Leaders of Cambodia’s main opposition group said Tuesday that they will reject the results of upcoming national elections if the ruling party, which is widely expected to win, continues to disrupt campaigning activities of opposition party members.

Nhem Ponharith, spokesman for the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) opposition coalition, told RFA’s Khmer Service that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) was causing repeated “disturbances” that were hindering his party’s campaign to compete for votes.

“Political disturbances, including preventing us from disseminating information about the CNRP’s platform, and provoking all kinds of additional problems will not allow us to have a free campaign,” he said, adding that his party would not recognize the July 28 election results if the harassment did not stop.

The CNRP also released a statement Tuesday acknowledging that the party will participate in the upcoming election, but calling for a “free and fair election and an independent National Election Commission (NEC).”

Late last year, Surya Subedi, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, said the NEC lacks independent and autonomous status in the constitutional and legal structure of Cambodia, as well as its own independent budget allocated by the National Assembly, or parliament.

Responding to the CNRP’s claims, NEC Secretary General Tep Nytha said Tuesday that by registering for the polls, the opposition had “already signed and acknowledged that they will compete in the election and recognize the election results.”

He also referred to a statement issued on Sunday by Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni assuring the public that they would not be intimidated by either individuals or political parties ahead of the polls, which he said would be in line with “democratic principles.”

“The King’s royal message assures the voters to vote without fear. This is a meaningful message,” he said, adding that the NEC would ensure that the public was made aware of the statement.

Culture of harassment

Ahead of the elections, rights groups and nongovernmental organizations have accused the CPP of various attacks on the opposition, which they say have become increasingly frequent in the last five months, and particularly in May.

Last week, 10 Cambodian NGOs said in a statement that they are concerned with the country’s pre-election environment because of actions taken by the ruling party, including local authorities and village chiefs threatening supporters of non-CPP parties and routinely preventing them from joining opposition rallies.

The group also cited instances where opposition party logos were destroyed and CPP agents were found to be buying votes from local communities.
Committee for Fair and Free Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) Director Koul Panha, whose organization was among those who signed last week’s statement by the NGOs, said Tuesday that voters had become increasingly aware of their political rights and how they are being threatened.

“We are still concerned. There are threats and intimidation against the opposition party,” he said.

“Now [the ruling party] is filing lawsuits against the opposition party, which is a threat to their security.”

At least two lawsuits have been filed against acting CNRP President Kem Sokha for allegedly saying earlier this month that a prison in Phnom Penh run by the notorious Khmer Rouge regime had been faked by Vietnam—a charge the CNRP has denied.

His purported comments prompted a mass protest against him in what opposition members said was a rally staged by the ruling party.

Immediately following Kem Sokha’s alleged comments, the CPP-dominated National Assembly pushed through a law making it a crime to deny Khmer Rouge atrocities, which the ruling party later denied was aimed at the opposition leader.

Twenty-nine opposition party members could not attend the voting session as they were dismissed by the National Assembly’s CPP-run permanent committee for leaving their original parties—the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party—to form the CNRP coalition.

Last week, Hun Sen also accused Kem Sokha of paying for sex with an under-aged girl, although he did not provide any evidence to back his claim.

Lawmaker petition

Meanwhile, the CNRP on Tuesday began gathering thumbprints from voters for a petition to the National Assembly calling for the reinstatement of their 29 lawmakers dismissed earlier this month.

“We want to gather 20,000 thumbprints for the National Assembly to invalidate its decision,” CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann told RFA, adding that the party had already collected 3,000 thumbprints.

CPP lawmaker and Foreign Affairs Commission chairman Chheang Von dismissed the petition, calling the action “undemocratic,” and saying that the National Assembly would not consider the opposition’s request.

Last week, Comfrel’s Koul Panha called on the Cambodian government to reinstate the dismissed lawmakers and to remain neutral in all political matters.

“The assembly doesn’t work according to the principle of democratic pluralism. At this point, only the CPP is controlling the National Assembly,” he said, adding that “all major state institutions are under CPP control.”

He accused the government of “destroying efforts to build a good democracy in Cambodia” by trying to get rid of the country’s opposition parties.

