Asean declaration allows Cambodia to flout human rights, warn campaigners
Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days before the arrival of the US president, Barack Obama, on his tour of the region. … In Cambodia, recent alleged abuses include the fatal shooting by police of environmental activist Chut Wutty; the murder of Hang Serei Oudom, a journalist working on illegal logging stories; the killing of 14-year-old Heng Chanth allegedly by security forces during a forced eviction; the conviction in absentia of opposition leader Sam Rainsy; and the jailing of Beehive radio station owner Mam Sonando. …
