U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, William Heidt, meets with members of the Cambodian community, during a community forum Monday at La Lune Imperial Restaurant. Long Beach Calif., Monday, July ,11, 2016. (Photo by Stephen Carr / Daily Breeze)

U.S. ambassador to Cambodia visits Long Beach this week

Long Beach Press Telegram | 11 July 2016

The newest U.S. ambassador to Cambodia is visiting Long Beach, which is home to the largest population of Cambodians outside their native country – many of whom are still connected to their homeland.

Thousands of Cambodians immigrated to Long Beach in the mid-1970s during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, a Communist regime that killed nearly two million people. Susana Sngiem, executive director at United Cambodian Community, said the visit from Ambassador William Heidt is part of an annual trip to Long Beach.

The UCC, a nonprofit established in 1977 to help refugees and their families, has been organizing community forums for the ambassador’s office for the past three years, Sngiem said.

“Each year, the U.S ambassador takes his time to learn about the Cambodian community here,” she said, “but he also comes to hear concerns from residents about what’s happening in Cambodia.”

The timing of Heidt’s visit coincides with a pending House resolution calling for basic human rights in Cambodia, including a push for free and fair elections in 2017 and 2018.

The resolution, co-authored by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, notes that under the 30-year rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen, political freedom in Cambodia has been under increasing threat. Sen was a former Khmer Rouge commander.

“I am deeply concerned that there is an accelerated deterioration of democracy and human rights in Cambodia,” Lowenthal said in a statement. “This resolution states, unequivocally, that the United States supports an environment in Cambodia that not only respects political opposition, but both human rights and the rule of the law.”

The resolution also condemns all forms of political violence in Cambodia and urges the cessation of ongoing human rights violations by the Cambodian government. It advanced to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week.

Keith Higginbotham, spokesman for Congressman Lowenthal, said the local community has shown a lot of support for the resolution.

“People here still have very deep connections to Cambodia,” he said. “Some of them have family that lives there, so what happens there is very visceral to them.”

Earlier this year, Hun Manet, a lieutenant general and eldest son of Cambodia’s prime minister,cancelled his attendance in a local Cambodian New Year Parade amid fiery backlash from the community, whose members urged the City Council to denounce Manet’s visit.

• Video: Protestors gather at City Hall

More than 200 protestors descended on City Hall in March upon learning of Manet’s scheduled appearance, many of them wearing sunglasses and other face coverings, saying they feared the Cambodian government would recognize them.

Manet’s father, head of the Cambodian People’s Party, has ruled as prime minister of Cambodia for 31 years. The organization Human Rights Watch says Sen rules through “politically motivated violence.”

Lowenthal’s call for a free and fair election follows a highly criticized 2013 general election in which the country’s main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, made historic gains but continued to face harassment from the Cambodian government. Since the election, opposition party members have been expelled from parliament, intimidated and attacked in the streets of Phnom Penh, according to Lowenthal’s office.

The resolution is sponsored by 17 House members, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Congressman Steve Chabot, who, along with Lowenthal, is a founding member and co-chair of the Congressional Cambodian Caucus.