The world’s indifference empowers Cambodia’s ruthless despot

January 14, 2015
Human Rights Watch

Author(s): Brad Adams

Published in: The Washington Post

When I mentioned to a diplomat that Jan. 14 would mark 30 years since Cambodian strongman Hun Sen became prime minister, his response summed up the pathology of forgetful international diplomacy: “Is that monster still around? How did that happen?”

As citizens of places such as Zimbabwe, Syria and North Korea have experienced, there are complicated reasons for the durability of despots. In Cambodia, it is a tale of international indifference, missed opportunities and an intelligent and ruthless leader who has run circles around internal party rivals, domestic political opponents and foreign governments.

Hun Sen has remained in power by manipulating elections, controlling the army and police, imprisoning critics and running a kleptocracy that has enriched him and his cronies. Ten years ago, a State Department official told me that the United States estimated his personal fortune at $500 million, attained largely through the plunder of the country’s rainforests and other natural resources.

Yet, as with many autocrats the world has tried to airbrush from its conscience, in recent years Hun Sen’s reign has continued almost unnoticed. As I visit foreign ministries around the world, I have found that most officials have become indifferent or even ignorant about the fate of a country that once was at the epicenter of geopolitics. This is ironic, as “the Cambodia problem” was once a primary impediment to untying the Gordian knot of diplomatic relations among the United States, China, the Soviet Union and Vietnam, all of whom were using Cambodia as a proxy (fighting “to the last living Cambodian,” as one observer put it). The solution was the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, signed by leaders from Cambodia and 18 other countries and hailed as the beginning of a new era of democracy and human rights.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Democracy was virtually stillborn in 1993 when Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party refused to accept defeat in a costly and bloody U.N.-administered election. He became “co-prime minister” for the next five years, and his party maintained control over the army, police and treasury — power it has never relinquished.

Hun Sen has never shied away from using violence to achieve political goals. Verifying detailed witness accounts, an FBI probe determined that his personal bodyguard unit was involved in a deadly 1997 grenade attack on an opposition political rally, killing 16. The story of the attack, which the United States officially deemed a terrorist act, led CNN and was on the front page of The Post. As a U.N. human rights worker, I was present at the gruesome scene, at which police refused to transport victims, some of whom bled to death on the street. The government has never pursued justice for the victims.

Soon after, Hun Sen staged a coup against his royalist coalition partners, using his security forces to execute more than 100 political opponents. Killings, torture, illegal land confiscation and other abuses have been the hallmark of Hun Sen’s rule to this day. Some 300 people have been killed in politically motivated attacks since the Paris Agreements. In many cases, the perpetrators are not only known but also have been promoted to high government or military posts. Unsurprisingly, not one senior official has been held to account.

A former Khmer Rouge commander himself, Hun Sen has used his control over the courts to mire U.N.-assisted trials of Khmer Rouge leaders in delays and obstruction. He could have been a hero, the man who brought the Khmer Rouge to justice, but he has stated that he would not allow further investigations beyond the handful of cases already filed. It appears that he is covering up for his own actions in the Khmer Rouge or those of senior colleagues in his party.

Every diplomat I’ve ever spoken to about Cambodia acknowledges that Hun Sen has blood on his hands and is highly corrupt. No one pretends that he is a democrat. Yet most governments turn away when he manipulates elections, arrests opponents and unleashes his security forces on peaceful protesters. As with many who stay long in power, he gives long, rambling speeches on national television and has begun comparing himself to great Cambodian historical figures while claiming exalted titles. His latest: Samdech Akka Moha Sena Pedei Techo, or “princely exalted supreme great commander of gloriously victorious troops.”

Many brave Cambodians risk imprisonment and worse while fighting for human rights and democracy. But they will fail without sustained and coordinated pressure from influential governments and donors.

The United States and many other governments talk about the “culture of impunity” in Cambodia, but it is time for them to also address their own culture of indifference. Otherwise, Hun Sen, who is only 62 and has said he wants to rule until he is 90, will continue to devastate his country for many years to come.

Brad Adams is Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Cambodia: 30 Years of Hun Sen Violence, Repression

Donor Countries Should Promote Democracy, Human Rights 

January 13, 2015
Human Rights Watch

Full report, please download here...

(New York) – The 30th anniversary of Hun Sen’s rule in Cambodia highlights the need for influential governments and donors to strengthen efforts for human rights and democratic reforms, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. January 14, 2015, marks 30 years since Hun Sen took office as prime minister on January 14, 1985.

