A secretary of state at the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday defended the government's widely criticized imprisonment of 11 activists and an opposition official during a closed-door meeting with a visiting U.S Diplomat.
Daniael Russel, an assistant secretary of state at the U.S government's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, visited Cambodia yesterday and met with Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary of State Ouch Borith.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the ministry in Phnom Penh, Mr. Borith said he told Mr. Russel that the media had communicated a biased representation of the November arrests of 11 activists.
"He only knows about this issue through the media," Mr. Borith said. "The media reported that they were arrested after protesting over land issues for expressing themselves freely....This is not a good reputation for Cambodia."
Seven of the activists were arrested after they placed a bed frame in the road in front of the Phnom Penh City Hall to protest flooding of their Boeng Kak neighborhood. The other four were arrested the next day while protesting outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the detention of the first seven.
All 11 were summarily tried and convicted, and sentenced to a year in prison. On Monday, the Appeal Court upheld the convictions, but reduced the sentences for nine of the activists.
Mr. Borith told reporters that police were justified in arresting the activists because they had been affecting public order.
"Cambodia was enforcing the law because those people were causing traffic problems, affecting....social public order," he said.
Mr. Borith also defended the imprisonment of the CNRP official Meach Sovannara, who was also arrested in November over his role in a violent clash that erupted during a protest on July 15 that left a number of district security guard with injuries.
"I don't understand," Mr. Borith said of the criticism surrounding Mr. Sovannara's arrest. "We had precise evidence to arrest him. You saw what happened to our security guards....is that right?"
In a speech at an event organized by the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace yesterday, a transcript of which was posted to the U.S. State Department's website, Mr. Russel did not directly address the wave of arrests but said that Cambodians wanted an impartial justice system.
"They want the government to do more to clamp down on corruption and increase respect for human rights," he said.
"We are hopeful that Cambodia's leaders will work together to boost efforts in these areas."

Mr. Borith told reporters that police were justified in arresting the activists because they had been affecting public order. "Cambodia was enforcing the law because those people were causing traffic problems, affecting....social public order,"

Mr. Borith also defended the imprisonment of the CNRP official Meach Sovannara, who was also arrested in November over his role in a violent clash that erupted during a protest on July 15 that left a number of district security guard with injuries. "I don't understand," Mr. Borith said of the criticism surrounding Mr. Sovannara's arrest. "We had precise evidence to arrest him. You saw what happened to our security guards....is that right?"

...after a bystander was killed at the Kbal Thnal flyover in September during clashes between irate motorists and security forces at a roadblock set up in order to block opposition party demonstrators.

That death was the first of at least six protest-related fatalities between September (2013) and early January (2014), but Somony denied that the exclusion had anything to do with the current political climate

flying chicken wrote:Didnt HE's wife Bun Rany the Cambodian director of Red Cross Cambodia paid the injured policemen something like 20K applaud their bravery during that protest? I dont see the point where the US govt still continues sticking their nose into Cambodian internal politics where nothing hardly work out over the last decade (other than for aids money) and knowing that Cambodia preferred ally is China. No money no friend.

Following reports of endemic corruption and suppression of dissent in the Kingdom last year, Cambodia was once again classified by global watchdog Freedom House as "not free" in a general bleak report yesterday...

Anonymouse wrote:Seems that someone at the Phnom Penh Post is reading my thoughts.

By Sarah Taguiam;
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/c ... ree-report

Following reports of endemic corruption and suppression of dissent in the Kingdom last year, Cambodia was once again classified by global watchdog Freedom House as "not free" in a general bleak report yesterday...

Why it takes a watchdog to speak out about the truth is disgraceful.

BOFH wrote:

Anonymouse wrote:Seems that someone at the Phnom Penh Post is reading my thoughts.

By Sarah Taguiam;
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/c ... ree-report

Following reports of endemic corruption and suppression of dissent in the Kingdom last year, Cambodia was once again classified by global watchdog Freedom House as "not free" in a general bleak report yesterday...

Why it takes a watchdog to speak out about the truth is disgraceful.

Well, aren't you just a tad narcissistic? Freedom House issues their report every year.

taabarang wrote:Anonymouse posted, "Yet when the tables are turned it is labelled as public disorder. The modern Cambodia is not a society of put up and shut up. The people know what democracy is, thanks to Thailand, Hong Kong and so on"

If Thailand is the best example of democracy you can find your idea of democracy and mine are entirely different. What exactly did Cambodia learn about democracy from Thailand.

Anonymouse wrote:I am guessing you already know where I am typing this from, and which unit I am sat at.