A last-minute call for help in Cambodia led to the arrest of
eight disenfranchised citizens on Thursday, but it’s not too late for
U.S. President Obama to lend a hand where it’s needed most.
Obama is scheduled to land in this poverty-stricken Southeast Asian
nation on Nov. 19; it will be the first time ever that an American head
of state has visited Cambodia.
In preparation, the Cambodian government decided to clear the land
surrounding the airport in Phnom Penh, the capital city. Standing in
their way was a community of about 400 people, whose ramshackle homes
were suddenly deemed too close to the airport runway.
About 180 people were told to evacuate. Villagers had been warned of
an evacuation as early as July, but many complained that they were not
fairly compensated.
Some took matters into their own hands, adorning their homes with
signs they thought might catch Obama’s attention as he flew in to the
capital city. A giant ‘SOS' symbol was spray-painted on some houses,
and photographs of the U.S. president were plastered on rooftops.
Phnom Penh refused to tolerate this creative outburst. On Thursday
morning, authorities swooped in to arrest the suspected offenders.
This episode would come as no surprise to many in Cambodia; by now,
human rights abuses are expected. Ruthless evictions, during which land
is seized, houses are burned, and whole families are forcefully and
sometimes violently relocated, are all too common.
"We are being forcibly evicted from our land without proper compensation," said villager Sim Sokunthea, 23, to the Associated Press. "We didn't mean any harm. We just wanted Obama to help us."
Obama will be in Cambodia to attend the annual summit of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in Phnom Penh, where
the regional conflict over navigational rights in the South China Seas
is expected to top the agenda.
But human rights issues will also be up for discussion. At last
year’s summit in Indonesia, Obama commented on human rights abuses in
Myanmar and warned the government that ongoing offenses would lead to
more sanctions and diplomatic isolation. This year, many Cambodians hope
he will send the same message to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The ease with which the government enforces evictions in Cambodia is a
legacy of the disastrous reign of Pol Pot, whose Khmer Rouge regime
ruled over Cambodia during the late 1970s. His disastrous policies –
agrarian socialism and the abolition of private property –
disenfranchised the population so that, still today, many citizens of
this poverty-stricken country do not own the land they live on.
Today, the government – nominally a constitutional monarchy – is led
by Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985. This shadowy strongman was
installed in the Phnom Penh government by the Vietnamese invaders who
overthrew the Khmer Rouge, and his strong hold on power has stifled
Cambodia’s development.
In a report
released Tuesday in anticipation of Obama’s visit, Human Rights Watch
urged the U.S. president to get tough on Cambodia’s longtime leader.
“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s violent and authoritarian rule
over more than two decades has resulted in countless killings and other
serious abuses that have gone unpunished,” said HRW in a press release.
“Obama should use his November trip to Cambodia… to publicly demand
systematic reforms and an end to impunity for abusive officials.”
Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s leading opposition figure, exiled himself for
fear of persecution in 2005. He has urged Obama to avoid meeting with
the prime minister at all.
“If Hun Sen won’t engage with the international community and the
Asean summit isn’t moved, President Obama, the leader of the world’s
standard-bearer of democracy, should take Hun Sen at his word and stay
away,” he wrote in an essay for the New York Times.
Obama is scheduled to speak with Hun Sen, but those talks will take
place behind closed doors. The U.S. president may take the opportunity
to discuss Cambodia’s humanitarian crises with his counterpart, but he
may also feel constrained by his goal of forming alliances in Southeast
Asia in order to check the strength of China’s hegemony in the region
Obama’s visit to this suffering country will be a test of whether
this administration’s “pivot” to Asia will see humanitarian issues will
take a back seat to geopolitical concerns.
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