Cambodia dismisses rights abuse claims against police chief

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia on Thursday dismissed calls for the national police chief to be barred from the United States because of alleged human rights abuses, calling the claims against him "nonsense."

Gen. Hok Lundy is scheduled to leave for Washington on Friday to discuss counterterrorism and transnational crimes with FBI officials, said Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch has urged the U.S. State Department to cancel Hok Lundy's visa, alleging in a statement Monday that he once ordered an extrajudicial killing and has been involved in drug smuggling and human trafficking.

"This is nonsense," said Khieu Sopheak.

The allegations are "unacceptable, groundless, baseless," and they "have tarnished the reputation of the national police chief" and the police force, he said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that Washington had "compelling reasons" to issue Hok Lundy a visa, which he declined to discuss.

Hok Lundy was denied a U.S. visa early last year for reasons never made public.

Neither McCormack nor the FBI would comment on Lundy's alleged misdeeds or on the planned counterterrorism discussions.

Brad Adams, the Human Rights Watch Asia director, said Monday that Hok Lundy "represents the absolute worst that Cambodia has to offer and should never have been given a U.S. visa."

He said the FBI should investigate, not host, the police chief for his "alleged involvement in political violence and organized crime in Cambodia."

Human Rights Watch said Hok Lundy has been implicated in a number of serious human rights abuses, including a conspiracy to carry out a grenade attack on a peaceful demonstration by opposition supporters in March 1997, in which a U.S. citizen was injured.