EAP/MLS DEPUTY DIRECTOR NAGY MEETS POLITICAL PARTY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PHNOM PENH 000765 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, G/TIP, SWCI, AND PRM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREF PREL PHUM KWMN KDEM CB SUBJECT: EAP/MLS DEPUTY DIRECTOR NAGY MEETS POLITICAL PARTY REPS, REFUGEE AND TIP EXPERTS, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS PHNOM PENH 00000765 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) Secretary General Mu Sochua told visiting EAP/MLS Deputy Director Eleanor Nagy that 2007 commune council election flaws are a preview of problems likely to arise during the 2008 national elections. Sochua expressed hope for a U.S. delegation visit to Cambodia for a pre-election assessment. CPP Member of Parliament Nhem Thavy focused on Cambodia's economic and infrastructure growth while denying criticism the CPP manipulated elections by rigging voter registration lists. Khmer Rouge Tribunal staff and OSJI provided Nagy an update affirming passage of the internal rules are on track but expressed concerns about RGC control of the Cambodian judges. UNHCR representative Thamrongsak Meechubot told Nagy that RGC cooperation at the policy level is strong but weak government administration and refugees' lack of information make it difficult for Montagnards and others to navigate procedures. Nagy attended meetings and roundtables with trafficking in persons NGO representatives, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Yash Ghai, human rights NGO directors, and legal experts who covered Cambodia's most pressing human rights issues -- TIP, land grabbing, corruption, and lack of an independent judiciary system. End Summary. SRP COMPLAINTS ABOUT 2007 ELECTION PREVIEW PROBLEMS IN 2008 -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) During EAP Deputy Director Eleanor Nagy's May 27-28 visit to Cambodia, SRP Secretary General Mu Sochua reviewed for Nagy the SRP's complaints about the 2007 commune elections, noting that these shortcomings could be a harbinger of problems in the 2008 national elections. Sochua focused on the National Election Committee's (NEC) failure to fulfill its mandate: the NEC was neither free from influence, fair, nor independent. She asserted that the CPP systematically manipulated elections and had done so in 1998 and 2003 as well. Sochua claimed that all 2.5 million voters (30% of the total) who did not vote in the 2007 elections for one reason or another had been disenfranchised. Intimidation before and after the election were major problems in the SRP's view, she said. Mu Sochua expressed the hope that a U.S. Congressional or State Department delegation would visit Cambodia for a pre-election assessment prior to the July 2008 elections. Such a visit, she said, would send a signal to the NEC and to the CPP that the U.S. was observing closely. Mu Sochua was upbeat about the opposition's chances in 2008. She suggested that if all parties potentially opposing the CPP banded together, they could gain a simple majority in the National Assembly. Lastly, she provided us with a copy of a letter SRP leader Sam Rainsy had sent to UNDP Representative Douglas Gardner asking UNDP to encourage the government to increase the number of National Assembly seats from 123 to at least 135 prior to the 2008 election. This was based on the population increase since the first seat allocation in 1993. Rainsy noted in the letter that in 1993 one MP represented 86,000 citizens; one MP will represent 118,000 in 2008 if the seats are not increased. She thought it unlikely the government would agree to increase the number of seats. CPP PARLIAMENTARIAN INTERESTED IN ECONOMIC GROWTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) CPP Member of Parliament Nhem Thavy told Nagy that CPP priorities for Cambodia are maintaining its economic growth rate and expanding infrastructure. He said rolling out water and electricity services will benefit both industry and Cambodia's majority farming population. Other than providing infrastructure, he thinks it best to leave problems associated with wealth disparities to the economy. Thavy addressed accusations the CPP manipulated April 1 commune council elections through inaccurate voter registration lists containing misspelled voter names, name omissions, and duplicate names. Thavy told Nagy the problems associated with the voter registration list were a technical issue that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) is trying to improve. He claimed most of the list problems would be remedied if the NEC had a computer program that recognized Khmer script. On the SRP's proposal to add National Assembly seats, Thavy said if representation changes were to be made, they should be based on 2008 national census data. KHMER ROUGE TRIBUNAL -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Nagy met with KRT staffers Craig Etcheson and PHNOM PENH 00000765 002.2 OF 003 Steve Heder, as well as OSJI monitor Heather Ryan, and received an update on the status of the court's progress and the UNDP audit report. The international judges were in Phnom Penh during Nagy's visit meeting separately from the Cambodian judges, with both sides preparing for the second judges' plenary to discuss (and hopefully finalize) the court's internal rules. The two sides began meetings on June 4, and are scheduled to conclude on June 13. All three experts expressed cautious optimism that the rules would pass, noting that failure this time would almost certainly be the end of UN support for the process. Etcheson and Heder said that assuming the rules passed, the co-prosecutors would forward requests for investigation of an unnamed number of suspects to the office of the co-investigating judges