Amnesty International Report 1997 - Cambodia
- Document source:
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Date:
1 January 1997
Two prisoners of conscience were imprisoned and subsequently pardoned; a third was released without charge. At least nine people were sentenced to prison terms following unfair trials. Dozens of people, including at least five political prisoners, were tortured and ill-treated in police custody. At least four people died as a result of torture. At least 27 people, including six children, were extrajudicially executed. Twenty-two people were arrested and deported to a neighbouring country where they were at risk of human rights violations. An armed opposition group committed grave human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians. Civil war between the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and the National Army of Democratic Kampuchea (NADK) the armed wing of the Cambodian National Union Party (CNUP), formerly the Partie of Democratic Kampuchea, commonly known as the Khmer Rouge continued throughout the year, with fierce fighting in February and March. The CNUP split in August, and the breakaway faction which controlled parts of the northwest of the country formed a new political group, the Democratic National Union Movement (DNUM). Ieng Sary, leader of the DNUM, received a royal pardon in September. He had been Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979, during which time the Government of Democratic Kampuchea (GDK) was responsible for gross violations of human rights, including the torture and extrajudicial execution of hundreds of thousands of civilians. Ieng Sary had been sentenced to death in absentia after an unfair trial on charges relating to human rights violations during the period in which the GDK was in power. The request for a royal pardon had been made by the two Prime Ministers, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, and supported by a majority of National Assembly members. Attempts throughout the year by prominent government critic Sam Rainsy to gain legal status for his political party, the Khmer Nation Party (KNP), were frustrated by the government, and provincial party workers were harassed by the authorities. A new law on nationality was passed by the National Assembly in August which discriminates against certain ethnic minorities. In February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Cambodia and signed an agreement with the government extending the presence of the UN Centre for Human Rights in Cambodia for two years. The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on the situation of human rights in Cambodia submitted a report to the UN Commission on Human Rights in February, condemning government and NADK abuses. In November, the Special Representative submitted a report to the UN General Assembly. Two prisoners of conscience, Chan Rotana and Hen Vipheak, both newspaper editors and senior members of the KNP, were jailed briefly before being pardoned. In June, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction and sentence of Chan Rotana, former editor of Samleng Yuvachen Khmer (Voice of Khmer Youth). Chan Rotana had been convicted in 1995 on charges of "disinformation" in connection with an article published in his newspaper and sentenced to one year's imprisonment and a heavy fine (see Amnesty International Report 1996). In October 1995, the Appeals Court had upheld the conviction and sentence without a new trial, despite the fact that the prosecution had altered the charge to one of "defamation". Chan Rotana was freed by royal pardon after serving seven days of his sentence. Hen Vipheak, former editor of Serei Pheap Thmey (New Liberty News), was jailed in August after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction for "disinformation" and the sentence of one year's imprisonment and a heavy fine. He was freed by royal pardon shortly after starting his sentence. No one was brought to justice for the violent attack on the Serei Pheap Thmey office in 1995 (see Amnesty International Report 1996). Heng At, a prisoner of conscience detained in Kampong Cham province (see Amnesty International Report 1996) was released without charge in January. At least nine people were sentenced to prison terms after unfair trials. Prince Norodom Sirivudh, who had been detained in November 1995 on suspicion of plotting to kill Second Prime Minister Hun Sen and was exiled to France following an intervention by King Norodom Sihanouk, was tried in absentia and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in February. He was convicted on charges of conspiracy and illegal possession of weapons, following a trial which fell short of international standards for fair trial. Before the trial his wife and children, who live in Cambodia, received telephone death threats. Prince Sirivudh remained in exile at the end of the year. Eight people who were arrested in December 1995 on suspicion of having links with the outlawed NADK (see Amnesty International Report 1996) were brought to trial in August. Their trial, which appeared to be politically motivated, fell short of international standards for fair trial. Six men were found guilty of involvement in organized crime and each sentenced to one year's imprisonment, despite the lack of evidence to substantiate the charges. One man was found guilty of illegal possession of weapons, and another, a former journalist, of "disinformation"; both were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. A ninth person arrested with the group was released without charge. Torture and ill-treatment in police custody were reported in many parts of the country. At least five people arrested in Battambang province in the first half of the year on suspicion of having links with the NADK were tortured. In June, Lam Han, who speaks only Vietnamese, was arrested on suspicion of theft and tortured by police in Battambang province. She was threatened with death and beaten on the legs by three policemen over a two-day period, while detained in a cell with no toilet facilities. She was denied food and water, and was injected by a policeman with an unknown substance which made her lose consciousness. Evidence of the injuries sustained by Lam Han at the police station was not accepted by the judge and she was convicted and given a one-year prison sentence