Reported by Tin Zakariya and Morm Moniroth for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

More than 2,000 villagers in northern Laos being resettled to make way for the controversial Xayaburi hydropower dam on the Mekong River will receive financial assistance for one year, officials said, amid concerns about how the uprooted villagers will sustain their livelihoods in their new homes.

Some 900 villagers have already been moved as construction proceeds on the dam, which environmentalists say will directly affect the livelihoods of 200,000 people who rely on the river while threatening food security for millions more in the region.

Lao government officials have previously said the 2,184 villagers being relocated for the project, who have relied on fish from the river and riverside gardens, will take an estimated five years to adjust to new livelihoods.

But a local official told RFA that the aid packages totaling 5 million kip (U.S. $670) per family per year to help villagers get a start on their new lives will not last that long.

“The assistance will go on for one year,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The grants are meant to go toward buying items such as fish, piglets, et cetera,” he said, adding that villagers are also encouraged to buy seeds to plant vegetables.

Families will also get a monthly allocation of rice, 20 kilograms (44 pounds) per adult or 15 kilograms (33 pounds) per child, he said.

Under construction

Construction on the U.S. $3.5 billion dam, which will be the first across the main stem of Southeast Asia’s key waterway, resumed last year following delays amid objections from Laos’s neighbors.

Some 450 villagers in Houay Souy village have been resettled to Nar Tor Yai village and another 450 from Pak Nern have been moved to New Pak Nern village.

Officials have promised to provide free electricity to the resettlement villages, but have not said for how long.

The dam’s construction is still in its early stages, with officials saying in March that about 8 percent had been completed.

Once completed in 2018, it will generate electricity mostly for export to Thailand, forming a key part of land-locked Laos’s plans to become the “battery of Southeast Asia” by selling electricity to its neighbors.

Resettlement 'poorly managed'

But environmental groups have said Laos is building the dam without enough study and socioeconomic impacts.

Last year, representatives from global green group International Rivers who visited the first group of a few hundred villagers relocated to Houay Souy in January 2012 said the resettlement process had been “poorly managed” and left villagers without enough food and income.

Resettled villagers could no longer catch fish from the Mekong, grow fruits and vegetables in riverside gardens, or gather forest products and were struggling with the “sudden shock” of their new lifestyles, the group said.  

Green groups and members of riparian communities in Southeast Asia have also raised concerns that the dam has opened the floodgates for further dam development on the Mekong River following a “flawed” decision-making process.

Poyry study

Also last year, a coalition of 14 civil society organizations said assessments on the dam’s impact provided by Finnish consulting firm Poyry Group were in breach of guidelines for multinational companies in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, prompting an investigation by the Finnish government.

On Monday, Finland’s Ministry of Employment and Economy said Poyry did not violate the guidelines, but added that the company had “operated within the confines of a relatively limited assignment” and that it should have paid more attention to the dams’ social and environmental impact.

“Poyry should have addressed the ambiguities related to environmental issues and human rights more clearly in its report to the government of Laos,” the statement said.

In 2011, Poyry had said in a report prepared for the Mekong River Commission (MRC)—an intergovernmental body including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam that manages development along the key waterway—that the dam was “principally in compliance” with the organization’s guidelines.

An earlier study for the MRC by an expert study group had recommended a 10-year moratorium on all Mekong mainstream dams due to a need for further research on their potentially catastrophic impact.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

The mystery behind the disappearance of respected civil society leader Sombath Somphone in Laos has deepened amid claims by rights group Amnesty International that a gunshot was fired as he was taken away from a police post in a pickup truck by unidentified men six months ago.

Amnesty described it as a "concerning" development which has so far not been mentioned in media reports and statements around Sombath’s disappearance on the night of Dec. 15, when police-recorded surveillance video showed him being stopped at a police post in the Lao capital Vientiane.

Lao authorities have reported little progress on the 60-year-old community worker's case amid concerns for his safety by fellow activists—some of whom fear that his disappearance could be tied to his human rights work and that he may have been abducted by security groups linked to the government.

