructive surgeries, scars are visible all over her face and chest. These are what she has to live with for the rest of her life.

Tat Marina’s family express disappointment when they see video footage shown to them by Tat Sequndo. It is the first time they have seen her picture in the more than eight years since Tat Marina was given asylum and received treatment in the US. The family bursts into tears.

“Oh, my child!,” Tat Marina’s mother says, weeping as she watches part of the video. “She’s not as beautiful as before. She was a beautiful girl. She was too beautiful. It’s a burden.”

Until today the attack still traumatizes Tat Marina. In a recent interview with VOA Khmer, she wept most of the time as she tried to recall what happened to her.

“What they did to me was like taking my life away,” she said. “I live in misery, half alive and half dead. This is crueler than killing me. They spared my life, but mentally killed me. They think they suffer, but what they did was they left me to live in hell for the rest of my life.”

The film features Tat Marina and her child at about four years of age, though the identity of the father is not revealed.

“It is my son who gives me courage to live on,” Tat Marina said. “He makes me strong, to cope with mental depression. I’ll do everything for my son’s future.”

The acid attack topic caught producer Skye Fitzgerald’s attention while he worked on another film in Cambodia. When he and his team started working on the movie, he saw a mixture of fear and reluctance. For instance, it took Tat Marina and her brother a while before they agreed to participate, fearing reprisal.

Tat Marina’s former lover, Svay Sitha, has now been promoted from the rank of undersecretary of state at the Council of Ministers. He could not be reached for comment on the film.

His two telephone numbers were answered by two different females saying they did not know him; a third number went unanswered.

Svay Sitha’s wife, Khun Sophal, identified by witnesses at the scene of the 1999 attack, remains at large, despite police affirmation that the case is not yet closed.

An investigating judge who once told reporters an arrest warrant had been issued for Khun Sophal now says he can’t remember whether he handled the case.

Cambodia tribunal dispute runs deeper

Who will prevail: Justice or the Strongman?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By Seth Mydans
International Herald Tribune (Paris, France)

PHNOM PENH: At first glance it seems to be simply a numbers game: whether to try 5, 10 or more defendants for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge three decades ago.

But as a United Nations-backed tribunal prepares to hold its first trial session next month, it is embroiled in a wrangle over numbers that goes to the heart of longstanding concerns about the tribunal's fairness and independence.

The Cambodian government, critics say, is attempting to limit the scope of the trials for its own political reasons, a limit that the critics say would compromise justice and could discredit the entire process.

"To me, it's the credibility of the tribunal which is at stake, its integrity and therefore its credibility," said Christophe Peschoux, who heads the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia.

The first defendant is the man with perhaps the most horrifying record: Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, the commander of the Tuol Sleng torture house in Phnom Penh, where at least 14,000 people were sent to their deaths. His trial is to open with a procedural hearing, set for Feb. 17, at which more substantive sessions, involving witnesses and evidence, are expected to be scheduled.

Four other defendants, all of whom were members of the Khmer Rouge Central Committee, are also in custody, waiting their turns to face charges in crimes that occurred while they were at the top of the chain of command from 1975 to 1979. As much as one-fourth of the population died from disease, hunger, overwork or execution under the Khmer Rouge's brutal Communist rule.

Those five defendants are enough, Cambodian officials say.

But foreign legal experts counter that within reasonable limits, the judicial process should not be arbitrarily limited.

After a decade of difficult and not always friendly negotiations between the United Nations and the Cambodians, a hybrid tribunal is in place, with Cambodian and foreign co-prosecutors and panels of co-judges in an awkward political and legal balancing act. Now, even before Duch's trial gets under way, that balance is being tested.

Last month the foreign co-prosecutor, a Canadian named Robert Petit, submitted six more names to the court for investigation, saying that he had gathered enough evidence to support possible charges. Petit's Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, objected - not on legal grounds, but for reasons that appear to reflect the government's position on the trials.

Additional indictments, the Cambodian prosecutor said, could be destabilizing and would cost too much and take too long and would violate the spirit of the tribunal, which she said envisioned "only a small number of trials."

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who bargained hard with the United Nations over the shape and scope of the tribunal, has said that trying "four or five people" would be enough, although there is no formal limit on the number.

Indeed, Peter Maguire, author of "Facing Death in Cambodia," suggests that Hun Sen's plan might be to try only Duch - "a garden-variety war criminal" - and hope the political defendants die before they can be tried and judged.

