CNRP Protesters March in Phnom Penh, Rally at Headquarters

CNRP supporters carrying Cambodian flags march in Phnom Penh, March 30, 2014.

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy led hundreds of supporters in a march through the capital and a meeting at his party’s headquarters on Sunday, abandoning plans to defy a government ban and rally in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park.

Avoiding hundreds of anti-riot police deployed to the park, the supporters marched from the city center to the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) offices for a “people’s congress” aimed at soliciting opinions on the party’s next steps amid an eight-month post-election deadlock with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party.

It was the CNRP’s first public rally since security forces violently dispelled opposition supporters from Freedom Park in early January.

The CNRP had planned to hold the people’s congress in the park, but Sam Rainsy announced Sunday morning that the location was moved to avoid clashes with security forces.

Police armed with batons and shields patrolled the inside of the park while the surrounding streets were closed off with steel barricades, following orders on Friday from the Ministry of the Interior refusing permission for the CNRP to gather there.

CNRP leaders had said earlier last week that they planned to push ahead with the rally in the park despite being denied permission by Phnom Penh’s City Hall to use the site.

Before the January crackdown the CNRP had staged regular mass demonstrations since the July 2013 elections, which it claims were rigged by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

Vow for nationwide demonstrations

After gathering Sunday morning near the Supreme Court to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly 1997 grenade attack on an opposition rally, supporters shouted slogans calling for election reforms and Hun Sen’ resignation as they marched two miles (4 kilometers) to the party headquarters.

Speaking before the crowd in front of the party offices, Sam Rainsy vowed the CNRP would lead mass demonstrations across the country if talks with the CPP continue to falter.

“The opposition will continue to hold nationwide demonstrations and to lobby the international community to recognize that this government is illegal,” he said.

CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha address supporters outside the party headquarters, March 30, 2014. Photo credit: RFA.

He said the party’s main priority in any future negotiations must be getting the CPP to agree to an overhaul of the National Election Committee (NEC), the country’s main election body.

"We must change the National Election Committee first," he said.

The CNRP suspended negotiations on election reform earlier this month after the two sides demanded that members of the NEC, who are currently hand-picked by the government, be approved by a two-thirds majority of parliament.

Toward the end of the people’s congress, Sam Rainsy said CNRP leaders and supporters discussed and agreed on five points, including pushing for election reforms and resuming mass demonstrations.

"The first is to seek justice for voters. If there is a re-election, it must be free and fair and the NEC must be independent,” he said.

The party will also continue its boycott of parliament until election irregularities are resolved, and will seek the release of prisoners of conscience and work for a higher minimum wage for workers, he said.

The last round of CNRP-led mass demonstrations in Freedom Park was violently dispersed on January 4, a day after police shot five people dead in a brutal crackdown on garment workers protesting for higher wages.

Shortly afterward Hun Sen issued a ban on public protests, which he rescinded late last month while warning that any opposition demonstrations could be met with simultaneous pro-CPP rallies.

But authorities told the CNRP last week that the park is off-limits for gatherings while authorities investigate violence linked to the early January crackdown.

Authorities have accused the opposition of provoking violence that led to the early January crackdown.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Source: RFA

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Cambodia PM Warns Against Opposition Protest

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses the inauguration ceremony of a hydropower plant in Pursat province, March 27, 2014.

 

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has threatened action against the main opposition party if it pushes ahead with a planned mass demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday in defiance of a ban on public gatherings at the site.

Blaming the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) for provoking chaos through protests, Hun Sen said legal action could be taken against the party if it forges ahead with a fresh demonstration.

“Our country has laws. If they are moving toward violence, we can’t have any more patience,” he said, speaking at an inauguration ceremony for a hydropower plant in Pursat province.

“We must take legal action.”

The CNRP issued a fresh statement Thursday calling for supporters to join them in Freedom Park on Sunday afternoon, despite being refused permission from City Hall to gather at the site, where authorities used force to suppress the CNRP’s last mass demonstration in early January.

