Thread: Cambodia top court dissolves main opposition CNRP party

Sounds right familiar.
Like a good neighbor that we know of.

Might we expect anything else from total corrupt power?

Supreme Court rules to dissolve the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, effectively making premier Hun Sen ruler of a one party state

Cambodia’s Supreme Court today officially dissolved the country’s largest opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), a decision that will effectively make the Southeast Asian nation a one-party state.
The court decision said 118 of the party’s senior officials will be banned from politics for five years and the party’s 489 commune chiefs, elected at June’s local elections, will also lose their positions.


The court’s ruling came after the Interior Ministry filed a lawsuit on October 6 to dissolve the CNRP over claims it colluded with foreign powers to overthrow the government and was fomenting a so-called “color revolution.”



Kem Sokha, the CNRP’s president, was arrested in September over related trumped-up treason charges. He remains in jail and could be sentenced to 30 years when he goes to trial on the anti-state charges. Nearly half of all CNRP lawmakers have now fled the country.

MORE Cambodia bids farewell to democracy | Asia Times

I'm sure he hasn't finished yet.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I'm sure he hasn't finished yet.

They haven't finished as of yet.
Familiar cycles will continue unless otherwise checked.

Is that not the plan of every political opposition? To remove the incumbent government and replace it with members of your own party? I think it's called democracy, unfortunately a word unknown in many countries in Asia and the rest of the world.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

They haven't finished as of yet.
Familiar cycles will continue unless otherwise checked.

No Jeff, HE, you ignorant turd.

Yep, he hasn't finished.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court on Saturday charged two journalists with espionage for filing news reports to a U.S.-funded radio station, which can carry a prison term of up to 15 years.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...ws%29&&rpc=401

Don't really understand how things work, do ya?
Yet, continues on as if he does.

Worldliness wannabe, Harry.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Don't really understand how things work, do ya?
Yet, continues on as if he does.

Worldliness wannabe, Harry.

You're a clueless, waffling twat Jeff.

Who else do you think runs Cambodia you idiot?

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Cambodia ordered the dissolution of the country’s main opposition party. For most observers, the move didn’t come as much of a surprise. For one thing, the court’s president is an old aide and associate of the long-ruling prime minister, Hun Sen. For another, the pugnacious and dictatorial Hun Sen had spent the past month “predicting” the court’s ruling, offering recently (hint, hint) that the popular Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) stood a 100-to-1 chance of living to fight another election.


The decision, which will see the CNRP stripped of its parliamentary seats, is the culmination of a crackdown that intensified dramatically in September with the midnight arrest of the CNRP’s leader, Kem Sokha. The 64-year-old has since been accused of plotting with the U.S. government to overthrow Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), which has ruled Cambodia since 1979. Since then, media outlets have been shuttered and civil society activists harassed, especially those with perceived or actual links to the United States. The panel of nine judges also dished out five-year political bans for 118 leading CNRP officials.


The ruling effectively disenfranchises more than 3 million Cambodians who voted for the CNRP at local elections in June, and clears the way for the CPP to run virtually unopposed at the next general election in July 2018. In a televised address shortly after the ruling, Hun Sen said that the court’s decision was based solely on the law, and promised that Cambodia would continue to “strongly adhere to democracy at the national and sub-national level.”


Few outside the country are buying it. Amnesty International described the ruling as a “blatant act of political repression.” The International Commission of Jurists, another rights group, also attacked the decision, noting that Dith Munty, the supreme court’s president, also occupies a seat on the CPP’s highest decision-making body. “It makes a mockery of fair justice to have someone in a leadership position within one political party sit in judgment on the conduct of that party’s main opposition,” Kingsley Abbott, a senior international legal advisor at the organization, said in a statement. “There can be no starker example of an inherent conflict of interest.”


Indeed, since becoming prime minister in 1985, the 65-year-old Hun Sen has elevated conflicts of interest into an entire system of government. For more than half his life, he has ruled through a canny mix of swagger, guile, and old-style Cambodian patronage, heavily spiced with reminders of his country’s suffering under the communist Khmer Rouge in the mid-1970s.