The additional names submitted by Petit have not been made public. But people close to the court say that none of them holds a significant position in Cambodia's current government.

Both Hun Sen and several senior members of his government were Khmer Rouge cadre, but experts say they do not fall under the scope of the tribunal and are not at risk of prosecution.

The mandate of the court is to try the top leadership of the Khmer Rouge and "those most responsible" for the crimes - that is, people like Duch, who oversaw the torture and killing of thousands of people.

In Cambodia, though, courts do not head off in their own directions without tight control from Hun Sen or the people around him. Some advocates of the tribunal - the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC - see it as offering Cambodia a model for a more independent judiciary.

"Some in Phnom Penh are apparently frightened that the ECCC might actually succeed - that it might serve as an example of accountability that could be applied more widely," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

"With the Feb. 17 start of the first trial fast approaching, now is the moment to show that the court is not a tool of the Cambodian government," he said. "The court's credibility is on the line."

Most Cambodians are eager to see Khmer Rouge leaders brought to trial, according to an extensive survey published last week by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

But the study found that about one-third of people answering the survey had doubts about the tribunal's neutrality and independence, perhaps because of their experience with their own corrupt and politically controlled judiciary.

Confidence in the tribunal has also been eroded by allegations of kickbacks that are familiar in the Cambodian court system.

The allegations have left the United Nations with the awkward choice of taking action or being seen as condoning corruption.

Now, with the dispute between the two co-prosecutors in the open, the checks and balances of the hybrid court will meet their first major test.

The dispute over the number of defendants must now go to a pre-trial chamber whose makeup reflects the supermajority structure of the tribunal, which is made up of three Cambodian judges and two foreigners. One of the foreign judges must join the Cambodians, in a four-vote majority, for a decision to prevail.

If the panel is deadlocked three to two, according to court rules, the prosecution must proceed.

But court watchers said it remained to be seen how cooperative the Cambodian staff would be if the government did not want those cases to move forward.

There is nothing so far to suggest that this process will not work as it should, said David Scheffer, a law professor at Northwestern University School of Law who took part in negotiations to create the tribunal.

The real test, he said in a recent article in The Phnom Penh Post newspaper, will be whether the judges in the pre-trial chamber "step up to the plate and do their duty with the highest degree of judicial integrity."

"We can all assess that when their decision is rendered," he said.

Khmer Rouge tribunal dogged by government interference: HRW

Wednesday, 07 January 2009
Written by Brendan Brady
The Phnom Penh Post

Rights group slams government for obstructing war crimes court, as celebrations to commemorate fall of Khmer Rouge begin

ON the eve of today's 30th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Human Rights Watch released a report condemning the progress of the United Nations-backed war crimes court and accusing the government of obstructing its procedures.

"After 30 years, no one had been tried, convicted or sentenced for the crimes of one of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century," said Brian Adams, Asia director of the New York-based human rights watchdog group, in a statement released Tuesday.

"[For] the past decade Hun Sen had done his best to thwart justice," he added.

The comments came a day ahead of the celebrations organised by the ruling Cambodian People's Party to mark three decades since the day in 1979 when Vietnamese-led forces drove the Khmer Rouge out of the capital.

The statement called both the design and practices of the court "deeply flawed", especially by allowing for disproportionate involvement of the Cambodian judiciary, which, it noted, the UN has described as lacking independence, competence and professionalism. It also cited reports of rampant job-selling among the court's Cambodian staff.

Spread your wings

The rights group criticised the insistence of Cambodian Co-prosecutor Chea Leang on restricting the number of suspects investigated by the court to the five Khmer Rouge leaders currently detained.

In the first public announcement of her reasoning against the proposal of her international counterpart, Robert Petit, to expand the docket, Chea Leang said in a statement Monday that such a move would contradict the original mandate of the tribunal, overstretch its duration and budget, and undermine national stability and reconciliation.

But observers have said blocking the second set of prosecutions could exacerbate allegations that the co-prosecutor is acting at the behest of the Cambodian government.

Helen Jarvis, the international spokeswoman for the hybrid court, would not comment on the specific arguments made in the report, but said: "We take seriously comments from the public and any group, and we take what they say into account."

The report also said that "the impunity enjoyed by the Khmer Rouge has been matched" by successive regimes, citing the implication of Hun Sen's bodyguard unit in the 1997 grenade attack on an opposition political rally that yielded no response from the courts.

Youth Offered EdC Job After Brother's Death

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 November 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

The older brother of a young boy killed in a construction accident on a work site of Electricite du Cambodge last week has been promised a job by the company and the family compensated with $1,500.

