VZCZCXRO6829
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0765/01 1571000
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061000Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8519
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 0100
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 2232
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1601

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 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶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 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶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