Cambodia’s Defense of Rights Record at UN Review Slammed

 
Foreign donors should push Cambodia’s government to end its human rights abuses as part of its bid to maintain political control of the nation, a rights group said Wednesday, after Phnom Penh allegedly snubbed recommendations by foreign governments to improve the country’s rights record.

Representatives of foreign governments proposed several areas of improvement for Cambodia during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session on June 26 at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva—a rights review mechanism through which all U.N. member states are examined every four years.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Cambodia “brushed aside calls … to reverse its crackdown on human rights and reform its abusive policies and practices.”

It called on the country’s international donors to “redouble their pressure” to take Phnom Penh to task for its abuses.

“Faced with an upsurge in demands for fundamental changes to ensure respect for human rights, the government of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has instead dug in his heels,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The international community should not acquiesce to the Cambodian government’s use of political violence, imprisonment of opponents on politically motivated charges, torture, and restrictions on free speech and public assembly,” he said.

Human Rights Watch said that Cambodia had merely “noted” that it had received recommendations addressing rights violations at the UPR session, and “deflected” calls to end the suspension of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and actions to ensure media and Internet freedom.

It also avoided addressing calls to end the detention and imprisonment of people who exercise their right to the freedom of expression, the group said.

During a strike by Cambodian garment workers in January, police opened fire, leaving five people dead and scores wounded.

A day later, security forces violently dispersed supporters of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) from Freedom Park in the capital Phnom Penh and closed the site, which has been the focus of protests against Hun Sen's rule following disputed elections last year.

Freedom Park remains closed to political protesters, despite Hun Sen’s assurances that a ban on political protests would be lifted.

Human Rights Watch said that Cambodia disregarded other recommendations at the session, including that the country end unfair trials, and take actions to create a more favorable human rights environment for opposition party members, human rights defenders, journalists, and activists.

The country “sidestepped” demands to investigate recent incidents of “excessive use of fatal force” by security units, end impunity for such acts, and undertake reforms to put an end to torture, the statement said.

Cambodia “snubbed” proposals that it protect land rights, as stipulated in its constitution, and cooperate more fully with U.N. rights experts and mechanisms, it said.

According to the rights group, Cambodia also reneged on its earlier acceptance of four recommendations, including one calling on it specifically “to protect free and independent media” and three relating to the education of children.

Government explanation

In its explanation of the government’s position, Cambodia’s mission to the U.N. said it had withheld acceptance of the noted recommendations because they might not “reflect the situation on the ground,” while it said the rejected proposals were “contrary to the laws and Constitution of Cambodia.”

Human Rights Watch quoted Chheang Vun, a spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), a day after the session as saying that certain recommendations by other U.N. member states were rejected as they “cannot be applied in Cambodia, because Cambodian society is not theirs.”

He said Cambodia opposed suggestions that would force “state institutions to become barricaded” off from acting against other parties or individuals protesting against the government.

Adams said that Cambodia’s position at the UPR shed light on the Hun Sen’s approach to human rights in the country and reiterated his call on the international community to pressure the government to comply with U.N. recommendations.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen and those speaking on his behalf have shown their true colors in this process, ignoring serious recommendations and falling back on a false exceptionalism to justify their continued rights abuses,” Adams said.

“Foreign donors who give so much assistance to Cambodia should jointly use their influence to push for the government to end its reliance on human rights violations to control the country.”

‘Attack on sovereignty’

Council of Ministers Secretary of State and spokesman Phay Siphan dismissed the Human Rights Watch statement, calling it an “attack” on the nation’s sovereignty.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen language urging donors to cut aid to the country—they have been saying this for a long time,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Nonetheless, donors have continued to increase their aid to Cambodia. So we feel that Human Right Watch’s statement is an attack against Cambodia’s sovereignty and the donors’ decision [to give aid].”

The government’s Deputy Human Rights Committee Chairman Mok Sambath refused to comment on the report, saying he had not read it.

Defense of rights record

In January, the Cambodian government defended its human rights record in a 24-page document presented at a UPR, reviewing the steps it said it had taken over the years to upgrade human rights, but offering no explanation on the crackdown that month on peaceful protests.

