Rights group says Cambodian security forces involved in abuses for PM

PHNOM PENH: Senior members of Cambodia’s security forces have committed human rights abuses that benefited Prime Minister Hun Sen, including a crackdown on the opposition ahead of elections next month, Human Rights Watch ( HRW) said yesterday.

The group’s latest report describes alleged abuses committed by 12 police and army generals, who are also long-standing members of the Central Committee of Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

“Most of the 12 have been implicated in the use of unnecessary, excessive, and sometimes lethal force against protests about unfree and unfair elections, land confiscations, labour abuses, and low wages,” the group said in the report.

“Many have also been involved in non-political abuses against the ordinary population, such as land takings, murder, torture, and arbitrary detention,” it said.

The 12 generals named in the report included National Police Chief Neth Savoeun and Pol Saroeun, commander in chief of the military.

They owed their “lucrative position to political and personal connections with Hun Sen dating back two decades or more”, the group said.

Reuters was not able to contact either Neth Savoeun or Pol Saroeun.

The Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for the police, rejected the allegations in the report. — Reuters