Cambodia PM slammed as 'autocrat' by human rights group

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

The latest lawsuit filed against Cambodia’s self-exiled opposition leader is couched in allegations that have enabled autocrats such as the Cambodian Prime Minister to maintain their grip on power, a New York-based human rights group claimed Thursday. The suit, which was filed on behalf of the premier, Hun Sen, on Monday, accuses Cambodia National Rescue Party Sam Rainsy and a senator from Rainsy’s old political party of defamation and incitement to social unrest for claiming that the government was behind the July 10 murder of Kem Ley, a prominent government critic.

In its briefing note sent out Thursday, the Human Rights Foundation said “criminal indictments for ‘defamation,’ ‘incitement to public disorder,’ or ‘insulting public institutions,’ to name a few, have proven to be valuable tools in every autocrat’s repressive arsenal.” HRF president Thor Halvorssen said the language used in the law to describe various offenses is often similar, “in overly broad and vague terms,” and as a result, “can be interpreted so as to criminalize any legitimate opposition activity, such as Mr. Rainsy’s remarks.”

“Prime Minister Sen and his henchmen must stop crippling Cambodia’s beleaguered democratic opposition,” Halvorssen said. “All charges against Mr. Rainsy should be dropped immediately.” Lawsuits have been piling up against Rainsy, who has been in self-imposed exile again since late last year, in a bid to avoid imprisonment on a separate defamation conviction that spawns from a years-old case brought against him by the former Foreign Minister, Hor Namhong.

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