Freedom Park has been a rallying point for mass anti-government protests following flawed elections last year.

Phnom Penh’s City Hall issued a statement Thursday denying the CNRP permission to use the site, saying the park is off-limits for gatherings while authorities investigate violence linked to the early January crackdown.

The CNRP has led a series of mass demonstrations attended by thousands of supporters over the past eight months since elections in July that the party claims were rigged by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

Forging ahead

CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha said the party is determined to move ahead with the rally, criticizing Hun Sen’s threats against the plan as unlawful.

“This is like the law of bandits. This is a dictatorship,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“If they were working in accordance with international laws, they’d have no need to crack down on us.”

The CNRP expects some 5,000 people to attend the event, which will be a “people’s congress” at which party leaders will discuss recent political developments and the party’s decision this week to suspend reform talks with the CPP.

It will be the party’s first mass demonstration since January 4, when authorities violently dispersed protesters in Freedom Park, a day after security forces shot five people dead while putting down a protest elsewhere in the city by garment workers demanding higher wages.

City Hall Spokesman Long Dymong said Thursday that CNRP supporters should gather somewhere other than Freedom Park, which was off-limits while authorities investigated the violence.

“We don’t ban them from gathering. They can express their views inside their office or a private place,” he told RFA.

He said the authorities have discovered that those behind the violence in the Jan. 3 garment workers’ protests had also attended CNRP-led demonstrations in Freedom Park the next day.

The government had previously accused CNRP leaders and other activists of inciting violence the provoked the early January crackdowns. 

Damaged property

A new report on recent protests in the country released by the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday linked the CNRP to millions of dollars’ worth of property damaged in the protests.

Some U.S. $73 million dollars of state and private property had been destroyed in mass demonstrations and garment factory strikes in recent months, it said, blaming the CNRP for inciting them and provoking chaos.

“After the election results announced July 28, CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha led demonstrations that incited and provoked people to hold massive demonstrations at Freedom Park,” the report said.

“The illegal demonstrations were aimed at toppling the government through inciting violence.”

Ministry of the Interior Spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the report should be considered a lesson not to stage further demonstrations.

“This is a lesson for the next generation. The demonstration doesn’t do anything to help the country, and we only lose out on benefits,” he said.

Kem Sokha said the report was biased toward Hun Sen’s government.

“The government used their forces to kill people [in the protests], but they put the blame [for violence] on us. No one believes in them,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenb

Source: RFA

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In Desperation, Borei Keila Women Turn to Sex Work After Eviction

Bopha waits for customers at a park near the waterfront in Phnom Penh, March 2014.

 

Some women evicted from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila slum have resorted to prostitution to support themselves after losing their homes and jobs in one of Cambodia’s bitterest land disputes.

The women are among some 150 families struggling to make ends meet since being moved to a barren plot of land an hour-and-a-half’s drive outside the city two years ago after property developer Phanimex reneged on an agreement to provide them with on-site housing in exchange for land in Borei Keila.

With no new jobs in the relocation area, some 50 women in the community have returned to the city to work in bars and karaoke parlors on the fringes of the city’s sex industry, with some of those women turning tricks for a living, according to a community leader.

One of the women, who asked to be identified as Bopha, said that since losing her job as a cleaner at a local market she has had no choice but to work as a prostitute.

"If Phanimex hadn’t evicted us, I wouldn’t have to face this,” she told RFA’s Khmer Service.

"But now I am a prostitute. Phanimex is killing me,” she said.

Violent eviction

Bopha lost her job when her family relocated to Phnom Bat commune in Kandal province, some 35 kilometers from Borei Keila, following a violent forced eviction in 2012.

On Jan. 3 that year, Phanimex workers bulldozed homes belonging to her and some 300 other families, prompting a violent clash in which scores of police fired warning shots and tear gas as residents hurled bricks and Molotov cocktails.