A representative from Britain said the use of live ammunition by Cambodian security forces during the Jan. 3 crackdown on workers' strikes "cannot be justified," calling for a "credible inquiry" on the incident.

The Swedish representative cited allegations of fraud in the July 2013 elections in which Hun Sen's CPP was declared the winner, calling for electoral and other reforms to protect human rights.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch had said that through the end of 2013, it found that “the human rights situation in the country had worsened significantly since its last [UPR] in 2009.”

Tibetan Women Attacked, Beaten at Anti-Mine Rally

 
Police in China’s southwestern Yunnan province on Monday attacked and beat a group of Tibetan women who had gathered to protest copper mining on land considered sacred by residents living near the site, sources said.

The protest came after Chinese authorities dismissed repeated appeals by Tibetans living in Dechen (in Chinese, Diqing) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Dechen (Deqin) county to halt the excavations, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Tuesday.

Mining by the Chinese Huicheng minerals company on Ganglha mountain near Mata village in Dechen county’s Yamen township has left the mountain already scarred by digging, with “extracted ore and waste piled up by the village,” the source said.

Mata residents are worried over police warnings of more severe punishment if they continue with their protests.

“On June 30, the women of the local Tibetan community marched to the site and shouted for the mining work to stop,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The armed police and paramilitary forces who were present did not fire on the women, but instead attacked and beat them,” he said, adding, “Two were beaten especially severely.”

“Later, some men from the Tibetan community joined the protest, and they were taken away and detained.”

“The local Tibetans have called on the authorities to release those who were detained, warning that otherwise they will resort to other means of protest,” he said.

A fallen protester is helped by a friend in Dechen, June 30, 2014. Credit: RFA listener

Safety, religious concerns

Tibetan areas of China have become an important source of minerals needed for China’s economic growth, and mining operations have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.

"Tibetans in Mata have urged the authorities several times to stop the mining out of concern for the community’s safety and the sacredness of the mountain, but their concerns were never addressed,” RFA's source said.

“Instead, the Chinese miners vowed to continue their work even if the local people objected,” he said.

Huicheng has been found to be operating in the area with a “fake license,” though it has claimed official approval to extract minerals, mainly copper, from the area, according to the source.

Separately, a Tibetan living in exile confirmed the police attack on Tibetan protesters at the mining site, citing contacts in the region.

“Recently, new rich deposits of copper were discovered in the valley of Mata village, and Chinese authorities built a road leading to the mine.”

After local Tibetans resisted the expanded mining, “over a hundred armed police and paramilitary forces were deployed to the area, and they beat and detained Tibetan protesters,” he said.

“They also told the Tibetans they had orders to kill them if necessary,” he said.

“To be beaten is nothing,” he said, adding, “Even more severe punishments may be given to the Tibetans if they continue to resist the mining work.”

Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 131 Tibetans to date setting themselves ablaze to oppose Beijing’s rule and call for the return of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

