Editorial | Articles about Cambodia | Khmer
Deported Uyghur Had Cambodian Visa
Photo: Wikipedia Phnom Penh airport, Aug. 1, 2006
A legal visitor in Cambodia was apparently swept up in a mass deportation to China.
WASHINGTON—One of 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum-seekers deported from Cambodia to China as illegal migrants entered the country legally and on the advice of U.N. refugee officials, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has learned.
Aikebaerjiang Tuniyaz, 27, left China in March 2009 after serving a one-year jail term in Liudawan prison in Urumqi for allegedly “leaking secret information abroad.”
Tuniyaz, born in Aksu and a graduate of Shanghai Jiaotong University, spoke in 2007 with RFA’s Uyghur service about the shooting of a Uyghur man by Chinese security forces in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Tuniyaz entered Thailand in early 2009 and sought asylum through the Bangkok office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where a staff member suggested he might expedite the process by approaching the UNHCR office in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, instead, he said in an earlier interview.
He obtained a visa through the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok and entered Cambodia legally, he said. Tuniyaz was in Cambodia legally when deadly ethnic rioting erupted in Urumqi on July 5 this year.
The 20 Uyghur Muslims deported Saturday under intense Chinese pressure had fled to Cambodia in search of asylum after witnessing and documenting violent ethnic riots in the restive western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer that left nearly 200 dead.
They had warned the UNHCR that they feared long jail terms or even the death penalty if they were sent back to China, according to statements obtained by The Associated Press.
Tuniyaz had been translating for and staying with the group of 21 Uyghurs in Phnom Penh—two are said to have fled—when the group was detained.
Cambodia said it expelled the Uyghurs because they had illegally entered the country. It has since been sharply criticized by Washington, which said the deportations would harm bilateral ties with the United States, though they may have strengthened relations with Beijing.
On Monday, China signed off on more than U.S. $1.2 billion in aid to Cambodia during a visit there by Vice President Xi Jinping. The assistance, including 14 agreements for grants and loans, ranges from help in building roads to repairing Buddhist temples.
More protests
The European Union said Monday it was "deeply concerned" about Cambodia's decision to return the group of Uyghurs to China and urged Beijing to respect the rights of the returnees.
On Tuesday, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak slammed the deportations.
“This is a blatant violation of Cambodia’s obligations under the principle of non-refoulement as stipulated in Article 3 of the U.N. Convention Against Torture,” Nowak said in a statement.
Nowak said that he had reports of “severe torture” in Xinjiang following the unrest and that recent executions there violated “the most basic fair trial guarantees.”
“I am calling on the Chinese authorities to treat the 20 persons humanely upon return in accordance with international standards, to grant access to them in case they are detained and to afford them due process guarantees, if charged with criminal offenses”, he added.
U.N. Independent Expert on Minority Issues Gay McDougall called on Beijing to allow U.N. rights envoys to examine ethnic tensions in Xinjiang after the deadly violence there.
Original reporting by Shohret Hoshur for RFA’s Uyghur service. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.Labels: Uighurs, United States of America, US State Department
US Representatives' letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates questioning the US military assistance to Cambodian "human rights VIOLATORS"
Congress of the United States
Washington DC 20515
September 18, 2009
The Honorable Robert M. Gates
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon Room 3E 880
Washington DC 20301
Dear Secretary Gates:
We write today to bring to your attention concerns regarding U.S. assistance in the form of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to the Kingdom of Cambodia. As you know, the United States has provided approximately $4.5 million in FMF used for training and material assistance to Cambodian military, police, and counterterror units since 2006. According to testimony from Human Rights Watch at a Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on September 10, such training and assistance "has been offered to elite units that are notorious for the impunity enjoyed by their members, as well as to personnel from Prime Minister Hun Sen's bodyguard unit which has been implicated in countless rights abuses including a political massacre, under the cover of a newly created special anti-terrorism unit."
While the United States should work with foreign governments to professionalize and train security forces to respect human rights and the rule of law, we must ensure that such assistance and training is not awarded to members of the security forces that have committed serious human rights violations and continue to operate with impunity.
