At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights

Human rights laywer Theary Seng says demonstrations like this are necessary.  “They need to do so publicly, they need to do so very strongly, they need to condemn in clear terms that the violations perpetrated by the government against its own people [are] unacceptable,” she says.

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21 Nov 2012 
By Mike McRoberts
NZ TV3 (New Zealand)

The ASEAN summit in Cambodia finished by promising much for the countries like New Zealand that are pursuing trade agreements and the economic wealth they bring.

But what of the other measures of nationhood?

If the world’s leaders had wanted to know more about the host nation’s record on human rights, they needn't have looked far.

Protestors weren’t hard to find, but they were only able to demonstrate for so long before being shut down.

One woman told 3 News she was one of a dozen residents near the airport arrested for painting a protest slogan on her roof. She'd done so in the hope that visiting dignitaries might notice, and that they might speak out about the human rights abuses here.

Human rights laywer Theary Seng says demonstrations like this are necessary.

“They need to do so publicly, they need to do so very strongly, they need to condemn in clear terms that the violations perpetrated by the government against its own people [are] unacceptable,” she says.

But only Barack Obama challenged Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on his human rights record, and that was in a private meeting. Others, like Prime Minister John Key, never got the opportunity.

“They have made progress but there is a lot more work to be done,” says Mr Key.

Among the human rights issues Cambodians say need addressing are free and fair elections, the release of political prisoners and forced evictions of the poor and vulnerable.

Directly opposite from where our Prime Minister and many of the world leaders have been meeting is a place called Boeng Kak. It used to be a lake and home to tens of thousands of people, but three years ago the government sold the prime real estate to a developer who filled in the lake with sand and relocated the families.

When you see where and what they were taken to, "relocated" seems too grand a word.

“Some of them have been scattered, literally dumped outside of the capital,” says Ms Seng, “30km away, an hour, two hours' drive away in no-man’s land, and a few courageous ones are here to protest”.

The ASEAN summit, they say, has been a double-edged sword: on one hand legitimising Mr Sen's government, on the other providing an opportunity to raise their plight.

If only the leaders were looking.