Cambodia: End Baseless 'Insurrection' Trial of Opposition

Cambodian authorities should drop trumped-up charges of "insurrection" against 11 opposition party activists, Human Rights Watch said today. A hearing in the trial of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) members is scheduled for March 27, 2015, in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

A Cambodian judicial officer familiar with the insurrection charges described them to Human Rights Watch as "ridiculous." Cambodia's international donors should inform the government that their continued support depends on ending the prosecutions of Cambodians for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

"The prosecution of the 11 activists is the latest round of Prime Minister Hun Sen's campaign to intimidate and imprison opponents of his government," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "Donors should speak out against such proceedings and the growing list of political prisoners in the country."

The case against the 11 men is in connection with violence that occurred on July 15, 2014, around Phnom Penh's Democracy Plaza (also known as "Freedom Park"). Those facing trial are: Meach Sovannara, Oeu Narit, Khin Roeun, Neang Sokhon, San Kimheng, Sum Puthy, Ke Khim, Tep Narin, An Patham, San Seihak, and Uk Pech Samnang. Six have been granted temporary release under judicial supervision, but five remain in detention. They face 20 to 30 years in prison.

The indictment alleges that the CNRP members already indicted and others who may yet be indicted plotted to violently storm Democracy Plaza. The plaza is a legally designated site for demonstrations that had been used by the CNRP to protest election fraud and other irregularities since the July 2013 national elections.

"Individuals who engaged in or incited violence against the authorities should be appropriately charged with credible offenses and fairly tried, but the government should end its practice of making up cases against its opponents," Adams said.

Events Leading Up to the Violence on July 15, 2014

On January 4, 2014, to avoid a violent confrontation with security forces at the park, the CNRP had instructed its supporters to vacate the area. Despite this, security forces carried out a "break up" operation that day in which they chased and beat some protesters. In the following months, a number of members-elect of parliament from the CNRP, which was boycotting the National Assembly, led a series of small nonviolent demonstrations outside the security-force barricaded perimeter of Democracy Plaza, calling on the government to "free" it so protests there could resume. "Public order" para-police operated outside the barricades as the front-line contingent of the security forces repeatedly broke up these demonstrations, sometimes inflicting severe beatings against protesters and journalists covering events.

A senior security force officer told Human Rights Watch before the events of July 15 that Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered the use of para-police. The source said that the para-police were supposed to deter further gatherings or end the boycott by provoking demonstrator violence that would give the government a pretext to prosecute opposition figures on a security force blacklist. National Gendarmerie Commander Gen. Sao Sokha has publicly affirmed a security force practice of using force against protesters to wear them down and cause them to panic and launch "counter-assaults" so that the security forces could forcibly end the demonstrations. Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatevong, who exercises command authority over all municipal security forces by virtue of his chairmanship of the capital's Unified Command Committee, also publicly endorsed this strategy.

After several CNRP members-elect of parliament announced a demonstration for July 15, a government spokesperson warned that if they went ahead with it, security forces would "beat" them. Despite this, hundreds of CNRP parliamentarians, grassroots organizers, supporters, and ordinary people began to gather on the perimeter of the park early on the morning of July 15. Many of the CNRP members and some others in the crowd were wearing orange or yellow pieces of cloth, a CNRP symbol often used to identify party stewards responsible for making sure CNRP gatherings remained peaceful. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly observed these party stewards intervening to dissuade or restrain demonstrators from reacting in kind to security force violence.

The protesters were met by a considerably smaller contingent of public order para-police. According to official documents viewed by Human Rights Watch, they were dispatched to the scene from districts around Phnom Penh by the Municipal Unified Command Committee. The para-police deployed outside the perimeter barricades of Democracy Plaza under the tactical control of the Unified Command Committee of Daun Penh District, in which Democracy Plaza is located and which is chaired by District Governor Kuoch Chamraoen.