Men Chanpong, 13, was buried alive Friday night by an EdC bulldozer in Lor Kambor village, Svay Pak commune, Russei Keo district, where villagers say he was working part time.

EdC has denied employing the boy, but paid compensation to his father and promised a job to Men Chanthy, the 23-year-old brother of the boy.

Rights and union officials said such compensation, common in Cambodia, perpetuated a system of impunity and weakened the rule of law.

“They gave my son a job in the company, but I don’t know what it is because I just got a call this morning to get an application,” Men Chanseng, 47-year-old father of the boy, said Tuesday.

Men Chanseng himself is a construction worker. He would not confirm whether his son worked for EdC, but he confirmed receiving compensation from the company.

Chea Sunhel, director of EdC’s supply department, denied the boy worked for the company and said Tuesday EdC was giving Men Chanthy a job in addition to compensation because the family was poor.

“He might work as a security guard or, if he is literate, he can record meter readings,” Chea Sunhel said. “It depends on his abilities.”

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation Union, said such compensation was not worth the life of a child.

“It is not fair, because if the company keeps paying just $1,000 or $2,000 for the family of the deceased, and there is nothing happening to it, that means impunity in Cambodia is still high,” he said.

In Cambodia a habit exists where a perpetrator of a crime pays compensation to a family in order to avoid the courts, which themselves are widely criticized as corrupt and politically biased.

Ny Chakrya, a rights investigator for Adhoc, said if the legal system cannot punish perpetrators, Cambodia cannot meet the rule of law.

“If impunity continues, none of the cases will be involved with the people. They will not file in court, they will not cooperate and they will not join in legal reform to strengthen the rule of law in Cambodia. So the legal system here will become weaker and weaker.”

Police Chief Inherits Slew of Grievous Cases

Murdered union leader Chea Vichea
Funeral for opposition journalist Khim Sambo
The slaying of Chuor Chetharith in Phnom Penh
Relatives of opposition journalist Duong Daravuth grieve before his portrait during his funeral in Phnom Penh, following a deadly 1997 grenade attack that has never been solved.

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
12 November 2008

As he begins his work as national police chief, Gen. Neth Savoeun will face a pile of open cases that his predecessor was accused of ignoring, impeding or perpetrating. Rights workers Wednesday wondered whether the new chief would make progress on any of them.

The former police chief, Hok Lundy, who died in a helicopter crash Sunday, failed to solve a number of high-profile cases that pained the nation: extrajudicial killings in the July 1997 coup, a grenade attack on opposition demonstrators that killed 16 in March 1997, and the murders of actress Piseth Pilika, Funcinpec lawmaker Om Rasady and opposition journalist Khim Sambor.

Hok Lundy, a powerful Cambodian People’s Party official close to Prime Minster Hun Sen, was routinely accused of collaboration in most of the cases. His death also left two men in prison widely considered innocent in the 2004 murder of labor leader Chea Vichea.

Rights workers were split on whether a police force under Neth Savoeun, who was a deputy of Hok Lundy and is married to a niece of Hun Sen, would be able to solve any of the cases.

“I don’t believe the appointment of Neth Savoeun as new national police chief will solve the crimes that happened in recent years,” Ou Vireak, chairman of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said.

Even if Neth Savoeun had a will to investigate them, Ou Vireak said, he could face incarceration like Heng Pov. The former Phnom Penh police chief fingered Hok Lundy for a litany of crimes after Heng Pov fled the country in 2006, only to be extradited and imprisoned.

“When Heng Pov knew of these crimes, the government arrested him and put him in jail,” Ou Vireak said.

Heng Pov is now serving more than 50 years in a Cambodian prison and faces yet more charges for his alleged involvement in crimes while he was city chief under Hok Lundy.

Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, doubted Neth Savoeun would make major changes to the police.

“He would almost certainly continue to politicize the work of the police and tighten Hun Sen’s personalized control over the national police,”Adams said.

Am Sam Art, an investigator for the rights group Licadho, said he believed the appointment could lead to breakthroughs in all the serious cases.

“I believe Neth Savoeun will reform the national police force to have a good reputation, not like Hok Lundy,” he said. “That’s why he should do everything in the interest of the people.”

Chea Mony, brother of slain union worker Chea Vichea and president of the Free Trade Union, said he hoped Neth Savoeun would find “justice” in that case. Two men believed innocent, Born Samnang and Sok Samoeun, are serving 20-year prison sentences for the murder.

