UN envoy to visit Cambodia

The UN's special human rights envoy to Cambodia will make a three-day assessment visit to Phnom Penh.

Yash Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer, will arrive Tuesday, says Henrik Stenman, acting director of the Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Cambodia.

Mr Stenman says Mr Ghai is scheduled to present his annual report on the kingdom's rights conditions in Geneva in June.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has demanded that Mr Ghai be sacked after his criticism last year of the government's failure to protect basic liberties.

Other Cambodian senior officials have also lashed out at Mr Ghai, with government spokesman Khieu Kanharith earlier calling him the "laziest staffer of the United Nations" when asked about the global body's report in 2006.

Khieu Kanharith has declined to comment on Ghai's visit.

The last UN report said Cambodia's government was using systematic rights violations to remain in power, accusing it of refusing to improve its rights record.

Relations between the government and UN rights envoys have historically been poor, with Hun Sen calling Ghai's predecessor Peter Leuprecht "stupid" - a term he also used to describe Ghai, along with "rude" and a "god without virtue."