The Lao government has turned down international requests to provide any assistance in the investigations, including a U.S. offer to provide technical help to enhance the quality of some blurry images of the vital video footage on Sombath's last known moments.

Based on Amnesty's new analysis of the closed circuit television (CCTV) footage, a person riding in the back of a motorcycle ahead of a pickup truck carrying Sombath appeared to fire a shot in the air before speeding away from the police post, Amnesty said in its "Caught on Camera" report.

"The apparent gunshot may have been fired as a warning to witnesses, as a signal for the pickup truck carrying Sombath to leave immediately, or for another reason," it said.

"The fact that this man is armed may also explain why Sombath did not struggle to avoid being taken away, although those who know Sombath say that he would have tried to discuss the situation peacefully to find a resolution, rather than resist," the report said.

'Enforced disappearance'

Amnesty and U.S.-based Human Rights Watch believe Sombath is a victim of "enforced disappearance" —defined under international law as the arrest or detention of a person by state officials or their agents followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty, or to reveal the person’s fate or whereabouts.  

“Based on the evidence, the most plausible conclusion is that Sombath Somphone is a victim of an enforced disappearance, for which Lao officials are responsible,” said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

“The fact that Sombath was taken from a police post in the center of Laos’ capital city and that the police there did nothing to resist raises very serious concerns,” he said.

Abbott termed the Lao police’s proposition that the situation was "normal" as "absurd," when considering the facts, including that a gun appears to have been fired at the scene.

"The Lao authorities’ likely involvement in Sombath’s disappearance is further compounded by the failure of the police to conduct thorough investigations, which suggests a cover-up," he said.

The United States meanwhile chided Laos for not adequately responding to repeated inquiries by the international community into Sombath's disappearance.

"This calls into question Laos’ aspiration to become an internationally respected, rule-of-law-based society,” a U.S. State Department official told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said the United States is "highly concerned for Mr. Sombath’s well-being" and called upon the Lao government "to do everything in its power to ensure his immediate return home to his family.”  

Washington also expressed regret over the latest statement on June 7 by the Lao authorities on the investigations into the case, saying it did not provide additional information about the probe.

“We urge the Lao government to pursue all leads to find the whereabouts of Mr. Sombath,” the U.S. State Department official said.

Personal or business reasons?

Four days after Sombath's disappearance, the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement confirming the incidents recorded on the security camera —without any gunshot—but claimed that Sombath had been kidnapped for personal or business reasons.

“After six months, the Lao government’s failure to explain the abduction of a prominent social activist at a police checkpoint or account for his whereabouts raises the gravest concerns for his safety,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“The Lao authorities should realize their cover story is fooling no one, and start telling the truth,” he said.

Human Rights Watch said there was no indication that the Lao authorities had made any follow-up inquiries into the actions recorded on the police security video.

It called on member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Laos belongs, to publicly raise their concerns about Sombath’s "enforced disappearance."

Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to each of the national commissioners of the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) calling for them to investigate the case, saying the group's terms of reference give it the right “to obtain information from ASEAN member states on the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Human Rights Watch said it has not received a response from any of the commissioners or the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

Strong opposition

Brunei and Thailand attempted to raise Sombath’s disappearance for discussion at the AICHR, but those efforts were strongly opposed by other national commissioners, including Laos, sources who were at the meeting told Human Rights Watch.

“The silence of ASEAN’s human rights commission about Sombath’s case reflects this body’s fundamental inability to protect human rights,” Adams said.

“Instead of trying to help the victims of abuses, ASEAN has chosen to hide behind the excuse of ‘non-interference’ and let human rights violations continue with impunity.”

Reported by RFA's Lao Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Cambodia’s Court of Appeals on Friday reduced the prison term of a Phnom Penh housing rights activist but upheld her conviction in a decision her lawyer said would be appealed.   

Yorm Bopha, a campaigner for the rights of evictees from the city’s Boeung Kak Lake community, had one year suspended of her original three-year sentence on charges critics say have been manufactured to silence her.

The 29-year-old activist, who has denied the charges of “intentional violence" leveled against her in connection with a skirmish that broke out near her home last year, will not accept the decision and will take her case to the Supreme Court, her lawyer Chan Socheat told RFA’s Khmer Service after the hearing.