“I think Neth Savoeun could find the real killers involved in the murder of my brother,” Chea Mony said. “We are ready to cooperate with him and give him the evidence if the police force needs the local NGOs to help.”

Vorn Phonn, 63, father of Sok Samoeun, appealed to Neth Savoeun to reexamine the case.

“I request to the replacement of Hok Lundy to urge the Supreme Court to judge the cases of my son and nephew Born Samnang,” he said. “I filed a complaint in May 2007, and until now it has been more than a year, so I hope Neth Savoeun can be able to push the judicial process.”

Gen. Neth Savoeun could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said, “Those cases have not been closed by the Ministry of Interior.”

“We will be investigating those crimes to find justice for the people, for the victims,” he said.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Tuol Krasaing's Gallery

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

Attack on DJ Ano destroys Khmer Identity: Reader

Suon Pheakdei aka DJ Ano

Unofficial English translation by Heng Soy

Friday, November 07, 2008

Dear Editor,

I would like to provide my opinion in the assault case against DJ Ano!

It is true that all human beings are hurt when their loved-one is being taken away from them. However, the savage violence which took place and that was used to resolve this case brings shame to Cambodia honor: not only was Khmer pride being destroyed by this act, but also Buddhist Ahimsa (non-violence) has been cheapened shamelessly.

I am begging all our compatriots to resolve their disputes peacefully in order to preserve the honor of Cambodia which used to be a famous empire in Asia.

Thank you,

Ana Nov

Another star victim of assault?

Suon Pheakdei aka DJ Ano

07 Nov 2008
By Pen Bona
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

For several days now, the Cambodian news media is talking about an assault against DJ Ano, an actress and TV presenter who is quite popular among the youths.

Suon Pheakdei, also known as DJ Ano, had disappeared from TV3 channel for the past few days. This surprising absence created some strong emotion among TV viewers. Nevertheless, some newspapers and magazines described an alleged assault in which DJ Ano was the victim of. The affair is allegedly a revenge case from a jealous wife, most likely a woman from a powerful family. According to the facts reported by these news media, the 27-year-old young woman had her hair shaved and her face disfigured by razor blades used by henchmen under the service of the wife of a “lok thom” (Big Mister, a high-ranking official). Under serious condition, she was sent to Vietnam to receive medical care.

For the time being, information on this affair is based only on anonymous sources. Neither the police nor officials from TV3 have confirmed the case. There is no direct witness, nor was there any photo published about the assault. No complaint was made by the family of the actress, nor did her family provide any declaration to the news media. Nevertheless, the rumor is spread among the news media like wildfire.

Several actresses and popular singers became assault victims during the last few years. In 1999, Piseth Pilike was assassinated, Touch Srey Nich was shot by several bullets in 2003 and she had to receive intensive care in Bangkok and in the US. The last episode of this type of assault took place in 2007 when Pov Panhapich was shot, she was taken to Vietnam for emergency care. The common root of these murders and murder attempts is the revenge from wives belonging to powerful families, as well the impunity of their henchmen, none of them were ever brought to justice to date.

Child sex trade soars in Cambodia

Al Jazeera's investigation found underage girls working in brothel's around Phnom Penh

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Al Jazeera

Girls as young as 14 work in brothels' around Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, and while the industry is often shown as serving predatory foreign tourists, local men have been found to be the mainstay of clients.

Thousands of children are bought and sold for sex every day in Cambodia an investigation by Al Jazeera found.

Al Jazeera filmed secretly at several brothels, and in each case found much the same thing - rooms full of young women in their early twenties, as well as teenagers.

"For my virginity they gave me $200," Ya Da, a 16-year-old former prostitute, said.

Ya Da worked in a brothel for two years before she ran away. Now, she lives in a safe house with other former prostitutes and abused children.

"There were just a few foreign customers [at the brothel]," she said. "I never slept with any, I slept only with Cambodian men."

'Local customers'

Mu Sochua, a politician with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party and a former minister for women's affairs, told Al Jazeera that most of Cambodia's sex industry was supported "by local customers".

"And some of these local customers are high-ranking officials. You have the military, the police and civil servants. you have rich businessmen who have lots of money," she said.

The involvement of high-ranking officials has been one reasons, NGOs say, that the sex industry has thrived in Cambodia.

"Very often these brothels and criminal networks are being supported and protected by high ranking officials," Mark Capaldi, from Ecpat International, an orgnaisation working to eliminate child prostitution, said.