Phanimex was demolishing the homes to make way for new offices, retail, and apartments in the area after failing to honor an agreement to build new housing for some of the Borei Keila residents on part of the land.  Some evictees were moved to Phnom Bat, while others remain in limbo.

Bopha was pregnant during the clash and says she miscarried after security guards overseeing the forced eviction beat her while she was trying to protect her two children.

The sewing machine she used to earn extra income tailoring clothes was destroyed in the demolition along with the family’s home.

In the resettlement area in Phnom Bat, a barren plot of land with nothing surrounding it, the family had no way to make a living, Bopha said.

Like dozens of other families, they moved back to Borei Keila to live in a garbage-strewn alley of makeshift tents and shelters along with residents who were never relocated to new housing—but without Bopha’s husband, whom she divorced after starting to work as a prostitute.

Soliciting customers

One night this month after dark, Bopha headed from Borei Keila to a park near the riverfront to look for customers.

“Are you waiting for someone to spend the night with?” she asked a man lingering in the park.

At the same time of night two years ago, she would have been asleep at home with her husband and children, she told RFA’s Khmer Service.

"I sit in parks waiting for customers. I’m so ashamed,” she said.

Bopha said she earns about U.S. $20 from each customer, which she uses to support her two children and mother and pay off the family’s debts.

"My mother owes people money, I can't ignore it," she said.

One of many

Bopha is one of many Borei Keila woman with no choice but prostitution, community representative Chhay Kimhorn said.

Some 50 of them have taken up work in the entertainment industry, and some of them have resorted to prostitution like Bopha, she said.

“I myself am now working as a scavenger, but if I weren’t able to make ends meet anymore I would become a prostitute too to support myself,” she said.

Children play in front of homes at the resettlement site in Phnom Bat, March 2014. Photo credit: RFA.

 

Bopha said her two sisters, also from Borei Keila, are working in the entertainment industry, and she has asked them not to sell their bodies. 

No opportunities

Phnom Bat commune representative Touch Khorn, said that with no employment opportunities and poor conditions in the new settlement, many of the Borei Keila women were in a similar predicament to Bopha.

“Some women have been left with no choice but to work as prostitutes, or to cut their hair and sell it,” he said.

Most of the 100 people who have remained in Phnom Bat are surviving on donations from NGOs, he said.

The families have no electricity, no health care, and not enough land to cultivate any crops, and the children have to walk some 4 miles (6 kilometers) to reach the nearest school, he said.

Long-running dispute

Borei Keila residents, along with evictees from Boeung Kak and Thmor Koul elsewhere in the city, have staged regular protests against their eviction, some of them resulting in residents being arrested or violently beaten by police.

Phanimex originally agreed more than a decade ago to construct 10 buildings to house 1,776 families in Borei Keila, in exchange for license to build a new property on 2.6 hectares (6.4 acres) of the land.

But only eight of the buildings have been built so far.

In January this year, Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong visited those living in the makeshift shelters in Borei Keila, promising new temporary houses will be built.

Residents say they want a permanent resolution to the problem.

In February, police raided an unfinished apartment building in Borei Keila that community members excluded from the resettlement agreement had occupied for two days.

'Voluntarily'

Asked about Bopha’s case, Phnom Penh City Hall Spokesman Long Dymong said her involvement in sex work was not the fault of the forced eviction.

“Some women do the work voluntarily,” he told RFA.

Bopha said she wanted Phanimex to find a long-term solution for the residents that would not relegate them to poverty.

“The company should resolve the dispute.  They shouldn’t allow others to live in poverty any longer and end up as prostitutes.”

Reported by Tep Soravy for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Source: RFA

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Strike Action to Back Higher Pay For Garment Workers Loses Steam

Striking garment workers demonstrate in Phnom Penh, Dec. 31, 2013.