China is trampling on international law

In support of its provocative acts the East Sea, China has released a vertical map of its territory which includes a U-shaped expansion across the East Sea, spreading to the coast of Malaysia and the Philippines and covering both Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.
Following are excerpts from an interview given by Hoang Viet who is also a researcher on East Sea disputes and a member of the East Sea Research Foundation (ESRF) to VOV online:
China’s Hunan province publishing house recently released a vertical “ten-dash line” map swallowing the East Sea. How is this new map different from the “nine-dash line” map drawn by China before?
This map has similarities and also differences from the previous one.  In terms of consistencies, it indicates China's ambition in the East Sea and that China is claiming sovereignty over additional territory. However, there are inconsistencies in the specific territorial claims and number of 9, 10 or 11 dashes.
In 2009, China for the first time sent diplomatic notes opposing a Vietnamese report and the Vietnam – Malaysia joint statement on expanded waters to the UN Secretary General.
In the two diplomatic notes, China attached a “U-shaped line” map featuring only nine dashes. The Hunan province’s freshly-published shows ten dashes. Generally speaking, China's overall ambition remains unchanged but there are fundamental inconsistencies in the number of 9, 10 or 11 dashes.
According to the illegal map, how will the so-called sovereignty of China be extended?
China has always insisted on its sovereignty over the East Sea through the so-called “U-shaped line” or “nine-dash line” claims that have globally been recognized as absurd and clear violations of international law. Despite having no legal basis, China still wants to use its strength to realize the so-called “claim”.
In fact, after its publication of a “nine-dash line” map in 2009, China met a host of national objections, including Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, and more recently the US also requested the Chinese government to clarify what its “U-shaped line” claim is? Not one country in the world recognizes the “U-shaped line”, exclusive of China.
Can you please elaborate on the "ten-dash line" and how will it fully cover the coasts of Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam?
The fact shows that it covers many countries but in the Chinese map, this line accounts for over 80% of the East Sea, thereby encompassing all exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and continental shelves of the countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
For this reason, this causes a great deal of harm to China and  all ASEAN countries that become involved in the East Sea disputes and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Under the UNCLOS provisions, each country will have an EEZ and continental shelf but based on a groundless map since 1947, China itself has recognised “9,10, 11 dash line” maps without clear longitudes and latitudes.
Thus, they occupy the entire EEZs and continental shelves of other countries that are entitled to enjoy benefits under the UNCLOS.  Clearly, China does not comply with the UNCLOS in which China itself is a member and it is trampling on international law.
Does the publication of this new map show the unjustified sovereignty claim by China which has triggered greater tensions in the East Sea?
This action is a sequence of actions followed by China. In 2007, China took brazen actions in the East Sea including sinking fishing boats of Vietnamese fishermen and those from other countries. In 2011, Chinese ships cut the cables of Vietnamese Binh Minh ship.
In 2012, China conducted more aggressive actions in many waters including Scarborough Shoal which is under control of the Philippines.
In 2013, the situation remained tense and especially this year, China illegally placed its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Vietnam’s EEZ and continental shelf.
In addition to the illegal stationing of the oil rig 981 in Vietnam’s waters, what is China’s ambition and scheme by publishing its “ten-dash line” map?
China, in the so-called "Chinese Dream" (also known as Dream of China), always want to become the Number 1 power in the world. To reach that goal, the country has to transform itself into a sea power. Consequently, China must expand its territory from the East Sea which is the first point in its strategic ambition to monopolize the vast sea area.
Owning the East Sea will serve as a springboard for China to occupy other waters such as the East China Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. This demonstrates China’s great ambition and it will be a threat not only to Vietnam and some ASEAN countries but the whole region and the world at large.

Six months on, no justice for shootings

 
Six months ago today, security forces opened fire on garment workers protesting for a doubling of their minimum wage on Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Boulevard. At least five people were killed in what rights groups called the worst state violence against citizens in 15 years.
Half a year on, no results of any government investigation have been released. No security, police or military personnel have been charged, and the victims’ families say they continue to wait for justice or compensation, hopes of which have all but slipped away.“So far, the government has done nothing to take care of me; no one has come to see me. I have no idea what I am going to do,” said 21-year-old Chiv Phanith, whose husband was killed during the crackdown on protesters, many of whom were throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.“My husband had just joined to demonstrate, and he should not have been punished with death. I have become a widow and the government should take care and compensate me. I don’t know whether I will get justice or not.”

A government investigation into the violence wrapped up in February and was never publicly released.On May 30, 13 people arrested during the January 3 crackdown were found guilty on charges ranging from incitement to intentional violence and given suspended sentences of one to four years.The government has since said that it will not reopen Freedom Park until further investigation into the events of January is completed. At the same time, it refused last week to accept recommendations at the UN Human Rights Council that it “impartially investigate” the use of excessive force against protesters.

National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith said yesterday that the government investigation carried out months ago had been sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
“We are waiting for a court decision that would link to our investigation, but we have never stopped investigating. Our investigation remains ongoing,” he said.
Military police spokesman Kheng Tito said authorities had investigated all relevant parties, including security forces, and that responsibility for further action lay with the court.
“This report is not for the public. It is for the court to use in the interest of the public … so our duty is over.… We must wait for the court’s decision.”