Even then, this latest move represents an unprecedented step, spelling an effective end to a multibillion-dollar international effort to transplant democracy in Cambodia since the early 1990s.Even then, this latest move represents an unprecedented step, spelling an effective end to a multibillion-dollar international effort to transplant democracy in Cambodia since the early 1990s. “It is very concerning for democracy in Cambodia,” said Noan Sereiboth, a blogger who leads Politikoffee, a youth political discussion group in the country. “Cambodia looks like a one-party state.”


For months, the government has justified its crackdown with far-fetched claims that the opposition was plotting to launch a “color revolution,” a reference to a series of popular uprisings that in the early 2000s ousted authoritarian leaders in countries including Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. The fear took hold after last election in 2013, when the CNRP scored surprising gains, and then took to the streets for months to protest alleged voter fraud. (The demonstrations were eventually put down by force in early 2014.)


Since Kem Sokha’s arrest, the authorities have ramped up a propaganda campaign asserting that the CNRP lies at the center of an elaborate anti-government conspiracy. This allegedly includes civil society and union leaders, American democracy-promotion groups, U.S.-funded broadcasters, and various American Embassy officials. At the same time, the authorities have released videos warning of Syria-like chaos if Hun Sen’s government is removed from power. Fearful of public demonstrations ahead of Thursday’s ruling, security forces locked down the center of the capital, Phnom Penh; they also raided the offices of several nongovernmental organizations, checking to make sure protesters weren’t hiding out there.


With most of its senior leadership now in exile abroad, the CNRP has called for immediate Western action to reverse Cambodia’s slide into dictatorship. “Hun Sen is shifting the goal post, pushing the red line, because the international community has been reactive rather than preemptive,” Kem Monovithya, a party spokeswoman (who is also Kem Sokha’s daughter), said in an email.


This has been a perennial challenge for the Western donor governments that have backed Cambodia’s democratic transition since the peace settlement of 1991. For years, the promise of hundreds of millions in development assistance gave Hun Sen a strong incentive to maintain an outward appearance of democracy, even as his government used force, intimidation, and patronage to win elections. The outcome was a fluctuating cycle of political repression geared toward crippling the CPP’s political opponents, while keep Western donors engaged.


In recent years, however, this pattern has been altered by the rapid rise of Chinese influence in Cambodia. Long resentful of Western criticisms, Hun Sen has been an enthusiastic adherent to the “Xi Jinping doctrine” of large-scale Chinese infrastructure deals decoupled from demands for human rights or good governance. Over the past 15 years, Chinese cash has bankrolled bridges, highways, hydropower dams, and property developments, while Beijing has given Hun Sen political cover from U.S. and European pressure. In exchange, Cambodia has been happy to support China’s positions on a range of issues, from Taiwan and Xinjiang to disputes in the South China Sea. The two countries have even agreed to set up a joint think tank to study and prevent “color revolutions.”

Cambodia Becomes the World?s Newest One-Party State ? Foreign Policy

Cambodia’s opposition party may appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reverse a decision to dissolve it, one of the party’s deputy presidents said Friday, as the international community continued to heap scorn on the country’s judiciary over what is seen as a politically motivated verdict.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled that the country’s opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) be dissolved for its part in plotting a “coup” against the government, essentially eliminating any competition to Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of a general election next year.

CNRP President Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3 for allegedly collaborating with the U.S. to overthrow the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), and Thursday’s decision found the opposition party guilty of involvement in the “conspiracy.”

On Friday, CNRP Deputy President Eng Chhay Eang told RFA’s Khmer Service that Cambodia’s judiciary is “damaged by political bias,” noting that his party hadn’t bothered to appoint a lawyer in the case heard by the Supreme Court, whose nine-member bench is filled with senior members and close affiliates of the ruling party.

Instead, the CNRP may bring the case to The Hague-based ICC in a bid to go above Cambodia’s court system and have the Supreme Court’s ruling reversed.

“We have no faith in Cambodian courts, as Hun Sen is above all of them,” said the deputy president, who along with more than half of CNRP lawmakers have fled Cambodia since Kem Sokha’s arrest, fearing retaliation by the CPP following important electoral gains by the opposition in June’s commune ballot.