Only two of eight labor unions representing garment workers in Cambodia went on strike as planned beginning Wednesday to back their demands for a higher minimum wage as the government called the industrial action illegal and warned of possible action.

The six other unions have decided to call off the three-day stay-at-home strike—also aimed at pressuring the authorities to release 21 workers and activists held following a bloody January crackdown—until after the Khmer New Year holiday, which begins on April 14, union leaders said.

Some reports suggested that the workers refused to join the strike following pressure from the government and factory owners or for fear they would lose their jobs.

Unions had earlier warned that the strike action would involve hundreds of thousands of garment workers across the country.

Last month, some 100,000 workers refused to work overtime hours in the first phase of a campaign to push for higher minimum salaries and press for the release of the detainees.

Cambodian Confederation of Unions President Rong Chhun said the strike was only a "test," claiming that workers belonging to the two unions in at least 20 factories in the capital Phnom Penh as well as in Kampong Speu, Prey Veng, and Kampong Cham stayed at home or refused to work even after going to their factories.

The government has refused to increase the minimum wage to U.S. $160 as demanded by unions or free the 21 detainees despite their industrial action threats.

The minimum wage was raised to U.S. $100 per month in February following workers’ demands since late last year that it be doubled from U.S. $80 immediately.

'No one will force them'

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), representing employers, said Wednesday that only a few workers in its 400 odd factories were absent from work.

"They have the right to work or stay at home," GMAC President  Van Sou Leng said. "No one will force them. But they can't demand salaries if they don't work," he said.

Chheang Thyda, a worker from Kin Tai Factory in Phnom Penh, said about 1,000 workers stayed at home on Wednesday.

She said that although the unions had requested the workers to strike for three days, some have decided to extend the action by two more days.

"When we strike for two to three days, we will lose only about U.S. $10, but if we succeed we can get U.S. $160 a month," Chheang Thyda said. "For the long term, we don't lose any benefits and we will be happy if they [the 21 detainees] get out," she said.

Meanwhile, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that the strike and other industrial actions taken so far by the garment workers were illegal and that the authorities have the right to act against them.

He labeled the actions as politically motivated.

"Politically motivated demonstrations can't be resolved," he said, speaking at a union policy related workshop,

Ith Sam Heng said that discussions on the salary issue are ongoing and that the government and the International Labor Organization are working to define a new minimum wage.

Speaking at the same conference, Van Sou Leng said the labor dispute cannot be easily resolved because it is linked to politics. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has backed the workers' demand for higher wages and had joined their previous protests.

Van Sou Leng said factory owners have been saddled with problems because there are too many unions in the factories.

Procedures unacceptable

Ath Thon, head of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), the country’s largest independent union, denied at the workshop that workers' protests were linked to politics.

He said that the procedures to define the minimum wage were not acceptable, calling on the government to convene a meeting soon to discuss the wage increase demand.

Cambodia’s 300,000 textile workers often work long shifts for little pay in the garment factories, trade unions complain, saying the current minimum wage is too low to support a decent livelihood and that many factory workers rely on overtime pay and bonuses to cover their basic expenses.

In a separate development, the Supreme Court has ordered the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to reinvestigate the circumstances in which labor leader Chea Vichea was murdered in 2004.

Phnom Penh Court Deputy Prosecutor Sok Roeun told RFA's Khmer Service that that the court had forwarded the case to the police for investigation.

Chea Vichea, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government and the former president of Cambodia’s Free Trade Union (FTU)—one of the biggest unions in the country—was shot dead on Jan. 22, 2004 by an unknown assailant while he was reading a newspaper at a stand in the capital.

In September, the Supreme Court decided to release two men seen by rights groups as “scapegoats” for the crime after they had spent nearly five years in jail.

“This is the court’s procedure ... so far they accused Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, but both were cleared so the court has ordered prosecutors to reinvestigate the case,” FTU lawyer Kao Thy told RFA.

