US Cuts Aid to Cambodia Over Deterioration of Democracy

[misskit]

The United States announced Tuesday that it is cutting aid to Cambodia as a punitive measure on account of the deterioration of democracy under the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.


The White House issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the U.S. has been “a committed development partner of Cambodia” for 25 years, contributing more than U.S. $1 billion to improve the economy, society, and democracy in the Southeast Asian country.


“Recent setbacks to democracy in Cambodia, however, caused us deep concern,” it said, citing Senate elections on Feb. 25 in which the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won all 56 seats in an uncontested vote held just over three months after the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).


“These setbacks compelled the United States to review its assistance to Cambodia to ensure that American taxpayer funds are not being used to support anti-democratic behavior,” the statement said.


The administration is ending or curtailing several U.S. Treasury Department, USAID, and American military assistance programs that support Cambodia’s taxation department, local governments, and the military, the statement said.


The U.S. government said it would continue providing support for other projects in the areas of health, agriculture, mine clearance, and civil society.


Hun Sen has targeted the political opposition, NGOs, and independent media in a months-long crackdown to silence government critics ahead of a general election in July.


In November, the Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP at the government’s request following the arrest two months earlier of the party’s leader Kem Sokha for alleged treason.


That month, Hun Sen told the U.S. to cut all aid after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump announced it was ending funding for the election because of the dissolution of the CNRP.


Other CNRP lawmakers in exile have started a movement to put pressure on the government to stop its persecution of the opposition and ensure free and fair elections.


This month, lawmakers approved a lèse-majesté law and constitutional amendments put forth by top CPP officials that critics say could pose a serious threat to human rights and basic freedoms.




EU Council’s threat


The announcement comes a day after the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council threatened the Cambodian government with “specific targeted measures” if it failed to stop using the judiciary as a “political tool” to harass and intimidate political opponents, civil society, labor rights activists, and human rights defenders.


The council also demanded the release of Kem Sokha, and expressed concern over the dissolution of the CNRP and the suspension of several NGOs and media outlets.


The European Union, Cambodia’s largest export market, grants the country trade preferences to the bloc based in part on the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms as part of the EU’s overall trade policy.

The CNRP welcomed the measure and issued a statement reiterating the Council’s call for Hun Sen’s government to release Kem Sokha, reinstate the CNRP, and stop using the judiciary to silence the opposition.
“We need an immediate solution to the current political crisis,” Mu Sochua, a CNRP deputy president, told RFA’s Khmer Service on Tuesday. “We need favorable conditions for a free and fair election. We need the government to release Kem Sokha immediately and reverse the decision that dissolves the CNRP.”


She said the CNRP was ready for a national dialogue between the opposition party and the CCP, but called on the United Nations, the EU, and the signatories to the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, which paved the way for the restoration of democracy in Cambodia, to be “our witnesses.”


RFA could not obtain comments from the Cambodian government or from Chum Bunrong, Cambodia’s ambassador to the U.S., who is away on travel.


However, government officials, including Hun Sen, have stated consistently that there will be no talks with the CNRP and have accused the party of breaking up the dialogue between them in the first place.


Hun Sen recently called the Cambodia National Rescue Movement, created by former CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Jan. 28, a terrorist organization and vowed to arrest him and other members of the group whenever they travel to an Asian country



CNRP headquarters seized


In a related development, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court seized the CNRP’s headquarters, owned by Sam Rainsy, as compensation for fines imposed in lawsuits against him by senior CPP officials.


On Monday, the court issued a three-page order to confiscate the property, including the party’s offices and Sam Rainsy’s private residence, to pay for the fines for two defamation convictions, one filed by Hun Sen and the other filed by National Assembly President Heng Samrin.


Sam Rainsy was ordered to pay Heng Samrin about U.S. $37,200 and the state about U.S. $2,400 in a lawsuit over a video posted on his Facebook page.


He also was ordered to pay Hun Sen U.S. $1 million in damages in December for saying that the prime minister had bribed social media celebrity and CPP champion Thy Sovantha to wage a campaign against the CNRP, after text messages purportedly sent between the two were leaked.


“I’m not surprised at all by the court’s order,” Sam Raisy wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday. “It’s just another part of the many politically motivated cases intended to persecute me for standing up against the corrupt and authoritarian regime over the past 25 years.”


“I shall continue to stand up for freedom and justice for our people and bring the notorious regime of the tyrants to an end,” he wrote.


https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cam...018163006.html

[misskit]

Cambodia Calls US Aid Cutoff, EU Sanctions Threats an ‘Insult’



The Cambodian government on Wednesday called a cutoff of aid, including military support, by the United States and a threat of sanctions by the European Union “an insult,” while Prime Minister Hun Sen said the country is importing thousands of tons of military weapons from an unnamed nation.


