UN rights envoy lashes out at Cambodian government

The UN special envoy for human rights in Cambodia Monday chastised the Cambodian government for its rights record at a rally here organised to mark the International Human Rights Day.

Yash Ghai, accompanied by members of 15 local human rights groups, told the gathering that fear still governed Cambodia.

'Fear - fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts - describes the plight of numerous communities and families in Cambodia as they do in many other parts of the world,' he said in a speech.

'The lesson, therefore, is that the struggle for human rights and human dignity is unending as it became so sharply and painfully obvious to me as I met the embattled communities in Dey Krahorm and the Group 78 villages,' he added, referring to two communities where residents are involved in bitter land disputes and are faced with evictions.

The government refused to cooperate with Yash Ghai soon after his 2005 appointment, and have claimed he refuses to acknowledge its progress on human rights in recent years.

Government representatives have refused to see him, and Prime Minister Hun Sen has said on state radio that he should return to his native Kenya and fix the problems there before 'coming to lecture us in Cambodia.'

Despite predictions in local media that the crowd at the rally might top 20,000 people, unofficial estimates by participants put figures at about 4,000, and the police said 1,000 people at the most attended.

Yash Ghai was scheduled to give a press conference later Monday to end his current 10-day visit.