Court spokesman and deputy prosecutor Ly Sophanna said that he had not seen the report and referred the Post to another deputy prosecutor, Seang Sok, who could not be reached for comment.
Another deputy prosecutor, Meas Chanpiseth, said that while he did not know anything about the Veng Sreng investigation, he had forwarded a police report related to the killing of Mao Sok Chan by police at the Kbal Thnal flyover in September of last year to an investigating judge.
“No suspect or killer was identified in the report. And I also did not charge anyone in relation to this case, because there was such a big crowd and so many people, so we were not able to identify who killed the victim,” he said.Chak Sopheap, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said it was clear that no independent investigation would be carried out in relation to either event, given that impunity is “symptomatic to Cambodia’s security forces and judiciary”.
“The government has clearly no political will to investigate security forces. It understands investigation into the events as investigating the protesters, not the perpetrators of violence.”

Expected release for migrants

 
Fourteen Cambodians jailed in Thailand will soon be freed, authorities told the Bangkok Post yesterday, just one day after “yellow shirt” activist Veera Somkwamkid returned to Thailand upon being pardoned from his espionage sentence in Cambodia.Veera was royally pardoned on Tuesday during a Thai delegation's two-day trip to Cambodia, the junta’s first official visit since the coup and subsequent return of more than 250,000 Cambodian migrant workers.Amid the arrangements commuting Veera’s sentence, Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated an appeal that Thailand release the 14 migrant workers arrested last month on charges of using fake visas.

But while the reciprocated release announcement was attributed to Thailand’s permanent secretary for justice Chanchao Chaiyanukij yesterday, Cambodian officials were unable to confirm any imminent pardoning of the migrant labourers, though hinted that one would soon be getting under way.“It [would not be] a prisoner swap,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said of the possibility. “It’s a matter of mutual respect and cooperation.”Siphan added that a reciprocal prisoner exchange could be arranged under the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
The international framework, however, is intended to allow for convicted persons to finish their sentence in their home country and not meant to grant an exchange of commuted sentences.
“Both countries are using their political power to sway the courts and violate the integrity of the judicial system,” said Kem Ley, an independent political analyst.
Ley added that for both sides, the clemency arrangements represented “easy politics”.
“The workers coming back … are poor, unemployed, many were abused, and their government isn’t helping them,” he said. “In this context, the CPP had to do something quickly so they wouldn’t fuel the opposition.”

But before the 14 Cambodian workers can be released and the political gesture accomplished, Thailand’s justice department reportedly said that Cambodia must first send a list of the prisoners to be freed, a list Cambodia claims it hasn’t yet been asked for.“We have it and, if requested, we will send it,” said Koy Kuong, Foreign Ministry spokesman.Kuong would not divulge the names on the list, however, adding only that Cambodia had “not yet” been notified of a release date.
But political experts, some of whom predicted such an exchange of prisoners between countries, had no doubts Cambodia would soon reap the rewards of its bargain.

“For Cambodia, this is about gaining some sense of security for the migrant workers,” said Chea Vannath, another independent analyst. “It will ease tensions the workers are feeling over a lack of jobs in Cambodia and relieve some of the fears over Thailand to make them feel safer to return.”
Vannath added that it was in both countries’ and the workers’ best interests to create a smoother system for regulating the migrant workers’ inevitable return to jobs abroad.But tired of waiting for the recent slew of overseas regulation reforms to finally take effect, workers are already starting on the road back to better-paying jobs in the neighbouring country. And to get there, they are often reverting to the old illegal methods.

“Most of my village has already [illegally] crossed back through reopened checkpoints to work in Thailand,” said Chan Raksmey, 43, from Banteay Meanchey.
Over the past week, Thailand has reopened more than 40 of the 53 smaller checkpoints – previously known for rampant smuggling – that were closed shortly after the coup on May 22.
“The people who are crossing at those [reopened] points are not going there to stay; they go to the market in the morning and come back at night,” said Korsum Saroeurt, Banteay Meanchey provincial governor. “No one is going illegally; the Thai authorities don’t allow it.”
But residents living close to the international divide and workers eager to return to Thailand said the contrary yesterday, noting hundreds of daily crossings not intended as short trips.
“No one informed us about how to get the new documents; it is difficult to find out what we are supposed to do,” said May Man, a 57-year-old recently repatriated worker. He added that he wants to find a way to get his family back to Thailand, and the job that was supporting them, as soon as possible.

Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng also admitted that some Cambodian workers are returning to Thailand without the legal documentation.“It is the same problem again,” he said. “I think that it is dangerous for them. The undocumented workers are abused and dismissed. It should not happen like that again.”But while the government continues ironing out its new, cheaper regulations, workers are demonstrably growing impatient.“There are no jobs in Cambodia, so they have no choice but to let the brokers help send them to Thailand illegally, paying up to 7,000 baht [$216] to be smuggled back,” Raksmey said.

Scientist who discovered Ebola: ‘This is unprecedented’

 
The scientist who discovered the Ebola virus said that a current outbreak of the deadly bug in West Africa, in which 467 people have died, is “unprecedented.”“One, [this is] the first time in West Africa that we have such an outbreak,” Dr. Peter Piot told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “Secondly, it is the first time that three countries are involved. And thirdly it’s the first time that we have outbreaks in capitals, in capital cities.”Doctors Without Borders warns that the outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia is now “out of control.” The number of cases is still spiking since it was first observed around the beginning of this year.

“With this strain of Ebola, you’ve got like a ninety percent chance of dying. That’s spectacular by any standard – one of the most lethal viruses that exist.”And the way victims die is far from pleasant.“Ebola virus infection starts with something that looks like the flu – headache, fever, maybe diarrhoea. But then you can develop very fast bleeding that’s uncontrollable, and that’s how people die.”

Easy to fight
There is no cure for Ebola, but in theory the disease should be easy to fight, Piot said.
“You need really close contact to become infected. So just being on the bus with someone with Ebola, that’s not a problem.”Simple hygienic measures like washing with soap and water, not re-using syringes, and avoiding contact with infected corpses are sufficient to stop spread of the disease, Piot said.“This is an epidemic of dysfunctional health systems.”“Fear of the virus, and the lack of trust in government, in the health system, is as bad as the actual virus.”What happens “is that a person is infected, is hospitalized, infects other patients and particularly health care workers.”
“They’re buried somewhere; around that funeral, people are infected when they touch the body, and so on. And then they get ill, and then they go somewhere else, and then they go to relatives in town, maybe because they hope to have better health care. That’s how it spreads.”

A ‘very big virus’
Piot was a young researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp in the 1970s when they got a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had died in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).“The clinical diagnosis was yellow fever – and we were equipped to isolate the yellow fever virus. But then something completely different came out of it, and under the microscope it looked like – kind of a more like a wormlike structure.”It was, he said, a “very big virus.” At the time, there was only one other virus “known to be of that shape,” Marburg Virus.They shipped the sample off to the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S., who confirmed that it was indeed something completely new.But forty years later, much is still unknown about Ebola.

“We are not one hundred percent sure where this virus comes from. Probably from some bat.”
“A lot of research has been done, but not enough. And as long as we don’t know where exactly this virus hides outside epidemics, then we can’t map where the risks are.”

The response
The current outbreak is “already a mega-crisis,” Piot said.
“For me, this is a reason for a state of emergency, you know, in these countries.”
“You need a combination of nearly military type of control measures – isolation, quarantine of those who are the diseased – but also their relatives, to make sure that they’re not spreading the infection.”
“And, secondly, community mobilization. Information can save lives here.”
That was brought into sharp focus on Wednesday, when the Red Cross said that it would suspend operations in Guinea after some of its workers were threatened by men with knives.
“The fear of the virus and running away from health services, that contributes to perpetuate the spread of Ebola virus.”

Resistant viruses, ‘one of the biggest challenges’
Ebola, Piot said, does not appear to be morphing or evolving.But many bacteria are, becoming immune to antibiotics, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a new initiative Wednesday to try to tackle the problem.“This is one of the biggest challenges of the future, and that is the possibility that some of the very banal bacterial infections will be untreatable,” Piot said.
“And then major surgery will become untreatable, people admitted to hospital will die from these infections. We already have some strains like that for tuberculosis.”The solution is “more disciplined” prescription of antibiotics, curtailing the amount of antibiotics given to animals (which ends up in our food), and the development on new antibiotics.“I think, now, because of the greater awareness, there is hope. But we’re running out of time.”