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
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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
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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
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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