Recently, a Rattanakiri provincial court judge, Thor Saran, made a recommendation to a human rights NGO, ADHOC, to remove its prominent human rights defender named Pen Bonnar from the province where he had been working for some ten years. Judge Thor Saran said Pen Bonnar and his colleague, Chhay Ty, were under investigation for incitement and defamation, two criminal offences punishable respectively by up to five years’ imprisonment and by a fine of up to US$2,500.
Pen Bonnar had been receiving threats and intimidation because of his work over the years. His fellow human rights defenders across the country have not been spared either. In 2008 ADHOC reported that 168 of them had received such threats and intimidation in 63 land dispute cases.
Pen Bonnar is known to be a fearless and outspoken critic of illegal logging, land grabbing and human rights violations in the province. Many of these illicit activities are known to involve private development companies which allegedly have powerful connection higher up. He has been working to defend the indigenous peoples community right of ownership of land and the forest on which their livelihood very much depends. The countrys Land Law of 2001 has recognised these rights, but the rich and powerful pay scant regard to them, which then leads to conflicts over the grabbing of land and forest.
Due to his outspokenness on behalf of the concerned indigenous people and together with them, Pen Bonnar has become known to the authorities as a potential trouble maker. They have claimed he has caused problems between villagers and the authorities; and this has not helped him make friends with the provincial and local authorities.
Judge Thor Saran said that if Pen Bonnar was removed from the province, he would be outside the jurisdiction of his court; therefore would not be prosecuted and the case could be dissolved, although the investigation would continue. ADHOC was compelled to heed the judges recommendation and decided to remove both of its staff from Rattanakairi province.
Judge Thor Sarans decision not to pursue the case against Pen Bonnar and his colleague may sound humane, but it speaks volumes about human rights defenders, judges and courts when dealing with the rich and powerful.
For over a year or so, NGOs and human rights defenders have had a bad time. The government, reelected in July 2008, has vowed to enact an NGO law as one of the three priority laws of its lawmaking agenda. Officially it said the law was meant to prevent any funding of NGOs by terrorist organizations. However, in reality its real aim is to control human rights NGO activities which it has seen as being very critical of its human rights records. It has mounted a bashing campaign against them by claiming that they are working for donors which are funding them. Over recent months, even TV channels joined in this bashing by staging shows mocking the work of NGOs and their donors.
Judge Thor Saran, like almost of his colleagues, is not independent in his work when dealing with cases involving the rich and powerful. As such he was not in a position to rule against them, lest his position would be at risk. His recommendation to ADHOC was a compromise to give those who are powerful a sense of victory when he succeeded in getting the human rights defenders they have disliked out of their province and also in setting a precedent for other defenders.
His decision has confirmed yet again the validity of what another prominent human rights NGO, LICADHO, noted in its 2007 report. The Charade of Justice, that one of the primary functions of the courts was to Protect the economic interest of the rich and powerful.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly urges the Cambodian government and all public authorities to respect and protect the rights of all human rights defenders as stipulated in (1) the Paris Peace Agreements of 1991 that ended the war in Cambodia; (2) the 1998 Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; and (3) Cambodias own Constitution. AHRC also urges the Cambodian government and all public authorities to respect the independence of the judiciary and refrain from putting any pressure on the courts of law or judges.