A day earlier, the White House announced that it was ending or curtailing several U.S. Treasury Department, USAID, and American military assistance programs that support Cambodia’s taxation department, local governments, and military.


The U.S. cited recent setbacks to democracy in Cambodia, including the recent Senate elections in which the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) took all seats in an uncontested vote held just over three months after the Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).


Washington has spent more than $1 billion in support for Cambodia over the last 25 years, the White House said, adding that aid for health care, agriculture, and mine-clearing would continue.


The European Union on Feb. 26 threatened the Cambodian government with “specific targeted measures” if it failed to stop using the judiciary as a “political tool” to harass and intimidate political opponents, civil society, labor rights activists, and human rights defenders.


“It is sad and shocking that our friends have decided to cut their development assistance to Cambodia!” wrote Phay Siphan, spokesman of Cambodia’s Council of Ministers, on his Facebook in response to the aid cuts.


“Such sanctions are nothing short of an insult to Cambodians and hurt those who love real democracy,” he said, adding that the U.S. and other Western countries had intervened in Cambodia’s internal affairs when the Southeast Asia nation was going through “a bitter period” in 1970-1975.


The years encompassed a civil war during which the U.S.-backed government forces fought against the Communist Khmer Rouge and their North Vietnamese allies for control of Cambodia.


“Cambodia can never forget those bad memories,” Phay Siphan wrote. “Cambodia will continue to be self-sufficient and strive for and build democracy on its own and free from foreign interference.”


The CNRP, which applauded the move by the EU Foreign Affairs Council, issued a call for dialogue with the CPP to address the current political crisis, but the ruling party dismissed the suggestion, saying that the opposition was “dead.”


“There is no dialogue whatsoever,” CPP spokesman Sok Eysan wrote on Wednesday on Telegram, a messaging app used by Cambodian officials. “The CNRP is dead. A dead body cannot come alive again.”


“The call for a national dialogue is nothing but pure frustration expressed by the fugitives and the outlawed that they are now at a dead end,” he said.


Hun Sen has targeted the political opposition, NGOs, and independent media in a months-long crackdown to silence government critics ahead of a general election on July 29.


Meanwhile, CNRP lawmakers in exile, including former party chief Sam Rainsy, have launched the Cambodia National Rescue Movement to put pressure on the government to end its persecution of the opposition and ensure free and fair elections.



‘Special goods’


Meanwhile, during a speech to several thousand factory workers in Kampong Speu province on Wednesday, Hun Sen said Cambodia is receiving thousands of tons of military supplies, including weapons, from a foreign country he did not name, but is believed to be China.


“Last night our special goods were shipped to Cambodia,” he said. “By special goods I mean something that is confidential. However they are not drugs. They are up to 10,000 tons of supplies. They were transported in containers. A country must have the means of national defense.”


He went on to say that Tea Banh, Cambodia’s national defense minister, is in charge of the shipments.


“You can now guess what the goods are because I’ve told you that they are being taken care of by Tea Banh,” Hun Sen said. “Of course, he would not ship flowers. The supplies must be ammunition and weapons.”


Tea Banh famously vowed last year to “smash the teeth” of anyone protesting a win by the ruling party in local elections. Hun Sen has also repeatedly threatened his opponents with violence.


Cambodian and Chinese soldiers will be holding the next iteration of a joint military exercise dubbed “Golden Dragon” in March as both countries commemorate the 60th anniversary of their ties this year.



Burning effigies


In his address to factory workers, Hun Sen also encouraged Cambodian-Australians to burn and vandalize seven-headed naga, or dragon, statues that decorate Cambodian temples in Australia if they do not like him rather than burn effigies of him, as they have threatened to do.


A week ago, the premier said he would beat protesters who burned photos of him during an upcoming trip to Australia and threatened to boycott the ASEAN-Australian Special Summit on March 17-18 over pressure on his government for its crackdown on the opposition, The Phnom Penh Post reported.


In response, some Cambodian-Australian residents said they would burn Hun Sen in effigy during demonstrations coinciding with his visit while demanding the release of jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha and the reinstatement of the CNRP, the report said.


“Let me give those protesters some tips,” Hun Sen told the workers in Kampong Speu province. “Burning effigies of me is not effective at all. On the contrary, I feel good. If you want a better result and hope that Hun Sen will die when you cast your spells, may I ask you to burn the naga statues and smash them all at every Khmer temple?”


