#Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen

[xtruss]

North Atlantic Terrorist Organization’s (NATO’s) Outreach In Asia Exposes US’ Selfishness; Will Further Divide Group

— Zhao Yusha | July 09, 2023

Japan, The First Feeder of NATO in Asia. Cartoon: Vitaly Podvitski

Rifts within the NATO alliance over the potential expansion of the bloc's presence in Asia Pacific ahead of the NATO summit next week have been exposed by strong opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron. Chinese experts believe NATO's intention to extend its tentacles into Asia Pacific region not only exposes the selfish purpose of the US, which plays a central role in the alliance, to impose its own hegemonic intention over other NATO members' interests, but will further divide the group as in Europe, France may not stand alone in its opposition.

This year marks the second consecutive year that leaders from both Japan and South Korea will attend the summit. Observers see it as a sign that the two countries are seeking closer ties to better coordinate Washington's strategic moves to contain China. Such a "short-sighted" move will surely trigger China's strong opposition and result in regional countries' heightened vigilance.

NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania from Tuesday to Wednesday. This summit is earmarked as a moment for making progress on the plan to open a liaison office in Japan, which would represent the organization's first outpost in the region.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is scheduled to participate in the summit for the second year in a row, will use the opportunity to stress the need for relations between Japan and NATO to be stronger, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday.

NATO allies are in discussion about a possible statement with four Indo-Pacific countries - Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand - that would set out deeper cooperation and reiterate that security in Europe is interlinked with security in the region, Bloomberg quoted a senior European diplomat as saying on Saturday.

However, according to a report from Politico, Macron has voiced strong opposition, expressing concerns that opening a liaison office in Japan would shift NATO's focus too far from its original mandate in the North Atlantic.

Europe ‘Japanizing’ its US policy could backfire!

"We are not in favor as a matter of principle," stated an official from the Elysée Palace during a press briefing on Friday. The official further emphasized that the Japanese authorities themselves have not expressed significant interest in the proposed office.

Chinese experts said that French opposition may postpone NATO's move, but it may not be able to deter the alliance's growing tendency of getting more involved in Asia-Pacific matters.

There is a wide consensus within NATO that the alliance should focus primarily on transatlantic security. However, to serve its global hegemonic purpose, the US, who takes center stage of the alliance, is pushing for the organization to shift to the Asia-Pacific region, mainly to contain China, Li Haidong, a Professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

The US and other NATO members are divided over whether to expand its role in Asia, said Li, pointing out that amid the background of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, some European countries are worried that such a move will dilute the organization' attention on the crisis.

Speaking during a special session at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last month, NATO's assistant secretary-general for defense policy and planning Angus Lapsley said that the alliance does not wish to operate or expand in the Indo-Pacific, but it wants to be involved and engaged in the region to gain a better understanding of happenings in this part of the world, the Straits Times reported.

Pushing NATO to extend its role into Asia Pacific not only exposes the US' selfishness of imposing its own hegemonic goals over other members' national security, it will also risk dividing the alliance, as some NATO members may be reluctant to follow suit, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times.

It would be a "very hostile move" to open a liaison office in Japan, Chinese experts said. The discussion comes at a time when the US is seeking to keep high-level communication lines open with China as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen just concluded her visit to China, who noted that the US does not seek to "decouple" from China.

At the same time that US’ Braindead Politicians are uttering sweet words to assure China that US is not to seek decoupling from Beijing, on the other hand, it is sparing no effort to marshal its allies to counter China in the region. These self-contradictory moves are deeply disturbing, Li said. He noted that these actions reveal a lack of sincerity and credibility by Washington to fix China-US relations.

US Vassals

Leaders from South Korea and Japan will hold a meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania 🇱🇹 next week, South Korea's presidential office said on Sunday.

Similar to Japan's eagerness to welcome NATO to expand to Asia Pacific, South Korea, which is leaning more closely toward the US, is also allying itself closer to US-led small cliques in order to counter China.

Song pointed out that a meeting between Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is set to further mend disputes between two countries and forge closer military ties to better serve Washington's goal of a trilateral alliance in the region. However, Song said different from Japan's taking proactive gesture of welcoming NATO, South Korea to some extent has been hijacked by the US to serve the latter's interest.

