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Editorial | Articles about Cambodia | Khmer |
Towards Hun Sen's Cambodia
Towards Hun Sen's Cambodia
By Craig Guthrie
 PHNOM PENH - Even though Cambodia goes to the polls Sunday for the country's fourth general election since Vietnamese occupation ended in 1989, Prime Minister Hun Sen can comfortably escape the chaotic campaign noise in his heavily guarded, villa-studded compound in suburban Phnom Penh and light up a well-earned 555 cigarette - his smoke of choice since his soldiering days.
 The one-eyed, chain-smoking "Strongman of Cambodia" could play a casual round of golf at the private course kept groomed at the complex known to locals as the "Tiger's Lair", or maybe take a helicopter trip from the adjacent military airfield used to whisk him up and down his impoverished nation. In fact, as his foes rally and march around the capital, it probably doesn't matter much what Hun Sen does.
Outside in the streets, colorful campaign convoys are clogging Phnom Penh's frangipani-lined boulevards, with truck-mounted bullhorns and the frenetic clashing of cymbals and drums promoting their respective candidates. The scenes are colorful and vibrant, the atmosphere intense, but many say the underlying political picture is actually black and white.
By all accounts, 57-year-old Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has little to worry from the oncoming polls; in recent months he has increasingly consolidated his hold over the electorate through a masterful opera of jibes, scaremongering and gold-toothed charm.
By outfoxing an already fractured opposition, wooing billions in foreign investment and artfully placating the once-powerful labor movement and previously hostile superpowers, the master manipulator has again outmaneuvered his rivals.
Hun Sen - riding a booming economy, hard-won social stability and a vast network of patronage and blood relations [One big happy family in Cambodia, Asia Times Online, March 20, 2007] - has all but ensured that he and his formerly communist Cambodian People's Party (CPP) will head the country when the potentially boundless riches from oil deposits, found by Chevron off the southwestern coast, begin to flow.
 Hun Sen is in full grip of the nation's institutions and tightly aligned with its wealthiest tycoons. He has predicted that his CPP machine will win 81of the National Assembly's 123 seats and 73% of the vote. The margin of victory is probably immaterial, since the country, as proposed by opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, adopted a 50-plus-one seat requirement in 2004 to form a government, replacing the previous two-thirds of the vote rule. The proposal was passed to avoid a repeat of the political stalemates which destabilized the country following the 1998 and 2003 elections, and resulted in fractious coalition governments.
Even so, Hun Sen has been openly deriding his opponent's chances for months. In recent weeks he has told them they can "stay at home" on election day, and has announced that he himself will sit out the last few weeks of the campaign in order to avoid "verbal confrontations".
In another speech, the prime minister pre-picked his cabinet while comparing his management style to Manchester United's football manager Alex Ferguson. This is classic Hun Sen: a powerful orator who mixes paddy-field populism, personal potshots and home-spun humor to embolden his allies and intimidate his foes. In 2006, he laughed at a foiled government attack, saying in a speech reported by the Phnom Penh Post: "I know all. Even if you farted, I would still know. You cannot hide from me."
In the past he has said he has no intention of standing down as prime minister until he is at least 90 years old. This would be a remarkable run: he became the Vietnamese-backed premier of Cambodia in 1985, when he was 33.
As the country some call Asia's "best kept secret" heads into its Fourth Mandate - what the new government will be called - Cambodia is more than ever Hun Sen's nation. This sits poorly with his legion of critics, some of whom have labeled the CPP regime a corrupt "kleptocratic elite" with little regard for the millions of rural rice farmers living in abject poverty. Others, including diplomats, say worse.
In 2006, UN high commissioner for human rights Louis Arbour called the problems within the Cambodian judiciary "profound". Dr Lao Mong Hay, senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission, wrote in a June 18 editorial, ...institutions remain subject to the control inherited from pre-1993 communist days, and are utilized to serve the interests of the ruling class rather than those of the people. Although Cambodia has held periodic elections, and preparations for the forthcoming election are underway, its multi-party, liberal democracy has little substance The National Election Committee is regularly accused by the opposition of a lack of independence, and many independent election monitoring groups have alleged that state resources and media have been deployed to the ruling party's electoral advantage.
"Never assume that Cambodia is a democracy," said Chea Vannath, a political commentator. "If a democracy is when a nation is ruled by a government chosen by its people, yes, Cambodia is democratic. But in terms of governance, Cambodia is a different story. There is no check and balance on the executive branch, the judiciary or the monarchy."
In recent weeks he has also even veered away from an earlier commitment to adopt a long-awaited draft anti-corruption law, which foreign donors and civil society groups have long clamored for. And he's deployed old-fashioned scaremongering to justify the controversial move.
"Will corrupt officials agree to any confiscation of their riches? No. Then war will erupt," said Hun Sen in a speech broadcast on national radio at the end of May. "After confiscating for a while, all the rich people will all become poor - as in Khmer Rouge times - more than 3 million people will be destroyed. Don't play with that," he said.
A temple revisited
The country's millions of impoverished farmers and fishermen, for years saturated with state-controlled media looping four-hour-long Hun Sen speeches interspersed with reels of CPP officials handing over packs of instant noodles to needy villagers, are likely headed towards five more years of inequality, drudgery, and bad TV.
The premier's media-influenced popularity was recently pushed to greater heights by the listing last week of the Preah Vihear temple complex as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) national heritage site. When the decision was announced live on national channel CTN, Hun Sen's image was shown with revolving stars around it. A televised concert held to celebrate the listing was attended by hosts regularly shouting words of support for Hun Sen among other cheers of national glory.
The ensuing border tension with Thailand over the controversial listing will be a strong test of his government's ability to stand up to stronger neighbors before a watchful Cambodian public in the heat of an election season. Aside from the temple tiff, a closer look at the less-monitored countryside has revealed that the level of political killings, threats and intimidation that have marred previous elections has substantially diminished in the run-up to this weekend's polls.
But the lack of violence is probably more a testament to the CPP's successful vanquishing of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party's (SRP) grassroots machinery. The opposition's hardship has been brewing for months, due in part to some deft political maneuvers by Hun Sen and the CPP political machine. But their spectacular collapse in the lead-up to the July 27 election has still surprised many political observers. The SRP has been deflated by the defection of more than 20 high profile lawmakers and tens of thousand of grassroots members party executives claims the CPP has bought to switch sides.
"We have seen a people buying campaign ... Prime minister Hun Sen actively seeks out SRP members by using money as bait Each member receives at least US$2,000, and those with high positions in the SRP receive US$200,000," said Rainsy in a recent letter. "I am worried and feel pity for those [defectors] who get cheated. After the election they will be kicked out," he said. Hun Sen responded by saying that SRP defectors "are not goods or animals to be bought and sold".
The SRP has been left meek, and hoping for a highly unlikely post-election "people power" movement to challenge a CPP-dominated government. The SRP campaign has revolved mostly around the now globally recognized opposition stratagem of pointing to high oil and food prices as the incumbent government's failure to serve its people. But both strategies seem doomed to failure: a planned "mass rally" of SRP supporters against inflation saw a mere 300 supporters turn out, leading Hun Sen to quip that a local midget comedian usually has more people in his audience.
 The punch-drunk party has also lost one of its more meaningful friends in the trade unions movement, which has the power to mobilize hundreds of thousands of garment and factory workers in a mass protest. The leader of the largest union, Chea Mony - whose brother popular SRP-affiliated union leader Chea Vichea was gunned down in 2004 - announced earlier this year the bloc was withdrawing from politics. The decision almost immediately followed Hun Sen's announcement of a $6 monthly increase to garment workers monthly salaries - bringing them to $56.
The loss of the trade unions - the largest organized sector in Cambodia - is a double blow to Rainsy, who, along with Chea Vichea and Ou Mary, founded the labor movement in 1996.
Opposition off the rails
 Rainsy, a former minister of finance who was sacked for complaining about corruption, has tried another political tack. In several well-publicized broadsides, he has attacked the personal backgrounds of what he claims to be former Khmer Rouge members in Hun Sen's government. He recently alleged to supporters at a Buddhist ceremony at the Choeung Ek "killing fields" that CPP stalwart and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was once chief of the Khmer Rouge-run Boeung Trabek "re-education" center, where thousands of diplomats and intellectuals were interred before execution.