He said that although Friday’s decision will allow her to leave prison earlier than the original sentence, the verdict is still unfair because there was no evidence she had committed a crime.

"The court couldn't link the crime to any suspects," he said.

Yorm Bopha was arrested in September last year in connection with the beating of a suspected thief.

She has been named an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience and local rights groups have said her case smacks of political interference and should be thrown out.

Presiding Judge Taing Sun Lay announced the verdict after a five-hour hearing. Yorm Bopha still has to pay a 20 million riel (U.S. 5,000) fine, which was part of the original sentence. 

Boeung Kak protesters

Boeung Kak evictees, unhappy with the verdict, demonstrated near Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence, calling on him to help them get her released.

The protesters were stopped by police as they marched in the rain toward the residence, though no one was injured in the confrontation.  They did not receive a response from Hun Sen.

Activists from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities have staged regular protests over their land disputes over the past several years since plans emerged for them to be relocated to make way for new commercial developments.

Last month, city officials said the city’s newly appointed governor Pa Socheatvong would re-examine the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila land disputes that rocked his predecessor’s term, but would not intervene in Yorm Bopha’s case as her sentence was up to the courts.

Local rights groups say Yorm Bopha has been targeted for her activism since she emerged at the forefront of a campaign for the release of 13 Boueng Kak women imprisoned last year.

Reported by Tin Zakariya for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Six of Cambodia’s eight political parties registered to contest July national elections have signed agreements with nongovernmental organizations promising to fight graft as part of their campaigns, amid allegations of a culture of “intimidation and threats” by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party towards opposition groups.

The anti-corruption pledges commit the parties to push for an expansion of the current practice of declaration of assets by officials and to give public access to information to expose corruption.

They also call for the implementation of strong law enforcement to prosecute graft offenders, according to Transparency International Cambodia, an anti-corruption watchdog which was present for the signing of the pledges.

The pledges also highlight the need to combat nepotism and bribery in education and for access to government positions.

The pledge signing came as a group of 10 NGOs highlighted a culture of intimidation against Cambodia’s opposition parties in the lead-up to the July 28 elections, alleging that Hun Sen’s Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) was “buying votes” within local communities in order to gain an upper hand in the polls.

Parties that signed the anti-corruption pledges included the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Funcinpec, League for Democracy Party, Republican Democracy Party, Khmer Anti-Poverty Party, and Khmer Economic Development Party.

The CPP and the Cambodian Nationality Party—a smaller opposition party—declined to sign the pledges.

Transparency International applauded the six parties for their commitments to fighting corruption, but called for a comprehensive access-to-information law including whistleblower protection and for improvements to the country’s existing anti-corruption law.

“Cambodia’s key institutions are relatively weak compared to other developed democratic countries and must undergo effective checks and balances,” the group said in a statement.

“Strengthened institutions are also needed to build a fair and democratic system that prevents individuals from abusing power for personal gain and allows the country’s citizens to benefit from a fair system that provides equal opportunities.”

Kol Preap, the group’s executive director, called on the Cambodian people to work closely with their elected representatives to battle corruption.

“We now invite the people to stand together with their leaders to fight the corrosive problem across the country, to monitor politicians’ actions on progress being made and to hold them accountable,” he said.

‘Intimidation and threats’

On Thursday, 10 NGOs—including Cambodian rights group Adhoc, Cambodia Center for Human Rights (CCHR), Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) and Committee for Fair and Free Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel)—said they are concerned with the country’s pre-election environment because of actions taken against the opposition by the ruling CPP.

While the groups have not observed any pre-election violence, they said in a statement that the CPP had grown increasingly hostile toward the opposition in the last five months, and particularly in May, with elections around the corner.

“We are concerned because, in observing the political environment from the national level to the grassroots level, we have seen intimidation and threats against political parties,” Comfrel Director Koul Panha told RFA’s Khmer Service.

According to the NGO statement, local authorities and village chiefs have threatened supporters of non-CPP parties and routinely prevented them from joining opposition rallies.

The group also reported instances where opposition party logos were destroyed and CPP agents were found to be buying votes from local communities.