Chea Mony, who succeeded his brother Chea Vichea as head of the umbrella trade union group, welcomed the court’s move but said he did not believe it could provide the victim’s family justice.

“I think, maybe, we won’t have justice for my brother,” he said.

Reported by Khe Sonorng for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai. 

Source: RFA

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Cambodia’s Ruling, Opposition Parties at Odds Over Electoral Body Reform

Binh Chhin (L) speaks to reporters in response to Son Chhay (R) in Phnom Penh, March, 10, 2014.

 

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) on Monday rejected an opposition proposal to revamp the country’s electoral body as they met for a third round of talks aimed at breaking a seven-month political deadlock following disputed polls.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said in a statement that the CPP was unwilling to accept its demand for a rapid restructure of the government-appointed National Election Commission (NEC), which oversees the country’s polls and which critics have said lacks independence.

At the end of the talks, the two parties failed to emerge with a joint statement as they did in their previous two meetings aimed at breaking a political deadlock following the July 28, 2013 elections.

“The main reason why it was impossible to issue a joint statement is because the CNRP wanted to include ‘The Reform of the NEC with regard to its composition’ as a priority issue in the subject of electoral reform,” the CNRP said, following its third round of talks in three weeks with the CPP.

The opposition party said that it had wanted the appointment of NEC members to be made by the National Assembly, the country’s parliament, and endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the 123-seat legislature but that the CPP had refused.

After the July 28 polls, which the opposition maintains were fraught with irregularities, the NEC declared the CPP the winner with 68 seats in parliament to the CNRP’s 55, but the CNRP claimed it won at least 63.

CNRP lawmakers are currently boycotting the assembly in protest of the CPP’s victory and have called for a reelection.

If the CNRP ends its boycott of parliament, it will deny the CPP of its long running two-thirds majority – even by the 55 seats the NEC says it had won.

The CNRP said it would not compromise on its proposed revamp of the NEC.

“The CPP delegates refused to include this issue in the subject of electoral reform. The CNRP is willing to continue the dialogue with the CPP, only if the latter accepts its above-mentioned requests,” the CNRP statement said.

“The CNRP believes that any electoral reform must first address the issue of the NEC because this central institution is in charge of organizing the election. Therefore, if there is no agreement on the NEC, no credible electoral reform can be conducted.”

CPP team leader Binh Chhin told reporters on Monday that the two sides had “expressed differences on technical terms,” but had “shown goodwill on working towards common goals.”

He said that the parties had “agreed in principle to a few points on electoral reforms,” though he did not elaborate.

NGO activities

Binh Chhin also said that the CPP had raised concerns about close links between nongovernmental organizations and the opposition party.

Senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap later told RFA’s Khmer Service that the CPP had raised the topic because “NGOs have shown ill will to the CPP.”

“Cambodia needs a law to regulate NGOs,” Cheam Yeap said.

“We want to push for an NGO law as it would allow the government and NGOs to work more easily, because so far the NGOs have only shown bias to one party [the opposition].”

A proposed law to tightly control NGOs in Cambodia was shelved two years ago following criticism from various groups within the country and foreign governments.

CNRP team leader Son Chhay responded that the opposition party was focused on conducting election reforms and would not back the CPP’s move to introduce any law to regulate NGOs.

“We have a goal to build a democratic culture here,” he said.

“We are taking ideas from the people and from NGOs before making any decision. We can’t make any law that would pressure the people and NGOs, otherwise we would be unable to resolve social issues.”

The two sides have tentatively agreed to meet again on March 17.

Monday’s meeting follows talks last week in which the two parties agreed to work together to reform an election voter registration process and review campaign financing procedures, though the CNRP said the meeting  did not signal a possible end to its boycott of parliament or its demand for fresh elections following allegations of fraud in the July polls.

The parties had agreed in September to work together on electoral reform, but talks stalled, and a February meeting had been the first between the two since then.

Sam Rainsy and Hun Sen had met earlier for the only round of top-level negotiations since the disputed election but failed to forge a political compromise.