“Whatever he wants, the courts agree to, so it was pointless to have any lawyers represent the CNRP in such a politically motivated case,” he added.

“Instead, we will consult with legal experts on the possibility of bringing this case to the attention of the ICC.”

Brad Adams, New York-based Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said his organization has long advocated for the ICC to investigate Cambodia, based on what he said were a laundry list of abuses perpetrated by the government against the country’s opposition.

“Hun Sen is engaged in systematic violence against the opposition—he has ruled with impunity,” Adams said of the political strongman, who has controlled Cambodia for more than 30 years.

“Cambodia under Hun Sen has not been willing or able to prosecute the people responsible for serious human rights abuses.”

Richard Rogers, a partner at the London-based law firm Global Diligence who filed a 2014 complaint with the ICC on behalf of victims of land grabs and a 2016 legal brief on last year’s murder of government critic Kem Ley, told RFA earlier this month that the ICC has jurisdiction over Cambodia in cases concerning political repression.

“Many of the crimes that relate to the current crackdown would fall under the umbrella of crimes against humanity … and that’s why the ICC has jurisdiction,” Rogers said at the time.

In March 2002, Cambodia ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court—the treaty that established the ICC—and in doing so gave the court jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory or by its citizens beginning on July 1 that year.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan on Friday dismissed any suggestion that the ICC could reverse the decision to dissolve the CNRP, saying “the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction over Cambodia.”

Only around a dozen cases have made it to the ICC’s preliminary examination stage after filing complaints in the 14-year history of the court.

Criticism continues

As the CNRP mulled whether to appeal its case to an international tribunal Friday, condemnation continued to pour in from around the globe over the Supreme Court’s decision to shut down the opposition party and ban 118 of its members from politics for the next five years.

The White House said in a statement late on Thursday that the U.S. will begin taking “concrete steps to respond to the Cambodian government’s deeply regrettable actions” by terminating support for Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC) and its administration of the July 2018 general election.

“On current course next year’s election will not be legitimate, free, or fair,” the statement said, urging Cambodia’s government to reinstate the CNRP, release Kem Sokha, and reverse a crackdown in recent months on civil society and the media.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which in April announced a grant of U.S. $1.8 million to support the NEC’s work during commune and general elections, expressed “gravest concern” over the ruling, calling on Cambodia to stop targeting the CNRP and interfering in the work of NGOs.

In a statement issued by Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maja Kocijancic, the European Union threatened to withdraw its support of Cambodia’s electoral process unless a situation in which all parties, their leaders, and their supporters are able to freely participate is “swiftly restored.”

“An electoral process from which the main opposition party has been arbitrarily excluded is not legitimate,” the statement said, adding that “respect of fundamental human rights is a prerequisite” for Cambodia to continue to benefit from EU assistance.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs for Australia and Sweden also voiced concerns over the verdict and urged Cambodia to reverse course, with the latter vowing to “review the forms of our engagement” with Phnom Penh.

In statements Friday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein voiced concerns over the legitimacy of Cambodia’s upcoming elections in light of the ruling, while the Inter-Parliamentary Union said the foundation of Cambodia's democracy had been threatened.

China was one of the few nations to speak out in support of the decision, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling reporters at a briefing Friday that Beijing would stand behind Cambodia in pursuing its own development path.

Diaspora speaks

Meanwhile, CNRP supporters in Europe released a statement Friday accusing Hun Sen of “killing democracy in Cambodia” and calling on members of the Cambodian diaspora to gather in France this weekend to demonstrate against the government’s actions.

The supporters will meet on Nov. 19 in Paris to demand a reversal of the Supreme Court ruling, call on all Cambodians to stand up for the protection of human rights and freedom in Cambodia, and urge the U.N. and the international community to level sanctions against Hun Sen’s regime.

Hun Sen has announced that when the CNRP is dissolved, its parliamentary seats will be redistributed to other government-aligned political parties, and has pressured CNRP officials who were elected in the June commune ballot to defect to the CPP.

