US President Donald Trump delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress from the floor of the House of Representatives last week in Washington. Jim Lo Scalzo/AFP
Mon, 6 March 2017
Andrew Nachemson
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The US State Department released its annual global human rights report on Friday, highlighting alleged rights abuses in Cambodia and prompting a government spokesman to dub the report an “attack”.
“Corruption was endemic throughout all segments of society and branches of government. There were reports police, prosecutors, investigating judges, and presiding judges received bribes,” the report reads, asserting that the judiciary was particularly subject to corruption and political influence.
The report also alleges that the government occasionally engaged in “arbitrary arrest and detention” and that police officials “committed abuses with impunity”, while a section on torture describes “credible reports military and police officials used physical and psychological abuse, and, on occasion, severely beat criminal detainees, particularly during interrogation”.
In response, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan took to Facebook to slam the report as a “misinterpretation” of the reality in Cambodia, once again invoking US President Donald Trump’s own perceived shortcomings on the human rights front.
Claiming that widespread protests against Trump were an indicator of “injustice in American society and racism”, Siphan questioned the US’s own commitment to “human rights principles”.
Siphan said the report was an attack on Cambodia’s national sovereignty, a move he claimed violated Trump’s own promises. During his Congressional address on February 28, Trump said: “America respects the right of all nations to chart their own path. My job is not to represent the world.”
US Embassy spokesman Jay Raman yesterday wanted to let the report speak for itself, saying only that it was “compiled yearly, at the direction of Congress, and that it is global in scope”.
Ministry of Justice spokesman Chin Malin said the report was biased. “Some reports by NGOs support the Western world because they receive funds from them. Those reports do not reflect the real situation in Cambodia,” Malin said.
In the past week, three different CPP officials have referred to Trump while justifying positions that have been criticised as violating human rights.
“There seems to be an organized attempt by officials of the Hun Sen government to legitimize repression and human rights violations in Cambodia while rejecting US criticisms of Cambodian authoritarianism by referencing President Donald Trump as soft on these issues himself,” Dr Paul Chambers of the Institute of South East Asian Affairs said via email.
Chambers warned that America’s position as a global leader could be weakened by this perception, but also said the CPP’s recent public rebukes of the US could simply be pre-election posturing in an attempt to paint the party as “a nationalist protector”.
Despite himself referencing Trump twice in the past week, Siphan said that invoking Trump was not an official party strategy.
“The way I see it, we have to respect each other. Every nation has its own culture, which is why US foreign policy is so arrogant,” he told The Post.
Siphan, who holds dual Cambodian-US citizenship, then moved to disassociate America’s human rights issues from Trump specifically, saying the US has always had a problem with racism.
“Not even the US is perfect ... but they accuse Cambodia of not having human rights,” he added.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MECH DARA
6 comments:
I like to ask this question: Why is former President Obama working behind the scene to dethrone Trump? Why can't he leave the President alone to do his work as he sees fit? Yet blah blah about human rights when President Trump is being janked and jerked from every direction by Communist Party of USA.
But he knows that he is fighting the deep state government that is not part of America. UN, Bankers and Federal Reserve and Communist [Socialist] Party USA.
7:28 pm
You falsely accused former President Obama for " working behind the scene "
to dethrone Mr. Trump.
FYI, McDonald Trump will dethrone himself with no outsiders.
If Trump's Russia Gate is investigated independently, McDonald will be impeached.
Keep believing the lies and many will die in America known as, America Spring and Thanks be your Former President Barrack Obama. I've seen your comments and you could be part of the show planted by CIA or CFR to put forth the narrative that Trump is...whatever you deem him to be accept that which he is.
You only listen and see on one side of your ear and eye. Repeat the lie often enough and people will believe it. This a world view not about democracy, if it is true democracy the left would work together with the right.
Obama is playing the Rule for Radical behind the scene.
Obama was rewarded a Nobel Peace Prize off the bat when he became the President. But every day of his reign bombs where dropped on some parts of the Middle East. So much for a Peaceable president. Muslims are allowed to lie but due the opposite.
11:44 am
You're the same 11:52 am.
You're spreading misinformation and
falsehood.
That says a lot about you.
You must stop talking about the former President Obama. You are not worthy.
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