“NGOs have observed that local authorities are not remaining impartial. They have distributed gifts from the CPP, such as clothing and other materials, which is against the electoral law and regarded as vote buying,” Koul Panha said.

Media bias

He said the NGOs also noticed a “media bias” against the opposition parties, with prominent broadcasting networks CTN, TVK and Bayon TV dedicating more time to Hun Sen and only the independent Beehive Radio—run by political activist Mam Sonando—providing airtime for the opposition.

Koul Panha said that CPP-affiliated media groups have also urged the public to demonstrate against Kem Sokha, the acting president of the country’s main opposition group—the CNRP.

Over the weekend, more than 10,000 people took to the streets of Phnom Penh in what opposition members said was a rally staged by the ruling party against Kem Sokha for allegedly saying that a prison run by the notorious Khmer Rouge regime in the capital had been faked by Vietnam.

Hun Sen on Thursday denied charges that the CPP was behind the rally.

The CNRP has said that Kem Sokha’s remarks were “twisted” out of context to weaken the opposition ahead of the national elections in which Hun Sen is seeking to extend his nearly three decades in power.

“This kind of environment provokes violence and threats against the opposition party’s [acting] president,” Koul Panha said.

The 10 NGOs also slammed the National Assembly’s CPP-run permanent committee after dismissing 29 opposition members last week for leaving their original parties—the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party—to form the CNRP coalition.

Two members of the disbanded Norodom Ranariddh Party who joined the Funcinpec party have also been sacked from the assembly.

The Cambodian government should reinstate the dismissed lawmakers and should remain neutral in all political matters, the NGO statement said.

“The assembly doesn’t work according to the principle of democratic pluralism. At this point, only the CPP is controlling the National Assembly,” Koul Panha said, adding that “all major state institutions are under CPP control.”

He accused the government of “destroying efforts to build a good democracy in Cambodia” by trying to get rid of the country’s opposition parties.

Reported by Samean Yun and Den Ayuthya for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

A land titling campaign in Cambodia launched and financed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lacks transparency and could leave thousands of people landless, a human rights group said Wednesday, urging the country’s donors to push for reform of the program.

The campaign, which employs volunteer youth to measure land for villagers, has little oversight and is largely benefiting the rich and well-connected, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.

Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, praised Hun Sen for his recent suspension of the campaign until after Cambodia’s July 28 national elections, but said that independent organizations must be allowed to monitor the process and intervene on behalf of families negatively affected by the program.

“It is good news that the land titling campaign has been suspended until after the elections, but this demonstrates just how political the effort has been from the outset,” Adams said.

Adams said that while some people have benefited, in other cases the campaign had “amounted to a land grab by powerful interests” with no legal regulation or recourse for families who lose their right to property.

“The campaign is being conducted in a secretive and bullying manner in which independent organizations are prevented from monitoring what is happening and local residents are threatened if they complain,” he said.

Hun Sen’s campaign began in June last year, ostensibly to benefit people living without proper documentation on state land designated for private use and granted to companies as concessions. The prime minister has said that nearly 480,000 families will receive ownership documents in relation to some 1.8 million hectares (4.5 million acres) of land.

Two-month survey

HRW said that according to research it conducted into the efficacy of the campaign over a two-month period in Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces, residents in some areas reported positive experiences working with the “Samdech Techo Youth” units—who take their name from Hun Sen’s honorific title—saying they had assisted them in obtaining ownership documentation for land they had long occupied.

But in other locations, such as Kampong Speu’s Phnom Sruoch district, villagers run off land their families had farmed since the 1940s said that youth unit leaders had threatened to “throw you in irons and send you to prison” when they tried to plead their cases.

“Members of this community provided credible accounts, backed by documents and reports of local Cambodian nongovernmental organizations, that the land in question had been illegally taken from them by [Hun Sen’s ruling] Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) power-holders at the commune and village level and by an officer of the Cambodian army’s national armor unit,” HRW said.

Members of an indigenous minority community in Kampong Speu’s Thporng district said that only after they agreed to allow a youth unit measure for individual ownership titles did they realize that they had given up claims on other land they believed to be community territory.

