Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Groups Highlight Rights Concerns

Rights groups plan protests ahead of the Cambodian foreign minister’s visit to Washington.
RFA
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong speaks with reporters at the airport in Phnom Penh, June 10, 2012.
Updated at 12:30 p.m. EST on 2012-06-14
Rights groups have highlighted deteriorating human rights, government intimidation of the opposition, and land grabs in Cambodia on the eve of a visit by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong to Washington for talks with his counterpart U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The one-day visit will take place on Tuesday, during which Hor Namhong is expected to discuss with Clinton and other senior U.S. officials issues related to security in Asia, regional use of the Mekong River, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Cambodia is chairing this year.

He will also request the U.S. to cancel Cambodia’s debt of around U.S. $440 million, including interest, which it incurred through agricultural aid during the Lon Nol era of the 1970s. Prime Minister Hun Sen has called the loan Cambodia’s “dirty debt.”

In a petition addressed to Clinton, Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy and Khmer People’s Network for Cambodia wrote that human rights conditions in Cambodia have gone “from bad to worse” over the last two decades.

“Initially, the victims of human rights violations had mostly been people who Prime Minister Hun Sen, his wife, and his associates considered potential opponents, competitors, detractors, environmentalists, unionists, and human rights defenders,” the statement read.

“Now, they have widened their focus to include land owners, members of their families, and those who sympathize with their causes.”

Rights petition

The groups requested Clinton push the Cambodian government to reinstate parliamentary immunity to three opposition lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to allow the return of self-exiled party leader Sam Rainsy, and to reform the National Election Committee ahead of parliamentary polls slated for mid-2013.

Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France and is facing a two-year jail sentence for uprooting markers at the border with Vietnam in 2009, if he returns. He has said that he plans to return for the elections to lead the opposition against the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

Hor Namhong said Sunday that the government is considering revoking Sam Rainsy’s passport, though an SRP spokesperson said that as a legal citizen of France, the opposition leader can travel on his French passport and his overseas plans should not be affected.

The U.S.-rights groups also pointed to a longstanding dispute between tens of thousands of residents of capital Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake district who were evicted from their homes, or are in risk of losing them, and developers looking to turn the area into a luxury residential and shopping center.

Last month, a Phnom Penh court ordered 13 women jailed for between one year and two and a half years for their part in protests which authorities said “encroached on private property” on the site. The rights groups called in the petition to Clinton for their release and the release of two others detained on similar charges.

The rights groups have also asked for U.S. assistance to “ensure the full independence of the judiciary branch of the government,” which opposition lawmakers have called a “political tool” of the CPP. The top officials of Cambodia’s Supreme Court are CPP members.

The visit has brought criticism from Cambodian rights groups who say they will hold protests in front of the U.S. State Department on Tuesday during the meeting between the two diplomats.
mu-sochua-rfa-400.jpg
Mu Sochua prepares for an interview at RFA, June 8, 2012. Credit: RFA
Aid suspension

SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua, who is visiting the U.S., said she held talks with Clinton Monday in Boston, Massachusetts, at the inauguration of a two-week women’s leadership conference.

She said in her talks, she asked Washington to suspend any military aid to Cambodia as the authorities in Phnom Penh had used the armed forces to evict people in land disputes.

Mu Sochua also sought Clinton’s help to bring about the release of the 15 Boeung Kak  villagers being held at Prey Sar prison.

“I requested her [Clinton] to suspend military aid to Cambodia,” she told RFA after the talks. 

“Madame Hillary Clinton has promised me that she would seek a solution to make sure women’s rights will be respected and put an end to violence.”

Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy coordinator Saunora Prom said he believes pressure by the U.S. could help to influence Cambodia on the issues.

“I am confident that the U.S. will resolve these issues because they are in the U.S. interest,” he said.

Mekong initiative

Speaking to reporters before he left Phnom Penh Sunday, Hor Namhong said that besides raising Cambodian issues with Clinton, he will also discuss issues linked to ASEAN and the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI).

The LMI was created following a 2009 meeting between Clinton and the foreign ministers of the Lower Mekong countries, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, in order to enhance cooperation in the areas of environment, health, education, and infrastructure development.

Hor Namhong said Sunday that he expects Tuesday’s meeting with Clinton to yield improved relations between the two nations and their role in the Asian region.

“The U.S. and Cambodia, we have many cooperation forums … we will also talk about regional issues,” he said. 

He said he hoped that the U.S. would consider cancelation of Cambodia’s debt, despite earlier talks where the two sides had failed to see eye-to-eye.

“We have negotiated many times already, and we hope that we will do whatever we can for the two parties [U.S. and Cambodia] to reach an agreement,” he said.

Clinton is due to visit Phnom Penh in mid-July to participate in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting.