At present, the CNRP holds 55 seats in the National Assembly, around 5,000 councilor positions at the commune level, and nearly 800 provincial/municipal level councilor positions after strong showings in recent elections, and counts more than three million active supporters in Cambodia.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Cambodia?s Opposition CNRP May Appeal Dissolution Case to International Criminal Court

International Donors Pulling Support For Cambodia After Opposition Party Ban

International donors are ending aid to Cambodia or ramping up threats to do so after Prime Minister Hun Sen defended a crackdown that critics say has damaged the country’s fragile democracy and thrown the legitimacy of an upcoming ballot into question.

Hun Sen’s government has faced widespread condemnation in recent months over actions targeting the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), as well as for orchestrating the closure of independent media outlets and restricting NGOs, ahead of general elections scheduled for July 2018.

Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Nov. 16 unanimously ruled that the CNRP be dissolved for its part in plotting a “coup” against the government, essentially eliminating any competition to Hun Sen in next year’s vote.

Since the decision, the international community has rained condemnation down on Cambodia and threatened to take action against its government if restrictions are not lifted. But Hun Sen has remained defiant, saying he would “welcome” any withdrawal of aid and that Cambodia will rely on assistance from China—one of the few countries to support his nation following the court ruling.

On Monday, during bilateral meetings on the margins of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of Foreign Ministers in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, European Union chief of foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini reiterated a warning to Cambodia’s government that it should not expect current levels of cooperation to continue unless the CNRP is reinstated.

According to a statement issued by the European External Action Service, Mogherini stressed to Cambodian foreign minister Prak Sokhon her expectations that “recent, significant steps away from the path of pluralism and democracy enshrined in Cambodia's constitution, such as the … dissolution of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, will be swiftly reversed.”

Mogherini, who is also vice president of the European Commission, urged Cambodia’s government to free CNRP President Kem Sokha, who was arrested on Sept. 3 for allegedly collaborating with the U.S. to overthrow the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)—charges the U.S. embassy has rejected.

The EU foreign affairs chief made clear to her Cambodian counterpart that “the European Union's development cooperation and trade preferences are reliant on [Cambodia’s] respect for fundamental human rights and democratic principles,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—which last week vowed to “review the forms of our engagement” with Phnom Penh—said in a statement through its embassy that Sweden “will not initiate any new government-to-government development cooperation agreements” with Cambodia, except in the areas of education and research.

“Sweden considers political developments in Cambodia deeply worrying,” the statement said, adding that recent measures against the opposition, the media and civil society organizations “represent a serious setback for democratic development and human rights” in the country.

“It will therefore not be possible to continue our support to the decentralization reform in its current form.”

Latest measures

The statements from the EU and government of Sweden are the latest to announce an end to aid or threaten to do so following the Supreme Court’s decision to dissolve the CNRP.

Last week, the White House said in a statement that the U.S. will begin taking “concrete steps to respond to the Cambodian government’s deeply regrettable actions” by terminating support for Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC) and its administration of the July 2018 general election.

China was one of the few nations to speak out in support of the decision, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling reporters at a briefing last week that Beijing would stand behind Cambodia in pursuing its own development path.

Hun Sen on Monday proposed that the U.S. “cut off all aid to Cambodia entirely,” which he said would result in the “death of all local NGOs,” and warned that “those who die first will be the NGOs that are plotting against us.”

Observers have warned that aid cuts will adversely affect Cambodia’s garment sector, which provides more than one million jobs to workers, and note that Cambodia relies heavily on trade preferences from the U.S. and EU to support the industry.

Clearing house

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s government has continued its bid to eradicate all trappings of the CNRP from the political stage following last week’s ruling, preventing the party’s elected officials from continuing their work, and deploying authorities to remove billboards, flags and other opposition paraphernalia around the country.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly, or parliament, fired more than 100 civil servants from the CNRP, and confiscated official party vehicles and other equipment, according to an announcement from the assembly’s general secretary Leng Peng Long.

The civil servants will be given salaries until Nov. 24, at which point they will have to clear out their offices and return their supplies.

“Parliament has various agents who are waiting to receive all this equipment,” he said.