for possible trial. Heder and Etcheson also agreed that the members of the Pre-Trial Chamber will likely need take up residence in Phnom Penh once the investigative phase begins, as there are likely to be a series of legal challenges regarding each case. ¶5. (SBU) In discussing the UNDP audit report, Etcheson and Heder said that they had not seen a copy of the report, but were aware of its findings. Ryan said that she had spoken privately with UN/OLA consultants Robin Vincent and Kevin St. Louis about the findings. She noted that she was surprised how frank both men had been in their meetings regarding the problems facing the court, including some of personnel issues identified in the UNDP report. All interlocutors agreed that keeping the UNDP report private will only continue to raise questions regarding the integrity of the court. UNHCR: TRENDS IN MONTAGNARD FLIGHT FROM VIETNAM -------------- -- ¶6. (SBU) UNHCR Cambodia Representative Thamrongsak Meechubot briefed Nagy on the Montagnard refugee situation. He credited the RGC with trying to conform to the UN Convention governing refugees, but said Cambodia has been hampered by a lack of education of the officials at the working level and poor rule of law overall. Thamrongsak said that there was good cooperation at the policy level, but with porous borders and poorly educated and motivated border officials, there was poor liaison between the provincial and central governments. ¶7. (SBU) Thamrongsak said there were currently 261 Montagnards in UNHCR's Phnom Penh sites. There were also 80 other nationalities in Phnom Penh, including 30 non-Montagnard Vietnamese. Among the Montagnards, there were two trends that bore watching. The most important of these was the declining rate of approval. In 2007, UNHCR has given refugee status to 14% of Montagnard arrivals, most of these based on family relationships. This contrasted with 18-20% in 2006 and 80% in 2005. More Montagnards were traveling directly to Phnom Penh from Vietnam, as well. This year there have been 71 direct arrivals and 29 arrivals via Ratanakiri. ¶8. (SBU) On the disappearance of Vietnamese dissident Le Tri Tue, Thamrongsak had little to add. He said the MOI was interviewing friends of Tue, but as of yet had nothing to report. Thamrongsak continued to appear reluctant to believe that Tue was abducted. TIP NATIONAL TASK FORCE: A MOTIVATOR? -------------- ¶9. (SBU) At a trafficking in persons luncheon, NGO representatives maintained that the RGC's newly-formed TIP coordination body, the National Task Force, has potential to help Cambodia comply with a Tier 2 action plan. (Note: The National Task Force involves NGOs at the advisory and working level and its structure includes working groups in areas of prevention, protection and reintegration, and prosecution -- all areas where the RGC has so far failed to maintain momentum to implement changes. End note.) In previous meetings with NGOs, concerns were expressed that the new task force would not gain buy-in or momentum with the NGO community and RGC because of personality clashes and overlapping mandates with a separate, regional task force initiated by the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP). However, International Organization for Migration Project Coordinator John McGeoghan and other TIP NGO representatives attending the luncheon expressed support for the National Task Force -- PHNOM PENH 00000765 003.2 OF 003 an encouraging sign the task force could be a useful and effective tool in improving RGC's TIP efforts. IJM Director Kaign Christy told Nagy that besides initiating the task force, the RGC has not maintained anti-TIP activities of late and that after the flurry of arrests and raids when Cambodia hit Tier 3 and then moved up to Tier 2 Watchlist, some complacency had set in. LAND GRABBING, CORRUPTION AND JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE ARE TOP HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS -------------- -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Nagy heard from legal aid and human rights NGO representatives that land grabbing issues are the greatest threat to human rights in Cambodia. Land titling problems, illegal economic land concessions, and urban evictions force Cambodia's underprivileged people off their family and community lands. Often they are forced to resettle in cramped areas without clean water and electricity infrastructure, and without farm land or other means to make a living -- conditions that exacerbate poverty in a country already known as one of the poorest in the region. Land grabbing incidents are settled slowly and rarely in favor of the poor. LICADHO President Dr. Kek Galabru told Nagy that in the past year a national authority established to resolve land disputes received 2,000 land dispute cases but the national courts only ruled on five or six cases. ¶11. (SBU) Corruption and judicial independence also top human rights NGO priorities in Cambodia, though NGOs agreed these issues are difficult to change. ADHOC President Thun Saray pushed for more focus on the draft anti-corruption law to be passed quickly and according to international standards. On judicial independence, Saray wants the RGC to pass a Superior Council of the Magistracy (SCM) law that would make the SCM and its budget independent of the executive branch. Apart from human rights NGO activism, there is questionable momentum among the Cambodian public to demand human rights. Cambodia's poor and rural populations are realistic about what is in their families' immediate interests -- often they do not see the benefit of protesting for abstract human rights concepts. Most often disenfranchised citizens are not aware of their rights, a problem NGOs try to overcome through outreach. MUSSOMELI