In January, Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, urged South Korea to "step up" military support for Ukraine, citing other governments that have changed their policies on exporting weapons to Ukraine. Ever since the start of the Ukraine war, pressure has been building on Seoul to send its arms to Kiev, from the US, UK and EU member states.

Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, described South Korea and Japan's attaching themselves to the US' chariot as a "short-sighted and dangerous" move, as standing at the front line of US containment of China will also put themselves on the front line of China's countermeasures.

Moreover, inviting extraterritorial military alliances into the Asia-Pacific region arouses heightened vigilance by regional countries, which crave stability, Lü said.

Speaking in June at a graduation ceremony for students, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said, "NATO only exists in the West, and now it seems to be involved in the Asia-Pacific region in various activities, bringing concerns for ASEAN," Cambodian media reported.

[zvaigzdelasas]

7 Jul 23

8 Jul 23

9 Jul 23

10 Jul 23

Laos voices concern over the announcement and the possible use of cluster munitions - Vientiane Times

11 Jul 23

[humanrightsupdates]

Japan Should Resist Cambodia’s Transnational Repression

Phnom Penh’s Crackdown on Critics Abroad Threatens Freedom of Expression

On August 16, Cambodian authorities forcibly disappeared 28-year-old Vannith Hay. He was detained after Cambodia’s former Prime Minister and current Senate President Hun Sen threatened his brother Vanna Hay, an activist leading the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Movement in Japan, in a speech earlier this month. None of Vannith Hay’s family members have been able to contact him or have been told his whereabouts since his arrest and remain concerned for his safety.

Vanna Hay is a critic of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development Area (CLV), an economic development plan involving the border provinces of the three countries. In July, Hun Sen urged the Cambodian government to “search and find out all the groups” in opposition to the CLV in Cambodia and “compile all the cases of individuals outside the country, and study their family history, where their family are if they are outside the country.”

A crackdown followed: Cambodian authorities detained 60 people between August 14 to 19 who were protesting the development plan. Vannith Hay is a civil servant working for the Cambodian Health Ministry and had not been critical of the CLV.

“My brother has nothing to do with my political advocacy,” Vanna Hay told Human Rights Watch. “He’s a scholar, public servant, and a professor at National Institute of Public Health. I call for his immediate release.”

This isn’t the first time critics of the Cambodian government like Vanna Hay have been targeted for their activism in Japan. In May, Sun Chanthy, the head of the opposition National Power Party, was arrested after returning from Japan, where he gave a speech to supporters urging the Cambodian government to allow opposition parties to operate freely. Two months later, a Cambodian court found Teav Vannol, who leads the opposition Candlelight Party, guilty of defamation and fined him US$1.5 million after he criticized Prime Minister Hun Manet and Hun Sen in a media interview in Tokyo.

The Cambodian government doesn’t like critics airing their views in Japan. On August 15, Hun Manet said, “Does Japan support the use of its territory as a base for leading protests and overthrowing [the government]?”

As Cambodia’s major aid donor, the Japanese government should publicly call on Cambodian authorities to immediately stop intimidating critics both at home and abroad, and release those wrongfully detained for exercising their basic rights, or simply being related to human rights advocates in Japan like Vannith Hay.

[captain-price-unofficially]

A Cambodian soldier loyal to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen armed with a B-40 (RPG-2) amidst fighting in the western area of Phnom Penh, 6 July 1997

[soldan56]

 “Mi appello ai presidenti Usa e Ucraina, non usate bombe a grappolo nella guerra perché le vere vittime saranno gli ucraini” Dice il premier cambogiano: “È passato oltre 1/2 secolo e non c’è stato modo di distruggerle tutte” (quelle in Cambogia)

[southeastasianists]

Undeterred by the pouring rain, a long convoy of motorbikes carrying cheering, flag-waving supporters of Cambodia's ruling party revved their engines in preparation for their triumphant final rally in downtown Phnom Penh.

People dutifully lined the road as far as you could see, party stickers on their cheeks, the sky-blue hats and shirts they had been given to wear getting steadily wetter.

Perched on the back of a truck, Hun Manet, the 45-year-old eldest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen, greeted the crowds proclaiming that only the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) was capable of leading the country.