Enclosed please find the testimony of Human Rights Watch which was submitted for the record and details serious abuses by members of the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit, Brigade 70, Special Airborne Brigade 911 and Brigade 31 of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF).
Given the nature of the abuses detailed in the enclosed testimony, we ask that the Department of Defense please provide answers to the following questions:
* What U.S.-funded training has been provided to RCAF's Special Airborne 911, RCAF's Brigade 70 and the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit?
* Have members ofRCAF's Special Airborne Brigade 911, Brigade 70, or members of the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit traveled to the United States to receive U.S.-government funded training or on other official business? If so, what was the purpose of the travel? What vetting procedures were used before they traveled?
* What equipment or other material support has been provided by the U.S. government to Special Airborne Brigade 911, Brigade 70, the Counter-Terrorism Task Force, the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit, or any other security services?
* What U.S.-funded training has been provided to Cambodia's National CounterTerrorism Committee, the National Counter Terrorism Task Force and the Counter-Terrorism Special Forces Unit?
* How many members of the Counter-Terrorism Special Forces unit come from the Prime Minister's Bodyguard Unit? Do they retain their positions at the Bodyguard unit?
* What actions have been taken to establish the identities of the Bodyguard unit personnel who were present during the March 30, 1997, grenade attack against the opposition Khmer Nation Party, and to ensure that these individuals are not included in any U.S.-sponsored training of RCAF forces?
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to receiving your response.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Signatures of the following US Members of Congress:
Frank R. Wolf
James P. Moran
Edward R. Royce
Maurice D. Hinchey
Tammy Baldwin
Mark E. Souder
Christopher H. Smith
Niki Tsongas
---Original Attached
Labels: Human Rights, United States of America, US Congress
Tough choices for America's hungry
Tough choices for America's hungry
By John D. Sutter (CNN)
As Walter Thomas knows, it's hard to look for a job when your stomach is rumbling.
The 52-year-old from Washington, D.C., started skipping meals in early January when his savings account was running dry and his kitchen cabinets were almost empty.
Thomas at first didn't want to turn to the United States' food safety net, the food stamp program, for help.
But after being laid off in July from what seemed like a steady job in sales at a furniture store, Thomas swallowed his pride and applied for the monthly food aid.
"It lets me think, 'OK, well, tomorrow I'll be able to eat. If nothing else, I'll be able to eat,' " he said.
With the national economy in meltdown, more Americans than ever are relying on the federal aid program to keep from going hungry. In October, more than one in 10 people -- about 31 million -- were using the food stamp program to get by, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
More recent numbers are not available, but advocates for the poor say the number of those in need of aid probably has increased since then.
Stereotypes associated with food stamps abound, and recipients are often seen as prone to taking handouts, sometimes when they may not be needed.
But the profile of hunger in America is multifaceted, as diverse as the nation itself, especially in these times of economic hardship.
To get a better idea of what it's like to live on a food stamp budget, CNN correspondent Sean Callebs has decided to eat for a month on $176 and blog about the experience on CNN.com.
That's a situation many people, Thomas included, can relate to. Thomas, who said he had been working steadily since he was 13 years old, now receives $175 per month for food. That's about $5.83 per day -- less than $2 per meal.
Not that Thomas is complaining. After getting his first payment, which is added to an inconspicuous debit card to reduce the stigma associated with the program, Thomas went straight to the grocery store. He was hungry and grateful.
"It's definitely been a blessing to me," he said of the food stamp program, which, since October, has gone by the name Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Advocates for the poor, as well as those on federal assistance, hope President Obama's economic stimulus plan will increase food stamp payments. The average family on food stamps would receive $79 more per month if the stimulus bill passes in the U.S. Senate this week, according to The New York Times. iReport.com: How are you doing in this tough economy?
There is some debate about whether giving people money to spend on groceries is a valid form of economic stimulus.
Few are more hopeful the measure will pass than Crystal Sears, a 30-year-old mother in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who said she has been on food stamps for more than three years.
Sears said she sometimes skips meals so her three children can eat. Even with federal assistance, she said, she sometimes has to make a meal for herself out of crackers or food scraps.
