Category: Human Rights

 

About 200 Cambodians living in Europe staged a protest Wednesday in Brussels to oppose Prime Minister Hun Sen’s participation in an EU-ASEAN summit, demanding justice for Cambodian opposition party activists who have been harassed, arrested and detained under the strongman.

Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, was in the Belgian capital to co-chair the event. After exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy called for the protest, hundreds of Cambodians traveled there to hold a rally against the authoritarian leader.

The demonstrators, who stood outside in below-freezing weather held banners and posters demanding the release of political prisoners and the end of violence directed at Cambodians, also called for greater freedom and the restoration of democracy.

They defied a threat by Hun Sen, who urged his Cambodian supporters in Brussels to take photos of the protesters and post them at Phnom Penh International Airport so authorities back home could visit their families.

Activist Venerable Luon Sawath, a Buddhist monk granted asylum in Switzerland after fleeing Cambodia, also participated in the demonstration. He left the Southeast Asian nation after being threatened with violence, arrest and defrocking for using videos and songs to defend people’s right to housing for those forcibly evicted without compensation.

“The reason that I joined the demonstration is because I want to demand the government of Cambodia to lead the country in a just way and to respect human rights and democracy,” he told Radio Free Asia. “I want to urge the signatories of the Paris Accord and the EU to help intervene to give us peace.”

Luon Sawath, who said he participated in the protest of his own accord because he is “a victim of human rights and religious abuse” also argued with what he called spies sent to the demonstration to take photos of him.

“The spies accused me of being a fake monk because I joined the demonstration and wore a coat,” he said. “This is a cold country, [and] it’s below-zero.”

Demanding rights and democracy

Tep Monorom, a protest organizer, told RFA that the demonstrators also petitioned the EU External Action Service, the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defense ministry of the European Union.

“We demand the restoration of human rights, labor rights and democracy,” he said. The protesters also called for the release of detained NagaWorld labor union leader Chhim Sithar, activists and political prisoners.

Tep Monorom said Hun Sen’s threat against the protesters was “beyond belief” and that the prime minister, who has ruled Cambodia for 37 years, is stomping on democracy.

“We can’t accept this threat,” he said, adding that demonstrators also filed a complaint with local police.

“We wrote a letter to the EU Commission to inform them that the demonstrators had been threatened,” he said. “We provided a video [as] evidence. Hun Sen must be responsible for any incident against us in Cambodia or in the EU because he has threatened us.”

“Watershed moment”

The day before the summit, a dozen EU lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to EU President Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and Josep Borrell, vice president of the commission and high representatives of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, expressing concern about the human rights situation in Cambodia as it prepares for key national elections in July 2023.

“The upcoming elections will be a watershed moment for the Southeast Asian nation, which will define whether Cambodia will return to the path of constitutionally defined multiparty democracy, or it will further cement the authoritarian drift in breach of its international
obligations,” they wrote.

The MPs also said the situation had reached “a crisis point” earlier this year when the government conducted an intensified crackdown on the political opposition, journalists, independent media and civil society under the guise of COVID-19 measures, prior to communal elections in June 2022.

On Wednesday, Hun Sen also met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris where they issued a statement urging Russia to end its drone and air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

 

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Cambodian authorities in the resort town of Sihanoukville seized nearly 1 ton of ketamine over the weekend in the latest high-profile drug bust in this country, prompting calls from civil society groups for more transparency and stricter enforcement of measures used to target drug crimes.

The Sunday afternoon raid by a joint force of gendarmes and police on a rented warehouse yielded 34 large containers of the powerful anesthetic known recreationally as “Special K,” National Authority for Combating Drugs Secretary General Meas Vyrith told RFA Khmer.

The seized ketamine, which can put users into a mildly hallucinatory state, is currently being held in a secure location in Sihanoukville, he said, adding that authorities believe it had been illegally smuggled into Cambodia for sale.

“Efforts are underway to locate those who are responsible for the drugs,” he said. “The criminals took advantage of a loophole when the relevant authorities took shifts in carrying out their duties and also employed different tactics to carry out their illegal activities.”

The bust follows several other large seizures this year in Cambodia, which is becoming a transit and production point for illicit drugs in the region.