Indeed, his father had made sure that the CPP was the only party which could possibly win the election.

Hun Sen, 70, has run Cambodia in his trademark pugnacious style for 38 years: first in a Vietnam-installed communist regime, then under a UN-installed multi-party system, and more recently as an increasingly intolerant autocrat.

The only party now capable of challenging his rule, the Candlelight Party, was banned from the election on a technicality in May. The remaining 17 parties allowed to contest it were too small or too little-known to pose a threat.

A few hours after the polls closed, the CPP claimed the expected landslide, with a turnout of more than 80%. There were quite high levels of spoiled ballot papers in some polling stations: that was probably the only safe way voters could show their support for the opposition.

With Hun Manet expected to succeed his father within weeks of the vote, in a long-prepared transfer of power, this felt more like a coronation than an election.

"I don't think we can even call it a sham election," says Mu Sochua, an exiled former minister and member of the CNRP, another opposition party banned by the Cambodian authorities in 2017.

"We should call it a 'selection', for Hun Sen to make sure that his party will select his son as the next prime minister of Cambodia, to continue the dynasty of the Hun family."

Yet there were signs of nervousness in the CPP before the vote. New laws were hurriedly passed criminalising any encouragement of ballot-spoiling or a boycott. Several Candlelight members were arrested.

"Why was the CPP campaigning so hard, against no one in this election with no real opposition?" asks Ou Virak, founder of the Cambodian think tank Future Forum.

"They knew they would win the election - that was an easy outcome for them. But winning legitimacy is much more difficult.

"They need to keep weakening the opposition, but at the same time, they also need to satisfy the people, so there is no repeat of previous setbacks and disruptions, like street protests."

Hun Sen is one of Asia's great survivors, a wily, street-smart politician who has time and again outmanoeuvred his opponents. He has skilfully played off China, by far the biggest foreign investor these days, against the US and Europe, which are trying to claw back lost influence in the region.

But he has come close to losing elections in the past. He is still vulnerable, to rival factions in his own ruling party, and to any sudden downturn in the Cambodian economy which could sour public opinion against him. So as he prepares for a once-in-a-generation leadership change, he is trying to cement his legacy.

A short drive north of the capital, a 33m-high concrete-and-marble monolith was built recently, which he calls the Win-Win memorial.

Its massive base is covered in carved stone reliefs, echoing Cambodia's greatest historic monument, Angkor Wat.

They depict Hun Sen's flight from Khmer Rouge-ruled Cambodia to Vietnam in 1977, his triumphant return with the invading Vietnamese army in 1979, and his eventual deal with the last of the Khmer Rouge leaders in 1998 that ended the long civil war - his win-win for the Cambodian people.

Delivering peace and prosperity has long been Hun Sen's main claim to legitimacy. Since 1998, Cambodia has had one of the world's fastest-growing economies, albeit from a very low base.

But it is a model of growth which has concentrated wealth in the hands of a few families - the number of ultra-luxury cars on the roads of such a low-income country is jarring. It has encouraged rapacious exploitation of Cambodia's natural resources and it has left many ordinary people feeling that they are not winning under Mr Sen.

Prak Sopheap lives with her family at the back of an engine repair shop, squeezed between the main road and one of the many shallow lakes in the low-lying land outside Phnom Penh. They have been there for 25 years, fishing and cultivating vegetables on the lake.

Today, though, much of the lake has been filled with rubble by a property developer and Ms Sopheap's family have been ordered to leave.

She showed me a document from the local council, confirming how long she had lived there, and another document, a summons to court on a charge of illegally occupying state land. She feels powerless and angry - and she is not alone.

Land disputes are among the most incendiary grievances in Cambodia. All property deeds were destroyed in the Khmer Rouge revolution.

Since the end of the civil war, millions of hectares have been allocated for commercial development, a lucrative arrangement which has made many politicians and businesses allied to Hun Sen very rich.

The courts very rarely rule against these powerful interests. Transparency International ranks Cambodia as 150th out of 180 countries for corruption: in the Asia-Pacific region, only Myanmar and North Korea rank lower.