She said she has been out of work for several years because all three of her children have medical conditions: Her 8-year-old son has a seizure disorder that requires frequent hospital visits and constant attention; her 2-year-old daughter was born with heart problems; and her 12-year-old daughter has scoliosis, a back condition that recently required two surgeries, she said.
Without much money, she's forced to make tough choices.
"If the kids needed sneakers and their sneakers are getting too small, or if my water bill is past due, I'd opt not to pay it and risk them sending me a shut-off notice just so my children can eat," she said.
Sometimes she chooses to buy more food instead of paying her gas bill to heat her home. When she does, the family sleeps huddled around their stove or an electric heater, she said.
Her monthly food stamp payment is $489, she said. That's sometimes sufficient. But some months, she said, she doesn't receive full payments because of mix-ups with paperwork. Until recently, she said, she received about $250 per month, which she said was far from enough to feed her family of four.
The SNAP program is meant to supplement a person's food budget, not cover all food expenses, said Jean Daniel, a spokesperson for the USDA, which administers the program.
Taking on part-time work would further complicate the application process, she said. Sears said she worked for seven years at a Salvation Army shelter before becoming unemployed.
"For me, I've always been a helper. And my thing is I don't like to help people to enable them. I like to help people so they can help themselves in the long run," she said.
Sears stretches her food budget by buying cheap and sometimes fatty meals. She said she doesn't like doing that but can't avoid it. With food prices high, she said, grocery shopping is stressful.
"We get like the mac and cheese, which is dehydrated cheese -- basically food that's no good for you health wise," she said. "Everything is high in sodium and trans fats ... and that's all we basically can afford. There's not enough assistance to eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight."
Advocates for the hungry say many people on the food stamp program opt to buy less-healthy foods because they can't afford fresh fruits and vegetables on such a tight budget.
Food stamp "benefits aren't really enough for a healthy diet," said Jim Weill, president of the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center.
Sears said she is grateful for the help she does get.
Maribel Diaz, a 36-year-old mother of three boys in Los Angeles, California, said her $319-per-month payment isn't always enough.
But she said she would starve herself before letting her boys go hungry.
"You're bringing home less bags [of food] now, because the milk is almost $5 a gallon and the bread is $3 a loaf. ... A chicken is, like, now $8," Diaz said. "If you're really breaking it down, you're not bringing a lot of groceries home."
All SNAP recipients are eligible for free nutritional counseling to help people stretch their food budgets, said Daniel, of the USDA.
Advocates for the hungry find flaws in the way the program is set up, but they praise it for being a safety net the government can't take away during tough times.
Unlike aid to soup kitchens, the food stamp program receives federal funding in times thick and thin, and has a $6 billion backup fund, Daniel said.
"The money will be found so people are not turned away," Daniel said.
All of the benefits paid to participants come from the federal government. States split the program's administrative costs.
Advocates see some flaws in SNAP but generally give it praise.
"I say about food stamps what Winston Churchill said about democracy: 'It's the worst possible system except all the others,' " said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York Coalition Against Hunger.
Berg said the program's benefits are too small and too difficult for people to obtain.
But the food stamp program is somewhat successful, he said.
"The main purpose of the program is to wipe out Third World starvation in America, and it's worked," he said, adding that he's optimistic about improvements that could come as part of the economic stimulus plan.
Thomas, the laid-off furniture worker in Washington, said he doesn't want people to feel sorry for him.
After being let go from his store, he stopped at an employment center before going anywhere else. He said he faxed about 20 résumés to similar companies on that very day.
None has resulted in a job yet, but Thomas said he has been to interviews for other types of work and hopes employment will come soon.
For now, he's just happy to continue the job search without the pain of hunger nagging at his stomach.Labels: Hungry, United States of America
Photo: Wikipedia Phnom Penh airport, Aug. 1, 2006
WASHINGTON—One of 20 ethnic Uyghur asylum-seekers deported from Cambodia to China as illegal migrants entered the country legally and on the advice of U.N. refugee officials, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has learned.