“The students said we had to accept what they were ordered to do by the provincial cadastral officials who are acting on written orders from the ministries in Phnom Penh,” the villager told HRW. “If not, there could be trouble, and we would get nothing.”

Members of a community in Koh Kong’s Mondulseima district told HRW that a youth unit had properly measured their land, but also measured off adjacent plots which, to their knowledge, no one had previously made a claim on.

The land was being measured for title to “the authorities, the rich, or their proxies,” they said, adding that the youth had been hosted by local officials and a military unit.

Corruption risks

HRW also documented cases during its research of people being denied assistance by youth units because they were deemed to be supporters of the political opposition and because they refused to pay bribes.

One farmer said he was threatened with detention if he tried to expose such practices, noting that “if you are a CPP person or pay money, then the local authorities make sure your land gets measured quickly and properly … Otherwise, you will have problems.”

A dissident CPP official in Koh Kong told HRW that the youth units were not only unfairly targeting opposition supporters, but also pressuring the poor to “give them money.”

“Those that do can then get money or gifts back from the students in ceremonies that get shown on TV, and now the local authorities have set this up into a system,” he said.

HRW said that an estimated 700,000 Cambodians have been affected by the granting of large-scale concessions to foreign companies and domestic firms run by high-ranking or CPP-affiliated officials, as well as other concessions, and that many communities have been forcibly or violently evicted from land they had long legally occupied.

“For a large number of Cambodians, their only source of subsistence is the land they live on and farm,” Adams said. “So how this process is carried out can literally be a matter of life or death.”

Recommendations

HRW called on donor countries, the World Bank, and the United Nations to insist that the land titling process be “thoroughly revised to ensure adequate public consultation, a transparent process open to independent monitoring and evaluation, adequate compensation for those who are denied title in favor of concession holders or others, and an independent complaint process.”

If those conditions could not be met, it said, the campaign should not be resumed after the elections.

“Sadly, while the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights [Surya Subedi] has sounded the alarm, donors appear to be shrinking from demanding basic transparency and accountability for a program that has such major impact,” Adams said.

“Instead of blithely accepting a fundamentally flawed process, or even appearing to endorse it, donors should demand that it be scrapped or be monitored and carried out in full accord with international standards and best practices.”

The deputy leader of Cambodia’s main opposition party said he is concerned for his safety after ruling party activists disrupted two of his public rallies and confronted him amid rising tensions ahead of national elections next month.  

Kem Sokha said that at his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) rally outside the capital Phnom Penh on Tuesday afternoon, a crowd of supporters of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) staged a counter-demonstration against him that led to a standoff between the two sides.

The CPP activists interrupted the rally in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district by blasting speakers that drowned out Kem Sokha’s speech, according to CNRP officials and a local commune official.  

When Kem Sokha gave up on the rally and moved to leave, a crowd of CPP activists including 10 trucks surrounded his convoy, blocking him from departing until hundreds of CNRP supporters pushed his way through.  

“There was a confrontation between the supporters, but no one was injured,” Kem Sokha told RFA’s Khmer Service after the incident.

“I am concerned about my personal security because we have asked authorities to intervene but they have ignored us,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Kem Sokha was forced to cancel a planned meeting with a group of villagers in the district after a crowd of CPP activists blocked his car from getting on a ferry to the forum. 

Barred from drumming up support

Kem Sokha accused the ruling party of engineering the disruptions in a bid to weaken the opposition ahead of the July 28 national elections, in which Hun Sen is seeking to extend his nearly three decades in power.

“They want to stop me from talking with voters and gaining their support,” he said.

“The [CPP activists] turned the speakers up so loud that the Cambodia National Rescue Party supporters couldn’t hear me,” he said, adding that he had asked for intervention from the Ministry of the Interior to stop the disturbance but had received no response.

National Police Commission Spokesman Kiet Chantharith said when contacted by RFA that he had not been aware of Tuesday’s confrontation but would investigate the incident.

He declined to comment on police involvement in protecting pre-election rallies from disturbances, saying the Ministry of the Interior was responsible for overseeing the issue.

Ministry of the Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak could not be reached for comment.

