(Photo: SRP)
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
An unruly gathering of opposition supporters on Friday caused Phnom Penh Municipal Court to postpone a verdict in the defamation case against Mu Sochua until August.
Mu Sochua is being sued by Prime Minister Hun Sen for defamation, following her own suit against the premier in April. The municipal court was swarmed with more than 200 supporters Friday, while observers from the diplomatic and civil rights communities looked on.
Mu Sochua was present for the proceedings, which lasted all day, but she was unable to find a lawyer, after her first counsel resigned in the face of his own defamation suit and other attorneys were not found. Mu Sochua invoked her right to remain silent, saying in a statement to the court she was being denied a right to a fair trial.
“This right can only be guaranteed when I, as the accused, am judged by an independent and impartial tribunal,” she told the court.
Mu Sochua had sued Hun Sen for allegedly derogatory remarks made during the 2008 election campaign, but the court dropped the suit against her while maintaining the countersuit of Hun Sen. She had her parliamentary immunity suspended by the National Assembly in June.
“As an elected representative of the people, as a woman verbally attacked in public, I seek justice,” she said in her statement to the court. “The decision you are about to make will require conscience, impartiality and your own determination to stay above all forms of political pressure. If your choice is dictated by those who use the court as an instrument to silence their critics, then there can be no justice. There can be no rule of law.”
Hun Sen’s lawyer, Ky Tech, demanded the court punish Mu Sochua “according to the law” and fine her 10 million riel, about $2,500.
Court prosecutor Sok Kalyan said the evidence showed Mu Sochua was guilty of defaming Hun Sen and the law called for a fine of up to that amount. The law did not call for a prison term, he said.
At the end of the day, court judges said they would announce a verdict Aug. 4.
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Labels: CPP silencing the opposition voice | Hun Sen's travesty of justice | Mu Sochua vs Hun Sen
Police Wrap Up Training in Artifact Protection
By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
24 July 2009
The US FBI and national police on Friday wrapped up four days of training to prevent the theft of cultural artifacts.
The training included speakers from the US National Parks Service and State Department. The US supplied $12,000 worth of computer and electronic equipment “designed to assist the force with the apprehension and prosecution of those involved with the theft of artifacts and relics,” the US Embassy said in a statement.
Police underwent two days of training in Siem Reap, the gateway city to the temples of Angkor Wat, and two days of training in Phnom Penh. This was the second of two planned training courses.
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Labels: Artifact protection | FBI training of Cambodian cops
Economy Brings Worries of Exploitation
By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
24 July 2009
Human trafficking and sexual and labor exploitation are likely to become more prevalent in Cambodia as the economic crisis continues, senior officials and UN observers say.
The economic slowdown is limiting job prospects, forcing some workers to look abroad, where they could be in danger of exploitation, while others could fall into dangerous entertainment sectors.
“Because of the world’s economy has changed, it will cause trafficking more severely,” Ing Kantha Phavy, Minister of Women’s Affairs, told a recent conference. “Whenever people can’t find a job in their home country, they will decide to go abroad with high risk and insecurity. That will lead to exploitation.”
Cambodia typically legally sends between 7,000 and 8,000 workers abroad each year, mostly to Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea. An estimated 20,000 Cambodians work in Thailand illegally, in construction, tourism and domestic services. Remittances for these workers add up to $300 million per year.
But with the increase in joblessness this year, those numbers are climbing, by as much as 30 percent from January to April, officials say.
The financial crisis has also caused a small bump in the number of workers in the entertainment industry, around 3 percent, according to the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, or UNIAP.
UNIAP recently surveyed 357 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” UNIAP’s regional manager, Matthew Friedman, said. “The job losses will probably lead to more exploitative, trafficking in the future.”
The agency is concerned the lower employment numbers will lead to less security and more exploitation over time, he said.
Cambodia remains a source and destination for international and internal human trafficking. Women and children are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia for labor and sexual exploitation—or they are moved around the country, feeding demand in cities like
Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Preah Sihanouk province.
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Labels: Economic impact on Cambodia | Increasing human trafficking and labor expoitation | UNIAP
RIP Free expression under Hun Xen's autocratic regime
Free Expression Severely Deteriorated: Groups
By Im Sothearith, VOA, Khmer
Original report from Washington
24 July 2009
Freedoms of expression and the press have been seriously damaged in recent months, which can have a ripple effect throughout the region, rights groups and analysts said recently.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance and other concerned groups sent an open letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen July 17, denouncing a “rapidly and palpably deteriorating environment for free expression in Cambodia.”
The open letter, signed by 12 advocacy groups from across Southeast Asia, marked concerns that political speech and press freedom have been severely restricted after harsh attacks against parliamentarians, advocates, lawyers and journalists over the past year.
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