‘Dirty Dozen’ face power abuse claims
Report: Top Cambodian generals violated human rights for ages
PHNom PeNH: Twelve Cambodian police and military generals, all high-ranking members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party, have been accused of human rights violations, some dating from the Khmer Rouge era, in a new report.
A government spokesman, however, quickly dismissed the “false report” released yesterday, describing it as “unprofessional, biased and subjective”.
The report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), titled “Cambodia’s Dirty Dozen: A Long History of Rights Abuses by Hun Sen’s Generals”, alleged that the National Police and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ (RCAF) commanders were the “backbone of an abusive and authoritarian political regime over which an increasingly dictatorial Hun Sen rules”.
Having ruled for 33 years, Hun Sen’s government has cracked down on political opponents and independent critics in the run-up to the July 29 elections.
“Each (of the accused) is politically and personally close to Hun Sen and helps ensure the army, gendarmerie and police perform a political role in guaranteeing his and the (ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s) continued rule,” the report said.
Its release comes after the United States issued sanctions against Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit head Hin Bun Hieng over similar claims earlier this month.
Bun Hieng and his unit “have been connected to incidents where military force was used to menace gatherings of protesters and the political opposition going back at least to 1997”, the US Treasury said on June 12.
That year, a grenade attack on an opposition rally in the capital killed at least 16 people.
The HRW report raises suspicions that current RCAF deputy supreme commander Kun Kim, National Police commissioner Neth Savoeun and deputy Mok Chito were involved in the attack.
Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, said yesterday that the US sanctions “should serve as a wake-up call to officials and commanders” that Hun Sen would not be able to protect them indefinitely if they commited atrocities against citizens.