Calling the political climate in Cambodia “tense,” UN human rights envoy Peter Leuprecht concluded his eighth visit to the country by expressing concern about the Jan 29 anti-Thai riots as well as last month’s killing of Funcinpec senior adviser Om Radsady.
“I very much hope that the highly regrettable assassination of Om Radsady is not a sign of a new escalation of violence before the election,” Leuprecht said Tuesday. “I sincerely hope that the authorities will do everything in their power to prevent such acts of violence…. These cases must be seriously investigated and those responsible punished.”
Leuprecht said he received assurances from co-Minister of Interior Sar Kheng that the ministry will cooperate with the UN human rights office here to look into such acts of violence before the election.
During his weeklong visit, Leuprecht met with King Norodom Sihanouk as well as Minister of Cabinet Sok An, National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong and CPP Secretary-General Say Chhum.
No official, however, could offer a detailed explanation for the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh, Leuprecht said.
“Nobody had a clear answer to my questions [regarding the riots]. What I heard was mainly speculation on what occurred and what the underlying reasons are,” he said. “But virtually everybody expressed shock over what had occurred and at the fact that the violent crowd had not been controlled by police.”
He said none of the officials he spoke to believed that the Jan 29 demonstrations were spontaneous, and many officials inferred that there was some “manipulator” behind the riots. However, no one could identify who that manipulator was, he said.
Leuprecht spent most of the news conference talking about land and forestry issues.
Leuprecht briefly visited Stung Treng province, where he met with villagers who have been seriously affected by logging in forestry concessions.
