Thursday, 13 March 2008

U.S. says human rights record in Cambodia remains poor+

AOL news
2008-03-12

PHNOM PENH, March 12 (Kyodo) - The United States claimed in a report released Wednesday that Cambodia's human rights record remains poor, although there has been a positive turn.

"The country's human rights record remained poor, but 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," it said in the report.

Among the reasons cited for Cambodia's poor rating were security forces that act with impunity, arbitrary arrests, growing concerns over land disputes and forced evictions, endemic corruption, and the remaining challenge of addressing trafficking in women and children, it added.

Om Yin Tieng, chief of the government's human rights commission and adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, refused to give any comment on the report released by the U.S. Embassy, saying he needs to thoroughly study it first.

In a separate report released last week, the Asian Human Rights Commission said during the whole of 2007, criminal lawsuits and arrests in the context of political repression remained a concerning issue in Cambodia.

"Land grabbing was rife and remains one of the serious economic and human rights issues in the country today," it added.

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