Hor Namhong rebuked the accusation, claiming he was instead a liaison between the prisoners and the wardens at the camp and insisting that several of his close family members were executed there. He filed a defamation lawsuit against Rainsy, but the salvo provided little political capital for the SRP. The arrest of an opposition-aligned newspaper editor who reprinted Rainsy's allegations drew international condemnation, but hardly enough to improve the SRP's electoral chances. Nor has international outcry over the assassination of SRP-aligned journalist Khim Sambor and his son, who were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting on July 11.
The other main opposition party, the royalist Funcinpec, has also disintegrated in the run-up to the polls. Crafty, almost choreographed, moves saw the party's past leader and erstwhile Hun Sen rival, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, ousted in an inter-party coup. The move was orchestrated by Nhiek Bun Chhay, secretary general of the party and a former defense minister. Funcinpec is still the coalition partner of the CPP, but since the ouster of Ranariddh, has been widely seen as a puppet of the ruling party.
Ranariddh was subsequently convicted for pocketing $3.6 million from the sale of Funcinpec's former headquarters and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, a move some have attributed to Hun Sen's alleged influence over the courts. He fled the country in December 2005, and has since resorted to giving telephone speeches to embattled supporters of his new Norodom Ranariddh Party from self-exile in Malaysia.
In June, Ranariddh reportedly sent Hun Sen a humbling private note asking for the return of his private jet. Meanwhile, his magnificent $2 million colonial-era villa in the center of Phnom Penh has already been sold off by the government to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia, which plans to turn it into a carbon-friendly boutique hotel. Hun Sen has said Ranariddh will be "handcuffed and taken to jail", if he returns to Cambodia and has blocked any chance or a royal pardon.
The fledgling Human Rights Party, led by self-styled people's champion Kem Sokha and backed by controversial former head of state Pen Sovann, is assured of winning at least a handful of seats. The party may have carved a small nationalist niche among the electorate, and like the SRP is known to have had US backers. Sokha left his previous organization, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, under a cloud of scandal as 16 former employees accused him of corruption and embezzlement from the US-financed group.
Despite Sokha's grassroots popularity, his HRP is not seen as a major threat to the CPP juggernaut. Nor is the US seen as overtly supporting any particular opposition party, as it has been perceived of in the past. Washington, which in 2004 threatened Cambodia with sanctions for lack of progress on trafficking issues, has since given the nation a glowing report its latest human trafficking report.
The US Embassy in Phnom Penh has commended the lack of violence in this year's election build-up, though it reacted strongly and offered Federal Bureau of Investigation assistance following the murder of Sambor. Washington has taken a softer line towards Cambodia in the past year as China moves to increase its local influence. After Chevron's apparent discovery of oil and gas, the US this year lifted a 10-year ban on direct aid to Cambodia in February and re-started direct military aid in May.
Assuming that the oil and gas deposits are actually there, an energy bonanza would profoundly change the Cambodian economy and its terms of trade. Drilling by a Singaporean firm began in mid-July and state and private companies from China, South Korea, Japan and France are currently negotiating contracts related to the find. Although the government is still awaiting a key assessment from Chevron, estimates range from anywhere between $200 million to $2 billion a year in potential revenues.
That should provide plenty of resources for Hun Sen to further consolidate his political dominance, and if this weekend's elections produce the landslide win for his CPP many analysts project, could signal the beginning of a new era of one-party rule in Cambodia.
Craig Guthrie is a reporter for the Mekong Times newspaper in Phnom Penh. He has covered Cambodian affairs since 2004.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Labels: Chea Vichea, CPP, Election, hun sen, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP
Taxpayers fund Cambodia's corruption
Taxpayers Fund Cambodia's Corruption
Cambodia's July 27 general election, the fourth since the 1991 United Nations "Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict," is, again, a lopsided political competition for power among eleven political parties -- reduced from more than 50 earlier -- for 123 parliamentarian seats.
There's nothing "fair" and "equitable" about an election where the ruling Cambodian People's Party controls the nation's 30 TV and radio broadcast outlets, and opposition parties have little voice. More than 8 million people have registered to vote.
The non-partisan Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia observed on July 2, "at least 16 cases" of "disturbance, intimidation and threat against political parties" in the first week of the election campaign, and charged, "civil servants, authorities and armed forces have not only taken part in supporting the ruling party but have also conducted activities against other political parties."
The July 9 Cambodia Daily's Kuch Naren wrote about electoral "campaign complaints from political parties who have reported alleged vote buying, bias, threats and violence." Chhorn Chansy reported 10 of 11 parties (absent was the Cambodian People's Party) competing for election "pledged publicly ... to enact an anti-corruption law within the first six months of being elected."
Earlier, the June 23 Inter Press Service reported that 40 Cambodian civil society groups jointly expressed concern over increased political violence in the first half of the year; and that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the ruling party of political intimidation and manipulation of the judicial system leading up to the election.
The leading opposition Sam Rainsy Party charged that the party's deputy secretary-general, former Minister of Women's Affairs, and nominee for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, Mu Sochua, an SRP candidate, was physically assaulted by a CPP "army general," that left her blouse "undone, leaving her half-naked" before a crowd of men.
There's nothing "free" and "fair" about such an election. Neither does it take a sage to predict the winner. Some say it's better to have a less than free and fair election than to have no election at all. But when political parties are obliged to participate in grossly flawed elections do they not "legitimize" the victors who can claim a mandate through polls?
IPS says Sen "has already vowed that CPP would govern alone" after its victory, and Agence France Presse said he has vowed publicly to remain in power until he's 90 -- he's only 55 today.
An Asia Times Online statistic shows Cambodia's rate of poverty at 35 percent -- defined as those who live on less than one dollar per day -- out of a total population of 13.3 million.
Yet donor countries are pumping in financial aid worth nearly half of Cambodia's national budget to enable the current regime to hang on to power.
If you Google "Global Witness Cambodia's Family Trees," you can read a 95-page report by the London-based non-governmental organization Global Witness, released in June 2007, titled, "Cambodia's Family Trees: Illegal logging and the stripping of public assets by Cambodia's elite," complete with names and photos of political and military personalities, and their kin, alleged to be involved in dismantling the country's wealth.
The report, banned in Cambodia, alleged "evidence of entrenched criminality with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces," and accused China and the United States of "providing direct military assistance" to the CPP's RCAF.
The report charges, donor countries "have refused to acknowledge the fact that the (Cambodian) government is thoroughly corrupt ... billions of dollars worth of aid funded by western taxpayers have done relatively little to improve the lives of ordinary Cambodians," and that the regime "is successfully exploiting international aid as a source of political legitimacy."
I confess that certain shocking parts of the report took my breath away.
In the Aug. 8, 2007 Asia Times Online, Marawaan Marcan-Makar's "If a tree falls, does the World Bank hear it?" mocked World Bank president Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. deputy secretary of state, for his "mild tone against corruption in Cambodia," and for choosing "words carefully when reprimanding errant states in which (the Bank) has big stakes."
Marcan-Makar reported that in a 2006 survey of corruption in the Asia-Pacific region, the Berlin-based global anti-graft watchdog, Transparency International, listed Cambodia among countries with "the highest ... corruption," perpetuating "rampant corruption" and "undermining improvements in quality of life for the poorest citizens." Transparency International ranked Cambodia 151 among the 163 countries, with the least corrupt nations ranked with lower numbers.
Sadly, Cambodia's Mekong Times reported that King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who has paid "close attention to reports of injustices and irregularities in Cambodian society" and who is "vigilantly watching all such issues," has said he has "no power to deal with deficiencies and injustices ... at present."
We speak of justice and equity as a basis for peace, but donor countries' financial assistance to Cambodia's ruling party, an organization chastised by non-governmental organizations and rights groups, is not a source of comfort. It raises questions about donor countries who would appear to pursue their interests at the expense of the welfare of the people who are suffering under the rule of a corrupt regime.
