Cambodia’s human rights record remains poor ... that's why the gov't leaders and their cronies become ulta rich

Government Defends Rights Record

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 February 2009

Cambodia’s human rights record remains poor, the US said in an annual report Wednesday, but a senior government official said the situation was improving.

The US State Department’s 2008 “Human Rights Report” cites security forces that act with impunity, the abuse of detainees, forced evictions, endemic corruption, a weak judiciary and the denial of rights to fair trial as reasons for the poor rating.

However, Om Yentieng, a senior government adviser and head of Cambodia’s Human Rights Commission, told VOA Khmer that Cambodian rights situation was progressing year by year.

This year was better than last year, but the government continued to make improvements, he said.

The US report had the same findings as Adhoc, according to an investigator for the rights group, Chan Saveth. The government has so far failed to show commitment to human rights, he told VOA Khmer.

“The Cambodian government should take action against human rights abuses,” he said.

Am Sam Arth, an investigator for the rights group Licadho, said 17 cases of extrajudicial killing in 2008 proved the rights situation had not progressed.

Corruption and a biased judiciary supporting the powerful meant the loss of rights for the impoverished, he said.

U.S. says human rights record in Cambodia remains poor

PHNOM PENH, March 12 (Kyodo) - The United States claimed in a report released Wednesday that Cambodia's human rights record remains poor, although there has been a positive turn.

"The country's human rights record remained poor, but noted as a positive turn an unprecedented march and rally permitted in Phnom Penh on December 10 in observance of Human Rights Day and the arrest and detention of five former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime charged by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia with crimes against humanity," it said in the report.

Among the reasons cited for Cambodia's poor rating were security forces that act with impunity, arbitrary arrests, growing concerns over land disputes and forced evictions, endemic corruption, and the remaining challenge of addressing trafficking in women and children, it added.

Om Yin Tieng, chief of the government's human rights commission and adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, refused to give any comment on the report released by the U.S. Embassy, saying he needs to thoroughly study it first.

In a separate report released last week, the Asian Human Rights Commission said during the whole of 2007, criminal lawsuits and arrests in the context of political repression remained a concerning issue in Cambodia.

"Land grabbing was rife and remains one of the serious economic and human rights issues in the country today," it added.

UN special envoy, rights group accuse Cambodian courts of failing to uphold justice

Monday, December 10, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A U.N. envoy accused Cambodia's government and courts today of failing to uphold human rights and justice in the poor Southeast Asian nation.

Yash Ghai, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for human rights in Cambodia, said many Cambodians live in constant fear of being swindled and mistreated by authorities. He spoke at an event marking International Human Rights Day.

"Fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts describes the plight of numerous communities and families in Cambodia," said Ghai, who is winding up a 10-day fact-finding mission in which he toured several areas of the country.

Ghai, a persistent critic of the rights situation in Cambodia, said many poor villagers have been evicted from their land by commercial developers and have no means of protecting themselves and their livelihood.

Ghai's past criticisms have angered the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which has dismissed them as untrue.

Om Yentieng, an adviser to the prime minister and chairman of the government's human rights committee, could not immediately be reached for comment on the remarks.

Cambodia holds ASEAN's worst records on human rights

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Poor rights record hampers ASEAN effort

"In Cambodia, perceived as having one of the region's worst records on human rights, opposition politicians and international watchdogs say abuses have worsened as Prime Minister Hun Sen has slowly tightened his grip on power."

MANILA (AFP) - Southeast Asian nations have struggled to find common ground on creating a new human rights body, and analysts say one reason is that many have poor rights records themselves.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announced Monday it would form a rights body as part of its landmark charter, but the details were left vague and there was fierce disagreement from Myanmar and other member states.

"ASEAN is under a lot of pressure to improve its human rights record. And it knows that human rights has to be mentioned somewhere in its charter," said Basil Fernando of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.

"A charter without it will just be another piece of meaningless paper," he told AFP.

Diplomats had hoped to outline a full-fledged rights commission in the draft of the new ASEAN charter which was presented to the bloc's foreign ministers on Monday.

But opposition from Myanmar as well as from Laos and Vietnam resulted in a watering-down of the language, and ensured that the details were left unresolved -- and up for debate at future rounds of negotiations.

