Chea Sim Remembered as Principled Political Broker

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WASHINGTON DC—

Chea Sim, the ruling party leader who died earlier this week in Phnom Penh, was a political dealmaker and staunch constitutionalist, officials said this week.

He was often put in charge of the country when the late King Norodom Sihanouk was away. His even-handedness will be missed, colleagues said.

In 2004, when it looked like he would refuse an apparently unconstitutional move by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party to form a government in the midst of a political impasse, he was made to leave the country so that it could pass, a former member of the Constitutional Council, Son Soubert, remembers.

“At that time, whatever he did, he followed the constitution, followed the procedures of the constitution,” Son Soubert said of Chea Sim. “They forced him out of the country to allow another person to sign instead.”

He called Chea Sim, who was 82, “a hero,” whose moderate voice will be lost to the CPP. “When he was alive, he was a middle man who wouldn’t allow wrongdoing or extreme acts, like war,” Son Soubert said. “That was what I learned from working with him.”

Chea Sim also had much to teach about the Khmer Rouge, and the period of history when Cambodia was under Norodom Sihanouk, Son Soubert said. “I regret that he has passed away, and that there is no similarly mature person in the CPP. I don’t know how the party is going to be, whether it will remain the same or whether it will change. This is the question, when it comes to Chea Sim.”

Chea Sim had been a counterweight to Hun Sen’s power within the party. Now, the premier has full control of his party and his administration.

Nhiek Bun Chhay, a former resistance fighter and leader within the royalist Funcinpec party, which once rivaled the CPP, said Chea Sim helped in the fight against the Khmer Rouge and the restoration of a stable country, including the monarchy.

When Funcinpec won a national election in 1993, Chea Sim was supportive of the transition—although it ended with a power-sharing agreement with Hun Sen and ultimately the coup that put the CPP squarely in power, four years later. He also helped solve problems that occurred in elections, Nhiek Bun Chhay said. “He always mediated to reach agreements, particularly for peace, stability and development.”

His leadership was fair-minded, he didn’t discriminate against any political party, and he facilitated progress within the legislative branch, through cooperation and hard work, Nhiek Bun Chhay said. “That’s what I remember.”

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer

source: http://www.voacambodia.com/content/chea-sim-remembered-as-principled-political-broker/2817164.html

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Cambodia slams Human Rights Watch's Asia director for remarks on deceased ruling party chief

Sunday, 14 June 2015; News by Xinhua

PHNOM PENH, (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has hit back at Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, for his critical comments toward recently-deceased ruling party chief and Senate president Chea Sim, saying Adams' remarks "distort fact and imply personal anger."

The reaction came after Adams released an article on the Human Rights Watch's website on June 8, the day Chea Sim died, accusing him of committing crime and abusing rights and freedom of the citizens during the Democratic Kampuchea, or Khmer Rouge regime.

read more: http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12253/cambodia-slams-human-rights-watch-s-asia-director-for-remarks-on-deceased-ruling-party-chief/

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Cambodia to blacklist HRW’s Asia director

Cambodia has threatened to blacklist the director of Human Rights Watch Asia director for comments regarding on death of the president.

World Bulletin / News Desk

The Cambodian government has threatened to blacklist a prominent human rights activist over comments he made last week on the death the ruling party’s longtime president Chea Sim, according to local media Monday.

The activist, Brad Adams, serves as the director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division and has been a longtime bugbear of the Cambodian government.

Following Sim’s death June 8, Human Rights Watch issued a strongly worded statement accusing the late leader of complicity in serious crimes during the Khmer Rouge regime.

“Chea Sim’s passing is a reminder that virtually all former Khmer Rouge officials have gone unpunished for the millions of deaths and incredible suffering of ordinary Cambodians during Khmer Rouge rule,” Adams was quoted as saying in the statement.

Chea Sim had joined the revolutionary movement as a young man and rose to serve as a district secretary before defecting to Vietnam in 1978.

He returned at the head of an invading army that ousted the genocidal regime in 1979, and became a major political force in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia.

Although he was not a senior regime leader, Human Rights Watch researchers say he was responsible for arbitrary arrests and executions in his district.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the country’s Interior Ministry said that Adams would be “entered into the blacklist of Cambodia” unless he apologized for his remarks, The Cambodia Daily reported Monday.

Sopheak also wrote directly to Adams June 13, saying that the campaigner had “deviated far from moral principles and brought shame to Human Rights Watch.”

“For future, if the director continues to adopt this non-neutral position and tendency which negatively impact Cambodian society, I think that you should [n]ever enter Cambodia again,” the letter concluded.

Adams has frequently incurred the wrath of the Cambodian government for his strident critiques of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which has maintained a strong hold on power for decades.

In 2009, a government spokesman called him “a bogus human rights activist” who was an underground member of the Cambodian opposition, according to the Daily.

In 2012, Cambodia’s ambassador to the UK issued a statement condemning an editorial Adams had written about the country’s long-ruling premier, Hun Sen, calling it “scurrilous,” “poisonous,” and “a waste of space.”

The government has proven particularly sensitive about accusations from Human Rights Watch and Adams that it is deliberately stalling or impeding the work of the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh where two senior Khmer Rouge leaders are currently on trial.

In its statement last week, Human Rights Watch repeated the accusation, saying that Chea Sim’s death underscored the failings of the court.

source: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/160689/cambodia-to-blacklist-hrws-asia-director