Rallies canceled

Also on Monday, the CNRP in Takeo province cancelled two party rallies after the CPP held counter rallies that included members of the security forces in nearby locations.

CNRP Takeo provincial director Yann Vandeth told RFA that around 200 party supporters and activists abruptly canceled the rallies in two separate districts because they felt threatened by CPP members and police.

“They played loud music and surrounded our forums,” he said.

Kirivong district governor Tek Tonglim and CPP members who led the counter demonstration against the CNRP refused to comment when contacted.

The Neutral & Impartial Committee for Free & Fair Elections in Cambodia (Nicfec), an election watchdog,  claimed the CPP action was a result of a call from Hun Sen to hold counter rallies against all opposition demonstrations, which he said was inciting violence.

“This is leading people to hate one another,” Nicfec director Hang Puthea said.

“[Hun Sen] is starting a fire and we must put it out.”

In late February, Hun Sen lifted a ban on public gatherings put into place after Cambodian police fired on CNRP-backed striking garment workers a month earlier, leaving five dead in what rights groups described as the worst state violence against civilians in the country in years.

In his announcement calling off the ban, Hun Sen warned that if the opposition had the right to protest, so did supporters of his CPP—raising concerns of possible clashes between the two groups at simultaneous gatherings.

Reported by Joshua Lipes. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Resource: RFA

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Cambodia Opposition Party Threatens to Call Off Talks

CNRP President Sam Rainsy (left) and his deputy Kem Sokha (right) wave to supporters at a protest in Phnom Penh, March 8, 2014.

 

 

The main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) threatened Tuesday to call off talks aimed at breaking an eight-month political deadlock with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party, accusing it of using the negotiations to cling on to power.

CNRP chief Sam Rainsy said his party would scrap the talks if the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) continues to reject proposed reforms for the government-appointed electoral body, which has been accused of bias and incompetence.     

“The CPP’s tactics seem to only buy time and to cling on to power by any means and at any cost,” the CNRP said in a statement to donor countries and institutions.

By doing so, the CPP is “jeopardizing the future of Cambodia, given that development and democracy must go hand in hand,” it said.

The statement follows three rounds of talks on electoral reforms between the two parties, which have been locked in a standoff since disputed elections in July, with the opposition boycotting parliament in protest.

The last round ended on a precarious note Monday after the CPP was unwilling to accept CNRP demands for an overhaul of the country’s elections body, the National Election Committee (NEC).

'We don't want to talk about other topics'

Sam Rainsy said CNRP representatives will not attend the next meeting scheduled for March 17 unless the CPP sticks to discussions on the NEC.

During Monday’s meeting, the CNRP had called for a restructure of the NEC, which oversees the country’s polls and which critics have said lacks independence.

“We are waiting for their response,” Sam Rainsy told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Without their response to our request we don’t need to have other meetings, and we will suspend the meeting because we don’t want to talk about topics other than the NEC,” he said.

The talks should focus on electoral reforms and the CPP shouldn’t try to bring unrelated issues to the table, he said.

His comments follow a request the CPP during Monday’s meeting for the CNRP to support a law on tighter regulation of civil society groups, after voicing concerns about close links between NGOs and the opposition party.

At the end of the meeting, the two parties failed to issue a joint statement as they had in their last two rounds.

NEC

The opposition party said that it wanted the appointment of NEC members to be made by the National Assembly, the country’s parliament, and endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the 123-seat legislature but that the CPP refused.

After the July 28 polls, which the opposition maintains were fraught with irregularities, the NEC declared the CPP the winner with 68 seats in parliament to the CNRP’s 55, but the CNRP claimed it had won at least 63.

Last week, at their first meeting since failed talks in September, the two parties agreed to work together to reform an election voter registration process and review campaign financing procedures.

The CPP’s Prum Sokha, secretary of state in the Ministry of the Interior and a member of the party’s delegation to the talks, urged the CNRP to stick with the talks, saying they were the only way the two sides would reach a solution.

