Cambodia has peace, but no freedom

HONG KONG, China, Dec. 12
LAO MONG HAY (pictured)
Column: Rule by Fear

In October 1991, the warring factions in Cambodia and 17 concerned countries gathered in Paris to sign, in the presence of the secretary-general of the United Nations, a set of agreements to end the war in Cambodia. All state signatories then recognized, among other things, that Cambodia's tragic history required special measures to assure the protection of human rights and to prevent the return of the policies and practices of the past.Among these measures were Cambodia's adoption of pluralistic liberal democracy as its system of government and its undertaking to ensure respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms. For their part, the other state signatories also committed themselves to promoting and encouraging such respect and observance and for the United Nations to monitor human rights in this war-stricken country.The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, or UNTAC, was established to ensure the implementation of these agreements. UNTAC deployed approximately 20,000 peacekeepers costing US$1.6 billion to keep the peace and organize the election of a new government.Cambodia, however, did not enjoy peace and stability when the Khmer Rouge, the second strongest of the four Cambodian warring factions, defected from the peace process and resumed their armed struggle to disrupt the peacekeeping operation and the election held in 1993. Their struggle continued after the election of a new government and the departure of UNTAC.In 1996, a group of Khmer Rouge fighters broke away from Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, and rallied to the government. In July 1997, another war broke out in the capital between the two warring factions in the coalition government formed after the election, a clash between the royalist FUNCINPEC Party and the former communist Cambodian People's Party. FUNCIPEC was routed, and the CCP emerged a decisive victor. In April 1998, Pol Pot died. The CPP won the election in July of that year, and the remainder of Pol Pot's followers surrendered to the government at the end of the same year. Cambodia has since ushered in an era of peace, stability and economic growth.With a weakened FUNCINPEC as a coalition partner in the government and a small opposition in the Parliament after the 1998 election, the CCP reasserted its grip on the power it had lost five years earlier. It soon signaled its disengagement from international human rights obligations when it abolished a public holiday on Oct. 23 in commemoration of the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 which had bound Cambodia to these obligations.Just prior to the election of 2003, which the CCP comfortably won, the CCP-led government began to practically ban peaceful public demonstrations and protests. Since then, organizers have to seek prior permission for their protest action. If they are given such permission, the authorities invariably assign a place where demonstrations can be held. Unauthorized demonstrations are broken up, with violence if need be. Only strong pressure, especially from ambassadors of influential donor countries, can push the government to lift the ban. Thanks to such pressure, the government lifted its ban on a public demonstration to commemorate International Human Rights Day this year.Meanwhile, protests or resistance against evictions in cases of land disputes with the rich and powerful are invariably met with the violence of the police or the arrests of leaders of these protests or resistance on the charge of incitement, wrongful damage to property, infringement upon public property, battery or fraud. This year a human rights non-governmental organization has recorded 320 cases of land disputes in which two people were killed, more than 10 were seriously injured and 138 were arrested, of whom 55 are still in detention.Labor strikes have suffered the same fate. Last month about 2,000 workers staged a lawful and peaceful strike at their factory, Fortune Garment and Woolen Knitting Co., in Saang District in Kandal province. A mixed police force was sent to brutally break up that strike, causing serious injuries to two female workers. Four union officials were also arrested in this crackdown.NGOs are facing the same restrictions as they cannot carry out their activities without "cooperation" from provincial and municipal authorities. From June to October of this year, an organization called Voice of Democracy organized 19 public forums in different localities for people to debate and address issues facing them. Eight of these forums experienced various degrees of disruption or obstruction by local authorities.Press freedom is also restricted. Journalists have been facing threats and intimidation in their work. A few have faced lawsuits. Reporters of the Khmer-language program of the U.S. network Radio Free Asia are known to be "frequently singled out for harassment by government officials." The field editor of this radio network said that "news reports about illegal logging, malnutrition in impoverished areas and human rights abuses have resulted in angry, and sometimes threatening, calls from senior Ministry of Information officials." The report of Global Witness on illegal logging was banned in June, and a magazine called The Free Press Magazine was confiscated in November of this year. In both cases, the authorities arbitrarily took action without any recourse to the due process of law to adjudicate the unlawfulness of these publications.The human rights abuses above are but a sample, as there are numerous others. They nevertheless show that the Cambodian government has not honored its international human rights obligations, and policies and practices of the past, though in a milder form, have now returned in Cambodia. The state signatories to the Paris Peace Agreements should honor their commitments to promote and encourage observance of, and respect for, human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia and should work with the Cambodian government to put an end to these abuses so that the long-suffering people of Cambodia can enjoy peace, stability, human rights and their freedoms.--

(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)