Two Local Human rights Leaders Planned to go to Geneva

Yash Ghai (left) adn Hun Sen (right).

3rd March 2008
By Sam Borin
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer to English by Khmerization

Leaders of the two largest human rights organisations in Cambodia will leave for Geneva, Switzerland, in the near future to lobby the world’s highest body: the United Nations Council on Human Rights to continue the mandate of the UN Human Rights Office and the UN envoy in Cambodia amidst news that the Cambodian government refused to deal with Mr. Yash Ghai which will lead to the closure of the UN Human Rights Office.
Mrs. (Dr.) Pung Chiv Kek, president of the human rights organisation LICADHO, has said that, with the help of the International Federation of Human Rights offices around the world, she and Mr. Thun Saray, president of the human rights organisation ADHOC will travel to Geneva for one week starting from 16th of March to coincide with the meeting of the United Nations Council for Human Rights which will be discussing about the human right situation in Cambodia.
Please note that the relationships between the Cambodian government with the UN envoys, especially the present envoy, Mr. Yash Ghai, had never been smooth.
This UN office, at times, had always made very critical reports about abuses of powers, persecution of poor people, and the lack of political will to solve rampant corruptions of land and property confiscations from the poor people. On the part of the Cambodian government, even though they agree to allow the continued presence of the UN Human Rights Office in Cambodia, they always disagreed with the procedures in which the two sides can co-operate.
Khieu Kanharth, Cambodia’s Minister of Information, called the ways the UN envoy’s approach to Cambodia as “doesn’t know about any protocol”.
Mr. Khieu Kanharith said: “Mr. Yash Ghai had never followed the protocol and respect Cambodia’s relationships with the UN. The UN Human Rights Office was set up in Cambodia to help the Cambodian government push for the respect of human rights. But until now has he ever met with the Cambodian government? Has he ever given any advice to the government on anything? So, it is like he is playing a role as a spokesperson for the opposition parties. He lambasted the government about land issues. For example, did he know that among the thousands of cases, how many hundreds of cases have the government solved? So, first of all, he has to meet the Land Commission and after that he must meet with Excellency Om Yintieng, who is his counterpart.
But straight away he ask to meet with the prime minister, with the minister of the interior. It is wrong. It means that he doesn’t know the ways we are doing business here in Cambodia.”
However, Mrs. (Dr.) Pung Chiv Kek has blamed the absence of the meeting between the UN envoy and the government officials as a major reason which led to hostility. She said: “According to the observations of local non-governmental organisations as well as other human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or other international organisations, we saw that those UN reports were correct. The only problem is that the UN envoy was so straightforward in his talks which made the government feeling not happy. I observed that the UN envoy did made many accusations but he had always put forward many recommendations in the reports. I think that the problem is the lack of discussions. The UN envoy had never met with any government leaders. The misunderstanding occurred because they had not sat and talk. If they sit face to face and discuss the issues, maybe they will understand each other better.”
Mr. Khieu Kanharith has expressed his disapproval of the presence of Mr. Yash Ghai and has revealed that the government might close down the UN office as well the ban of the presence of Mr. Yash Ghai. He said: “He is lazy to work and is a savaged and a rude Kenyan national whom we called an uncivilised person. Gambari, UN envoy to Burma, has never criticised the host country like that. Maybe in the Kenyan traditions, once you eat someone’s meal, you smash the pot right in their house (ungrateful person), because he had just arrived in Cambodia and asked to see this or that person when he didn’t know what we had solved or not already solved. What were the cases of the land issues? It was not a simple issue. How can the government accept it because their officials are very lazy….”, Kanharith said.