"The problem is not just as abusers but also the impunity and lack of law enforcement in closing down these brothels and karaoke bars."

Daniela Reale, an advisor from Save the Children, told Al Jazeera: "The reality is that we do know local demand is the force driving this abuse.

"We also know it is around 70 per cent of local demand rather than sex tourism."

But General Bith Kim Hong, from the Cambodian national police force, rejected allegations that the officials focused their efforts to curb prostitution almost exclusively on foreigners.

"The national police are concerned about anyone who commits a crime, who has sex with children, whether they are foreigners or Cambodian," he told Al Jazeera.

"We have a very high commitment to prevent child prostitution."

Few arrests

Last year, the Cambodian police arrested only 21 people for committing sex crimes with children - eight of those arrested were foreigners and 13 were Cambodians.

The police also admit that the brothels they shut down in high-profile raids often reopen a few weeks later.

In 2002, Gary Glitter, the British pop star, was expelled from Cambodia amid child-sex allegations.

But while the arrest and conviction of foreigners make the headlines, most child sex trafficking supplies local demand, Mu Sochua said.

"It is easier to catch a foreigner and also the government wants to have showcases to make itself look good - that Cambodia is actually taking care of this problem of human trafficking, which is really not the truth," she told Al Jazeera.

Reale said that governments need to combat the worldwide problem: "They need to address their legal system and their law enforcement."

To tackle the poverty that forces girls into prostitution, Reale said that governments must provide support systems to help families match their needs.

She said that the 3rd World Conference on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro next month will be as a big opportunity to make real and genuine committments.

Dispatches: Anlong Veng

• The main courtroom at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, in Phnom Penh, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Photograph by Elena Lesley. •

September 29, 2008
By Elena Lesley
Granta Magazine, UK

Chit Leang does not know his real name or his age or who his parents were. He was a small child in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia, he tells me, and his memories from that time come back as disjointed images. We talk outside his modest restaurant, our faces damp from the mid-day sun, and Chit describes, in vivid detail, the gunshots that called him to lunch each day and the flat plates on which his Khmer Rouge comrades spooned out watery rice porridge. What happened to his entire family, Chit does not know. Like so many other Cambodians, they disappeared.

Today Chit’s open-air restaurant sits along a new, paved road in Anlong Veng, a border town in Cambodia’s north that remained a Khmer Rouge stronghold into the late 1990s. Chit moved here two years ago, for purely business reasons. Friends had told him that a planned border checkpoint in the area would see an influx of tourists from Thailand, en route to the Angkor Wat temple complex, and Chit set up shop, selling noodle soup and Angkor beer to the growing packs of travellers. Along Veng, which just a few years ago was a jungle strewn with landmines, is undergoing a building boom.

Pol Pot’s grave is a short walk from Chit’s restaurant. The site is unmarked from the main road and it was Chit who showed me where to find the narrow path that leads to the grave, a mound of dirt covered by a rusty corrugated metal roof. Flowers and sun-faded glass bottles frame the place where Pol Pot was supposedly cremated in 1998, on a heap of rubbish and old tyres. An old man in poor health, he died in his sleep.

It was a quiet end for a man responsible for the destruction of his country. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed a quarter of Cambodia’s population – roughly two million people – through overwork, starvation and execution. Chit’s family were among the victims. Yet Chit remains friendly with his next-door neighbour, the grandson of an infamous Khmer Rouge military leader nicknamed ‘the Butcher’. And he politely serves customers who come to pay their respects at Pol Pot’s grave, those faithful Khmer Rouge holdouts who light incense and carry offerings of fruit and chicken. ‘They have their understanding and I have mine,’ Chit says.

After suffering through the nightmare of Khmer Rouge rule and a decade of civil conflict, most Cambodians have adopted a similar survival strategy – try to feed your family and refrain from becoming actively involved in politics. Although none of those responsible for Khmer Rouge atrocities had been punished for their crimes, the people of Cambodia understood they had to move on. Their momentum pushed the country forward, but crookedly, like a broken bone that heals without a cast. They opened shops and restaurants amid rubble and landmines. They struggled to raise children – roughly sixty percent of Cambodians were born after 1979 – who don’t learn about the Khmer Rouge in school and have trouble believing their parents’ and grandparents’ stories. Much of the population just tried to forget, to ‘dig a hole and bury the past and look to the future,’ as Prime Minister Hun Sen told them to do in 1998, after a series of senior leaders defected from what was left of the Khmer Rouge movement.

