Updated at 12:30 p.m. EST on 2012-06-14
Cambodia has no culture of impunity and does not engage in land grabs, officials accompanying Foreign Minister Hor Namhong for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
Speaking about the controversial death of environmental activist Chut Wutty, which sparked accusations of a government cover-up, Secretary of State Kao Kim Hourn dismissed as a “misconception” the notion that the country nurtures impunity.
Chut Wutty, who was gunned down while investigating illicit logging operations in May, was the highest-profile activist killed in the country since labor activist Chea Vichea was assassinated in 2004.
“It’s really an isolated case, and [one that] the government has been trying to investigate,” Kao Kim Hourn said Tuesday at a forum organized by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“There is no such thing as a culture of impunity [in Cambodia],” he said.
“Anyone that carries out criminal activity [is] subjected to the due process of law in court,” he said.
Land disputes
His comments came shortly after Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with Clinton, as Cambodian-American rights groups staged a protest outside the U.S. State Department building, where the talks were held.
In a petition to Clinton ahead of the talks, rights groups called for the release of 15 activists from the Boeung Kak Lake community in Phnom Penh.
Thirteen women were jailed for between one year and two and a half years for their part in protests over land they say the government gave away in a concession to a private developer, in one of the country’s highest-profile land disputes. Two others were detained after the 13 women at a protest over their arrest.
Kao Kim Hourn denied accusations that land disputes such as the Boeung Kak case are due to unfair government policies.
“The government of Cambodia does not have a policy of land-grabbing,” he said.
He said that it was not that the government who had taken the land illegally, but that the residents were occupying it illegally.
“Those so-called ‘forced evictions’ are of people occupying state land illegally,” he said, adding that such evictions occur in “any society with state land.”
“It’s a crime, in fact, to occupy state land,” he said.
Ouch Borith, also a secretary of state in Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the land concession in Boeung Kak was made in an effort to improve conditions for the villagers.
“There were 3,900 families living there without infrastructure or sanitation facilities, so the government decided to transform this area,” he said
The government offered the residents options of compensation or relocation, and “the majority, more than 3,800, of the families agreed,” he said.
He said that the term “eviction” should not even apply to the situation, because the government “does not want to evict people without their consent.”
“Cambodia is an emerging country,” and so still faces many difficulties in providing for the people, he added.
Foreign Minister
Hor Namhong said that Cambodia has been polishing its human rights record.
“Cambodia has implemented a number of priority agendas related to democratization and promotion of human rights,” he said, speaking after his meeting with Clinton.
Cambodia allows over 3,700 local and international NGOs to “work freely throughout the country” including in human rights and pro-democracy activities.
Transparent elections have contributed to the country’s democratization “from the national to the grassroots level,” he said.
Reported by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Well if "there is no such thing as a culture of impunity" then why isn't Hor Namhong, Hun Sen and other former Khmer Rouge commanders being stripped of their power and brought to justice for crimes against humanity. Until that judicial process is taken seriously (and not judged by corrupt officials) then we can really start the healing process.
Jun 13, 2012 01:22 PM
they are a bunch of untouchable thugs. Begging the outside world for money and the same time silence their own people with force.
Jul 02, 2012 04:37 PM
the theft never admit they are a theft. shame on these people.
Jun 13, 2012 02:02 AM
All these Cambodian government officials are liers. They order polices destroy the people's houses where they live for years and arrested, jail these powerless people who protest against this government that toke their houses,land to lease 99 years to private company. They force these people to accept penny to a dollar for their land/house value.
Jun 13, 2012 01:16 AM
I agree with you. I am so sick about our government. Why they are so crazy falling in love with bloody power and corrupted system. Now, they secretly kill innocent people and one day they will end up kill their own blood and love one. At the end, the land will fall into enemies without their effort of fighting.
Jun 13, 2012 06:37 PM