Authorities shut down a processing site and seized 40.5 kilograms (89 pounds) of ketamine in May, and in July, they seized 1.8 tons of ketamine and nearly 300 tons of chemicals after raiding a processing site and six storage facilities. In August, authorities seized an additional 871 kilograms of ketamine throughout the country.

According to the NACD, authorities in Cambodia arrested more than 30,000 suspects in 10,461 drug-related cases in 2020 and 6,308 cases in 2021.

Meas Vyrith told RFA that the amount of drugs seized by authorities in Cambodia so far in 2022 had increased by more than half of the total seized in all of 2021.

The latest bust also follows an announcement by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in August which said that ketamine seizures had increased sharply in Cambodia from 112.5 kilograms in 2020 to 2.8 tons in 2021 – accounting for more than 50% of all ketamine seized in Southeast Asia (5.4 tons) that year.

UNODC said that the increase was associated with growing evidence of illicit manufacture of the drug in Cambodia, based on the detection of several clandestine ketamine laboratories in the country.

Call for stronger oversight

Speaking to RFA on Monday, civil society groups urged the government to take stronger action against traffickers of ketamine and other illicit drugs to prevent Cambodia from becoming a haven for the drug trade in Southeast Asia.

Cheap Sotheary, the coordinator for human rights group ADHOC in Sihanouk province, said that the authorities need to be more transparent and forthcoming about information related to drug seizures. She said that drug trafficking remains a problem in Cambodia due to corruption.

“We are requesting that the information and photos of criminals be made public because we worry that local authorities may be complicit and allow them to get away,” she said.

“We also have no information about the places where [authorities] keep the seized illicit drugs. We’re talking about hundreds of tons of these drugs. What would happen if the people who look after the confiscated drugs steal them and sell them themselves? It’s very dangerous without proper oversight.”

Other groups have said that the rise of drug trafficking in Cambodia shows that criminals are not afraid to set up manufacturing operations in the country.

Ketamine is widely used in human and veterinary medicine and, while the drug is not under international control, its non-medical use has been related to a number of severe adverse health effects.

According to UNODC, high doses of ketamine used recreationally can cause cardiovascular and respiratory toxicity effects, as well as other adverse effects like bladder problems, anxiety, panic attacks, palpitations, tachycardia, chest pains, depression, aggravated symptoms of existing mental health issues, slurred speech and inability to speak.

 

 

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A student at Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Transport says he was thrown off a training course for maritime officers because he took part in protests against a special economic zone bill.

After a few months of attending the course at the Maritime Training and Manpower Center, Dang Ngoc Thanh was told by teacher Nguyen Tan he would not be allowed to continue. He was given no official document stating the reason but he said he believed it was connected to his role in the 2018 demonstrations.

The 30-month course Thanh had been attending trains sailors to crew international ships, “using their knowledge, talent and other capabilities to contribute to the development of Vietnam,” according to the University of Transport’s website. That role, and the university’s connections with the Transport Ministry, mean it is likely to refuse applicants who have a track record of protesting against the policies of the government and ruling Communist Party. However, Tranh told RFA Vietnamese he had already been attending the course for three months and the university knew his background when they accepted him.

“When I went to school, in the police file, it was recorded that I used to participate in printing and distributing leaflets protesting the leasing of special zones to China. The school kept that file and asked me if I was banned from leaving the country. I went to Cambodia to prove that I was not banned,” he told RFA on Sunday.

Thanh, 29, added that the school called the police in his home province of Tra Vinh to ask if he was politically active before accepting him on the course.

Thanh said he only distributed leaflets in 2018, and shared his frustrations on social media. He said the reason he was suspended from school may be because he participated in a demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to oppose the Bill on Special Economic Zones.

“I don’t participate in any political activities, but once when the communist government of Vietnam was planning to lease special zones to a foreign country for 99 years, I printed a large number of leaflets saying ‘No 99-years lease to China’ and distributed them throughout Ho Chi Minh City. I was arrested and administratively fined.”

RFA called Thanh’s teacher Nguyen Tan and was told that when the school checked his background they found his resume was “incorrect and inappropriate” so they decided not to accept him as a student. When the reporter asked for more details Tan refused to give them over the phone and requested a personal meeting.