Hun Sen is now the sixth-longest serving political leader in the world, just behind Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and ahead of Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

“For three decades, Hun Sen has repeatedly used political violence, repression, and corruption to remain in power,” said Brad Adams, Asia director and author of the report. “Cambodia urgently needs reforms so that its people can finally exercise their basic human rights without fear of arrest, torture, and execution. The role of international donors is crucial in making this happen.”

The 67-page report, “30 Years of Hun Sen: Violence, Repression, and Corruption in Cambodia,” chronicles Hun Sen’s career from being a Khmer Rouge commander in the 1970s to his present role as prime minister and head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). The report details the violence, repression, and corruption that have characterized his rule under successive governments since 1985.

Hun Sen has ruled through violence and fear. He has often described politics as a struggle to the death between him and all those who dare to defy him. For example, on June 18, 2005, he warned political opponents whom he accused of being “rebels” that “they should prepare coffins and say their wills to their wives.” This occurred shortly after he declared that Cambodia’s former king, Norodom Sihanouk, who abdicated to express his opposition to Hun Sen’s method of governing, would be better off dead.

In a speech on August 5, 2009, he mimicked the triggering of a gun while warning critics not to use the word “dictatorship” to describe his rule. On January 20, 2011, responding to the suggestion that he should be worried about the overthrow of a dictator in Tunisia at the time of the “Arab Spring,” Hun Sen lashed out: “I not only weaken the opposition, I’m going to make them dead ... and if anyone is strong enough to try to hold a demonstration, I will beat all those dogs and put them in a cage.”

Just after his Cambodian People’s Party suffered major electoral setbacks in the National Assembly elections of July 28, 2013, despite systematic fraud and widespread election irregularities orchestrated by his government, he proclaimed that only “death or incapacitation to the point of being unable to work” could unseat him from the summit of power.

“Although in recent decades he has allowed limited space for political opposition and civil society, the patina of openness has concealed an underlying reality of repression, and his government has been quick to stifle those who pose a threat to his rule,” Adams said.

Human Rights Watch examined Hun Sen’s human rights record during various Cambodian governments since 1979, and in particular the current Royal Government of Cambodia, which has been in place for more than 20 years. Since Hun Sen maneuvered to stay in office after rejecting the results of a United Nations-administered election in 1993, he and the CPP have remained in power by manipulating the elections held every five years since.

The report is based on materials in Khmer, English, Vietnamese, and Chinese, including official and other Cambodian documents; interviews with Cambodian officials and other Cambodians; interviews with journalists, academics, and nongovernmental organizations; and UN records, foreign government reports, and Cambodian court records.

The report describes:

• Hun Sen’s early life in Kampong Cham province;
• His decision to join the Khmer Rouge after the ouster of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970;
• His role as a Khmer Rouge commander in the 1970s in areas where crimes against humanity were committed;
• His responsibility in the 1980s as prime minister for a notorious forced labor program and systematic imprisonment of dissidents, and for death squads during the UN peacekeeping operation in 1992-93;
• The role of his personal bodyguard unit in the deadly March 30, 1997 grenade attack on opposition leader Sam Rainsy;
• His bloody coup of July 5-6, 1997, and its aftermath, in which more than 100 mostly royalist opposition party members were summarily executed; and
• The repression and corruption of the past decade during which political and social activists, trade union leaders, and journalists have been killed in connection with their opposition to CPP policies and practices.

In recent years, a government-generated land crisis affecting the urban and rural poor has adversely affected hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, while Hun Sen has openly obstructed accountability for international crimes perpetrated in 1975-1979 by the Khmer Rouge, relying on his control of a Cambodian judiciary that also ensures continuing impunity for abuses.

Human Rights Watch called on influential governments and donors to end their passive response to these decades of rights abuses, repression, and massive corruption, and to make a renewed commitment to support Cambodians who struggle for free and fair elections, the rule of law, an end to corruption and land grabs, and respect for basic rights such as freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

“After 30 years of experience, there is no reason to believe that Hun Sen will wake up one day and decide to govern Cambodia in a more open, inclusive, tolerant, and rights-respecting manner,” Adams said. “The international community should begin listening to those Cambodians who have increasingly demanded the protection and promotion of their basic human rights.”