on the basis of confessions obtained under torture in a language she did not understand. No action was taken against the policemen. Evidence also emerged during 1996 of the detention and torture in September 1995 of a 13-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of theft who was reportedly tortured with an electric baton by a military policeman and an army officer in Kampong Thom province. The two men involved had not been brought to justice by the end of the year. At least four people died following torture. In February, Ry Sarith was arrested by policemen and military police in Prey Veng province on suspicion of robbery. He was interrogated at the local police station, after which a military police captain reportedly handcuffed him and beat him to death. In May, Tong Sophara was arrested without a warrant by military police in Siem Reap province on suspicion of car theft. He was taken to their headquarters, stripped naked and detained in a basement room, where he was found dead the following day. The official report into his death stated that Tong Sophara had committed suicide by hanging. However, serious inconsistencies in the report led to an order from the civilian authorities to exhume the body, which was found to have a broken arm, rib and tooth, and burns, bruises and puncture wounds. Those responsible had not been brought to justice by the end of the year. At least 27 people were extrajudicially executed. In May, Thun Bun Ly, a prominent KNP worker and newspaper editor, was shot dead by two men, one of them in uniform, as he was riding pillion on a motorcycle taxi near his house in Phnom Penh. Half an hour before his death he had telephoned a friend and said he was frightened as he had been followed home from KNP leader Sam Rainsy's house. Later that day, municipal police came and removed two bullets from Thun Bun Ly's body. A Ministry of the Interior official came in the afternoon and removed the third bullet. The whereabouts of these pieces of evidence were never disclosed. The manner of killing and the removal of the bullets mirror the case of Nuon Chan (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Thun Bun Ly had been appealing against a prison sentence for articles he had published in his newspaper, Oddomkete Khmer (Khmer Ideal). No one had been brought to justice for the killing by the end of the year. In May, two villagers, So Saly and Phan Samoun, from Svay Rieng province, were arrested, beaten and executed in front of local villagers and policemen by a group of military police who accused them of robbery. One was shot in the head eight times. No prosecution had been initiated against any of the officers involved by the end of the year. In June, Seng Voeun was arrested by military policemen and police officers in Takeo province on suspicion of armed robbery. He was publicly stripped and beaten while protesting his innocence. The officers then shot him four times and, when he still refused to confess, shot him dead. In spite of a request by the Minister of Justice for action to be taken, those responsible had not been apprehended by the end of the year. In September, six children were killed and six others injured when a soldier in Krang Kontro village fired a rocket into a group of children at an ice-cream stall. Four soldiers, who were also injured, then fired their weapons at villagers and forced them to leave the children and assist the soldiers first. The perpetrator had not been arrested by the end of the year, and no action had been taken against the surviving soldiers. The unit commander was reportedly taken into military custody. Twenty-two people were arrested and deported to Viet Nam, where they were at risk of human rights violations. They included three ethnic Vietnamese men, two of whom were born in Cambodia and had Cambodian identity documents, who were arrested and deported in March. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior claimed that the men were linked to an illegal organization, the Free Viet Nam Movement, which aimed to overthrow the Vietnamese Government. At the end of the year, one man remained in custody in Viet Nam (see Viet Nam entry). Nineteen people of Vietnamese descent were deported in December because of their alleged involvement in an organization calling for political change in Viet Nam. Their fate and whereabouts in Viet Nam were unknown at the end of the year. The NADK committed grave human rights abuses, including deliberate and arbitrary killings. In June, more than 80 civilians working on logging concessions were abducted by an NADK unit in Kampot province. Fourteen of the hostages were executed with axes by the NADK soldiers. Some 35 others were released and delivered ransom demands to family members for the remaining hostages. There were reports that NADK soldiers were also responsible for a massacre of villagers on the Tonle Sap lake, some of whom were ethnic Vietnamese. The fate and whereabouts of a British man and his Cambodian translator who were taken hostage in March remained unknown. In May, Amnesty International published a report, Kingdom of Cambodia: Diminishing respect for human rights, detailing human rights violations during the previous year, cataloguing the lack of government action on cases of human rights violations and describing NADK abuses. The organization called for the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience and expressed concern at the killing of Thun Bun Ly and the deportation of the three men in March. In September, Amnesty International sent an open letter to the King and members of the National Assembly, reiterating the need for accountability for past gross human rights violations and urging that full investigations be undertaken and those found responsible brought to justice. The King issued an open letter in response, in which he explained that as a constitutional monarch it was his duty to follow the wishes of the government, but that he would support any international tribunal which brought senior Khmer Rouge leaders to justice. Amnesty International wrote to the Prime Ministers in November, calling for action to be taken to protect the villagers of Krang Kontro from the soldiers who had killed their children. There was no response from the government to Amnesty International's many appeals on individual cases.
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