Tep Nytha, chairman of the National Election Committee which oversees the polls, also refused to comment, referring RFA to the Ministry of the Interior.

15 disturbances this month

CNRP Spokesman Yim Sovann told RFA that there have been at least 15 cases of political disturbances of CNRP activities across the country this month, most of them occurring during party rallies.

Party logos at CNRP offices across the country have also been destroyed, according to reports from the offices.

Demonstrators protest against Kem Sokha in Phnom Penh on June 9, 2013. Photo: RFA.

Nearly three-quarters of pregnant women in one of Laos’s poorest provinces deliver their babies at home at great risk to their lives due to a scarcity of health centers and midwives in the area, according to local health officials.     

Laos has placed a high priority on reducing its maternal and infant mortality rates, which are among the highest in Southeast Asia. But in rural Sekong province in the south, the difficulty of accessing medical centers is hindering progress on containing the problem, officials said.

More than 70 percent of mothers in Sekong—Laos’s second-most poverty-stricken province—give birth at home, unassisted by medical personnel, a provincial public health official focusing on mothers and children told RFA’s Lao Service.

“The rates of deaths for mothers and children during childbirth at home [in Sekong] are still high,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“It’s because over 70 percent of mothers give birth at home, mostly on their own or with help from other families, and there are still few midwives.”

She said the main reason the mothers-to-be don’t seek medical services for the births is because the centers are too far away, with would-be patients having to spend hours on bumpy roads in order to reach them.  

Even some of the largest villages in Sekong, which is among the most remote areas of Laos, are virtually inaccessible by road for at least half of the year, reports say.

Another provincial health official said there were not enough health centers in the area, and that for patients living in remote areas, reaching them is difficult.  

“Not all areas have a health center, especially not remote areas,” he said.

Patients have trouble accessing roads during the rainy season, and the cost of transportation adds further strain to their meager finances on top of medical costs, he said.  

“There are 20 centers in the province, but there’s not enough medical staff for them,” he added.  

Childbirth-related deaths

According to provincial data, 300 mothers or newborns have died during childbirth in Sekong province since 2005, with 20 of these deaths occurring over the past year.

But the maternal and infant health official said the actual number of deaths could be higher due to unreported cases.

Laos has said it plans to improve medical services at rural health dispensaries and ramp up the number of midwives it trains and sends to remote areas.

Last year, state media reported that there were 300 midwives across the country and that the government planned to create a total of 15,000 midwife positions by 2015.

According to the country’s U.N. Millenium Development Goals, Laos is supposed to reduce the national mortality rate to 260 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015.

While the rate has improved since 2005, when 450 women out of every 100,000 live deliveries died in the process of giving birth, the latest figures show the ratio is 300 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to state media.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, which vary from the figures given in state media, Laos has the highest maternal mortality rate in Southeast Asia.

According to WHO and U.N. estimates for 2011, it has the fourth-highest infant mortality rate in the region, after Timor-Leste, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Somnet Inthapannha and Viengsay Luangkhot. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A top-ranking member of Cambodia’s ruling party on Monday rejected allegations that a law pushed through parliament last week making it a crime to deny atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime was meant to target the deputy president of the country’s largest opposition party.

Chheang Vun, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Cambodia’s National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, said the legislation was not intended to “harm” Kem Sokha, deputy president of the new Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), ahead of elections next month.

“We want the media to understand that the Kem Sokha issue is unrelated to the law—we didn’t point our fingers at him,” Chheang Vun of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), told reporters at the National Assembly Monday.

His statement came as more than 10,000 people took to the streets a day earlier in what opposition members said was a rally staged by the ruling party against Kem Sokha for allegedly saying that a Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh had been faked by Vietnam.

The Cambodian pro-government media have in recent weeks carried remarks attributed to Kem Sokha saying that the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, was not run by the Khmer Rouge and was instead an invention of the Vietnamese invaders who ousted the regime.

Both Kem Sokha and the CNRP have said his remarks were “twisted” out of context to weaken the opposition ahead of the July 28 national elections in which Hun Sen is seeking to extend his nearly three decades in power.

