Ouch Borith, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, greets US Deputy Assistant Secretary Scot Marciel. Heng Chivoan
The United States has “never claimed to be perfect” in terms of upholding human rights and Prime Minister Hun Sen has every right to offer criticisms of the country, one of the superpower’s top Asia diplomats said yesterday.
Speaking with the Post as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Cambodia before departing for Vietnam, Scot Marciel, the US State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, responded to comments from Hun Sen last week that accused the US of double standards in relation to its handling of recent racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
'Not locked in'
In an August 21 speech, the premier said the US had been quick to accuse Cambodia of human rights violations when the government used security forces to “control” protests but condoned heavy-handed responses on its own turf.
“We’ve never claimed to be perfect. And we’re always working to strengthen our own system,” Marciel said, noting, however, that there had been much debate and criticism in the US about the authorities' handling of the Ferguson protests, including calls for transparent investigations.
“So again, we are not immune from problems. I think it’s more [about] how you respond when there are problems. And I think our system is showing that we are very focused on it and there is a lot of attention on it, and very healthy debate about it.”
Marciel also responded to criticism from Human Rights Watch of US-sponsored military training in Cambodia, saying that although the US was not “locked in” to supporting the Cambodian military, it was confident it was not engaging with units “credibly accused of human rights violations”.
“What we’ll do and what we do on a regular basis, wherever we are looking at training – and this is true around the world – whenever we’re looking at training a particular unit, whether it’s military or police, we always do a review” as required by US law, he said.
Following last year’s disputed election, the US called for an independent review of election irregularities and refrained from congratulating Hun Sen, but Marciel yesterday said that while it backed a stronger democracy and reforms, what happens next depends on Cambodians.
“This is up to the people of Cambodia; it’s not for us to be judges from outside.”
Marciel also rejected claims that US support of pro-democracy NGOs in Cambodia, including the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute, amounted to sponsoring regime change.
“Around the world, we stand up for democracy, and as Secretary [of State John] Kerry said, we don’t make any apologies about this. But we don’t take sides in partisan debates. We’re not on this side or that side, or advocating regime change in Cambodia. Not at all.”
After Marciel met with Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith yesterday, Borith said the pair had pledged to restart official bilateral dialogue, which has not occurred for some years, in 2015.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VONG SOKHENG
8 comments:
Dear compatriots, especially the Youths,
THEY SAID: IF YOU WANT PEACE, YOU MUST PREPARE FOR THE WAR.
WE SAID: IF WE DON’T WANT TO HAVE BLOODSHED, WE MUST PREPARE FOR A PROFUSE BLOODSHED.
We’ve already known that the CNRP is going to win the next election, and Hun Sen will not transfer the power to the CNRP.
If we do the peaceful demonstration like in 2013, we will see some bloodshed again and Hun Sen will still be in power.
To change the outcome of our next demonstration, making Hun Sen to transfer his power, we must PREPARE for that event.
We require at least 100,000 youths who are brave enough to stand up to Hun Sen’s third hands force.
Just remember that we do the right thing by demanding the loser to accept the result of the election.
For the next PEACEFUL demonstration after the next election, if Hun Sen and his master the merchant of war Vietnam knew that at least 100,000 students have determined to sacrifice their lives to defend justice and to save Cambodia, Hun Sen and Vietnam will think twice before firing any shot to the crowd. Hun Sen will force himself to transfer the power because he could not kill 100,000 students.
This way, Khmer people will not see any bloodshed and the winner of the election, the CNRP, will get the power to lead Cambodia.
Finally, the fate of Cambodia is in the Khmer Youths’ hands. They have to rise to the biggest occasion and save Cambodia by cementing their solidarity starting from now. The process to form a formidable solidarity takes 2 or 3 years, and they have those years to work with.
Bun Thoeun
At the Fukushima, the old engineers, those over 60s near retirement age, volunteer to enter the stricken reactors to face certain death from the radiation. Their reasoning was simple, "We don't have much life left. We give our lives up so that the young ones can live."
The Khmer old folks are clever. They used the naive youths to do the danger work for them. Nasty Khmer. Shame on you.
As I said many times before. The Thais sacked Khmer capital repeatedly. Each time, the smart and brave Khmer were killed or captured/taken away. What's left today are dumb and coward Khmers such as Bun Thoeun.
-Drgunzet-
28 August 2014 2:43 pm
In your opinion, Khmer should let Vietnam dominate Cambodia, and swallow Cambodia.
Only the Vietnamese know how to love their country, not Khmer?
Why hypocrite Vietnamese Gunzet?
Vietnam does not swallow up Cambodia. If Vietnam does, Svay Rieng (the Parrot Beak region) would have been swallowed up long ago. Look on the map, Svay Rieng protrudes too much into South Vietnam. Why didn't Vietnam swallow that area for security and border safety? There was no struggle, no battle over this region in history.
In fact, according to history, Vietnam never attacked Cambodia. Vietnam dominated and controlled Cambodia to protect Cambodia from the Thais. That was about it. Without Vietnam's intervention, Cambodia and the Khmer race would have been annihilated by the Thais hundred of years ago.
-Drgunzet-
Compare between Cambodian police and American police:
1. Number of shots:
Cambodian police only fire one shot into each Khmer protester.
American police fire multiple shot (one time a victim was shot with 40 bullets. The whole body was mangled up into pieces!) Last time Michael Brown was shot with 6 bullets, up to 12 times.
2. Cambodian police only shoot to scare away the protester.
American police will shoot you dead. Last time Michael Brown was shot at the top of the skull, dead on spot.
3. Cambodian police only shoot armed protesters with fire bombs and other dangerous weapons.
American police are known to shoot unarmed civilian.
-Drgunzet-
Now I finish my freedom of speech and expression and I have to go to clean all the plates, disks and toilets and feed the chickens.
Fuck you 55 MP CNRP! Fuck you Sam Rainsy and Kem Soka! you are all very good at lie and betray all victims from 1997 until now. where is your fucking ICC campaigned as promised and make all the Khmer monkeys oversea donated a lot of money? Fuck You all traitors CNRP!
Thanks you need to go now!
title :We’re not perfect: US envoy
Obama : Obama tells the world: America is exceptional
merriam-webster dictionary : unusually good : much better than average; not usual : unusual or uncommon
synonym : superior, remarkable, world-class .....
29 August 2014 6:30 am,
You are one of Vietcong/Yuon opinionated posters who wants to prove Vietnamese communist to be like the U.S. who took the land of American Indians, but the U.S. has reserved the American Indians who are the owners of the original lands and the U.S. does not distort the history of American-Indians today.
Yo, Vietnamese folks today including the evil communist Vietnamese/Yuon folks, who have tried too hard to be like the U.S., but your evil Vietnam nation is different from the U.S. So, don't compare your stupid Vietnamese nation to the U.S. and others. We know that your evil Yuon/Vietnamese thieves succeed to defeat the Khmer people and leaders by using the dirty and dangerous tricks, and then become wealthy by showing off to the world because your evil Communist Vietnamese leaders and folks have stolen the Khmer/Cambodian natural resources and everything and shipped or brought to your robber nation Vietnam. So, don't be so proud of your evil Vietnam nation because there is one day that Vietnamese or Yuon will feel shameful and be disgusted by all people in the world. So, don't compare your country of evil Vietnam to be like the U.S. example.
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