 

Cambodia: Drop ‘Insurrection’ Charges

Donors Should Demand End to Persecution of Opposition 

December 22, 2014
Human Rights Watch

(New York) – Cambodian authorities should drop politically motivated “insurrection” charges against 11 opposition party activists, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 25, 2014, the Phnom Penh municipal court will hold a trial of members of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) for their alleged role in a July 15 demonstration.

The “insurrection” prosecutions are part of the government’s ongoing use of arbitrary arrests, intimidation, and violence to pressure the country’s political opposition into dropping demands for electoral and other reforms.

“The government’s prosecution of the 11 activists is a breathtakingly cynical act of political vindictiveness against the already besieged Cambodian opposition,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director. “Cambodia’s foreign donors should press the government to immediately drop the spurious charges against the activists.”

The charges stem from violence during a demonstration on July 15 organized by senior CNRP officials, including several then-members elect of the Cambodian National Assembly, at Phnom Penh’s Democracy Plaza (also known as Freedom Park). That violence included brutal beatings by some protesters of para-police personnel at the scene as well as the use of excessive force by state security forces against peaceful protesters. The government has blamed that violence on the CNRP as evidence of an “insurrection” plot despite the absence of any evidence to support that allegation.

The authorities are prosecuting the 11 activists in a single consolidated case under the Cambodian Penal Code for leading or participating in an “insurrection,” which carries prison sentences of 20 to 30 years or 7 to 15 years, respectively. All are party officials or grassroots activists, several with links to trade unionists and land rights campaigners.

The 11 are: Meach Sovannara, Oeun Narit, Khin Chamreun, San Kimheng, Neang Sokhun, Sum Puthy, Ouk Pichsamnang, Tep Narin, An Bak Tham, San Seihak, and Ke Khim. Police arrested or summonsed them between July 16 and November 13. Five of the accused remain in pretrial detention.

The July 15 demonstration attracted several hundred protesters, who demanded the government lift its then-month-long arbitrary closure of Democracy Plaza, an area officially designated as a public space for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The government had closed the area to the public as part of a wider crackdown on CNRP protests against the official results of a July 2013 national election, which was neither free nor fair, and which returned Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to power. The closure was also linked to government efforts to compel the CNRP to end a boycott of the National Assembly. The government enforced the closure by deploying openly pro-CPP gendarmes, police, para-police “public order,” and “people’s defense” forces to occupy the plaza and prevent public access.

The Cambodian government has attempted to blame the July 15 violence entirely on the CNRP. However, a Human Rights Watch review of video evidence from the scene indicates that most if not all violence followed attempts by security contingents to forcibly break up the protests. The video suggests that protesters physically attacked security forces as a spontaneous reaction to security forces’ attacks and contrary to pleas for non-violence from CNRP leaders on the scene. The authorities have not prosecuted any security force personnel implicated in violence and injuries inflicted on protesters.

Shortly after the July 15 clash, a senior Cambodian security force officer told Human Rights Watch that the government had no evidence that the CNRP planned or initiated violence. Instead, according to this source, security forces were under orders to provoke a confrontation to create a pretext to arrest senior CNRP figures. However, the government had not anticipated that demonstrators would resist security forces.

On July 15 police arrested CNRP members-elect of the National Assembly Mu Sochua, Keo Phirum, Men Sothavarin, Ho Vann, Riel Khemarin, Long Ry, and Nuth Rumduol and charged them with insurrection and other crimes. However, all seven were subsequently released and now have parliamentary immunity from prosecution as part of a deal between the CNRP and Hun Sen to end the opposition’s National Assembly boycott. Democracy Plaza reopened to the public on August 6, but the government has maintained severe restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly.

Cambodia’s Penal Code defines “insurrection” as a form of “collective violence that could lead to endangering institutions of the Kingdom” or “lead to an adverse effect on the integrity of the nation’s territory.” It specifies that insurrectionary acts include constructing road barriers, defensive fortifications, or other works intended to hinder the activities of public forces; the occupation of buildings by force or subterfuge or the destruction of buildings; the possession of weapons, explosives, or munitions; and the provisioning or incitement of insurrectionists. None of the CNRP activists going on trial on December 25 did anything even approximating such acts.

“Hun Sen may be hoping that holding this trial on Christmas Day will blunt international criticism of what is a politicized witch-hunt with a judicial veneer,” Kine said. “Cambodia’s foreign donors should tell the government that its manipulation of the security forces and the judiciary to undermine the opposition is as unacceptable as it is transparent.”

