Freedom in the World 2001 - Cambodia

2001 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.0
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 6

Overview

Following a November 2000 attack by gunmen on government buildings in Phnom Penh, Cambodian authorities began a crackdown that human rights groups called a cover for arresting political opponents. During the year, the government also took tentative steps to bring to justice members of the murderous Khmer Rouge movement that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s.

Cambodia won independence from France in 1953, and was ruled in succession by King Norodom Sihanouk, the United States-backed Lon Nol regime in the early 1970s, and the Maoist Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Under the Khmer Rouge, at least 1.7 million of Cambodia's 7 million people through executions, disease, overwork, and starvation. Vietnam invaded in December 1978 and installed a government under the Khmer Peoples' Revolutionary Party (KPRP). During the 1980s, the KPRP government fought the allied armies of Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and a former premier, Son Sann. An internationally brokered agreement signed in 1991 nominally ended the fighting, but the Khmer Rouge continued to wage a low-grade insurgency. The 1991 accord authorized the United Nations to temporarily control many key institutions, yet the KPRP government, headed by Hun Sen, a Khmer Rouge defector, maintained control of 80 percent of the army, most key ministries, and provincial and local authorities.

In Cambodia's first free parliamentary elections in 1993, the royalist United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Free Cambodia (FUNCINPEC), headed by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a Sihanouk son, defeated Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the successor to the KPRP. Hun Sen used his control over the army to force his way into a uneasy coalition government. Having consolidated near total power by 1996, Hun Sen seized full power in a violent coup on July 5-6, 1997, following efforts by both sides to attract allies from the now-disintegrating Khmer Rouge.

With the end of the Khmer Rouge insurgency, Cambodia has experienced generally stable authoritarian rule under Hun Sen amid corruption, poverty, and a weak rule of law. Hun Sen's CPP won a flawed election on June 26, 1998 that appeared to be little more than an effort to persuade international donors to resume aid that was suspended after the 1997 coup. Held under a reported turnout of more than 90 percent, the CPP won 64 seats; FUNCINPEC, 43; and the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), led by Cambodia's leading dissident, 15. Hun Sen brought FUNCINPEC into a coalition government as a junior partner in November 1998. Having resumed lending to Cambodia in 1999, multilateral institutions and some bilateral donors urged the government in 2000 to fight corruption, improve fiscal management, reduce the size of the military and civil service, and curb illegal logging.

The most notable exception to this relative stability was the November 24 pre-dawn attack, which killed at least eight people. Conflicting figures issued by authorities suggested they had arrested at least 66 people and charged at least 47 of them. The New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Cambodia of arresting more than 200 people. Many were members or supporters of Cambodia's sole opposition party, the SRP, or of FUNCINPEC. An obscure, California-based anti-government group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following years of international pressure, Cambodia reached an tentative agreement with the United Nations in July 2000 to establish a locally-based tribunal with international participation to try former Khmer Rouge leaders on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. By year's end parliament was considering enabling legislation for a court with a majority of Cambodian judges and a minority of foreign judges. The government is holding several senior former Khmer Rouge leaders who presumably would be brought to trial. However, it was not clear whether the tribunal would indict Ieng Sary and several other senior Khmer Rouge leaders who have defected to the government and rule a semiautonomous zone in western Cambodia.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Cambodia's 1998 elections were neither free nor fair. The campaign was held in a climate of violence amid continued political killings. Authorities denied opposition parties access to broadcast media, disrupted some opposition rallies, and banned political demonstrations in Phnom Penh. Hun Sen wielded his control over the civil service, local administration, military police, and Khmer-language media to a decisive advantage, particularly in the provinces. Hun Sen supporters held 10 of 11 seats on the National Election Commission, which changed the electoral formula as workers counted ballots to give the CPP a parliamentary majority.

The judiciary is politically controlled, operates with limited human and financial resources, and is reportedly rife with corruption. Cambodia's 1999 report on its implementation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights conceded that other branches of government undermine judicial independence. In addition, a UN experts group reported in 1999 that Cambodia's judiciary lacked the independence and capacity to try Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity and genocide in the 1970s, a finding that underscored the need for international participation in any Khmer Rouge trials. The Supreme Council of Magistry, a constitutional body that can take disciplinary actions against judges and prosecutors, reportedly took disciplinary action against several judges and a prosecutor in 2000.