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years.Labels: CPP, Election, Media bias towards the CPP, SRP
An Institution of Injustice
 My Court, My Justice... and My Jungle Law!!! (sacrava 1015)  I Am Not for Sale (sacrava 1012)  Release Him Immediately (sacrava 1013)
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Op-Ed by Chanda Chhay
If there were such a thing as an Institution of Injustice, the Cambodian Municipal Court in Phnom Penh would certainly fit into this dubious distinction. The way Judge Chhay Kong handled the case of Mr. Dam Sith, the editor of Moneasekar Khmer newspaper, was not only a miscarriage of justice but also a brazen abuse of the laws as well as the institution (court), which he represented. The issues of miscarriages of justice or judicial abuses could have happened anywhere, but Mr. Dam Sith’s case certainly merit some discussion, for it is so blatantly mediocre even a non-lawyer like me could see the flaws.
A few days ago, amidst local and international condemnations, Judge Chhay Kong issued a firm refusal to a request from a dozen or so Members of Parliament for the release of Mr. Dam Sith on the ground that they (MP’s) had no “rights” or jurisdiction to meddle in judicial procedures (See Judge Chhay Kong’s letter in Khmer at the end of this article). However, two days after denying those MP’s request, Judge Chhay Kong has turned the integrity of his court and his noble principle of keeping outside influences away from judicial procedures upside down, when he suddenly bent backward to accept a lone Member of Parliament and head of the executive branch, Mr. Hun Sen’s request to release Mr. Dam Sith. Unbelievable! It is certainly counterintuitive to see any person, let alone a judge whose decision could take a person’s liberty or life away, making such an irrational decision.
One simple premise: If those other members of parliament had no rights to intervene in the judicial procedures, neither could Mr. Hun Sen, who is also a member of parliament. Therefore, Judge Chhay Kong should also firmly and confidently tell Mr. Hun Sen that he has no rights to interfere in the judicial procedures.
I know I am being harsh on this poor Judge Chhay Kong, who has possibly been pressured by powerful politicians to act according to their wicked whim. In a dictatorial democracy like Cambodia, it is not unusual to see a judge stuck between a rock and a hard place. But, that said, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t confront our predicaments and rise up to the challenges. After all, judges could not and should not afford to make mistakes or be reckless about their decisions because a person’s liberty or life depends very much on them. When a judge could not see this simple moral imperative, it is best for him or her to give up the law books and find a different career.
Chanda Chhay
Washington, DC.Labels: hun sen, Journalism, journalist, SRP
Journalists and Opposition Members Under Attack as Elections Near
For Immediate Release
Cambodia: Release Jailed Editor
Journalists and Opposition Members Under Attack as Elections Near
(London, June 11, 2008) – The Cambodian government should release a jailed opposition newspaper editor and candidate, and end its intimidation of journalists and opposition party candidates in the lead-up to National Assembly elections in July, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.
On June 8, military police arrested newspaper editor Dam Sith, 39, who is also running as a candidate for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), after his newspaper published allegations about the current foreign minister.
“Dam Sith’s arrest demonstrates how the criminal justice system is used and abused to silence government critics,” said Brittis Edman, researcher for Amnesty International. “His arrest sends a message of fear to journalists and other media workers in the lead-up to national elections next month.”
Dam Sith’s newspaper, Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), quoted allegations by opposition leader Sam Rainsy over the role of the current minister of foreign affairs, Hor Namhong, during the period of Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-1979. Hor Namhong filed a criminal complaint against Dam Sith for disinformation, defamation and libel under Cambodia’s 1992 penal code. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International believe that public officials who consider themselves defamed should not seek redress through the criminal law in order to protect their reputation.
Moneaksekar Khmer is one of the few newspapers in Cambodia that is not affiliated with the government or the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which also controls all television and most radio stations.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said that the arrest of Dam Sith is part of a pattern of intimidation by the government against opposition and independent media in the run-up to the July elections. On May 21, Hun Sen threatened the independent Beehive radio station for running programming from opposition parties, stating: “You have one channel; we have 39 channels. If you curse me, you will receive bad merit. Those who [previously] cursed me already disappeared from the world.”
On May 28, the government shut down independent radio station Angkor Ratha (FM 105.25) in Kratie province. The station, whose headquarters is in Siem Reap province, was granted a license to broadcast in January 2008. The Ministry of Information abruptly cancelled the license for the station’s Kratie broadcasts after it sold air time to opposition parties.
“There’s little room for critical or opposition journalists in Cambodia, and those who express dissent risk harassment, intimidation and, at times, imprisonment,” said Sara Colm, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian authorities to respect and protect the right to freedom of expression, allowing journalists to report news and express opinions about politics without retribution.
Dam Sith, who is running as an opposition candidate in the capital Phnom Penh, was arrested in the midst of an intense campaign by the ruling CPP to induce opposition members to join the CPP and punish those who refuse. In March 2008, police arrested and detained local opposition SRP leader Tuot Saron in Kampong Thom. Tuot Saron is still detained and faces charges of illegal confinement after seeking to assist a distressed former party colleague following her alleged defection to the CPP under controversial circumstances. The court issued arrest warrants against three other local SRP leaders, who avoided arrest and remain in hiding.
“Arrests and other politically motivated legal actions are being used to intimidate, coerce and silence opposition members and journalists,” said Colm. “With elections pending, it’s crucial that Cambodians are able to receive information from a variety of news sources, and that opposition candidates are able to campaign without fear of reprisals.”
The right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in the Cambodian Constitution and enshrined in international human rights law. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cambodia is obliged to promote and protect these rights and ensure that people can fully enjoy them.
The 1995 Press Law provides for some protection of journalists, but is rarely used. Instead, the so-called 1992 UNTAC Law, Cambodia’s current penal code, is used in most legal cases against journalists or media representatives. These cases often violate the right to freedom of expression.
Dam Sith has been charged with violating articles 62 and 63 of the UNTAC Law. Article 62 criminalizes the publication, distribution or reproduction of false information that “has disturbed or is likely to disturb the public peace.” Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consider the provision to be too vague and sweeping, enabling the government to intimidate and prosecute those who are exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Article 63 provides that allegations against public figures “which the author, the journalist, editor, or producer knows to be false” may constitute defamation. The article does not carry a custodial sentence. This article also restricts the right to freedom of expression in violation of international law and standards.
“It is time for Cambodia to repeal provisions in its laws that allow individuals, including journalists, to be criminally prosecuted for peaceful speech,” said Edman.
For more information, please contact:
In Phnom Penh, for Human Rights Watch, Sara Colm: +855-12-804-755 (mobile)
In London, for Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams: +44-79-0872-8333 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, for Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson: +1-202-612-4341; or +1-917-721-7473 (mobile)
In London, for Amnesty International, Brittis Edman: +44-79-4692-4473; or +44- 20-7413-5773 (mobile)
For more: Human Rights WatchLabels: Election, Journalism, journalist, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP
Statement form the Cambodian Club of Journalists condemning Dam Sith's arrest
 Dam Sith (in blue shirt), Moneaksekar Khmer Editor, seen escorted by military police officers at the Phnom Penh municipal court Dam Sith brought to the Phnom Penh municipal court by plainclothed and unirformed military police officers Large contingent of military police presence in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court Scene in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court Several SRP MPs (Saumura Tioulong, Eng Chhay Eang) were also seen in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court
09 June 2008
By Sopheak
Moneaksekar Khmer
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
Source: KI-Media
Civil society, journalist Associations, as well as SRP MPs have all criticized the Phnom Penh municipal court for issuing a warrant to the military police force to arrest Dam Sith, the editor of Moneaksekar Khmer newspaper, at around 11:00 AM on 08 June while the latter was washing his car. Dam Sith’s arrest is a serious threat on the freedom of the press, and it is also a political threat during the approaching general election.
Eng Chhay Eang, SRP Secretary-general and SRP MP from Battambang province, told reporters that, according to the press law, this should not be a criminal arrest.
Eng Chhay Eang said that Dam Sith’s arrest was done to silence and threaten those who dare criticize the ruling CPP party, and that this act is a serious violation of the freedom of expression, just before the upcoming election.