In this climate of pragmatism, some Cambodians believe that spending millions of dollars to put on trial a handful of elderly former leaders is absurd. It has been nearly thirty years since the Vietnamese ousted the Khmers Rouge from power. But domestic and international political interests have prevented the trials from happening until now.

• Pol Pot’s grave in Anlong Veng, near the Thai border. The site is maintained by the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism. Photograph by Elena Lesley. •

Throughout the 1980s Cold War era, China and much of the free world continued to support a re-packaged Khmer Rouge coalition force as a means of weakening Vietnam and its ally, the Soviet Union. It wasn’t until 1997 that Hun Sen requested UN assistance in creating a Khmer Rouge tribunal, some say to delegitimize the country’s ongoing Khmer Rouge insurgency. When the guerilla movement essentially died the following year, along with Pol Pot, Hun Sen began to insist that putting former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial would jeopardize the country’s fragile peace. The international community continued to push for a court and, after years of negotiations, the tribunal began its work in earnest around two years ago. Since then, five former leaders have been taken into custody and the first trials are expected to start in late September. Still, given that most of the defendants are in their seventies and eighties, any justice meted out by the court will be largely symbolic.

That doesn’t bother the tribunal’s supporters, who believe a verdict on the Khmer Rouge period must be rendered before Cambodia can truly advance. For years, former Khmers Rouge have lived freely in the country, often side by side with those they persecuted. The country’s lack of historical accountability has created a lawless society, where rampant land grabbing forces the poor off of their newly valuable property and justice always has a price tag.

When I first came to Cambodia as a journalist in 2004, I saw the Khmer Rouge’s insidious legacy everywhere. In the twisted faces of beggars who had been permanently disfigured through contract acid attacks. Amid the ‘broken girls’ who turned tricks on Phnom Penh’s crumbling boulevards and the street children who huffed glue from dirty plastic bags. When a bright young student I knew was killed over a romantic dispute, I tried to find a way to write about it for my newspaper. The twenty-two-year-old had been gunned down in front of a popular nightclub, surrounded by witnesses, but because the triggerman was the son of a powerful official no one was ever arrested. After struggling with several potential angles for a story, I finally had to accept the fact that in Cambodia, the student’s death was not newsworthy. He was just another casualty of what scholars have come to call the country’s ‘culture of impunity’.

I returned to Cambodia this spring to write about the Khmer Rouge tribunal. While the society’s dark undercurrents continued to haunt me, even after I left the country, the warmth and resilience of its people had an equally profound impact. Through improving coverage of the tribunal, I hoped to play a small role in the country’s recovery, to help Cambodians confront and exorcise the demons of their recent history.

After a three-year hiatus, I found the country greatly changed, at least superficially. Cambodia’s first suburban developments (cookie-cutter mansions with reflective glass and neocolonial flourishes) are under construction outside of Phnom Penh. Several skyscrapers, including a gleaming gold-coloured tower, are planned for the downtown area. Yet the country’s feeble infrastructure can’t accommodate this scale of development, and the huge strain of such vanity projects frequently plunges much of the city into blackouts.

As Cambodia’s growth accelerates, so too does the disparity between the tiny elite and the impoverished masses. Impunity is endemic. Weeks before July’s national elections, an opposition-aligned newspaper journalist and his adult son were shot to death in the middle of a busy Phnom Penh street. Witnesses said the gunmen, who rode on a motorbike, made no effort to conceal their identities and even circled back to make sure they had hit their target. It was a brazen act. Yet there are no suspects in custody and little hope among Phnom Penh’s beleaguered journalists that the killers will ever be punished.

• A statue of Khmer guardian spirit Lokta Dambang Dek (Lord of the Iron Staff) stands outside the Khmer Rouge tribunal. In legends, the spirit is an all-seeing and all-knowing witness, an administrator of justice. Photograph by Elena Lesley. •

Change is not on the horizon. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won a landslide victory in the national elections, amid accusations of voter fraud and observer assessments that the polls ‘failed to meet international standards’. Most Cambodians have never experienced a truly democratic society and cannot imagine government institutions free of rampant corruption. Khmer Rouge survivors like Youk Chhang, who has devoted much of his life to cataloguing the regime’s crimes as head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, believe the tribunal can be a turning point for the entire country, setting a new precedent for the notoriously corrupt judiciary and ultimately creating a more accountable society.

