By Emily Alpert
The Los Angeles Times October 1, 2012
Photo: Cambodian supporters of Mam Sonando protest in
front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on
Monday. Credit: Heng Sinith / Associated Press
A Cambodian radio broadcaster was sentenced Monday to 20
years behind bars for stirring up an insurrection against the state, charges
that human rights groups say are a fig leaf for the government squelching dissent.
Mam Sonando, the 71-year-old founder of Beehive Radio, was
found guilty of instigating rebellion and inciting people to take up arms
against the government, among other charges. The insurrection charges were tied
to a land dispute in Kratie province during which security forces fatally shot
a teenage girl.
Local activists have denied the government description of
the Kratie clashes as efforts to stop a secessionist rebellion, calling it an
excuse to eject families from land sought by a corporation. Sonando was abroad
when security forces stormed the village in May, the Phnom Penh Post reported.
“Not a shred of evidence has been submitted in court that
proves any connection between Mam Sonando and these bogus charges,” said Ou
Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, calling the verdict “embarrassingly
unsophisticated and brazen.”
His alarm was echoed by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's
foreign policy chief, who warned the conviction of Sonando and two other
people
by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court “raises severe doubts about the
impartiality
and independence of the court.”
Media freedom groups pointed out that Prime Minister Hun Sen
began calling for Sonando's arrest the day after Beehive Radio
broadcast a report about Cambodian activists accusing Hun Sen of human rights abuses in a
complaint filed before the International Criminal Court. Sonando had been
arrested in 2003 and 2005 for allegedly defaming the prime minister.
The stiff sentence comes as Cambodia has faced mounting
criticism over attacks on human rights activists and journalists who draw
attention to abuses tied to the government. As protests have erupted this year over factory conditions
and Cambodians being pushed out of their homes to make way for development,
human rights groups say the state has persecuted and jailed activists in
retribution.
Earlier this year, United Nations human rights rapporteur for
Cambodia
Surya Subedi lamented "a worrying trend" of activists facing gunfire.
Many Cambodians also remain suspicious over the shooting of
environmental activist Chut Wutty this year; journalist Hang Serei
Oudom was slain this month after implicating local officials in illegal
trafficking of timber, according to Reporters Without Borders.
1 comment:
Madam Secretary of States, Ms. Hillary Clinton and her undersecretaries of States should know that Vietnamese masters in Hanoi who have involved the crisis in Cambodian for more than 3 decades in the dirty political games and played the major roles to destroy Cambodia/Khmer Nation in order to erase the lies of their bad and disgusted Yuon behaviors and ill-intentions to slowly replace Yuon/Vietnamese folks (illegal Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia in every corners) and done the trick in the blind eyes of gullible innocent Khmer/Cambodian people, foreigners and International Communities in the world.
Hun Sen has been living in fear because of his Yuon/Vietnamese masters and now Hun Sen is a very wealthy because of the stolen properties, lands for sales, Yuon/Vietnamese business deals with corrupted CPP clans (Yuon-Khmer, Dumb leaders of CPP) and including Yuon-Chinese mixed thieves like Var Kim Hong, Yeay Phu, Lao Meng, and beyond. How much longer those Yuon thieves under the Hanoi Masters and Hanoi masters will continue to do this until the blames and pressures coming from the UN, EU leaders, the U.S., International Communities and innocent Khmer/Cambodian people.
Time will come to destroy Hanoi Masters before their Yuon Hanoi puppet Hun Sen who will be arrested and put him on trial both at the UN and Cambodian People Courts because of more than 3 decades of losses of international donors' money, assistance, and more.
Yes, Vietnamese masters will return everything that have been stolen from Cambodia and Cambodian/Khmer people to Hanoi or Vietnam to make their country become developed and economically successfully to compete with ASEAN countries and other countries like Japan, S. Korea, China during their control over their Yuon puppet Hun Sen.
Cambodia has everything and is a very rich with natural resources that is why the evil Vietnamese/Yuon masters in Hanoi saw the big opportunities to make big wealth and profit by getting rid of Mr. Penn Sovan (former PM) and installed Yuon Puppet/Slave Hun Sen be illegally unrecognized PM among Cambodian people and the world. They (Hanoi masters and Yuon/Vietnamese slave Hun Sen) are just the thieves.
What they want from Cambodia are the following:
1. Angkor Wat (Tourists pouring money in)
2. Forests/Trees (giants trees - 500 to more than 1000 years olds)
3. Fish productions
4. Oil and gas
5. Rubber plants
6. Rich soils for plants
7. and beyond.
That is why Cambodia country is not poor because of very rich natural resources comparing to Taiwan, S. Korea, Thailand, Malay, and so on.
Those f**kng Hanoi masters have oversaw things and want to steal everything from Cambodia by having Yuon/Vietnamese slave Hun Sen. You have seen the terrible situations in Cambodia. Yes, uneducated Khmer leaders (no High School diplomas or not done with High School) have been very easily targeted by Hanoi masters including evil Ho Chi Minh in order to brainwash those blind and uneducated Khmer peasants like Hun Sen and others to be manipulated and influenced before hurting his or their own Khmer people.
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