U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who is on his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia, met with opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Tuesday ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior government officials Wednesday.
Reached by telephone after the meeting last night, Mr. Rainsy—who earlier in the day was questioned at Phnom Penh Municipal Court for allegedly inciting people to protest—described the meeting as “constructive.”
Community, rights and election group representatives and students also met with Mr. Subedi in a meeting in Phnom Penh on Monday.
Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair elections in Cambodia, said he shared his concerns with Mr. Subedi about electoral reform—something Mr. Subedi specifically focused on during his December 2011 mission to Cambodia—and a subject he has raised in his reports to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said he spoke to Mr. Subedi on Monday about the positives and negatives in the wake of the July 28 national election.
“I think there has been a lot of restraint and some positives…we’ve been seeing more people taking to the streets in a peaceful manner and protests have been mostly peaceful and the government has been reacting with immense restraint,” Mr. Virak said.
“But I also raised the issue of crackdowns and…we must denounce violence by all sides and we must ask the government to investigate violence in the past six months,” he added.