Eng Chhay Eang added that, by what he understood, several CPP hot shots tried to attract Dam Sith and buy him out, but Dam Sith refused to sell himself, his conscience, and Dam Sith is still devoted his own conscience and will, this is why the ruling CPP party uses the pretext of defamation and disinformation charges to arrest him.
Eng Chhay Eang said that Dam Sith’s arrest was done based on a arrest warrant issued by Judge Chhay Kong from the Phnom Penh municipal court, and the warrant was served by the military police with Dam Sith’s arrest on 08 June, however, this arrest is a violation of the law.
Eng Chhay Eang told reporters that, by what he knows, Dam Sith was arrested under the charge of defamation, cursing and disinformation. He said that the ruling CPP party is using the court as its tool to fight its competitors, and that this constitutes a psychological threat against Dam Sith after CPP hot shots were not able to pull him over to the CPP, in spite of their promise to provide him a (high) position in the government in exchange for his defection.
Eang Chhay Eang said that Dam Sith’s arrest under the defamation and disinformation charges is a psychological threat because the National Assembly brought an amendment to the law to eliminate these cases from the criminal law, and no journalist should be jailed for writing articles construed as defamation and disinformation. The maximum such charges can bring is a fine on journalists whom the court found guilty.
Eng Chhay Eang said that the arrest warrant against Dam Sith is a violation of the law, and that Judge Chhay Kong violates the law and threatens the freedom of the press. Eng Chhay Eang asked that the Phnom Penh municipal court to release Dam Sith and to properly pursue the legal case, the court should not issue a warrant to arrest Dam Sith. Furthermore, the police should return back Dam Sith’s confiscated Toyota Highlander SUV bearing the license plate PP 2I-1899 to his family, because this is not a criminal case or a robbery case at all, it is only a defamation case. However, Sao Sokha, the military police chief, said that this decision is up to the court.
Eng Chhay Eang indicated that Dam Sith’s arrest affect the voters for the upcoming election because Dam Sith supports the SRP and he is also a SRP MP candidate for the city of Phnom Penh as well.
Chan Soveth, an investigating official for the Adhoc human rights organization, regrets to see Dam Sith being arrested, and he said that the arrest does not look regular at all. Chan Soveth added that Dam Sith was charged with defamation and disinformation based on Hor Namhong’s lawsuit, and he was arrested on a Sunday, therefore, this is a threat on the freedom of journalists.
Chan Soveth said that Dam Sith’s arrest is a serious violation on human rights, and it poorly reflects on the freedom of journalists. He added that Dam Sith was coaxed by a number of CPP officials to join the CPP, and he said that Dam Sith’s arrest may be politically motivated because the Moneaksekar Khmer newspaper supports the SRP.
Chan Soveth also said that if Dam Sith was arrested because he refused to join the CPP, his arrest would be very unfair and it would constitute a political threat.
Immediately after Dam Sith’s arrest at 11:00 AM on 08 June 2008, 2 journalist associations: the Association of Journalists Watchdog and the Association of Democratic Journalists of Cambodia, issued a joint statement saying that they regret seeing the military police force arresting Dam Sith based on the warrant issued by Judge Chhay Kong.
The two associations indicated in its joint statement that the arrest warrant against Dam Sith violates the law because the National Assembly amended the law to remove defamation cases from the criminal law, therefore, no journalist should be arrested for defamation, cursing or disinformation. The 2 journalist associations called Dam Sith’s arrest a serious threat on the freedom of the press, and they call on Judge Chhay Kong to review the case in order to release Dam Sith back. On Sunday evening, the Phnom Penh municipal court decided to detain Dam Sith temporarily even though the court was being heavily criticized by local and international observers for this serious violation of the law. On Monday 09 June, most likely, several embassy officials from major countries will intervene on behalf of Dam Sith because the SRP had already informed a number of donor countries about this case. Dam Sith’s arrest and detention is political as he is the editor of an opposition newspaper and also a SRP MP candidate for the city of Phnom Penh.
Kom Sam On, Dam Sith’s defense lawyer said that the detention of Dam Sith for defamation and disinformation stems from the fact that he was quoting opposition leader Sam Rainsy who said that Hor Namhong was the former Boeng Trabek jail chief under Pol Pot’s regime. The disinformation charge still leads to imprisonment according to the law, but he said that in his defendant case, just under the prosecutor charges, Dam Sith was immediately sent to jail. As for the defamation charge, no one indicated which sentence in the article touched upon the defamation case, nobody provided any clarification at all.
Dam Sith’s defense lawyer Chung Choungy claimed that the charges brought against his defendant stem from the accusation raised by Ka Savuth, Hor Namhong’s lawyer. However, Chung Choungy said that his defendant detention is not correct because, according to his study of this case, there is no disinformation reported at all, the article was merely quoting Sam Rainsy’s words. Labels: Journalism, journalist, SRP
Letter from Tioulong Saumura to the Cambodia Daily
Phnom Penh, 31 March 2008
Letter to the Editor,
The Cambodia Daily
Dear Sirs,
In its issue dated 31 March 2008, The Cambodia Daily reported that I was "implicated in detention claims" made by former SRP commune councillor Tim Norn, who alleged that I "detained her in Phnom Penh to prevent her from joining the CPP".
Had I been contacted by your reporter*, I would have brought the following information to his knowledge:
- On Saturday 16 February, Ms. Tim Norn came to the SRP headquarters and requested a meeting with me. She told me that former SRP MP for Kompong Thom Sok Pheng had convinced her to defect to the CPP and gave her $200, but that she regretted her decision and was scared because she had already taken and spent the money. She asked me to give protection to her and her family
- I replied that she has the right to choose which political party she wants to be a member of, she has the right to then change her mind, resign and join another party. But, once she has resigned from SRP and put her thumbprint on a written statement saying that she joins CPP, she is now a member of CPP and nobody at SRP has anything to do with her anymore.
- As she seemed frightened and kept on repeating that she did not want to go back to her village in Baray district, I said that we are a political party, not a shelter and advised her to submit her case to a human rights organisation such as Licadho or the UN Centre for Human Rights. I phoned Licadho to check whether it was open on Saturday.
- Ms. Tim Norn went to Licadho's office by her own means. Later, I joined her when she was talking to Licadho's staff, confirmed that she was a former SRP activist, made sure that she was taken care of, and came back to my office.
The claim that I detained Tim Norn does not make sense:
- I have no means to force anyone to stay anywhere against his/her will. I don't even know how long she stayed with Licadho, when she left and why.
- The Sam Rainsy Party is an organization made-up of volunteers who adhere to the ideals advocated by President Sam Rainsy. What binds us together is the common faith in the ability to bring about changes by peaceful, legal, non-violent and democratic means. The strength of the party is based on the free will of our members. In our party, nobody can "force" anyone of us to donate our time, effort, money, and risk our assets, peace of mind, lives. So, there is no rationale for me to try to keep someone by force.
- Tim Norn having ceased being one of our members, I still wanted to help her on humanitarian grounds, which is what I often do when I meet people needing assistance. That is why I advised her to seek assistance from a human rights organization and from the UN Centre for Human Rights.
In your article, you quote SRP Secretary General Eng Chhay Eang saying that he did not know when I would return to Cambodia. Actually, I am leaving Paris tomorrow 1st April, arriving on the 2d. My schedule is linked to the preparation of the autobiography of MP Sam Rainsy. The deadline of the French publisher was today 31 March. MP Sam Rainsy had to attend the commemoration of the grenade attack on 30 March, I took care of the final round of proof-reading before giving the imprimatur today.
Yours sincerely,
Tioulong Saumura, MP (Ms.)
 Labels: Election, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP, Tioulong Saumura, Toeum Norn, Tout Saron
Concerns over Political Intimidation and Obstruction prior to the 2008 National Assembly Elections Preparation Stage
COMFREL - NICFEC - CHRAC
Joint Statement
On
Concerns over Political Intimidation and Obstruction prior to the 2008 National Assembly Elections Preparation Stage
COMFREL, NICFEC and CHRAC are greatly concerned over the ongoing situation of political influence over the judiciary system, court and law enforcement armed forces (1), especially the recent arrests and attempted arrests, the use of violence toward political parties’ activists and the ongoing obstruction of some political parties’ activities. These cases take place repeatedly in Phnom Penh, Pailin, Kampong Thom, Takeo and Kampong Chhnang, with a negative impact on the environment for fair and free elections.