"Hun Sen always talks about his 'win-win policy'", says Ms Sopheap. "But we feel it is he alone who wins. We cannot feel at peace, as we now face eviction. We, the real Cambodian people, who live on this land, are suffering in the name of development."

Those who have tried to campaign against land grabs and evictions have been harassed, beaten and jailed, as have trade unionists and supporters of opposition parties. I asked Ms Sopheap how she would vote in this election. "Who can I choose?" she asked. "Who can protect me?"

Half of those eligible to vote are under 35 years old. The CPP has tried attracting them by having Hun Manet and other younger party leaders run this year's campaign, with a slick social media strategy.

But as most Cambodians have no memory of war or the Khmer Rouge, Ly Chandravuth, a 23-year-old law graduate and environmental activist, says the old CPP campaign points are no longer persuasive.

"Hun Manet's biggest challenge will be that my generation is very different from previous ones, who were traumatised by the Khmer Rouge," he says.

"Since I was a child, I have watched the ruling party reminding us of that tragedy, telling us that as they brought peace, we should support them. But that argument is less and less effective. Every time the ruling party brings it up, the young generation mocks them, because they have been repeating it for 30 years."

Can Hun Manet modify the rough-house, sometimes thuggish leadership style of his father to a softer and more subtle kind of rule? Despite his Western education, his years heading the army and his long apprenticeship, he has never yet held a top political office.

With him, other "princeling" sons of Hun Sen's contemporaries, such as Defence Minister Tea Banh and Interior Minister Sar Keng, are also expected to replace their fathers in the cabinet - a dynastic shift which keeps the levers of power with the same families, but in less experienced hands. The next few years could be a delicate, even dangerous time for Cambodia.

[news-of-the-day]

7/26/23

The Nigerien presidential guards are holding President Bazoum and his family. The presidency is claiming that the guards tried to garner support from the army, which did not agree and is now threatening to attack the guards if the president isn't released. West Africa in the past few years has been under a wave of coups, and Niger itself had an attempted one just before Bazoum was sworn in.

Israel's Supreme Court said it would hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the recent judicial overhaul. I wonder if this would lead to a constitutional crisis if the court strikes it down but the Knesset just ignores that order.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in office since 1998, said he was stepping down next month and that his son Hun Manet would take over.

Two Atlanta election workers are suing Giuliani for defamation after he made claims they helped manipulate ballots in the 2020 election, and Giuliani today admitted in court documents that he made false statements but says they're constitutionally protected. I'm not a lawyer so please keep in mind I may be wrong about this, but from my understanding he's admitting this to stop the discovery procedure, i.e. the part of the trial where you have to relinquish communications, documents, etc. In the Dominion/Fox case, Dominion's lawyers combed through everything they received from discovery and then put every embarrassing internal communications in court for the world to see. Giuliani probably doesn't want the same thing to happen to him, and so by conceding he made false statements he can move onto the next stage where his lawyers put in a motion to dismiss on the merits alone, which in this case would be probably "yes, I made false statements, but you're allowed to do that." It's not the best legal defense but he probably doesn't have much of a choice. I'm going to talk to a few lawyer friends and will update in a few days if I was incorrect about what I stated above. Giuliani is also still facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion for a huge amount of money.

There was a massive prison riot in Ecuador. It started in the country's largest prison El Litoral, but spread to others. There was overcrowding in El Litoral, which led to tensions and violence between rival gangs housed there, so some prisoners were moved to other facilities to ease the situation. However when a riot broke out in El Litoral, members who were moved out heard about it and started rioting in their own prisons. So far 31 inmates have been found dead and over 100 guards were held hostage, although most have been released.

1) BBC, Al Jazeera 2) NYT 3) Reuters 4) Politico, Guardian 5) BBC

[female-malice]

Sophea is the de facto leader of about 100 residents – mostly women – fighting to keep their homes for as long as possible. The group delivers petitions to city hall, stages protests in public parks, marches along the lake’s shrinking shoreline and even faces off against bulldozers nearing their stretch of roadway, documenting their activities on Facebook Live. In 2020, she led a 50-strong group in a march towards the prime minister’s house.

