By Clothilde Le Coz
AsianCorrespondent.com
“Cambodia has no political prisoners but politicians with criminal acts”.
That is what the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen stated publicly on
November 23 during a public speech. Rupert Abbott is the Amnesty
international researcher for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. On November 18,
he published a commentary in the Global Post in which – referring to
71-year-old journalist Mam Sonando – he states “Amnesty
International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, jailed
solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression”.
Asian Correspondent met him to discuss the state of human rights in
Cambodia after the historical visit of US President Obama and the
expectations that the ASEAN drew in the country.
What do you think of Prime Minister’s Hun Sen statement on human rights according to which ‘Cambodia is not that bad compared to neighbouring countries‘ ?
There are certainly other countries with serious human rights problems,
including Vietnam for example. But Cambodia’s donors might say that
Cambodia has received billions of dollars in assistance from foreign
taxpayers. And after 20 years of promised reforms, the justice system looks a bit better, but in substance there has been little change.
For example, the control of the courts by political and business elites continues.
And we can see these courts persecuting human rights defenders and
grassroots groups that have been emerging in the context of land and
natural resource conflict and operating outside the usual power
structures. This seems to be concerning the Cambodian authorities.
But Cambodia should be proud of its civil society, which is changing,
and I think that this is not going unnoticed by the government. Look
at what happened at Boeung Kak Lake for example, where we saw a
community stand up for itself against a forced eviction and actually
achieve concessions from the authorities. These
communities are learning from each other; the Boeung Kak community is
inspiring others, such as Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila’s community. This is
different to an NGO going to community and telling them how to organize.
NGOs represent human rights – and therefore principles, while these
grassroots groups and community groups represent people.
Do you think Obama’s visit met the expectation of Cambodians?
I am not sure what Cambodians generally expected. Amnesty International –
along with most Cambodian human rights groups – was generally pleased
since everything that the U.S President said was made public and he was
strong on human rights.
In hindsight, perhaps it was a shame that more conditions weren’t put
on his visit, particularly the immediate release of prisoner of
conscience Mam Sonando. Realistically, I think President Obama’s stance was as strong as one could have expected. There is another point to be made. Other
leaders in Cambodia for the ASEAN and East Asia Summits – from Japan,
Australia and India, which is the biggest democracy in the world –
didn’t say much at all about the human rights situation. So Obama’s
strong words should be considered in this context also.
Do you think a crackdown on human rights defenders can happen now that the ASEAN and East Asia Summits are over?
2012
has been a really bad year for human rights in Cambodia, especially
with regard to land conflict and freedom of expression in that context.
There is no doubt the government knows the land problem is serious:
there have been public policy shifts to address the problem. The hope is
that the government reflects a bit, after the summits, and understands
that its reputation is at stake. The human rights situation needs to be
improved, with the justice system strengthened, and civil society
allowed to contribute to the more equal development of the country.
Of
course, the government will not be happy about the negative attention it
got around the human rights situation during the first ever visit of a
United States president. We hope that the international community won’t
start to look away. Elections are coming in nine months, which historically means further restrictions on freedom of expression.
What is your opinion on the culture of the impunity still going on in the country?
Fighting impunity requires reform to the justice system and
strengthening the rule of law, so that the courts protect ordinary
Cambodians.
This year, we have seen impunity in a number of high profile cases.
For example, there was no investigation in to the May killing of a
14-year-old girl during the forced eviction of a community in Kratie
province’s Pro Ma village. And the investigation and judicial
proceedings around the April killing of environment activist Chut Wutty
have been unsatisfactory.
What are your expectations for Cambodia in the future?
We have to hope that those in power institute reforms – including around
the land problem and the justice system – that are in the interests of
the population, while embracing civil society as a dynamic force to
contribute to the fairer development of the country.
If
restrictions on freedom of expression persist and the land crisis
continues, it is hard to predict exactly what will happen. But we are
concerned that we may see some
of the government’s gains made over the past 20 years, in terms of
economic development and poverty reduction, being undone.
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