Cambodia’s democratic dreams shattered 30 years after the Paris Agreement was signed

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – As a teenager, Prum Chantha was optimistic about Cambodia’s democratic future.

It was 1991. The Paris Peace Agreement that was just signed had just been signed, ending the years of conflict after the cruel rule of the Khmer Rouge inspired by Maoism. Cambodians look forward to choosing their own leaders and picking up the fragments of their broken country.

“After the 1993 election, I [thought] Our country is prosperous; our country is no longer a communist country,” she said.

Now, 30 years after the signing of the historic agreement, Chantha, a businessman and housewife, finds herself fighting to release her husband (who was a supporter of the main opposition party) and her 16-year-old son.

Her husband was arrested in 2020 and her son was arrested earlier this year. She said their fate proved that the 1991 agreement was not respected.

“At the time I didn’t think this country would become like this,” Chantha said.

“They arrested my husband for incitement and treason because he was going to welcome Sam Rainsy on November 9,” ​​said the 43-year-old, referring to Cambodia’s most famous exiled opposition leader. “He has been in jail for more than a year and a half.”

Khmer Rouge faction leader Lin Chunlin, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Desmondi, Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Inmouli and Qiao Samphan after the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement that ended the country’s years of conflict applaud [File: Eric Feferberg/AFP]

People are waiting to vote in Cambodia’s first post-war elections organized by the United Nations in 1993.The international community hopes to build a democratic future for a country that has been tortured by years of conflict and the brutal Khmer Rouge rule [File: Romeo Gacad/AFP]

Her husband, Kak Komphear, 55, is one of more than 100 supporters of the Cambodian National Salvation Party (CNRP) who were arrested and jailed after the Cambodian Supreme Court disbanded the party in November 2017.

Threatened by violence

The “Paris Peace Agreement” signed in October 1991 brought together the four factions that competed for control of Cambodia after the Vietnam invasion in 1979 to eliminate Cambodia. Khmer Rouge.

With the support of Vietnam and the Soviet Union at the time, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Republic (later formed the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)) took control of Phnom Penh, but it was stuck in a struggle with the dismissed Khmer Rouge fighters and gained support for China ; And the army led by the country’s former king Sihanouk, and the Republican group led by Sun Sang who has Western supporters.

These agreements laid the foundation for a democratic political system and elections.

The United Nations took over management of the country, deployed 16,000 peacekeepers and organized voting, 90% of the population participated in the vote.

The royalist party, the Funcinpec Party, won the election, but under the threat of some members of the PPP, the Funcinpec leader Norodom Ranariddh (Norodom Ranariddh) as the so-called first prime minister and Hun Sen as the second prime minister. As prime minister, a power-sharing agreement was drawn up.

In July 1997, after months of tension and grenade attack At an opposition rally that killed more than a dozen people, Hun Sen opposed the royalist party and seized power for himself.

Since then, he has only tightened his hands, and this process has accelerated in recent years.

Sorpong Peou, a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University, said: “There are many major problems, but the most important is the way democracy is destroyed in the name of stability.” “The dissolution of the National Salvation Party violates the democratic pillar of the peace agreement. More or less an international peace treaty.”

Even after Paris, when the UN peacekeepers were on the ground, violence was never far away, because the Khmer Rouge faction continued to fight against the Cambodian army, and political tensions between the joint prime minister Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen increased. [File: Reuters]

According to a report prepared by the United Nations Human Rights Office in 1997, Hun Sen’s actions against Fongcinbek resulted in at least 41 executions of political opponents.

Ten years after the seizure of power, this is often referred to as a “coup,” and Human Rights Watch (HRW) director Brad Adams said that Hun Sen’s ability to manage domestic and international political consequences “put the country on Hun Sen’s path and almost completely controlled it. Political and military power in Cambodia”.

Adams served as an official in the United Nations Human Rights Office in Phnom Penh in 1997.

“No one believes now [as a few did at the time]If an opposition party gets more votes than the CPP, Hun Sen will give up power. “He wrote.

Like many strongman leaders, Hun Sen tried to equate “stability” with his rule.

“PPA [was] Astrid Noren-Nilsson, a senior lecturer at the center, said: “The center not only aims to provide a direct solution The common promise of democracy and human rights terms around, thus bringing long-term peace.” East Asia and Southeast Asia Studies at Lund University, Sweden. “Since then, the government has emphasized its peace achievements, replacing the PPA and its focus on freedom, democracy and human rights, on the grounds that it has been incorporated into the constitution.

“At this time, peace in Cambodia is an important part of daily political discourse, but it has been redefined by the government as the dissolution of the opposition party CNRP, and it is called treason.”

Opposition has been removed

CNRP is a combination of two small parties led by Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy. It was disbanded after the 2017 commune elections, where it won about 40% of the seats, triggering people to win enough support for it, and possibly even more. The general election in the expected year of expelling the CPP in the next time.

