UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lands in Cambodia on Asian tour

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrives at Phnom Penh International Airport October 26, 2010. Ban is in Cambodia for a three-day visit.
REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA - Tags: POLITICS)

Monsters and critics
26th October, 2010

Phnom Penh (DPA)- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Phnom Penh late Tuesday on an official visit as part of a four-nation Asian tour.

He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials on Wednesday, and will also visit the hybrid UN-Cambodian tribunal, which earlier this year convicted former Khmer Rouge security chief Comrade Duch of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A number of civil society groups have sought meetings with Ban to discuss different issues including a huge eviction planned for central Phnom Penh, which will see around 30,000 people moved off land to make way for a development.

The Office for the UN's Resident Coordinator in Phnom Penh confirmed it had received 'numerous requests from civil society' groups to meet Ban, and said those requests had been forwarded to his office for consideration.

'It is under discussion and they are considering the possibilities,' said UNRC spokesperson Aimee Brown.

During his two-day stay in Phnom Penh, Ban is scheduled to visit S-21 genocide museum, which was the former prison run by Comrade Duch in the late 1970s.

Ban is scheduled to depart on Thursday for Vietnam, where he will attend a summit between the United Nations and the regional Association of South-East Asian Nations bloc. He will then head to China as part of his four-nation tour.

His trip began in Thailand, where he met Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and senior officials.