“The stance of our CPP is to resolve all electoral disputes,” he told RFA.

“We have only one choice, which is peaceful talks. We can’t abandon any talks,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.  Sourc: RFA

 

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Cambodian Opposition Threatened With Lawsuit for ‘Inciting Violence’

Hun Sen chairs the Cambodia Outlook Conference in Phnom Penh, Feb. 27, 2014.

 

 

Cambodia’s government on Thursday hit out at opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s comparison of his bid to unseat Prime Minister Hun Sen to a popular movement in Ukraine, threatening him with a lawsuit for allegedly inciting violence in the nation.

Responding to comments made by Sam Rainsy a day earlier in which he vowed to renew mass protests of the country’s disputed July 2013 elections following the lift of a ban on public gatherings, government spokesman Phay Siphan said such statements imply the use of force to institute leadership change.

“Sam Rainsy is using the people as his political tools,” Phay Siphan told a press conference in Phnom Penh of the opposition leader’s plan to gather some two million supporters of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) to call for Hun Sen’s resignation and an immediate reelection.

“He doesn't value the election results,” he said, referring to the disputed official vote count which declared Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) as the victor in the polls.

On Wednesday, Sam Rainsy pointed to the recent ouster of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych as reason for hope that demonstrations could bring down Hun Sen, urging Cambodia’s security forces to follow the example of the Ukrainian police in siding with protesters instead of clamping down on them.

He has said that the new demonstrations are part of a bid to “remove dictators” and “follow the revolution in Ukraine.”

But Phay Siphan said Thursday that Sam Rainsy “can’t compare Cambodia to Ukraine,” saying to do so was “incitement,” and threatened to “take legal action” against him and CNRP deputy Kem Sokha.

He reminded Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha that the government is still considering legal action against them for “provoking violence” that led to a fierce crackdown early last month.

On Jan. 3, Cambodian security forces fired on CNRP-backed striking garment workers, leaving five dead in what rights groups described as the worst state violence against civilians in the country in years.

Authorities instituted a ban on public protests a day later, as police violently dispersed CNRP-led demonstrations in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park that had been held alongside the garment worker strikes.

The party, which has boycotted parliament over the elections had, since July, held a series of protests in the park that were joined by tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for Hun Sen to step down.

Earlier this week, Hun Sen lifted the ban, but warned that if the opposition had the right to protest, so did supporters of his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)—raising raising concerns of possible clashes between the two groups at simultaneous gatherings.

Phay Siphan on Thursday urged both sides to “respect the voters’ will,” while calling Sam Rainsy “a rebel leader.”

“[Sam Rainsy] wants to use force to topple the government, so he is using people power to try to do so,” he said.

“He is also inciting the armed forces against the government, and we can't allow this to happen.”

Call for cooperation

Meanwhile, Hun Sen on Thursday called on the opposition to redirect its energy towards reforming the country through cooperation with the ruling party.

“Let me express the government's commitment to executing reform agendas and the necessity that the government, the opposition party, development partners, and the private sector collectively work together in a responsible manners for the sake of our country and to achieve our reform objections," he said, speaking at a conference on youth employment in Phnom Penh.

Hun Sen openly urged the CRNP to cooperate with the government to conduct “vital reforms,” without elaborating.

Earlier this month, the CPP and CNRP agreed to form a joint committee to consider adopting electoral reforms which they said would consist of an equal number of representatives from both sides and would hold a national workshop to gather recommendations from a variety of stakeholders.

The panel would also allow voters to contribute their opinions on electoral reform through public forums and would be allowed to accept technical or financial support from local and foreign groups.

The talks were hailed by both sides as a breakthrough. However, no date has been set for a future meeting.

The parties had agreed in September to work together on electoral reform, but talks stalled, and February’s meeting had been the first between the two since then.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Source: RFA

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