Reported by Samean Yun and Sok Serey for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Laos vows to address Mekong dam fears

Laos has pledged to stall construction of a controversial multi-billion dollar dam on the Mekong river until all its neighbours' environmental concerns have been answered, state media said Friday.
A Laotian fisherman casts his net in the Mekong river in May 2012. Laos has pledged to stall construction of a controversial multi-billion dollar dam on the Mekong river until all its neighbours' environmental concerns have been answered, state media said Friday.
The $3.8 billion hydroelectric project at Xayaburi, led by Thai group CH Karnchang, has sharply divided the four Mekong nations -- Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand -- who rely on the river system for fish and irrigation.
"The Xayaburi project will develop one of the most transparent and modern dams in the world," Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Viraphonh Viravong told state-run Vientiane Times.
He promised that construction would not start until all the concerns of neighboring countries have been resolved.
The minister said changes to the project will address the two major issues -- fish migration and sediment flow -- by including a passage to allow 85 percent of fish to travel along the river and a "flushing system" to prevent sediment build up.
The mooted 1,260 megawatt dam, the first of 11 on the key waterway, has become a symbol of the potential risks of hydropower projects in the region and the Mekong nations have tussled over its varying impact.
Communist Laos, one the most world's under-developed nations, believes the dam will help it become "the battery of Southeast Asia" by selling electricity to its richer neighbours.
Thailand has agreed to buy most of the electricity generated by the project, but Cambodia and Vietnam fear the dam could decimate their farming and fishing industries.
Environmentalists say the dam would be disastrous for the 60 million people who depend on the river for transportation, food and economy.
They fear Mekong fish species will become endangered as vital nutrients are trapped and dozens of species are prevented from swimming upstream to mating grounds.
Campaign group International Rivers said the Thai firm had already "undertaken significant resettlement and construction activities", despite calls from the four-nation Mekong River Commission to halt work until further impact studies have been carried out.
Laos rejects the accusations and has invited neighbouring governments to visit the project site.

Laos protests innocence as Mekong concerns snowball

Laos protests innocence as Mekong concerns snowball

Date: 
 July 10, 2012
crossing the mekong
The deputy energy minister of Laos denies his country has ignored agreements with neighboring countries over the building of the controversial USD3.5 billion Xayaburi hydropower dam on the Mekong River.
The project – and others planned for the Mekong and its tributaries – has come under fire from activists, people living along the river and some neighboring countries because of what they saw as an inadequate environmental impact assessment.
Late last month the NGO, International Rivers, published an investigative report saying that Thai construction firm Ch Karnchang Pcl, the main developer of the 1,260 megawatt dam, was continuing with work on the project despite a Laos agreement last December to suspend it.
The deputy minister, Viraphonh Viravong, argues the government had kept its promise, although he admits geological sub-surface surveying was being carried out in the Mekong valley.
"We plan to invite development partners and Mekong River Commission member countries to visit the project site so they can see the actual development for themselves," he told the Vientiane Times daily. "The Xayaburi project will develop one of the most transparent and modern dams in the world."
Another study published in January warned that if 78 hydropower dams scheduled for construction along tributaries of the Mekong River go ahead, they will permanently block critical fish migration routes, with "catastrophic" implications for the world's biggest inland fishery. The authors, writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that their paper was the first strategic analysis of these tributary dams.
Around 60 million people in China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam live along the banks of the Mekong and tributaries and many rely on fish for their livelihoods and food.
Mekong map of dams
The authors made a detailed study of 27 dams where construction is planned between 2015 and 2030, to better understand implications for fish biodiversity, food security and hydropower in the Mekong River Basin. They found that the facilities would stop fish from migrating "between the river's downstream floodplains and upstream tributaries".
Co-author Eric Baran, a scientist at the WorldFish Center in Cambodia, said the lower part of the Mekong basin produces nearly 770,000 tons of fish per year – as much as the combined freshwater catch of Europe and South America.
He said the "ambitious development agendas" of countries in the Mekong region, which include plans for rapid dam construction, could threaten the food security and livelihoods of 70 per cent of the basin's residents.
Xayaburi and other planned projects to dam the mainstream of the Mekong are subject to review by the Mekong River Commission, an advisory body founded by the four lower Mekong countries in 1995 to promote sustainable development along the river.
Plans to dam the Mekong's tributaries, however, are not currently subject to multilateral scruitiny. While most of the planned tributary dams will be built in Laos, the authors of the study say effects on fish biodiversity and availability would also be felt in Cambodia and Vietnam.
In addition, the Lower Se San 2, a controversial dam planned for a tributary in Cambodia, would have "highly detrimental" impacts on fish productivity, and could increase to 85 the number of endangered of fish species in the basin system — up from 9 during the last count in 2000 — and similarly increase the number of critically endangered species to 6, up from 1 in 2000.