‘I want justice for the future, not for us,’ says Chhang. In his Phnom Penh office, surrounded by boxes of books, newspapers and archived documents, he describes how the Khmer Rouge cut open his sister’s stomach after she was accused of eating stolen rice and, thus, trying to sabotage the revolution. The survivors ‘are too broken and divided,’ Chhang says, ‘no one can compensate what the victims lost. But we need to leave a legacy for the country’.

That can only be achieved if those in custody actually face trial. And given their frail health and the glacial pace of the law, many Cambodians worry the defendants may yet elude justice.

‘The court moves too slowly. It needs to move fast, before the defendants die,’ Chit Leang tells me, lowering his voice and glancing nervously toward his neighbour’s house. ‘There are no words to say how angry I am. I want to know why they killed their own people. I want answers.’ Chit wishes he could travel to see the court himself, but the daylong trip to Phnom Penh isn’t practical. He has a restaurant to run.

If he could go, I am not sure how worthwhile he would find the experience. Although a tribunal lacking outreach and education will be meaningless, sometimes I think that the process underway is too abstract, too disconnected from everyday life in today’s Cambodia. A sleek, new complex on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, populated by international lawyers and judges who seem plucked from their homelands – robes, wigs and all – and deposited on this strange judicial island, the tribunal could not be more foreign to people like Chit. It was not designed to be accessible, physically or conceptually, to average Cambodians.

And yet, they come.

From the tribunal’s dusty parking lot, I watch survivors arrive for the pre-trial hearing of Ieng Sary, whose Foreign Ministry underwent a series of radical purges during the Khmer Rouge period. Organized and transported by various NGOs, the old men and women stream out of their buses. Most are peasants, with rough hands and wide feet, and they’ve dressed as if they were going to the pagoda – probably the only opportunity for formal wear in their home villages. The men seem a little uncomfortable in their button-down shirts, slacks and flip-flops; women are wrapped in long traditional skirts paired with sparkly, handmade tops.

Once they pass through parking lot security, they shuffle along a covered walkway that leads to the central court building. To the left, across a small field and past the wall looped with razor wire, they can see the yellow villa where the five defendants are kept. The court itself is impressive, but sterile.

The survivors settle into their seats. They watch as a man enters the courtroom from a side door, bowed over a cane, his free hand gripping a security guard for support. Thick spectacles, a hairline receded to the back of his head, Ieng Sary is the very picture of infirmity. He stares straight ahead, expressionless.

The scene unfolds in what looks like a giant fishbowl. A long, curved glass panel separates actual courtroom actors – Sary, the lawyers and judges – from those observing the process. In the front rows of the audience section are court staff and students. With their stylish haircuts and smart professional attire, they remind me of the young men and women I often see after work at the new Lucky Seven fast food restaurant, members of the country’s burgeoning middle class sharing gossip and study tips over gelato.

Just a few rows behind them, the Khmer Rouge survivors seem to occupy a different space and time. Men and women with deeply grooved faces, their eyes betray an expression I have seen too often in Cambodia. It’s a look I saw in Chit Leang, a glassy and disconnected gaze so unsettling it makes me want to turn away.

When the court breaks for lunch, observers discuss their plans for the afternoon. Having found the morning’s proceedings hard to follow, many confess they won’t be returning for a similarly tedious afternoon session; I worry that their time at the court had little impact. Until an overheard exchange gives me hope.

‘Are you going to come back for the rest of Sary’s hearing?’ an aid worker asks one of the departing men.

He pauses to think. ‘I’ve seen his face,’ he answers triumphantly. ‘That’s enough.’

In Fisheries Office Fraud, Impunity Worries

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 September 2008

The office of the fisheries department of the Ministry of Agriculture sits on nearly one hectare of land on Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district. The large office building has been a workplace for fisheries officials since 1979.

The building and the land underneath it—worth millions of dollars in today’s real estate market—became the focus of an expansive investigation by police and military police this week, after they arrested 18 people allegedly involved in a scheme to sell the land through forged government documents.

Now the people who work in and around the office say they fear the alleged perpetrators, some of whom are a part of the government, will be released.

Inside the fisheries office compound on Thursday evening, Pom Sok Hot, a 27-year-old staff administrator, was incensed at the attempted sale.

“If someone is found not guilty, he should be released. But any person found to be involved in forging government documents should not be released,” she said. “If the person found guilty is released, that is injustice.”

Nearby, a roadside motorcycle repairman, Soeung Rithy, 39, said he worried that powerful and wealthy people would be released.

“Frankly speaking, I’m afraid there could be corruption,” he said.