 

Cambodia: Death Highlights Detention Center Abuses

Close All Facilities Arbitrarily Holding ‘Undesirables’ 

December 7, 2014
Human Rights Watch

(New York) – The Cambodian government should promptly close all centers arbitrarily detaining people outside the criminal justice system, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said today. The abusive nature of these centers was highlighted by the death on November 26, 2014, of a man who was arbitrarily detained and denied medical treatment at the Prey Speu center outside Phnom Penh.

“Keeping Cambodia’s detention centers open is an endless invitation to the authorities to violate the human rights of people deemed ‘undesirable,’” said Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho. “The systematic abuse of Cambodia’s most vulnerable people occurs at these centers and the government should close them immediately.”

Around November 2, authorities brought a man named Phea to Prey Speu’s Po Senchey Vocational Training Center, according to a center official and other witnesses. Phea had been picked up during “sweeps” by security forces in Phnom Penh to clear homeless people and others considered “undesirable” off the streets prior to Cambodia’s traditional Water Festival being held on November 5-7. The sweeps – part of an operation that also aimed to deter anti-government protests during the holiday – were carried out by police, para-police “public order” contingents, and heavily-armed gendarmes acting on orders from Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatevong. The governor, through the municipal Department of Social Affairs, Veteran, and Youth Rehabilitation, has authority over the Prey Speu facility.

Phea, who had been living on the streets, was seriously ill when taken into custody. He was extremely thin and covered with infected wounds on his legs and other parts of his body. Sources said that during his weeks-long detention, the center staff made no effort to provide him medical treatment and refused to take him elsewhere for treatment. He died on the morning of November 26, after which his body was taken for immediate cremation at a Buddhist temple, Wat Sopheakhuon. Police failed to launch any proper investigation into his death.

The United Nations Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment provides that medical care and treatment shall be provided to detainees whenever necessary and free of charge. Whenever a person dies in detention, “an inquiry into the cause of death … shall be held by a judicial or other authority.” In addition, “[t]he findings of such inquiry … shall be made available upon request.”

The poor conditions at the Prey Speu center resulting in Phea’s death are faced by other detainees at the facility, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said. Approximately 30 other people were in Prey Speu at the time of Phea’s death. These include two small children who were with their physically ill mother, and a third small child who was with his or her father, in violation of international law prohibitions against the arbitrary detention of children. All are being held without charge or trial. A late-term pregnant woman detained at the center escaped when she believed she was going into labor, fleeing with a transgender person who was also being held, according to one source.

Long history of center abuses
Licadho, Human Rights Watch, and other human rights organizations have documented torture and systematic cruel and inhumane treatment, as well as rapes, killings, and other abuses at the Prey Speu center since it became operational in 2004. In late 2008, following public revelation of abuses at Prey Speu and other centers run by the Ministry of Social Affairs, government authorities claimed that Prey Speu had stopped arbitrarily detaining people. While there were initial indications that some people were released and others held for shorter periods, in more recent years the Prey Speu center has reverted to detaining people against their will for weeks and sometimes months.

Across Cambodia, authorities routinely detain alleged drug users, homeless people, “street” children, sex workers, and people perceived to have disabilities in a haphazard system of detention centers around the country. Some of those detention centers are ostensibly for drug treatment, while others are ostensibly for “social rehabilitation.” In addition to Prey Speu, the Ministry of Social Affairs also has authority for the Phnom Bak center in Sisophon town, Banteay Meanchey province, and jointly manages a drug detention center with the military on a military base in Koh Kong town, Koh Kong province. There are a further six drug detention centers across the country that each year hold at least 2,000 people without due process.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented how guards and other staff whip detainees with rubber water hoses, beat them with bamboo sticks or palm fronds, shock them with electric batons, sexually abuse them, and punish them with physical exercises intended to cause intense physical pain. Detainees from some centers have been forced to work on construction sites, including in at least one instance to help build a hotel.

Authorities hold out the prospect of on-site treatment by nongovernmental organizations of a small number of mentally-ill “residents” to justify Prey Speu’s continued existence. There is no reason why this treatment cannot be provided on a voluntary basis, outside the confines of a center in which systemic abuses occur and that has proved stubbornly resistant to reform, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said. Homeless and other marginalized people who remain there “voluntarily” often do so because they fear being harmed on the streets by the security forces and believe there are no voluntary, community-based services available to them.