Arrests political parties’ activists without a court warrant and without in-depth investigation cause an environment of fear and mean that non-ruling parties’ activists dare not do anything. According to CHRAC’s Statement, Mr. Tout Saron, Kampong Thom’s Baray’s Ponro Commune Chief, was summoned at Toul Kroeus Market, Baray District by police officials led by Baray District Police Chief without showing a court order. In the meantime, there is a question about the different answers given by victim Toeum Norn, first when she met with a LICADHO officer and an officer of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia, and then later. On February 18, 2008, at the LICADHO office, Mrs. Toeum Norn did not make a complaint about detention against her will. Instead, she asked for help from LICADHO to protect her and her family, as she had previously defected from the Sam Rainsy Party to the Cambodian People’s Party and later wanted to go back to the Sam Rainsy Party. But, later on she said she was afraid the Sam Rainsy Party may kill her (2).
According to the CHRAC investigation, Mrs. Toeum Norn did not lose her rights to communicate with her friends and family. And there is nothing to prove that Mrs. Toeum Norn was either detained or arrested.
There has been obstruction and prevention towards some political parties, including the Sam Rainsy Party, the Human Rights Party, the Norodom Ranariddh Party and FUNCINPEC from carrying out political activities such as meetings and, in some cases, local authority crackdowns on meetings and taking down of a political party’s signboard. Evidently, there was violence involved in taking down a Sam Rainsy Party signboard, causing Member of Parliament for Phnom Penh H.E. Mr. HO Vann to be injured on March 22, 2008. The taking down of a Sam Rainsy Party signboard also took place in Pailin. A Norodom Ranariddh Party signboard in Banteay Meanchey was also taken down. In total, until now, there have been at least 20 cases of taking down of political parties’ signboards. These cases, which have happened to non-ruling parties, have not been addressed fairly and effectively.
The political party and candidate registration for the elections is due within less than one month. However, the Prince Norodom Ranariddh case has not been settled yet. This can be considered as contributing to an unequal election contest: the leader, and maybe a potential candidate, of one party cannot contest in the upcoming elections.
Civil society highly appreciates the efforts of the Royal Government and competent authorities who have ensured that the 2008 pre-election environment has seen no cases of murder and severe violence towards politician. However, the competent authorities should continue to try their best to stop arrests, intimidation and violence towards political party activists and politician. The Royal Government, competent authorities and relevant stakeholders should make efforts to effectively settle any case to ensure a good environment for free and fair elections and to ensure politicians and political party leaders (such as Prince Norodom Ranariddh) can contest in the elections fairly without any fear.
Phnom Penh, March 27, 2008
COMFREL NICFEC CHRAC
For further information, please contact:
1. Mr. KOUL Panha, COMFREL's Executive Director, 012 942 017
2. Mr. HANG Puthea, NICFEC's Executive Director, 012 959 666
3. Mr. SOUN Sareth, CHRAC's Secretariat, 012 830 422
-------
(1) This was noted in LICADHO and ADHOC’s report on Cambodian Human Rights December 2007: ‘Charade Justice’.
(2) According to LICADHO’s report and the Cambodia Daily, published on March 24, 2008 (P.5).Labels: Election, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP, Toeum Norn, Tout Saron
Calling all our Compatriots to Join - SRP
Calling all our Compatriots to Join
the Mass Demonstration Organized by SRP Members of Parliament
to Demand that the Government Lower the Prices of Merchandises
or Provide Salary Increases for Civil Servants and Factory Workers
Commensurate with the Prices of Goods
The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) is organizing a mass demonstration in Phnom Penh on Sunday, April 6, 2008, to demand that the government lower the prices of merchandises or provide salary increases for civil servants, factory workers and all employees commensurate with the prices of goods.
Over the past few months, the prices of goods have been soaring, in particular for gasoline, rice, meat, fish, vegetables and all kinds of foodstuffs. For example, currently, the price of gasoline has increased to almost 5,000 riels per liter and the price of rice is close to 4,000 riels per kilo.
The increase in the prices of goods is caused by several factors. Some of these factors are related to the situation on the international markets, whereas others are related to ineptitude in the economic management of our country. It is a fact that the prices of goods have increased in neighboring countries, but these increases are minimal compared to the rate of inflation in our country where the prices of goods have increased from twofold to threefold (100% to 200%) over a one-year period.
The sharp increase in the prices of goods in Cambodia is due to corruption and incompetence on the part of the government.
Corruption is behind the heavy tax burden on the population (in particular for gasoline), but the bulk of the taxes collected does not go to the state coffer, instead, it goes in to fill the pockets of corrupt government officials. Corruption is also behind commercial monopolies in various sectors of the economy because a number of cunning merchants and dishonest companies pay bribes to government officials in order to obtain those monopolies so that they can curtail competition and increase the price of goods and services as they please. Meanwhile, the inept government is unable to manage the economy properly and causes the riel (our national currency) to weaken vis-à-vis neighboring countries' currencies, which is another cause for the sharp inflation in Cambodia.
When Sam Rainsy was the Minister of Economy and Finance between 1993 and 1994, the prices of goods on the market were low and stable. At that time, the price of one liter of gasoline was only 600 riels, and one kilo of rice cost only 600 riels. The riel was much stronger (2,500 riels to the US dollar), which helped curb inflation.
In order to reduce the prices of goods on the market right now, the SRP demands that the government adopt the following measures:
1- Lower taxes on gasoline from the current 1,200 riels per liter to 500 riels per liter, and lower the profit margin made by gasoline distributors from 700 riels to 400 riels per liter. These two measures alone will lower the overall price of gasoline by 1,000 riels per liter, and they will bring down the price of gasoline to be in par with prices in neighboring countries. This is a necessary condition to stop the illegal smuggling of gasoline.
2- End the commercial monopolies granted to a number of cunning merchants and dishonest companies which allow them to increase the prices of goods as they please because of the lack of effective competition. This situation is possible because of the protection provided to these cunning merchants and dishonest companies by corrupt government officials.
3- Ensure an adequate economic, financial and monetary policy so as to preserve the stability of the riel and to prevent it from depreciating against neighboring countries' currencies such as the Thai Bath.
4- Control the printing of bank notes so as to avoid issuing paper money in an irresponsible and disorderly manner. Ensure that any increase in the money supply match with actual economic growth and the level of foreign reserves owned by Cambodia. If the government continues to inflate the money supply by secretly printing bank notes, especially for political reasons (to buy votes before the upcoming elections), the riel will continue to depreciate and inflation will continue to accelerate.
5- Implement land reform by distributing unused state-owned lands to landless farmers or those who do not have enough land to live on, so as to increase agricultural production nationwide. Rice production in particular will be increased to a maximum in order to meet demand and to lower the price of this staple on the market. For the tens of thousands of hectares of lands grabbed or stolen from the State or from the people by corrupt government officials and cunning businessmen, they must be returned back to the people so that Cambodian farmers can effectively plant crops needed to counter inflation.
If the government is unwilling or unable to implement the five above-described measures to lower the prices of goods, then it must increase the salaries of civil servants, teachers, policemen and soldiers, as well as factory workers and all employees at a rate that is commensurate with the rate of inflation. For example, if the prices of goods double, salaries must also be doubled. Otherwise, the people's living conditions will undeniably deteriorate and the government will have to take the responsibility for this deterioration in the people's living conditions.