Australian lawmaker Chris Bowen, the country’s former immigration and citizenship minister, lashed out at Hun Sen’s threat to bash Cambodian-Australians who protest against him.


“The Cambodian community is rightly outraged and they are frankly … scared, and they need to know that this parliament will not put up with that sort of language from anybody even if they are head of another country and even if they are head of a member of ASEAN,” he told the lower house of parliament on Wednesday.


“We will stand with the Cambodian-Australian community and their right to engage in peaceful protest,” he said.


https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cam...018163442.html

[Farang Ky Ay]

Cambodia may turn to China instead...

[Klondyke]

Cambodia Calls US Aid Cutoff, EU Sanctions Threats an ‘Insult’

Such stance does not need to be taken much seriously...

[harrybarracuda]

Cambodia may turn to China instead...

Cambodia already has turned to China, so there's no point in giving them free money if they aren't going to play nicely.

China doesn't give a flying fuck.

[Looper]

China's attempt at posturing as a benevolent sponsor state is like watching the first moments of a train wreck.

Their imperial self-centred agenda is so transparent that only the most corrupt neighbouring tin-pot dictatorships are seduced.

[david44]

spot on, that's chink in their humour

[HuangLao]

Traditional tribute system with a contemporary geopolitical twist.

[Listerman]

Their imperial self-centred agenda is so transparent that only the most corrupt neighbouring tin-pot dictatorships are seduced.

They obviously saw how well this approach has worked for the American government, and decided to try it for themselves.

[jabir]

If aid is linked to democracy Thailand should be raking it in, they had a free and fair election just four years ago and one before that also.

[HuangLao]

Yet, doesn't there have to be an existing democracy [whatever that is] before such claims as to being deteriorating...

[harrybarracuda]

Of course the great irony is that they are using American dollars to buy all this influence.

[HuangLao]

Of course the great irony is that they are using American dollars to buy all this influence.

Which, for all practical purposes, is derived from a highly false wealth.

[harrybarracuda]

Which, for all practical purposes, is derived from a highly false wealth.

Nothing false about it mate. It's cash earned by selling sweat shop junk to stoopid Americans.

[misskit]

PM: US lied about aid cuts


Prime Minister Hun Sen has reacted to the United States imposing aid cuts on Cambodia, saying the move was politically motivated because the US wants to see the dissolution of the opposition CNRP reversed prior to the upcoming national election.


The White House last week said it was suspending or curtailing several Treasury, USAID and military assistance programmes that support Cambodia’s military, taxation department and local authorities, all of which it said, shared blame for recent political instability.


The US has taken a strong stance against the dissolution of the CNRP, which was dissolved in the wake of its leader Kem Sokha being jailed on treason charges after being accused of conspiring with the US to topple the government through a colour revolution.


Speaking to thousands of garment workers on Saturday at a Special Economic Zone in Preah Sihanouk province, Mr Hun Sen said that US aid for taxation ended in 2016, but the announcement was made last month.


In his first public comments since the announced aid suspension, Mr Hun Sen accused US ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt of lying, saying aid cuts to Cambodia’s tax department were made in 2016.


“They have not given us this aid since 2016, but they just announced that they would cut that aid,” Mr Hun Sen said. “We, the 16 million people, didn’t receive American aid in the tax sector. This aid was already finished in 2016.”


Mr Hun Sen then challenged Mr Heidt to give an explanation.


“Please, US ambassador, answer this one question: why did you announce cutting aid while there is no aid? Do you intend to distort the reputation of Cambodia?” he said. “What is the purpose? Please, US ambassador, answer this question.”


Mr Hun Sen said the US ambassador intended to confuse the public because it spread the information through newspapers and Voice of America radio.


“How can he announce aid cuts when there was no aid coming in the first place,” he said. “The reality is that he is twisting the truth to create a psychological war in an attempt to bring the opposition back from the dead.”


“I have to clearly tell my 16 million Cambodian people that we have not received US aid on taxation,” Mr Hun Sen added, noting that the US previously provided experts on treasury and taxation, but its assistance ended in 2016.


“I want the ambassador to know that the assistance was cut in 2016, and that this announcement was made in 2018,” he said. “It is a deceptive announcement made for political purposes.”


“I want to tell my people not to believe you,” he added. “You defend your country, but you lie to the Cambodian people.”


Arend Zwartjes, a US embassy official in Phnom Penh, declined to comment on Mr Hun Sen’s speech.


“We are asking the State Department and Treasury Department for guidance so I probably won’t have an answer,” he said.


PM: US lied about aid cuts - Khmer Times