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| Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson |
Boris Johnson to face calls to tackle Cambodia over human rights crisis
The Telegraph | 29 October 2017
Boris Johnson is to face calls to slap targeted sanctions on the Southeast Asian nation amid its worst human rights crisis in two years.
Mu Sochua, 63, deputy leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), fled her homeland in early October after being publicly denounced by Prime Minister Hun Sen as an “urban terrorist”.
Cambodia, visited by about 159,000 Brits every year, and known for its stunning Angkor Wat temple complex, is spiralling towards dictatorship after CNRP leader, Kem Sokha, was jailed in September and independent media forced to close.
In an interview last week, Mrs Sochua said she was threatened with arrest after plain clothes policemen recorded her conversations on the campaign trail. She was forced to escape in under 24 hours.
“I spoke about how hard it is to fight for democracy and justice. It’s the same type of fight that Martin Luther King in America fought for civil rights,” she said.
“I compared dictatorship with democracy and at the end of the day, democracy prevails. The prime minister was not happy with that.”
Mrs Sochua is now lobbying the international community to impose punitive measures, including a travel ban on high-profile officials.
Her visit to Britain will follow trips to Germany and Italy, but Western nations have been slow to act amid heavy Chinese investment in Cambodia.
“A statement alone is not enough. Hun Sen has read so many statements, he probably keeps them in the bin,” she said.
Britain is one of Cambodia’s most important trading partners, importing roughly $1 billion [£760m] worth of products in 2016. It has significant investments in infrastructure, retail and financial services.
In September, Minister for Asia, Mark Field, expressed “great concern” about Mr Sokha’s arrest and the enforced closure of the Cambodia Daily.
“I urge the Cambodian government to take immediate steps to restore prospects for a free and fair national election in 2018,” he said. An FCO spokesman added at the weekend that the question of sanctions was being closely monitored.
Human Rights Watch accused London of being “unforgivably silent” over sanctions despite signing the 1991 Paris Peace Accords which pledge to uphold multi-party democracy.
London should make clear that if the CNRP was dissolved that it “will ensure the EU withdraws all funding and technical assistance for next July’s national election because there’s no way it can be free and fair,” said Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director.
Following a turbulent history when the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot killed 1-3 million in a horrific genocide in the 1970s, Cambodia has functioned nominally as a democracy since 1993, despite accusations of widespread government intimidation.
The current crackdown appears to be motivated by Hun Sen’s desire to cling to power after a surge in the CNRP’s popularity.
Mrs Sochua said the atmosphere of fear had become suffocating. This will be her second exile after first fleeing the country in 1972, aged 18, as the Vietnam war spread.
“It took me 18 years to get back to Cambodia. I am now 63, I don’t have 18 years ahead of me,” she said.
Sweden’s recent threat to revise its relations with Phnom Penh gave her hope, she said. US Senator Ted Cruz also has warned he would push for a travel ban on top officials if Mr Sokha was not released.
Hun Sen’s spokesman said the prime minister was unfazed. “He doesn’t have wealth abroad and there is no necessity for him to step on US soil,” he said.
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