[signed]
The 24 SRP Members of Parliament
For more information please call 092 854 053 or 012 858 857 or 012 731 111
Letter from SRP's PM
in Khmer VersionLabels: Demonstration, Prices of Goods, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP
Cambodia: Infamous Grenade Attack Still Unpunished
Sam Rainsy following the grenade attack
A wounded Chea Vichea (L) sitting next to Sam Rainsy following the attack
Scene of the carnage following the grenade attack on 30 March 1997
FBI Should Revive Probe of Alleged Perpetrators Promoted by Hun Sen
Source: Human Rights Watch - http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/30/cambod18404.htm
(New York, March 30, 2008) – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should reopen its long-stalled investigation into the grisly grenade attack on an opposition party rally in Phnom Penh 11 years ago that left at least 16 dead and more than 150 injured, Human Rights Watch said today. The FBI investigation, which made significant progress in 1997, has been effectively abandoned.
On March 30, 1997, a crowd of approximately 200 supporters of the opposition Khmer Nation Party (KNP), led by former Finance Minister Sam Rainsy, gathered in a park across the street from the National Assembly to denounce the judiciary’s corruption and lack of independence. In a well-planned attack, four grenades were thrown into the crowd, killing protesters and bystanders, including children, and tearing limbs off street vendors. The grenade attack made headlines and provoked outrage around the world. On June 29, 1997, the Washington Post wrote:
"In a classified report that could pose some awkward problems for U.S. policymakers, the FBI tentatively has pinned responsibility for the blasts, and the subsequent interference, on personal bodyguard forces employed by Hun Sen, one of Cambodia’s two prime ministers, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with its contents. The preliminary report was based on a two-month investigation by FBI agents sent here under a federal law giving the bureau jurisdiction whenever a U.S. citizen is injured by terrorism. ... The bureau says its investigation is continuing, but the agents involved reportedly have complained that additional informants here are too frightened to come forward."
"The FBI was close to solving the case when its lead investigator was suddenly ordered out of the country by the US ambassador, Kenneth Quinn," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The FBI has damning evidence in its files that suggests that Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the attack, but it has refused to fully cooperate with congressional inquiries or follow through on its initial investigation. Instead of trying to protect US relations with Cambodia, it should now finish what it started."
The FBI investigated the attack because Ron Abney, a US citizen, was seriously injured in the blast, which the United States at the time deemed to be an "act of terrorism." Abney had to be evacuated to Singapore to treat shrapnel wounds in his hip.
Instead of launching a serious investigation, then co-Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the demonstration’s organizers should be arrested and instructed police not to allow them to leave the country. (To read an Agence France-Presse account published at the time, please visit: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/28/cambod13086.htm).
On the day of the attack, Hun Sen’s personal bodyguard unit, Brigade-70 (B-70), was, for the first time, deployed at a demonstration. Photographs show them in full riot gear. The police, which had in the past maintained a high-profile presence at opposition demonstrations to discourage public participation, had an unusually low profile on that day. Officers were grouped around the corner from the park, having been ordered to stay away from the park itself. Also for the first time, the KNP had received official permission from both the Ministry of the Interior and the Phnom Penh municipality to hold a demonstration, fuelling speculation that the demonstration was authorized so it could be attacked.
Numerous eyewitnesses reported that the persons who had thrown the grenades were seen running toward Hun Sen’s bodyguards, who were deployed in a line at the west end of the park near the guarded residential compound containing the homes of many senior Cambodia People’s Party leaders. Witnesses told United Nations and FBI investigators that the bodyguard line opened to allow the grenade-throwers to escape into the compound. Meanwhile, people in the crowd pursuing the grenade-throwers were stopped by the bodyguards at gunpoint and told they would be shot if they did not retreat.
"This brazen attack, carried out in broad daylight, ingrained impunity more than any other single act in recent Cambodian history," said Adams. "But that appears to have been one of its purposes – to send the message that opposition supporters can be murdered without ever facing justice."
In a June 1997 interview with the Phnom Penh Post, Hing Bun Heang, deputy commander of Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit and operationally in charge of the bodyguards at the park on March 30, 1997, threatened to kill journalists who alleged that Hun Sen’s bodyguards were involved. Hing Bun Heang has since been promoted as deputy director of Hun Sen’s cabinet and, in September 2006, appointed as supreme consultant to Cambodia’s Senior Monk Assembly and assistant to Supreme Patriachs Tep Vong and Bou Kry.
The bodyguard unit B-70 remains notorious in Cambodia for violence, corruption, and the impunity it enjoys as the de facto private army of Hun Sen. According to a 2007 report by the nongovernmental organization Global Witness, "The elite Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Brigade 70 unit makes between US$2 million and US$2.5 million per year through transporting illegally logged timber and smuggled goods. A large slice of the profits generated through these activities goes to Lieutenant General Hing Bun Heang, commander of the prime minister’s Bodyguard Unit."
In one notorious case in 2006, two soldiers from B-70 shot a Phnom Penh beer promotion girl in the foot for being too slow to bring them ice. They were arrested by military police, but released hours later by their commander. A representative of the commander said the victim would be paid $500 compensation by B-70, but no criminal investigation or prosecution ensued.
"Instead of investigating the senior officer in charge of the bodyguard unit implicated in the 1997 grenade attack and who threatened to kill journalists reporting on it, Hun Sen has promoted him,” said Adams. “Apparently, Hun Sen considers such a person qualified for a senior position in the country’s official Buddhist hierarchy."
Given the serious and credible allegations of the involvement of the Cambodian military in the grenade attack, Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the United States has increased military assistance and training to the Cambodian military before it completed its investigation into the 1997 attack.
Human Rights Watch called on the US to ensure that it is not providing any assistance or training to current or former members of B-70 or other Cambodian special military units with records of human rights abuse. In an effort to solidify counterterrorism cooperation, the FBI in 2006 awarded a medal to the Cambodian Chief of National Police Hok Lundy for his support in the US "global war on terror." Hok Lundy was chief of the national police at the time of the grenade attack and has long been linked to political violence.
"No credible explanation has ever been offered for the deployment or behavior of Hun Sen’s bodyguards on March 30, 1997," said Adams. "Their actions may reach the highest levels of the Cambodian government, yet the FBI investigation has been dropped. The fact that the US is providing military assistance instead of investigating the grenade attack shows that it is effectively complicit with the Cambodian government in abandoning any hope for justice for the victims of this horrific attack."Labels: Chea Vichea, IRI, MARCH 30 1997, Ron Abney, Sam Rainsy, SRP
STATEMENT ON 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRENADE ATTACK
03/27/2008
STATEMENT ON 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRENADE ATTACK.
Ron Abney, Cochran, Georgia,USA
ronabney@hotmail.com
DID THOSE KILLED ON MARCH, 30 1997 DIE IN VAIN?
What a sham and a farce the investigation of this tragic event has become. Every year we call on the Cambodian Government to investigate. We’re asking the Hun Sen government to re-open a case which he never really opened.
The FBI found out within weeks of the attack that it was planned and carried out by Hun Sen’s own private guards and covered up by Hun Sen’s top police enforcers. What a crime was committed that day. We shouldn’t be vague about culpability when we ask for a new investigation. So let’s be real.
Did those slaughtered on 3/30/97 die in vain? Even today Hun Sen is the supreme and ultimate puppeteer of all that happens in Cambodia. He decides who will be exiled and who will be allowed back in the country. He decides how far each opposition party can go in criticizing has government. He makes sure the NEC is loaded with yes men who will validate the results of the election. He decides who will be jailed and who will be released. He decides the fate of pro-democracy party commune leaders who speak out and try to organize. His forces bribe opposition part officials to join CPP. And as we saw on 3/30/97 he decides when opposition goes too far.
He is a master of intrigue. He has told the world for years that his government will bring the Khmer Rouge leaders before his court for trail. How is that trial going by the way? These KR leaders are dying right and left of old age while the corrupt judicial system in Phnom Penh makes a farce out of a situation so tragic it still rips the heart out of those who suffered at the hands of Pol Pot.
Cambodia hasn’t really changed. Everything looks shinier and tourists who fly from their own country to Bangkok or Hong Kong to Siem Reap and its five-star hotels and then back to their homes talk of how wonderful to see all the changes. They should travel about an hour from Siem Reap in any direction and see what has happened to the homeless who used to pack the streets of that great city.
Those gathered on 3/30/97 only asked for justice and political freedom. If they were alive today they would still be begging for basic human rights and the same freedom and opportunities that CPP officials enjoy.
