Now that rights groups and government officials have had a chance to read the US State Department’s report on human rights in Cambodia, criticisms have surfaced that the report may have been too soft on the government.
Amnesty International in a recent testimony before the US Congress said it misses opportunities to criticize the government’s reluctance to hold a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders.
“While the report is forthright about the weak and corrupt judiciary in Cambodia, it does not highlight the many legal problems with prosecuting the Khmer Rouge leaders…“ testified the group’s interim legislative office supervisor, Carlos Salinas.
In addition to a soft stance on the upcoming trial, certain points in the report also paint too “rosy” a picture in its assessment of human rights violations in the last year, said Sara Colm, a Cambodia-based representative of Human Rights Watch Asia.
“There were points when they downplayed the situation,” she said, including the report’s mention of a crackdown on courts that resulted in an order from Prime Minister Hun Sen to re-arrest criminals thought to have been released by corrupt courts.
Colm said the report did not emphasize enough that this was “a serious intervention into the judicial branch by the executive.”
Moreover, when the report mentions an amendment the government made to “Article 51” that requires notification of—rather than approval from—government bosses before their employees are punished did not “result in any significant increase” in prosecutions of government officials, she said.
Yet the US report indicated the amendment might have helped curb what rights workers term a “culture of impunity,” where government officials seemingly go unpunished for their crimes.
Colm said the report also downplayed what her organization calculated as hundreds of cases of torture in Cambodia. But US ambassador to Cambodia, Kent Wiedemann said critics were “splitting hairs.”
“This report is as close to the most accurate, double-checked and verified analysis…that we can do,” he said. “Look, one torture, one death in this country is too many. We have to rely on our own, first-hand or verified, second-hand information.”
Government officials, including one human rights specialist, said the report was “pragmatic” and that it gave realistic critiques.
The overall report contains analysis of many other countries and is posted on the Internet at http://www.state.gov. The China section caused a flurry of angry responses from Chinese officials, saying the US should mind its own business.
Local diplomats suggested the US was extra cautious this year in Cambodia because the US is considering resuming direct aid to Cambodia and it is in a politically sensitive presidential election year.