Human Rights Watch thoroughly analyzed the July 15 events based on video and still images from official sources, the CNRP, nongovernmental organizations, broadcast media, and eyewitness accounts. The para-police arriving in municipal and district Unified Command Committee vehicles brought along bags of reinforced batons. Some batons were distributed to the para-police, while others were left in or near the vehicles. A few plainclothes para-police were seen wearing yellow or orange cloth, apparently to feign being protesters. Regular municipal and district police, also under the Phnom Penh Unified Command Committee, remained behind the barricades, possessing teargas, smoke grenade rifles, and some firearms.

Key CNRP figures on the scene included parliamentarian Mu Sochua and party activist Meach Sovannara, chairman of the CNRP Information Directorate, both of whom made speeches demanding human rights and democracy and calling on the government to reopen Democracy Plaza. Immediately after demonstrators tied banners with the slogan "Free Freedom Park" to the barricades, the para-police tried to remove the banner and push the demonstrators away using their batons. The crowd responded by overwhelming the outnumbered para-police, despite efforts by CNRP stewards to keep the two sides separate. Some demonstrators chased the para-police away wielding plastic tubing they had been using to raise flags and banners and batons abandoned by the para-police, beating para-police officers, some of whom were severely injured

The regular police behind the barricades responded by firing smoke and teargas grenades, which affected both the para-police and the crowd. CNRP leaders can be seen on video telling people to stay calm, to adhere to nonviolence, and not to block roads. After a brief period of calm, para-police reinforcements arrived and there was a further outbreak of violence as the crowd reacted to renewed para-police movements. Again the para-police were overwhelmed, and more were beaten. An hour-and-a-half after the first violence, substantial contingents of regular and anti-riot intervention police from several Phnom Penh wards filled into and aggressively cleared the streets around the park.

Some of those beating para-police officers were wearing yellow or orange cloth, although most were not. Other people wearing yellow or orange cloth attempted to protect para-police, including by calling on CNRP stewards to stop those assaulting the para-police. They also worked with United Nations and Cambodian human rights monitors trying to shield and rescue para-police, sometimes in cooperation with government police officers. A security force source told Human Rights Watch that because the authorities had greatly underestimated the crowd response to para-police operations, those in command failed to react immediately with overwhelming force, consistent with security force doctrine, thus leaving CNRP figures and others to restore order.

In the crowd violence, 39 para-police were injured. At least six protesters were also injured, three of whom were beaten while trying to protect para-police under attack.

As Human Rights Watch has previously stated, demonstrators who assaulted police officers had no justification for doing so. Those individuals who beat or otherwise encouraged violence against the officers should be identified, appropriately charged, and fairly prosecuted, as should security forces who used excessive force against protesters. Thus far, the authorities have taken no such action: security force testimony does not identify any individual perpetrator of violence, whereas security force violence simply has not been investigated. Instead, police began a series of arrests of CNRP members-elect of parliament and grassroots CNRP organizers. The members of parliament detained were Mu Sochua, Ho Vann, Keo Phirum, Men Sothavrin, Riel Khemarin, Nut Rumduol, and Long Ry. Each was indicted for leading an insurrection movement, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

To avoid further bloodshed and gain the release of its party members, CNRP leader Sam Rainsy announced that the CNRP would end its boycott of the National Assembly, thereby accepting the 2013 election results. A Phnom Penh court investigating judge then released seven elected members of parliament on July 22, 2014. They then joined other CNRP members and were sworn in as members of parliament, where they claim parliamentary immunity now protects them from prosecution. However, the case against the seven remains on the books, and Hun Sen has threatened to find legal means to rearrest them and proceed. He has also warned that CNRP Vice-President Kem Sokha, who was not present at the demonstration but whose name nevertheless appears in case documents, is also vulnerable to prosecution regarding the "insurrection."

"It is beyond absurd to call a political protest by a small unarmed group an 'insurrection,' but this is the 'Alice in Wonderland' world over which Hun Sen presides," Adams said. "The government is clearly not responding to the July 15 violence, but rather searching for ways to weaken the political opposition."