The law adopted by the National assembly on Friday bans statements denying crimes by the brutal 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime, carrying a sentence of up to two years in jail.

It was hurriedly drafted by the government amid the controversy over comments about the Khmer Rouge allegedly made by Kem Sokha.

The law was pushed through on Friday with 86 lawmakers from the CPP and its ally the royalist Funcinpec party voting unanimously in its favor in the ruling party-dominated 123-member National Assembly.

Twenty-nine opposition party members could not attend the session as they were dismissed by the National Assembly’s CPP-run permanent committee for leaving their original parties—the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party—to form the CNRP coalition.

Two members of the disbanded Norodom Ranariddh Party who joined Funcinpec have also been sacked from the assembly.

US criticism

The dismissal of the lawmakers drew criticism from Washington over the weekend, with the U.S. State Department saying the decision “starkly contradicts the spirit of a healthy democratic process.”

It urged the National Assembly leadership to “allow all elected members to fulfill their commitment to serve the Cambodian people.”

But Chheang Vun hit back at the United States on Monday, calling on U.S. Ambassador William Todd to inform the State Department that the National Assembly had refused to accept the statement.

“The statement ordered the [Cambodian] lawmakers to do as they wish, but we are independent [of the U.S.]. The assembly won’t take orders from anyone, so please reconsider the statement,” he said, adding that the legislative body had complied with Cambodian law in dismissing the members of parliament.

He said that the dismissed lawmakers, including former member of the Sam Rainsy Party Son Chhay, had absolved their right to take part in parliament after making the decision to leave their parties.

“[Member of parliament] Son Chhay … is a Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker but he joined the CNRP ... Article 15 of the political party law says he can only be recognized for one party.”

Son Chhay said Monday that he would file a complaint to Cambodia’s Constitutional Council to review whether the National Assembly’s action complies with the constitution.

“I am still legally a lawmaker. There is no law to expel members of parliament from their positions,” he said.

Opposition response

Meanwhile, Kem Sokha on Monday called the new law banning statements denying Khmer Rouge atrocities a “threat to the freedom of expression” and condemned the National Assembly for pushing it through without holding a fair referendum.

“The law passed without any debate from the opposition party,” he said.

“This law has a hidden agenda and serves to intimidate and threaten freedom of expression.”

The CNRP on Monday again denied that Kem Sokha had ever claimed that the atrocities in Tuol Sleng had been forged by the Vietnamese.

Kem Sokha has said that the audio clip of his comments was altered by detractors, and the CNRP says the campaign against him is politically motivated.

“The Cambodian National Rescue Party and Kem Sokha will make all efforts to bring justice to the victims and to prosecute the perpetrators [of the Tuol Sleng crimes],” the statement said.

Reported by Den Ayuthya and Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen pushed through a law in parliament Friday that makes it a crime to deny atrocities committed by the notorious Khmer Rouge regime, with lawmakers voting on it in the absence of opposition MPs who were expelled after forming a new party.

The law was hurriedly drafted and passed in Hun Sen’s party-dominated National Assembly amid speculations the government plans to frame charges against a top leader of the new Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) ahead of national elections next month.

Eighty-six lawmakers from Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and its ally Funcinpec voted unanimously in favor of the law in the 123-member National Assembly, the country’s lower house of parliament.

None of the 29 opposition party members were present at the session, after being dismissed this week by the National Assembly’s CPP-run permanent committee for leaving their original parties—the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party—to form the CNRP coalition.

The CPP and Funcinpec lawmakers offered no push-back on the law, offering instead praise for it before raising their hands to approve it at the end of an hour-long session.

The law, which bans statements denying crimes by the brutal 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and carries a sentence of up to two years in jail, was drafted last week amid controversy over comments about the Khmer Rouge allegedly made by CNRP deputy president Kem Sokha.  

The Cambodian pro-government media have in recent weeks carried remarks attributed to Kem Sokha saying that the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, was not run by the Khmer Rouge and was instead an invention of the Vietnamese invaders who ousted the regime.

Kem Sokha speaks to supporters at the Cambodia National Rescue Party's headquarters in Phnom Penh on June 7, 2013. Photo credit: RFA.