The ruling generals of Myanmar, who are most opposed to an ASEAN rights body according to diplomats, have repeatedly embarrassed the bloc and snubbed calls to restore democracy and free Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The prospect for genuine democracy in Burma (Myanmar) remains gloomy," the Free Burma Coalition said in a statement. "The junta simply flushed all these ASEAN efforts down the drain."

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar acknowledged the difficulties that lie ahead to create a viable rights commission with real enforcement power to stop abuses across the bloc.

"From the start we thought it was going to be a thorny issue," he told a news conference in Manila on the sidelines of the talks.

"The next difficult step is getting it really formed. Let us cross the bridge when we come to it," he said.

Myanmar is far from the only trouble spot, however, and across ASEAN -- from the democracy of the Philippines to autocratic states such as Vietnam and Laos -- almost all have some black marks in their books.

And while a handful of members can boast of having their own human rights commissions, those bodies tend to be toothless tigers with no real powers to bring rights abusers to justice.

In the Philippines, hundreds of activists, human rights workers, lawyers, trade unionists and journalists have been murdered since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001.

Few prosecutions have taken place, and a UN investigation this year delivered a damning indictment of Arroyo's government and the military over the killings.

In Cambodia, perceived as having one of the region's worst records on human rights, opposition politicians and international watchdogs say abuses have worsened as Prime Minister Hun Sen has slowly tightened his grip on power.

"The problem is getting bigger and bigger but there is no effective solution," said Thun Saray, director of the Cambodian rights group Adhoc. "Also, corruption makes it more difficult for people to find justice."

Human rights groups say that in Thailand, where a military coup last year ousted elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, at least 2,500 people were killed in 2003 and 2004 during Thaksin's get-tough campaign against drugs.

"One of the most prominent human rights abuses in Thailand is the culture of impunity," said Sunai Phasuk, a Thai consultant for Human Rights Watch.

"It's a legacy from the Thaksin government, in which government officials, particularly security forces and police, violated human rights and walked away from legal and criminal accountability," Sunai said.

Rights experts say one bright spot is Indonesia, where they say abuses have greatly decreased since the downfall of strongman president Suharto in 1998.

"The main remaining human rights abuses are those left over from the past," said Asmara Nababan, executive director of the private Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in that country.

"At present, human rights violations continue to occur, but not on the scale and intensity of the past," he said.

Even if fears that the eventual ASEAN rights body will turn out to be less effective than hoped, some analysts say, just the mention of a plan for one is a significant step.

"ASEAN's human rights record is not good but there are signs that countries within the bloc are pushing hard to clean up their image," Timothy Parritt of rights watchdog Amnesty International told AFP.

"It is a small step and an important step for ASEAN," he said.

Hun Sen's criticisms on UN Envoy Yash Ghai

04 June 2007
By Lim Piseth
Radio Free Asia

The following is an audio report in Khmer by RFA's Lim Piseth on Hun Sen's speech criticizing UN Envoy Yash Ghai.

Click here to listen to the Lim Piseth's report

Mr. Hok goes to Washington ... to meet US State Dept Officials

US Dept of State
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 24, 2007
Taken Question from the April 24 Daily Press Briefing

Cambodia – Police Chief Hok Lundy

Question: Did Cambodia’s Police Chief Hok Lundy have meetings today at the State Department? Who did he meet with? What topics were discussed?

Answer: Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Anne Patterson, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Affairs Jonathan Farrar met with visiting Cambodian National Police Commissioner General Hok Lundy today. While noting improved bilateral cooperation between the United States and Cambodia in areas such as counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics, Hill, Patterson, and Farrar urged Lundy and the Cambodian police to strengthen significantly their efforts to combat trafficking in persons, which remains a serious problem in Cambodia. They also urged that Cambodia make much greater efforts to prosecute and convict public officials, including police officers, who are involved in trafficking, and that Commissioner General Lundy make the police more responsive to trafficking issues.

Hill, Patterson, and Farrar also stressed to Lundy that the Cambodian police should fully respect and protect human rights as they carry out their law enforcement duties. They also noted the need for the Government of Cambodia to address its poor human rights record and corruption outlined in the 2006 Human Rights Report. They reiterated the U.S. commitment to assist the Cambodian government with improving its law enforcement capabilities and specifically its capacity to fight the scourge of trafficking.

The United States has provided over $7 million in funding to combat trafficking in persons in Cambodia since 2003.