CAMBODIA UN Envoy Meets Activists Calling For Release of Detained Cambodians
The U.N. special envoy for human rights in Cambodia on Monday met with about 100 activists in the capital Phnom Penh who sought his help to gain the release of nearly two dozen people arrested during recent violent government crackdowns on striking factory workers. Envoy Surya Subedi accepted petitions on the issue from the activists at the U.N.’s Human Rights Office as a consortium of 65 nongovernmental organizations issued a joint statement asking the government to investigate violence used in suppressing strikes by garment workers and demonstrations by the main opposition party demanding new elections and the resignation of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Subedi, the U.N.’s special envoy for human rights in Cambodia, told the activists that he would, in his meetings with government officials, raise the issue of the 23 who had been detained, some of whom were badly beaten and left without access to needed medical treatment for several days. … Security forces on Jan. 3 shot dead four people and wounded 40 others during a crackdown on a strike in the outskirts of the city by garment workers calling for a wage increase that was backed by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). … Among those held were human rights defender and President of the Independent and Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA) Vorn Pao, Theng Savoeun from the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC) and Chan Puthisak, a representative of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake community residents who were evicted to make way for a luxury development project. … Subedi is on a six-day fact-finding mission to Cambodia, which began Sunday, as part of an ongoing program of monitoring progress on human rights in the country. During the visit he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen and observe a court hearing on Tuesday in which CNRP president Sam Rainsy, his deputy Kem Sokha, and several union leaders face charges of inciting recent protests. …
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/envoy-01132014175223.html