In Cambodia everybody votes but nobody counts.
--> More on CAMDISC including LIST OF VICTIMS WHO DIED AT THE DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON 30 MARCH 1997Labels: MARCH 30 1997, Ron Abney, Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP
Sam Rainsy: Rooted in the Stone - My Struggle for the Revival of Cambodia
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
By Sam Rainsy
Ravaged by genocide, coveted by powerful and predatory neighbors, submitted to a corrupt nomenklatura, choked by a neo-feudal regime, Cambodia is a martyr country, and no one knows this better than Sam Rainsy. Born into a patrician family in Phnom Penh, close to King Norodom Sihanouk, a young Rainsy knew opulence and the decline when his father, a major politician, was brutally dismissed and had to live in hiding before being assassinated.
Taking refuge in Paris, the Sam family resigned themselves to live as poor immigrants. However, they never lost their hope or dignity. A gifted student, Rainsy undertook brilliant studies that led him to become an important financier specializing in mergers and acquisitions for the luxury industry…
But, how could one be happy earning money and making money for others, when one’s country is sinking in cruelty in the hands of a regime practicing mass murder? From humanitarian action in Paris for the victims of the Khmer rouge regime to election campaigns on the spot, following the fall of the communist regime, Rainsy and Saumura, his wife, launch themselves into political action, taking over the torch from their respective fathers, both of whom were signatories of the 1954 Geneva agreements on Indochina.
However, for these two westernized Cambodians, their return home was rough. Facing with difficulties, aggressions, and even assassination attempts, Rainsy countered them with Buddhist-like pacifism, while constantly seeking for calm and compromise. Becoming the Minister of Economy under Hun Sen’s first mandate government, he was able to bring order to the State finance, and this earned him more hostilities. It was in the opposition that he found his calling when he founded a democratic and liberal party involved in the defense of freedom. Facing the unleashing of violence prompted by such provocation, Rainsy maintains his bearing, unperturbed and smiling, unshakable and frugal, just like those trees deeply rooted in the stones of the Angkor temples.
In April 2008, Sam Rainsy’s 300-page-long autobiography detailing his struggle for the revival of Cambodia, “Rooted in the stone,” will be published in France by Calmann-Lévy. This book can be pre-ordered through SRP-France at a cost of euro 20, or euro 22.97 including shipping.
The Khmer and English version of the book will be published in the following months.
For additional information, please contact munysara@aol.com
or call the following telephone number in France: +33 6 19 31 42 98 or +33 6 13 06 77
====================
Des racines dans la pierre - Mon combat pour la renaissance du Cambodge
Sam Rainsy
Ravagé par un génocide, convoité par des voisins puissants et prédateurs, mis en coupe réglée par une nomenklatura corrompue, asphyxié par un régime néo-féodal, le Cambodge est un pays martyr. Nul ne le sait mieux que Sam Rainsy. Né dans une famille patricienne de Phnom Penh proche du roi Norodom Sihanouk, le jeune Rainsy connaît l'opulence, puis la déchéance lorsque son père, un homme politique de premier plan, est brutalement limogé et doit passer dans la clandestinité avant de finir assassiné.
Réfugiés à Paris, les Sam vont se résigner à une vie d'immigrés pauvres. Mais jamais ils ne perdront l'espoir ni la dignité. Elève surdoué, Rainsy fera des études brillantes qui lui permettront de devenir un financier de haut vol, spécialiste des fusions-acquisitions dans l'industrie du luxe...
Mais comment se contenter de gagner de l'argent et d'en faire gagner, quand son pays s'enfonce dans la barbarie aux mains d'un régime qui pratique le meurtre en masse ? De l'action humanitaire à Paris en faveur des victimes des Khmers rouges aux campagnes électorales sur le terrain après la chute du régime communiste, Rainsy et sa femme Saumura se lancent dans l'action politique, reprenant le flambeau de leurs pères respectifs : ceux-ci n'étaient-ils pas co-signataires des accords de Genève sur l'Indochine en 1954 ?
Mais pour ces deux Cambodgiens occidentalisés, le retour au pays est rude. Aux difficultés, aux agressions, aux attentats, même, Rainsy oppose un pacifisme d'essence bouddhique, cherchant avec constance l'apaisement et le compromis. Ministre de l'Economie du premier gouvernement Hun Sen, il parvient à mettre de l'ordre dans les finances de l'Etat, ce qui lui vaut de nouvelles inimitiés. Mais c'est dans l'opposition qu'il trouvera sa voie, en créant un parti démocrate, libéral et attaché à la défense des libertés. Devant le déchaînement de violence que déclenche une telle provocation, Rainsy maintient le cap, impavide et souriant, inébranlable et frugal, à l'image de ces arbres qui poussent dans la pierre des temples d'Angkor.
Au mois d'avril 2008, un livre autobiographique de Sam Rainsy relatant son combat pour la renaissance du Cambodge, intitulé "Des racines dans la pierre", paraîtra en France aux éditions Calmann-Lévy. Vous trouverez ci-joint la couverture du livre ainsi qu'un résumé de son contenu (300 pages).
Vous pouvez d'ores et déjà commander ce livre auprès de PSR-France qui vous le remettra en main propre au prix de 20 euros (prix public) ou vous l'expédiera par la Poste au prix de 22,97 euros.
Les éditions en khmer et en anglais paraîtront dans les mois suivants.
Prière de contacter munysara@aol.com ou
+33 6 19 31 42 98 ou +33 6 13 06 77 00Labels: Sam Rainsy, Sam Rainsy Party, SRP
SWEDISH MPs SAW THE MISERY OF RUBBER PLANTATIONS WORKERS
By SRP Cabinet,
On 9 January 2008, two Members of Parliament from Sweden, Mr. Kent Harstedt and Ms. Magdalena Strejffert from the Social Democratic Party, and Mr. Johan Mostrom from the Olof Palme Foundation, went to Kampong Cham province to meet with rubber plantations workers in Chamcar Leu district. They were accompanied by Sam Rainsy and other SRP Members of Parliament and were welcome at Ta'ong commune by about a hundred workers and worker representatives from several rubber plantations. The Swedish parliamentarians saw with their own eyes the misery of rubber plantations workers
==========
16th June, 2006
Misery of Rubber Plantation Workers
Last 10th June, I visited the district of Chamcar Leu in the province of Kompong Cham where I was elected. In this district located about 100 kilometers to the northeast of Phnom Penh, rubber plantations extend beyond sight. They employ thousands of workers whom no one knows much about, specifically about their living and working conditions. If one takes the time to learn more, one discovers that these workers' villages disseminated in these plantations form a world apart. Even though I am used to see poverty in Cambodia, I was struck by the misery which prevails in these villages. Children are in larger number than anywhere else. Clearly malnourished, they are skinny and pale looking. The rags they wear do not even cover half of their bodies. They play and live in the dirt. Most of them have never seen a school.
We are in the Chamcar Andaung commune, the location of a large plantation of the same name. It is almost five o’clock in the afternoon. The workday had ended (it starts everyday at 5 a.m.). A small crowd is gathering at my arrival at Village 33. Since the French colonial times, the workers' villages do not have a name but they bear a number indicating the plantation lots in which they are located. The village looks like a small island lost in the middle of a dark ocean of aligned trees extending beyond sight. Here, everybody earns a living from latex (rubber), a milky material secreted from the trunk of the rubber trees (Hevea tree) that are bled at regular intervals according to very precise rules.
Attracted by a microphone recently installed for the occasion, the workers, men and women, the majority of them young, came out from their small dilapidated homes; they were preceded by a crowd of noisy children. I spoke in front of Phan Ret’s house, a 20-year-old young worker whose husband, Plech Nol, also a worker, was killed last 14th April by plantation guards for stealing a few kilograms of raw rubber. The widow, a small woman who herself looks like a child, dragged two children after her.