“Cambodian authorities need to admit that it’s impossible to transform Prey Speu and similar centers into institutions that respect human rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The latest death at Prey Speu should be the last straw for donors, UN agencies, and embassies, who should together demand Prey Speu be shuttered, and commit to back genuinely voluntary services to assist marginalized Cambodians.” 

Speak Truth to Cambodia's Dictator

November 18, 2012
Human Rights Watch

 

Author(s): Brad Adams

Published in: The Wall Street Journal

 

In his election-night victory speech in Chicago, U.S. President Barack Obama recognized that people in many parts of the world are still struggling for the most basic of rights. "We can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter…" Mr. Obama could have been talking about Cambodia, where this week he will make the first-ever visit by a U.S. president to attend the East Asia Summit.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has a different view. As Arab Spring protests broke out in 2011, leading to the fall of fellow strongmen, some in Cambodia had the temerity to suggest that it was also time for him to go. Hun Sen's response was typically threatening: "I not only weaken the opposition, I'm going to make them dead ... and if anyone is strong enough to try to hold a demonstration, I will beat all those dogs and put them in a cage."

During Hun Sen's time in power, many opposition figures have indeed ended up dead. Death squads have targeted opposition figures in election-related violence, while labor leaders and journalists have been assassinated.

Despite the fact that in many cases the killers are known, in not one case has there been a credible investigation and conviction. Worse, many have been promoted. The Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior websites listing senior military and police officials are a veritable Who's Who of human rights abusers.

One person now in a cage is Mam Sonando, the owner of Cambodia's most prominent independent radio station, Beehive Radio. Mr. Sonando has long angered the government by broadcasting Khmer-language news from U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and hosting call-in shows where average Cambodians vent against corruption and abuses.

Facing trumped-up charges publicly endorsed by Hun Sen of participating in a secession movement, Mr. Sonando showed considerable courage and returned from Paris to stand trial. On Oct. 1, a Phnom Penh court sentenced him to 20 years in prison–essentially a life sentence for a 71-year-old.

Hun Sen has long wanted to put opposition leader Sam Rainsy in a cage. Since he started an opposition party in 1995, Mr. Rainsy has survived assassination attempts, constant threats and a variety of criminal charges. He now lives in exile in Paris after being sentenced to a total of 12 years in a trial transparently aimed at preventing him from taking part in next year's national elections.

Like Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Rainsy has always practiced non-violence. Unlike Ms. Suu Kyi, he and Cambodia's opposition have been largely ignored by the world.

Hun Sen has been in power for 27 years, while his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has ruled the country since 1979. He is now one of the world's 10 longest-serving leaders, while the CPP is on the verge of succeeding in returning Cambodia to the one-party state it ran in the 1980s.

The parallels with Mubarak's Egypt, Ben Ali's Tunisia and Gaddafi's Libya are striking. Yet the lessons of the Arab Spring seem not to have been learned when it comes to Cambodia. The U.S. and other governments issue critical statements from time to time, but they have no strategy or policy to ensure pluralism, the protection of opposition politicians and critics, or an end to the violence and impunity that characterize contemporary Cambodia. Hun Sen has run circles around feckless governments, laughing all the way to the bank as donor assistance continues to roll in.

Cambodians have high expectations for Mr. Obama's visit. Villagers facing illegal eviction near Phnom Penh's airport even painted pictures of Obama on the roofs of their corrugated metal homes with the message "SOS." Eight of them were arrested on Thursday.

Cambodians hope Mr. Obama will publicly and clearly demand the pardon of Sam Rainsy and Mam Sonando, the creation of a new and independent national election commission to administer next year's elections, and the dismissal of known human rights abusers in the government, military and police.

Failure to speak out would be a huge missed opportunity that would significantly tarnish Obama's second term even before it starts. Quiet diplomacy will not be enough, as the government will use its near monopoly of the media to say that the President of the United States left town without making any demands on the government. Such a visit, complete with smiling photo-ops, would give Hun Sen and the CPP the international legitimacy they have long sought.

A strong and public stand in favor of rights and democracy could give hope to and even galvanize the Cambodian people. It would send a message to the region that the vaunted U.S. "pivot" on Asia has moral as well as economic and security content. As he did in his first term in China and Egypt, Mr. Obama should speak over the head of an abusive government, making it clear that his election-day remarks were not just hollow words to please a crowd in Chicago.

Mr. Adams is Asia director at Human Rights Watch