US Senator Jim Webb speaks Tuesday at the US ambassador’s house during his visit to Phnom Penh. Photo by: Heng ChivoanWednesday, 19 August 2009
By Cheang Sokha and James O'toole
The Phnom Penh Post
After meeting with junta leaders in Myanmar, Jim Webb comes to Cambodia to talk about free trade with Hun Sen and free speech with opposition leaders.
US Senator Jim Webb said he "listened in great detail to the concerns of the opposition leaders" during a visit to Cambodia on Tuesday, but stopped short of condemning the government's ongoing crackdown on political speech.
Fresh from negotiating the release of an American prisoner with Myanmar's ruling military junta on Saturday, Webb met with opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, as well as Prime Minister Hun Sen, during his brief stopover in the Kingdom.
Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party who was briefly imprisoned on defamation charges in 2006, said the US "should continue to monitor democracy in Cambodia because it is still not going smoothly."
He said that he did not present Webb with individual defamation cases during the meeting, but told the senator that freedom of expression has been an issue recently.
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