I invited the workers to present their problems to the representatives, Mao Munyvann, Thak Lany and myself, who had come to meet them. I felt as if I was hearing stories right out of Emile Zola or Charles Dickens’ books on the condition of workers during the 19th century:
1. Starvation wage: The word which often comes round during the talks is hunger. Each worker receives a fix daily salary of 3,000 riels (US $0.73). There are no weekends or holidays. One day of absence carries a penalty of 10,000 riels ($2.43) which is taken out of the salary paid at the end of the month. The fixed monthly salary of 90,000 riels ($21.90), for 30 days of work, must also be used by the workers to purchase their work tools needed for latex collection (bleeding knife, collecting cups, ladder). Besides the fixed salary of 3,000 riels per day, the workers can also get a productivity bonus of up to 1,500 riels ($0.36) per day depending on the amount of rubber collected. In the best case scenario (i.e. for a strong and solid man who is never ill), a worker can only earn 4,500 riels ($1.09) per day at most which is not sufficient to feed a family. They would need two to three times this amount. This leads to the hunger which torments them all the time…
2. No social protection: A worker who falls from his/her ladder during the bleeding of a tree trunk from several meters above ground, can easily break a leg or pelvis. He/she must personally bear the entire medical cost from the accident. The victims are mainly women, this can result in dramatic family consequence for these very poor families.
3. Barbaric punishments: A worker who is accused of selling some pieces of dry rubber outside the plantation to supplement his/her meager salary, is severely punished: he/she is arrested by the plantation guards and beaten; he/she can then be tortured with electricity and confined half naked (an even greater humiliation for women) for several days in an iron cage. If he/she does not answer quickly enough when summoned by the guards, he/she is shot dead, just like Plech Nol, the husband of Phan Ret. Since the beginning of this year, two workers have been shot dead and another has been seriously injured by a bullet. No sanction was given to the guards.
4. Child labor: To help increase the family income, children usually go with their parents to work. They help their parents reach the daily bonus of 1,500 riels, or they collect small pieces of coagulum (1) for sale for a few pennies a piece. This explains why the children do not attend schools, thus perpetuating the cycle of misery. Hunger push these children to steal food in the neighborhood, and they are severely punished when caught stealing a few bananas in the neighboring farm.
5. A climate of violence and fear: The workers and their families depend entirely on their employer who manages not only the plantations where they work, but also the villages where they live. Because of the total control, the geographic isolation of the workers, and the feudal mentality which still remains in Cambodia, the rubber plantations form special communities where a climate of violence and fear rules. This climate is maintained by the guards who form a kind of a private militia. These armed guards terrorize the workers and their families; they do not hesitate to use torture and are also trigger-happy. In addition to the workers who are shot or wounded with bullets (see above), another act of violence took place this year in the same Chamcar Andaung plantation: on 10th January, two women “caught stealing food” were assassinated (2).
6. Layoff without warning, without compensation: I learnt that in Village 35, some 200 workers were laid off without warning, without compensation nor any help in finding another job. This took place a few years ago when their employer decided, for technical or commercial reasons, to cut down all the rubber trees located in the plantation lot where they worked. In this village forgotten by the employer, which I also visited, misery is even more severe than in Village 33.
In these rubber plantations, work consists mainly of bleeding the trees. While leaving the village at dusk, I realize that most of all, it was the workers who are bled.
Sam Rainsy
Notes:
(1) Coagulum: stuck on tree trunks or spread on the ground, these pieces of coagulum (solidified latex) are waste resulting from multiple small losses occurring during the industrial collection and gathering of rubber which was originally liquid.
(2) They were Nay Theng, 32-year-old, and Nay Sokhoeun, 44-year-old. They lived in Village 32. They were sisters. Nay Theng was three month pregnant. They were caught in a banana plantation.Labels: SRP
IN SIGHT: Profile in Political Courage
 Sam Rainsy, president of the Khmer Nation Party,
is carried away after a 30 March 1997 grenade attack
outside the National Assembly building. Rainsy touring a flooded Cambodian
district several years ago. — GEORGE MCLEOD
In his turbulent political career, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy has endured assassination attempts and death threats and has seen friends and colleagues killed
GEORGE MCLEOD
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.net/260807_Perspective/26Aug2007_pers04.php
From a crumbling office in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, opposition party leader Sam Rainsy put on a brave face when asked about his party's future. "We have doubled the votes we have previously collected," he said, referring to Cambodia's recent commune elections. But in Cambodia's fragile democracy, few believe that Rainsy will ever win power, regardless of the popular vote. Independent observers say the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is tightening its grip in the country, allegedly through violence and intimidation. In his turbulent political career, Rainsy has endured assassination attempts, death threats and has seen friends and colleagues killed. Rainsy was also convicted of defamation in 2005 for accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of instigating violent attacks on his supporters. He returned in 2006 from self-imposed exile and is now guarded in his criticisms of the government. "My return was a result of international pressure. The CPP has changed its strategy; it relies less on violence but more on tricks, but the result is the same," he said in an interview in Phnom Penh. With elections scheduled for next year, Rainsy warns that the CPP's "tricks" may prevent a fair ballot. Rainsy rose to prominence as finance minister after Cambodia's first democratic elections in 1993. Then a member of the royalist FUNCINPEC Party, he introduced sweeping reforms to fight corruption and introduce a modern taxation and procurement system. The reforms ruffled the feathers of the ruling CPP, and members of FUNCINPEC, and he was expelled from his position in 1994. Refusing to abandon politics, Rainsy formed his own party, the Khmer Nation Party, later renamed the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).
Since then, the party has seen its support grow, but has endured threats and often violent attacks, say independent observers. Human Rights Watch's Brad Adams said that numerous human rights violations against opposition supporters have been documented since 1993. "Since (political) pluralism was brought in by the UN, hundreds of opposition party members and activists have been killed and not one person has been brought to justice for any of those killings," he said from London. "What you have in Cambodia is a one-party quasi-dictatorship," he said. The first major attack on Rainsy happened in 1997 at a workers rally in Phnom Penh. At 8:20 a.m. on March 30, four grenades were lobbed into the crowd, apparently aimed at Rainsy. Rainsy was thrown to the ground by his bodyguards, one of whom wa | |
PHNOM PENH - Even though Cambodia goes to the polls Sunday for the country's fourth general election since Vietnamese occupation ended in 1989, Prime Minister Hun Sen can comfortably escape the chaotic campaign noise in his heavily guarded, villa-studded compound in suburban Phnom Penh and light up a well-earned 555 cigarette - his smoke of choice since his soldiering days. 
The one-eyed, chain-smoking "Strongman of Cambodia" could play a casual round of golf at the private course kept groomed at the complex known to locals as the "Tiger's Lair", or maybe take a helicopter trip from the adjacent military airfield used to whisk him up and down his impoverished nation. In fact, as his foes rally and march around the capital, it probably doesn't matter much what Hun Sen does. 
Hun Sen is in full grip of the nation's institutions and tightly aligned with its wealthiest tycoons. He has predicted that his CPP machine will win 81of the National Assembly's 123 seats and 73% of the vote. The margin of victory is probably immaterial, since the country, as proposed by opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, adopted a 50-plus-one seat requirement in 2004 to form a government, replacing the previous two-thirds of the vote rule. The proposal was passed to avoid a repeat of the political stalemates which destabilized the country following the 1998 and 2003 elections, and resulted in fractious coalition governments. 
The punch-drunk party has also lost one of its more meaningful friends in the trade unions movement, which has the power to mobilize hundreds of thousands of garment and factory workers in a mass protest. The leader of the largest union, Chea Mony - whose brother popular SRP-affiliated union leader Chea Vichea was gunned down in 2004 - announced earlier this year the bloc was withdrawing from politics. The decision almost immediately followed Hun Sen's announcement of a $6 monthly increase to garment workers monthly salaries - bringing them to $56. 
Rainsy, a former minister of finance who was sacked for complaining about corruption, has tried another political tack. In several well-publicized broadsides, he has attacked the personal backgrounds of what he claims to be former Khmer Rouge members in Hun Sen's government. He recently alleged to supporters at a Buddhist ceremony at the Choeung Ek "killing fields" that CPP stalwart and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was once chief of the Khmer Rouge-run Boeung Trabek "re-education" center, where thousands of diplomats and intellectuals were interred before execution. 
