NGOs urge reform ahead of aid meet - Part 2

A woman holds a photograph of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty at his funeral. He was gunned down in Koh Kong in April. Photograph: Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post

Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Claire Knox 
The Phnom Penh Post

A group of international and regional human-rights organisations yesterday sent a letter to a number of embassies in the country and other aid donors, asking them to reference specific and recent human-rights violations at the meeting, including the incarceration of Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando, the murders of environmental activist Chut Wutty and journalist Serei Oudom, and the arrests and the detention of Boeung Kak and Borei Keila activists Yorm Bopha and Tim Sakmony.

“We strongly urge donors not to endorse and reward the actions of the RGC through a large-scale injection of new funds, but instead tomake a coordinated and public condemnation of the government’s increasing human rights abuses,” it read.

Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, said foreign donors aiding Cambodia’s development had a responsibility to raise human rights issues “whenever they meet with Cambodian officials”.

“We’ve stressed to the donors the importance on focusing [today] on human rights defenders who are facing prosecution for expressing their views – Mam Sonando, the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila activists – these are examples of what happens when people challenge the government. What we want is a unified stance across the board, in solid concrete, saying: ‘You should not do that.’

“In a meeting like this, it’s very hard to put something on the agenda, but it is possible to raise specific cases and these represent bigger issues – ELCs and land demarcation, human rights defenders … If the donors hang together, the government may ultimately listen to them.”

But Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak said the CDCF was a “smoke screen”and he was not confident NGOs’ calls would be answered today.

“The government and the donors know the agenda, and most of the things are agreed to beforehand by various working groups,” he said.

“There could still be the opportunity to push a few things through; we need a few people in the donor community to ... shake it up a bit.”