Khmer Circle:
Asking for democracy and respect for human rights in South East Asia is like taking a swim in a sharks-infested pool!
^^^
Human Rights Watch says Thailand should follow its own laws on not sending people back to risk of torture.
Thailand must get to the bottom of the killing of a Cambodian dissident in its capital and must not deport dozens of Uyghur people to China and an ethnic minority activist to Vietnam, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.
Lim Kimya, 74, a former member of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, was shot dead on a Bangkok street on Jan. 7. While investigators have yet to reach a conclusion on the motive, the murder has shone a spotlight on Cambodia’s poor rights record and on Thailand’s response to suspected transnational crimes on its soil.
The Cambodian case comes as Thailand is already under scrutiny over the case of 48 Uyghurs, detained in Bangkok for almost a decade, amid reports Thailand is preparing to send them back to China, and the case of a Vietnamese activist who Hanoi wants to extradite and jail for terrorism.
Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson, presenting the group’s annual report at a press conference in Bangkok, called on Thai authorities to pursue their investigation into Lim Kimya’s killing.
“The more we find out about this case, the more it points to people linked to the ruling party,” she said, referring to the Cambodian People’s Party of former Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Lim Kimya was an outspoken Cambodian-French critic of the veteran leader.