Clinton notified of Boeung Kak release, emails show

A day after meeting Hillary Clinton in June 2012, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong moved to assure the then-US secretary of state that her exhortations to release 13 imprisoned Boeung Kak activists would be met, leaked emails suggest. The emails sent from Clinton’s private email server are among a trove of more than 32,000 recently made searchable by Wikileaks.

The correspondence gives interesting insight into the former US senator and presidential hopeful’s intervention into the high-profile case as she prepared to visit Phnom Penh in July 2012 for an ASEAN conference. They also seem to contradict claims by Namhong that US pressure had no bearing on the case, though Clinton’s advocacy has long been seen as a major factor in securing the activists’ freedom on June 27 of that year.

Exchanges related to the case begin on June 11, with Clinton, in an email tagged “Cambodia”, seeking an update about “women’s land rights issues/hunger strikes” from State Department officials Kurt Campbell and Jacob Sullivan. A month before her trip, she notes “This has potential for big problems for us.” Campbell, in response, indicates the need to push Cambodian leaders to “resolve” the issue, before the upcoming forum.

He refers to plans to do some “careful media” after a meeting scheduled the next day with Namhong in Washington.

After that meeting, Cambodia’s foreign minister told Radio Free Asia the case was being reviewed. Namhong, however, maintained US pressure was not the reason. “This is not because of someone’s intervention; this is because of the [Cambodian] government’s goodwill,” he said at the time. But an email forwarded to Clinton by Sullivan, of the State Department, on Wednesday, June 13, shows Namhong was very conscious of Clinton’s wishes.

long and interesting article to be read here http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/clinton-notified-boeung-kak-release-emails-show