Roundup of CNRP continues [4 PPP articles]

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Post Staff

Cambodia's political crisis deepened yesterday as security forces arrested two more opposition lawmakers-elect from the Cambodia National Rescue Party and a judge summonsed the party’s deputy leader to appear in court for questioning.

The two lawmakers-elect, Long Ry and Nuth Rumduol, were arrested yesterday afternoon over their alleged role in a demonstration this week that descended into violent beatings of district security guards who attempted to forcefully break up the protest.

Yesterday’s arrests brought the total number of detained opposition members to eight.

At least nine opposition figures, including seven lawmakers-elect, were charged on Wednesday with crimes ranging from insurrection – which can carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years – to holding an illegal demonstration.

CNRP lawmakers-elect Mu Sochua, Keo Phirom, Men Sothavarin, Ho Vann and Real Camerin, along with opposition youth activist Oeun Narith, spent Wednesday night in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison awaiting trial.

A group of pro-opposition demonstrators briefly gathered outside Prey Sar prison yesterday morning where they were met by a large police presence.

At about 3:40pm yesterday, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann and other party officials confirmed that Ry and Rumduol were arrested at Ry’s home in Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon.

Ry’s wife, Chea Sokumteany, told the Post shortly after the arrests that they were being taken to the municipal police headquarters.

“Twenty minutes before their arrests, [Phnom Penh] police chief Chuon Sovan called [Ry] telling him that the police had already arrived at our house … to bring him in for questioning,” she said. “I begged police to wait for his lawyer to arrive, but they wouldn’t.”

Investigating judge Keo Mony said he continued to question the six detained CNRP members at Prey Sar prison.

“I think that their questioning will take at least a few days to be completed, because there are six people, and because they all decline to answer the questions.”

“After completing their questioning, their case will soon be submitted to the judges’ council to be put on the pre-trial agenda.”

Another party activist, identified by CNRP officials as Khin Chamroeun, remains wanted by the authorities.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan insisted that the arrests were not politically motivated.

“This is routine procedure for law enforcement… This [action] completely respects the law.”

Military personnel in riot gear secure the entrance to Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Heng Chivoan

City Hall issued a directive yesterday barring CNRP supporters who gathered outside the court on Wednesday from using loudspeakers, which the municipality said disrupted court proceedings. “If they do not stop this activity … [they] will be punished by the law,” it says.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior rejected a CNRP request to hold a national congress on July 27 without explaining why.

“Our administration officers asked them to put in writing the reason for their rejection, but they did not,” said Yim Sovann, an opposition spokesman. “So I do not know what they want or what they are thinking.”

Opposition vice president Kem Sokha was yesterday ordered to appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning over Tuesday’s violence.

Judge Mony called on the deputy opposition leader to appear in court at 8am on July 25 to “be questioned to clarify [the opposition’s actions on Tuesday] as CNRP [deputy] leader”.

In a video posted to the CNRP TV Facebook page last night, Sokha said that he would attend the summons and called on supporters to rally outside court.

“On July 25, they have summonsed me to court, so I would thank you if you could accompany me and observe it,” he said. “They are destroying our nation. They destroy democracy. We cannot stay silent; but I would like all of you to maintain dignity and non-violence.”

In a letter issued by Sokha shortly after the summons was made public, he called on all opposition lawmakers-elect to return to Cambodia from abroad to deal with the political crisis.

“I would like to inform all lawmakers-elect who have been abroad privately or on a mission to end all activities and return to Cambodia immediately, with the exception of those who have serious health problems,” the letter reads.

CNRP president Sam Rainsy said in an email to the Post that he would return to Cambodia from Europe, where he has been since mid-June, on Saturday – one year since thousands lined the streets to welcome him back from self-imposed exile.

“I will arrive at [Phnom Penh] airport on July 19 at 9:05am,” he said.

Rights groups yesterday roundly condemned the continued detention and charges against the CNRP members.

A group of 24 local civil society groups called for the detained to be released immediately and for all charges to be dropped.

“Eyewitness accounts and video evidence from July 15 demonstrate that there is absolutely no evidence against the eight that could justify the charges,” Ath Sam Ath, technical coordinator for Licadho, said in the statement.

In a separate statement, rights group Adhoc challenged the government charge that the lawmakers-elect incited CNRP supporters to commit violence.

“Adhoc in no way condones the violent actions of CNRP supporters who brutally beat Daun Penh public order guards.... However, Adhoc monitors at the scene heard the CNRP lawmakers-elect calling for calm and telling supporters to be peaceful: they did not incite or in any way instigate the violence,” it said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also said it had found no evidence to suggest that any of the six organised, incited or participated in the violence.

REPORTING BY BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA, MEAS SOKCHEA, KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA, DANIEL PYE, KEVIN PONNIAH, ALICE CUDDY AND SEAN TEEHAN

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/roundup-cnrp-continues

Two more lawmakers-elect arrested

Thu, 17 July 2014

Meas Sokchea

Two more opposition lawmakers-elect were arrested this afternoon over their alleged role in a demonstration that descended into brutal violence on Tuesday next to Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park.

Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman Yim Sovann and other party officials confirmed that Long Ry and Nuth Rumduol were arrested at Ry’s home in Phnom Penh this afternoon.

