The Human Rights Watch has called on the Cambodian government to stop arresting and detaining former opposition party members after the government confirmed the arrest of at least 52 opposition activists and former officials. Political barometer has been rising in Cambodia after opposition leader Sam Rainsy said he will return to the country on November 9, following a four-year exile.
"The dozens of politically motivated arrests over the past three months demonstrate that Prime Minister Hun Sen's government has no intention of lifting the heavy-handed repression that has darkened Cambodia in recent years," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said. "Foreign governments and donors should loudly call for an end to this wave of arrests and press Cambodia to immediately and unconditionally release all those wrongfully detained for criticizing the government," Robertson added.
However, the government rebutted the charges levelled against it. The government is acting on an attempt to engineer a coup in the country, said spokesman Phay Siphan, according to VOA Cambodia. "The government has not arrested political activists, but [arrested] those who have participated in a coup plot ... If they confess they will be free, but if they continue like this they will be arrested," the spokesman added.
HRW says that the crackdown on opposition figures intensified after the announcement that exiled leader Sam Rainsy and followers would return to the country in November. Ramsay's party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), has been judicially dissolved. Cambodian authorities have arrested dozens of people, including more than 50 former CNRP members, ever since the announcement. "Arrests are continuing. Among the charges routinely being filed are plotting against the state, incitement to commit a felony, and discrediting judicial decisions – all of which appear to be baseless and politically motivated," HRW said.
HRW also points out that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has openly threatened to arrest CNRP leader in exile if they tried to return to the country. Hun Sen said on September 17 that as many as 10 ASEAN countries had got Cambodian arrest warrants for Sam Rainsy.
Hun Sen's 35-year reign
Hun Sen is one of the longest-serving prime ministers in the world. The Cambodian strongman has been in power since 1985. Though the 65-year-old is credited with turning around the economy, he is seen as an authoritarian figure with a poor human rights record. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has faced little resistance over the decades, and the prime minister has vowed he would stay in power for at least another ten years. Though he was a Khmer Rouge commander, he fled to Vietnam in 1977 to join troops opposed to the Khmer Rouge. He became prime minister at the age of 33.
