Oct 28, 2010
DPA
Phnom Penh - A senior UN human rights official condemned 'excessive force' she said was used by police against several dozen peaceful protestors who were trying to meet with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
'I have expressed concern in person to the Ministry of Interior about this incident and the excessive use of force used against the petitioners and Mr Suong Sophorn specifically,' said Kyung-wha Kang, the UN's deputy high commissioner for human rights, who arrived in Cambodia Tuesday with Ban's delegation.
A prominent local human rights group, Licadho, said earlier that Suong Sophorn had been beaten unconscious and dragged away by police who used electric shock batons and walkie-talkies to beat protestors.
Kang said the local UN human rights office had contacted the police, who later released Suong Sophorn 'as promised.'
'I have also received the petition of the [protestors] on behalf of the secretary general,' she said.
The protestors are to shortly be evicted from their homes in central Phnom Penh to make way for a large development by a well-connected company. They had unsuccessfully petitioned Ban to meet them to discuss their plight.
Licadho director Naly Pilorge said the beatings, which took place close to a hospital that Ban was visiting, was indicative of the government's approach to human rights and its international reputation.
'Either they don't understand the harm that this sort of incident causes to Cambodia's reputation, or they don't care, or perhaps they just think they can get away with it,' she said.
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