Nhem Savoeuy, deputy general secretary of the National Assembly, confirmed that the government had confiscated five vehicles from five CNRP officials, without providing further details.

Political analyst Lao Monghay told RFA’s Khmer Service that he viewed the National Assembly’s actions as borderline violations of the rule of law and democratic principles.

“They should not fire the CNRP administrative officials like this,” he said.

Hun Sen has announced that when the CNRP is dissolved, its parliamentary seats will be redistributed to other government-aligned political parties, and has pressured CNRP officials who were elected in Cambodia’s June commune ballot to defect to the CPP.

The CNRP holds 55 seats in the National Assembly, around 5,000 councilor positions at the commune level, and nearly 800 provincial/municipal level councilor positions.

Since Kem Sokha’s arrest, more than half of CNRP lawmakers, along with deputy presidents Mu Sochua and Eng Chhay Eang and a number of party activists, have fled Cambodia fearing retaliation by the CPP following electoral gains by the opposition in June’s commune ballot, which are seen as pointing to a strong showing in next year’s vote.

International Donors Pulling Support For Cambodia After Opposition Party Ban

thrown the legitimacy of an upcoming ballot into question.

As if it ever fucking had any!

China supports Cambodia's crackdown on political opposition

BEIJING (Reuters) - China supports Cambodia’s efforts to protect political stability and believes it will smoothly hold elections next year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Cambodian counterpart, after the country’s main opposition party was dissolved.

The Supreme Court banned the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) last week at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government in a move that prompted the United States to cut election funding and threaten more punitive steps.


The European Union has also threatened action.


The CNRP was banned after its leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested for alleged treason. The government says he sought to take power with American help. He rejects that allegation as politically motivated, to allow Hun Sen to extend his more than three decades in power in next year’s general election.


The United States has said that Cambodia’s 2018 election “will not be legitimate, free or fair”.


Meeting on Monday on the sides of a Asia-Europe foreign ministers meeting in Myanmar, Wang told his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon that China supported the government’s actions.


“China supports the Cambodian side’s efforts to protect political stability and achieve economic development, and believes the Cambodian government can lead the people to deal with domestic and foreign challenges, and will smoothly hold elections next year,”, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement.


China has repeatedly expressed its support for Cambodia, making no criticism of the government led by Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, who is one of Beijing’s most important allies in Southeast Asia after more than three decades in power.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...KBN1DL01L?il=0

Asias' answer to Robert Mgabe.

You don't have to look as far as that to find parallels.

Originally Posted by Neo

You don't have to look as far as that to find parallels.

Look West first.

The 2018 Cambodian General Election winner is.....

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

As if it ever fucking had any!

Allegedly no "interference" was found at the previous one. But I await to be shown your facts which you may want to post to back up your assertions.

Originally Posted by misskit

Hun Sen’s government has faced widespread condemnation in recent months over actions targeting the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), as well as for orchestrating the closure of independent media outlets and restricting NGOs, ahead of general elections scheduled for July 2018.

Criticism from those whose paid "foreign agents" have been asked to leave or forgo "foreign agents" funding. From others who offer "benefits" not so much. Only the illegally funded and orchestrated media and NGOs eh. Sounds like western "democracies" are able to accuse others of the same, although not proven acts, but when legally proven by Cambodian courts there is a problem.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Allegedly no "interference" was found at the previous one. But I await to be shown your facts which you may want to post to back up your assertions.



Criticism from those whose paid "foreign agents" have been asked to leave or forgo "foreign agents" funding. From others who offer "benefits" not so much. Only the illegally funded and orchestrated media and NGOs eh. Sounds like western "democracies" are able to accuse others of the same, although not proven acts, but when legally proven by Cambodian courts there is a problem.

It's not even worth responding to this horseshit.

You know less than Jeff does.

Try reading something other than whackjob websites, you might actually learn something.

Originally Posted by Wilsonandson

The 2018 Cambodian General Election winner is.....

Is there a book, I might try and get a bet on.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Look West first.

You can look in any direction.

There is not a country that borders Cambodia that has freely and fairly elected its leader.

And they all have their own ways of dealing with any dissent.