Ry’s wife, Chea Sokumteany, told the Post shortly after 4pm that they were being taken to municipal police headquarters.

The pair have been charged with insurrection as well as incitement and instigation of violent acts and could face more than 30 years in prison if found guilty.

CNRP lawmakers-elect Mu Sochua, Keo Phirom, Men Sothavarin, Ho Vann and Real Camerin, as well as opposition youth activist and assistant to Sochua, Oeun Narith, spent last night in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Sar prison awaiting trial after being charged with the same offenses.

In a statement this afternoon, local rights group Adhoc reminded the government of the “principles of liberal democracy and pluralism” and the right of citizens “to establish associations and political parties”, as granted by the constitution.

Adhoc called on the government to “immediately release without charges the detained CNRP lawmakers-elect and activists as a means to ensure those principles of political pluralism are not lost and Cambodia does not stray any further from the path to democracy.”

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Who’s who: putting faces to names

Fri, 18 July 2014

Post Staff

CNRP parliamentarian Mu Sochua is the best-known of the seven arrested opposition lawmakers-elect, but her six fellow detainees are important players, too.

Ho Vann

Ho Vann

Deputy steering committee chief Ho Vann is no stranger to controversy. In 2009, the Phnom Penh representative was sued for defamation by military officials for allegedly doubting the validity of degrees they received from a Vietnamese academy. He was ultimately exonerated. Over the years, he has been a prominent voice on issues in the capital.

Real Camerin

Real Camerin

Lawmaker-elect Real Camerin has also been outspoken. As a representative of Svay Rieng, Camerin has drawn attention to alleged Vietnamese encroachment into as-yet unmarked border areas – an opposition pet issue. Last month, he was filmed confronting a Vietnamese soldier on what he maintaiined was
Cambodian territory.

Men Sothavarin

Men Sothavarin

An elected SRP official since at least 2009, Men Sothavarin has long been a strong advocate of his Kampong Thom constituency. In 2010, Sothavarin accused government officials of fraud for allegedly taking parcels of land intended as compensation for wronged evictees and granting them to the very company responsible for their eviction.

Keo Phirom

Keo Phirom

Keo Phirom, who once served as cabinet chief under the Sam Rainsy Party, is a member of the party’s steering committee – as are all of his fellow detainees – and is also the highest-ranking party official in Kratie, the province that he represents. “In the party, he is the chief of the working group in Kratie province,” said CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann.

Long Ry

Long Ry

Banteay Meanchey province lawmaker-elect Long Ry has been an opposition asset since the Sam Rainsy Party days, back when he was active in Kratie province. “Sam Rainsy didn’t have a seat in Kratie before, but Long Ry went there and won one,” Sovann said. As party security chief, Ry is also “very important” in providing security for party leadership.

Nuth Romduol

Nuth Romduol

Nuth Romduol, a representative of Kampong Speu province, left the Senate in 2013 for a chance to run for the National Assembly, and has since become a key figure in what Sovann characterised as an important province. “He’s very popular in Kampong Speu, and as you know, we get a lot of support in Kampong Speu,” Sovann said

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/who%E2%80%99s-who-putting-faces-names

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Gov’t arrest strategy has familiar feel to it

Fri, 18 July 2014

Kevin Ponniah

Analysis

The round-up and detention of seven opposition lawmakers-elect on insurrection charges in the past three days bears the stamp of longstanding ruling party tactics used to silence dissent. But political observers say this week’s clampdown is so wide in scale that it can only be compared to a similar blitz almost a decade ago.

“The arrests of the past few days are unprecedented. The last time something close to this happened was in early 2005, when Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Cheam Channy was arrested on charges of trying to form a ‘secret army’ to overthrow the government,” Sebastian Strangio, author of the forthcoming book Hun Sen’s Cambodia, said yesterday.

Sam Rainsy and Chea Poch, another SRP lawmaker, were hit with defamation charges at around the same time but managed to escape the country after their parliamentary immunity was stripped.

Later in the year, five civil society activists, including CNRP deputy leader Kem Sokha, then head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, were arrested for allegedly criticising a controversial border agreement with Vietnam.

In early 2006, the activists were released, Channy was granted a royal pardon after being sentenced to seven years, and Rainsy was allowed to return in moves that Strangio attributes to foreign pressure, which “has always imposed limits on how far the government can go in marginalising its opponents”.

“However, the stakes are now much higher. The government faces a more unified opposition, with greater popular support. This new outbreak of confrontation will sooner or later cycle back to some sort of negotiated settlement, but at the moment it’s impossible to say when that might happen – or how many people will be hurt in the meantime.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights Chairman Ou Virak also cited the same incident nearly a decade ago, and said that government tactics were “like a broken record”.

“The way they are going about doing these things [is] not new. It’s exactly like in 2005 . . . Another possibility is with Sam Rainsy out of the country they could bring a charge now to try and prevent him coming back.”

The outcome of all this, Virak says, will also likely reflect past political crackdowns.

“Sam Rainsy will go to the international community and get condemnation, the international press will report the comments, eventually there might be some ‘breakthrough’ and then they will return to what was before the crackdown, which is not pretty anyway.”