Courts frequently ignore due process safeguards. In a case that underscored many of the judiciary's problems, Hun Sen ordered in December 1999 the rearrest of more than 60 people who allegedly had bribed their way out of prison. Their cases were handled without any due process rights, and by the end of 2000 many of them remained in jail. Pre-trial detention is lengthy. The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) said in June that police continued to commit torture with impunity, generally in order to extract confessions. Prisons are dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary, and authorities routinely abuse inmates. Mobs committed several vigilante-style killings of alleged criminals during the year. In the countryside, soldiers continued to commit rape, extortion, banditry, and extrajudicial killings with impunity.

Opposition parties have come under considerable pressure. There were 41 killings of FUNCINPEC officials and others following the 1997 coup and at least 21 political killings, mainly of FUNCINPEC supporters, in the two months prior to the 1998 elections. The New York-based Human Rights Watch reported in October 2000 that in recent months there had been numerous incidents of violence and harassment of members of the Sam Rainsy Party ahead of commune-level elections that may be held in 2001. During the year at least two SRP members and one FUNCINPEC member were killed for what appeared to be politically-motivated reasons. The government made arrests in the cases and said the killings were personal disputes. Mobs attacked the SRP headquarters in Phnom Penh in May

Cambodia has more than two dozen nongovernmental organizations (NGO). Security forces routinely harassed and intimidated human rights activists, and authorities threatened to prosecute several human rights NGOs and workers.

Journalists continued to be harassed and threatened, although apparently less frequently than in previous years. There have been no convictions in the cases of six journalists murdered in the course of their work between 1994 and 1997. The broadly drawn 1995 press law permits the information ministry to suspend publication of a newspaper for up to 30 days without a court order and subjects the press to criminal statutes. The Information Ministry suspended in 2000 at least two publications, one of them twice, for 30-day periods for allegedly defaming the king and undermining national security. Despite these constraints, the private press continued to be vigorous, although the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) noted in May that only ten newspapers and magazines publish regularly. RSF also reported that members of the government or close associates own almost all of the six Khmer-language television stations and 14 Khmer-language radio stations. The information ministry has denied repeated requests from opposition leader Sam Rainsy for a license to operate a radio station.

The constitution refers only to the rights of the ethnic-Khmer majority, which complicates the legal status of the estimated 200,000 to 500,000 Vietnamese residents. In practice, ethnic Vietnamese face both official and unofficial harassment and discrimination. Traditional norms relegate women to an inferior status, and domestic violence is reportedly common. Brothel owners frequently subject prostitutes to violence and hold them in conditions of bonded servitude. There are several thousand street children in Phnom Penh, and child prostitution is a significant problem.

Cambodia has several independent trade unions. The Financial Times noted in April that most garment factories hire thugs to prevent the enforcement of court orders relating to labor rights and enlist police to harass strikers. In March, the labor ministry banned strikes outside factory or enterprise premises and required workers to give at least seven days advance notice of a strike. Nevertheless, workers in the 120,000-strong garment sector frequently held strikes and demonstrations in Phnom Penh to protest against low wages, failure of employers to pay the minimum wage, poor and dangerous working conditions, forced overtime, and dismissal of pro-union staff. Washington increased Cambodia's garment export quota by 9 percent in 2000. However, it said that the U.S. would not increase the quota by the full 14 percent permitted under a 1998 agreement linking the quota to labor rights until Cambodia had met all of its commitments to comply with core international labor standards and enforced Cambodian law.

Property rights are tenuous. Licadho and other Cambodian human rights NGOs say that military and civilian authorities have in recent years forcibly evicted several thousand families from their land. Official corruption is widespread. Government officials, soldiers, and police tolerate and at times participate in money laundering, gun running, drug trafficking, and the activities of mainland Chinese prostitution rings, although the government has made some headway in reducing illegal logging. Despite these distortions, gross domestic product was expected to grow 5.5 in 2000, according to the finance ministry.