AP
2008-03-13
PHNOM PENH, March 13 (Kyodo) - Cambodia on Thursday rejected claims by the United States made in a report that the Southeast Asian country's human rights record remains poor.
"The Royal Government of Cambodia totally rejects the U.S. Department of State's 'Country Report on Human Rights Practices' on Cambodia, which entirely contradicts the true reality in the country," the government said in a statement.
"We have found that many of the accusations contained in this report do not even exist or are simply overly exaggerated," it added.
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh released a report Wednesday saying Cambodia's human rights record last year generally "remained poor.
"But the report "noted as a positive turn an unprecedented march and rally permitted in Phnom Penh on December 10 in observance of Human Rights Day and the arrest and detention of five former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime charged by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia with crimes against humanity."
Among the reasons cited for Cambodia's poor rating were security forces that act with impunity, arbitrary arrests, forced evictions, endemic corruption, and trafficking in women and children.
But the Cambodian government said the human rights situation in the country "is definitely and objectively much better than many countries in ASEAN, even in the region.
"In a report released last week, the Asian Human Rights Commission said criminal lawsuits and arrests in the context of political repression in Cambodia remained an issue of concern last year.
"Land grabbing was rife and remains one of the serious economic and human rights issues in the country today," it said.
2008-03-13
PHNOM PENH, March 13 (Kyodo) - Cambodia on Thursday rejected claims by the United States made in a report that the Southeast Asian country's human rights record remains poor.
"The Royal Government of Cambodia totally rejects the U.S. Department of State's 'Country Report on Human Rights Practices' on Cambodia, which entirely contradicts the true reality in the country," the government said in a statement.
"We have found that many of the accusations contained in this report do not even exist or are simply overly exaggerated," it added.
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh released a report Wednesday saying Cambodia's human rights record last year generally "remained poor.
"But the report "noted as a positive turn an unprecedented march and rally permitted in Phnom Penh on December 10 in observance of Human Rights Day and the arrest and detention of five former senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime charged by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia with crimes against humanity."
Among the reasons cited for Cambodia's poor rating were security forces that act with impunity, arbitrary arrests, forced evictions, endemic corruption, and trafficking in women and children.
But the Cambodian government said the human rights situation in the country "is definitely and objectively much better than many countries in ASEAN, even in the region.
"In a report released last week, the Asian Human Rights Commission said criminal lawsuits and arrests in the context of political repression in Cambodia remained an issue of concern last year.
"Land grabbing was rife and remains one of the serious economic and human rights issues in the country today," it said.
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