RCAF Lt. Col. Saphon Dara was charged at Phnom Penh Municipal Court Wednesday with document forgery. His mother, Neang Sovanny, was charged in absentia for the same crime. Seventeen others, including Lt. Col. Men Vichet, deputy commander of RCAF infantry, and three other military officers, were charged with the use of forged documents.

A military policeman told VOA Khmer on condition of anonymity that Saphon Dara was found with a forged letter purporting to come from the Council of Ministers and offering a sale of the fisheries office.

Copies of the letter were distributed to Phnom Penh land brokers seeking buyers for the office, and one copy found its way to Men Vichet, the policeman alleged.

Offers to buy the land would have been tempting. Land situated on main boulevards, such as Norodom, command a high price in Phnom Penh’s booming real estate market.

Soeng Bunna, who owns Bunna Realty Group, said Friday land on the main boulevards, attractive for large business developments or even embassy construction, fetches up to $4,000 per square meter.

That means the fisheries department land, which is nearly 9,000 square meters, could have been worth up to $36 million.

By last week, reports of the fraudulent letter had reached Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ordered authorities to find the forgers and arrest them.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, police and military police called in 22 people for questioning, sending 18 to the courts, along with Saphon Dara, who was arrested Monday.

Police are still searching for Neang Sovanny.

Cambodia: Call for justice for victims of land grabbing

Ros Sovann (Photo: Rasmei Kampuchea)

16/1/2008
Posted on Mynews India

On 13 January 2008 at around 11:30 pm a lawmaker named Chin Kim Sreng, 70, from the ruling party, was brutally beaten on the head in front of his house in Boeung Kang Kang commune, Chamcar Mon district, Phnom Penh. Chin was knocked unconscious in the attack which caused open wounds to his head. He was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Chin’s attacker was a man named Ros Sovann, 28, a security guard from a private security firm who is living with his mother in Russey Sros village, Niroth commune, Meanchey district, Phnom Penh. That night he was on duty to guard a French-owned restaurant located in the rented part of Chin’s house.

He beat Chin with a steel pipe when Chin returned home and was about to open the front gate of his own house. Ros then got into Chin’s luxury car and rammed it into the house gate. Chin’s wife who was in the house cried out for help, and Ros was immediately apprehended and handed over to the police.

In his statement to the police, Ros said his attack on Chin was his revenge against the powerful officials who had grabbed his land in Russey Sros village and deprived him of the only means that would have allowed his mother to pay for his wedding. He said he had had no personal grudges against Chin.

However, since the loss of his land he harbored strong resentment for all powerful officials, so much so that, on becoming a security guard, he had requested his firm to assign him to guard their houses so that he could have opportunities to take revenge on them.

Ros’s mother named Noeu Yeap, 54, said that she used to have a 15m by 200m plot of land, but this land was now reduced to 15m by 40m. The rest had been grabbed from her when she had lent it to the village chief named Khlauk Dul for building the village office. Later on, this village chief sold her land without her knowledge. She filed a lawsuit in court against this sale in 1994, but so far no justice has been offered to her.

Noeu said that because of this unsettled land grabbing case, she had had no means to pay for the wedding of her son as he had requested. Ros had been badly affected by this event and her inability to pay for his wedding. It is reported that there are many land disputes in the area where the mother and son are living.

While in police custody, Ros made several suicide attempts, and the police have said experts may be needed to examine his mental health. Attacking a person is indeed a crime, and the attacker must be punished for it, subject of course to the state of his mental health.

However, Ros’s attack on lawmaker Chin Kim Sreng, brutal as it was, should not be treated as a crime like many others. It should be taken very seriously as it was a cry for justice for himself and for other victims of the injustices of land grabbing which the system of justice of the country is either unable, unwilling, or not allowed to correct and prevent. One can only imagine how strongly such injustices can have affected a young man like Ros, then a teenager.

In Cambodia there are many people, including youths like Ros who are victims of land grabbing, when this act has been going on for years and has forced and continues to force, at times brutally, many families out of their homes and lands without fair compensation. Many of those victims may have the same hatred for the country’s rulers and be as revengeful as him.

The Asian Human Rights Commission said that the time is now long overdue for the government to put a halt to land grabbing and for the institutions of the rule of law, especially the courts, to correct the injustices that land grabbing has created.

This must be done before the situation creates more people like Ros with hatred for their rulers in their hearts. In this incident Ros has beaten one person in vengeance. One can only guess what will happen in future if the government fails to stop the eviction and needless poverty of their people due to land grabbing.

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."