Thanh rejected his teacher’s explanation saying that, before he was accepted onto the course, he submitted all the notarized documents required by the center for the course.

RFA repeatedly called the director of the Marine Training and Manpower Center but no one answered. Reporters also emailed the center and the University of Transport but received no reply.

In mid-2018, the National Assembly of Vietnam intended to pass two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cybersecurity. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of major cities and provinces to protest. Thousands of people were arrested and many detained for days, tortured and beaten. Authorities prosecuted and sentenced hundreds of protesters.

The rare protests were triggered by concerns that leases as long as 99 years could go to Chinese-owned and operated firms, rather than helping local companies. Anti-China sentiment was high due to clashes over fishing rights in the South China Sea, called the East Sea by Vietnam, and China’s takeovers of the Spratly and Paracel islands, also claimed by the Vietnamese. Protesters against the cybersecurity bill feared it could threaten freedom of expression and lead to arrests of democracy campaigners who expressed their views online.

Thanh said he was not arrested on the day of the protests but detained a few days later by the police of Tra Vinh Province and later arrested by the police of Binh Chanh district in Ho Chi Minh City. He said police beat him and held him for a day before fining him VND7.5 million (US$310) for “slandering the Binh Chanh district police” rather than for taking part in the protest.

Thanh said on Tuesday he had returned to his hometown to look for a job. He said he has no plans to apply for another course because he is concerned they won’t accept him.

 

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The relatives of jailed opposition members and protesting casino workers in Cambodia are appealing for help with their cases from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son – widely seen as next in line to lead the nation – saying they no longer have faith in the current administration.

A group of activists from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), whose cases rights groups say are politically motivated, sent a letter to Royal Cambodia Army Commander Hun Manet in late August, urging him to ensure their freedom and allow them to participate in a general election slated for 2023.

The wife of jailed CNRP activist Kong Mas, Kol Sat, who along with other relatives has held regular demonstrations calling for the release of their loved ones, told RFA Khmer that she had begun writing directly to Hun Manet to intervene in her husband’s case because she had given up on Hun Sen and hopes that his son will be more reasonable if he becomes prime minister.

“To me when Hun Sen is out, there is only Hun Manet who can help because no one can challenge him. He controls the military and the country,” she said, adding that she believes Hun Manet is influential enough to free her husband and restore democracy to the country.

Kong Mas and the other jailed CNRP activists had been targeted by Hun Sen in the years following the Supreme Court’s dissolution of the party in November 2017. The court also placed a five-year ban precluding 118 CNRP lawmakers from participating in political activities.

Laid off workers from the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh who have been striking for the past eight months also recently reached out to Hun Manet for help in getting reinstated to their jobs.

In August, authorities violently clashed with around 100, mostly female, of the workers as they sought to protest in front of their former workplace, injuring several of them. The group’s petitions to the government for assistance have largely gone unanswered.

One of the workers told RFA on condition of anonymity that she sees Hun Manet as a powerful figure within the ruling Cambodian People’s party (CPP) who can help them resolve their labor dispute.

“Hun Manet is a prime minister candidate. I want him to help as a guardian or father,” she said.

“We have already submitted petitions to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the National Assembly but we need additional intervention.”

RFA could not reach Hun Manet for comment and questions sent to him through Facebook messenger went unanswered on Friday.

In July, Cambodia’s National Assembly advanced a proposed change to the country’s constitution eliminating the need for the legislature to approve a prime minister designated by the king. Critics said the change would all but ensure Hun Manet succeeds his father, who has ruled the country since 1985 and is now 69.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said the casino workers and opposition party activists are desperate for help and shifted their efforts to Hun Manet because they have lost hope in Hun Sen and other government leaders.

He said he also believes that Hun Manet can help resolve the disputes if he intervenes.

“To show the public that the prime ministerial candidate can do the job, [the requests] should be honored,” Rong Chhun said.

However, CPP spokesman Sok Ey San on Friday dismissed calls by activists for Hun Manet’s help, saying he cannot intervene in the disputes because he is not prime minister. He also accused opposition party activists and workers from NagaWorld of breaching the law.

“I welcome their support [of Hun Manet] but if they support him only for illegal benefits, it can’t be done,” he said. “His Excellency can’t resolve illegal requests.”

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