Hun Sen suppressed the opposition because people’s support for Zuoken Soka (left) and Sang Lanxi (right) rose. Sokha is now under house arrest for treason and Rainsy is re-exiled [File: AFP]

Jin Suoka charged Crime of treason, More than 100 senior party leaders were banned from politics for five years. Dozens of other opposition leaders, including Sam Rainsy, fled the country for fear of being arrested.

Since then, the authorities have turned their attention to the members and supporters of the party, and hundreds of people have been arrested and imprisoned. Soka, who is currently under house arrest, could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of treason.

At the same time, CPP Per seat In parliament.

“PPA gave birth to democracy in Cambodia. But Cambodian politicians and citizens have the responsibility to build a democratic society with the support of the international community,” said Yang Saikoma, head of the Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP). party.

“However, our old politicians have been trying to strengthen their power, not to establish a democratic system.”

The international community has urged the Cambodian government to return to the framework of PPA and its multi-party democratic system.

“The international community needs to remain involved and put pressure on the ruling party, rather than threaten to destroy it. The international community must persuade the government to tolerate other parties,” Sorpong Peou added.

But in recent decades, the influence of the world’s free democracies on Phnom Penh has faded, and Cambodia has turned to China, which is Cambodia’s largest source of aid and investment.

According to the latest economic data from the World Bank, about half of the US$3.6 billion in foreign direct investment last year came from China. China is also Cambodia’s largest official creditor country.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Cambodia, Vitit Muntarbhorn, told Al Jazeera: “I am worried that the’liberal democracy based on pluralism’ envisaged in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement has not yet been realized.” “The Cambodians are still waiting for substance in the country. Sex and true power sharing.”

“The important thing is that commune elections will be held in 2022, and national elections will be held in 2023. They need complete transparency and relevant guarantees.”

After the signing of the Paris Agreement, Cambodia and China are getting closer and closer, and the influence of Western powers has weakened. [File: Heng Sinith/AP Photo]

After the main opposition party was dissolved, the Cambodian people actually had only two options-to extend Hun Sen’s 33-year rule or not to vote at all. [File: Heng Sinith/AP Photo]

After all, it was the strong election performance of the National Salvation Party that triggered the government’s repression.

“Their worst nightmare is losing power, so they decided to undermine democracy by fabricating the so-called’color revolution’ narrative as an excuse to arrest the leader of the National Salvation Party and finally disband the National Salvation Party, using the CPP’s political control of the courts. ,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of HRW Asia.

Robertson said that the dissolution violated the PPA and the Cambodian Constitution.

‘Scorched earth mentality’

Government spokesman Phay Siphan denied that Cambodia had violated the agreement, insisting that the CNRP was disbanded because the party-allegedly planning the “color revolution” claimed by the government-violated the law.

He insisted that the government “cannot allow” the party to operate.

“Our constitution is the basic law that we must exercise,” he said. “We have incorporated the spirit of the Paris Peace Agreement into our Constitution.”

Monovetia Kem, daughter of opposition leader Kensoka, said the international community needs to do more.

“PPA and our constitution guarantee multi-party democracy, where people can choose their political parties and leaders,” she said.

“Since 2017, this basic option has been taken away from about half of the country. Without the National Salvation Party, the first choice for half of the country’s constituencies, there would be no true multi-party democracy.”

Supporters of the National Salvation Party held a street protest in 2013 After Hun Sen’s close election that year. Opposition leader Sam Ransey accused Hun Sen of cheating and called on him to resign [File: Heng Sinith/AP Photo] [CHECK]

In the ongoing crackdown, Chantha’s 16-year-old autistic son was accused of inciting and insulting public officials online.

In September, the United Nations expressed concern over his arrest.

The experts said in a statement: “This case is particularly disturbing because Cambodia is also a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which requires the authorities to consider the best interests of disabled children and provide appropriate assistance.”

“We are very worried that this child will be interrogated without a lawyer or his guardian, which violates Cambodian Juvenile Justice Law and international human rights standards.”

Robertson of Human Rights Watch said the arrest of Chantha’s son underscores the “scorched earth mentality” of the Cambodian authorities against any criticism.

“This is a flagrant disregard for the rights of people with mental disabilities,” he said. “Father’s persecution, as part of multiple arrests and trials of National Salvation Party supporters across the country, shows that the government has decided that it just doesn’t care about the provisions of the Paris Peace Agreement that require the protection of and support for human rights. Multi-party democracy.”

Chantha begged the government to release her husband, her son, and many others who were arrested for expressing ideas or concerns.

She called on the international community that had gathered 30 years ago to chart the way forward for democracy in Cambodia to intervene again.

“I am not an activist. I am a housewife,” she said. “But since they arrested my husband, I have protested to other women and mothers whose husbands or fathers are in jail, so that they can be released. They are not guilty.”