She and other protesters have relegated men to the back of the group, believing that police are less likely to treat women violently. Yet in a country where criticising the government can often lead to jail, the group has attracted scrutiny. Sophea and six others were recently summoned to court for allegedly obstructing a roadway during a protest. “I’m not scared,” she says. “I am a clean citizen.”

Phnom Penh was once home to 26 lakes that provided fishing, fresh water and protection from flooding, and a livelihood for thousands of people. Since the 1990s, however, 16 of the lakes have been filled in for boreys and residential housing, as Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, has pursued a development boom. The remaining 10 have been at least partly filled.

Boeng Tamok was among the last holdouts until the government claimed the area as “state public land” in 2016, paving the way for parts of it to become “state private land” – and ultimately tagged for private development. But the reclassification process is opaque, and 2,152 hectares, or about two-thirds of the lake, have been privatised without input from the public.

Environmentalists, land rights groups and researchers have pointed to the negative consequences of lake-filling, including loss of livelihoods, animal habitats and increased risk of flooding.

“How can they define if the land is no longer used for the public interest, classify it as private state land and then give it to other groups or developers?” says Soeung Saran, director of STT, an NGO, which has led research and community mapping efforts around Boeng Tamok.

“This is a very controversial and unclear line for the public. The public also wishes to know why specific groups of people can get this much or this many hectares of land while other groups are not able to, even though they have been living there for generations,” he says.

Among the longtime residents is Kong Toeur, Sophea’s 58-year-old neighbour, who was accused of “obstruction and incitement” for allegedly blocking a road while protesting in May. It hasn’t stopped her: in a separate incident in mid-October, she discovered that authorities were about to fill in the patch of the lake where she and 10 others fished for daily food. She refused to budge from her fishing boat, stopping the trucks from dumping sand for three days.

But she had to go home to sleep. When she returned, the fishing plot was gone. “You live in air conditioning and have a car,” she says of the officials and developers taking over Boeng Tamok, waving both hands in disgust. “I don’t even have an old bicycle. Why can the rich live here and the poor can’t?”

Officials have repeatedly defended the decision to carve up the lake, with Hun Sen calling critics “jealous” and a land ministry spokesperson arguing at a recent meeting that the lake’s development outweighs its preservation.

Some families have stopped protesting for fear of jail or beatings, and the remaining ones aren’t sure if their efforts will save their homes. Recent petitions to government officials have not led to any progress and none of the women facing court have been told details of possible charges or hearings, Sophea and Toeur say.

Looking out on the water, where the shoreline is clogged with new buildings, Sophea remembers living here two decades ago when her children were small. She would cook lotus roots in a big soup the family ate together sitting on the wooden deck. “I will never forget that,” she says in tears. Living on the lake “was the start of my life”.

[beardedmrbean]

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has announced he will resign and hand over to his son in early August.

The anticipated announcement came three days after his party again won all seats at an uncompetitive election.

Hun Sen, 70, has become increasingly authoritarian after nearly four decades of rule in Cambodia.

He first flagged a transition in 2021, but up to now no one knew exactly when it would take place.

His eldest son, Hun Manet, until recently the commander of the Royal Cambodian Army, has long been groomed for the role.

In his announcement, Hun Sen said his son would be appointed prime minister on 10 August.

"I would like to ask for understanding from the people as I announce that I will not continue as prime minister," he said in a special broadcast on state television.

He said he would be stepping down as staying in office could cause instability. However he will retain leadership of the ruling Cambodian People's Party - a position political analysts say still gives him ultimate control.

Cambodia's election 'was more a coronation'

Asia's longest-serving PM rigs the vote - again

Earlier on Wednesday, state media showed Hun Sen visiting the Cambodian monarch's palace to announce the news of the dynastic succession.

Hun Manet, 45, took a leading role in campaigning for the 23 July election this year - and was often spotted leading rallies next to his father, who has ruled the Southeast Asian nation of 16 million people since 1985.

Sunday's election was widely seen as a done deal, because the only credible opposition party had been disqualified from the vote.

There were 17 other parties on the ballot but they were all too small, new or aligned with the CPP to be considered a real alternative for voters.

The US and the EU both released statements condemning the vote as neither free nor fair.

Hun Sen's elimination of political opponents is part of his wider crackdown on civil space in Cambodia in recent years.

Having consistently crushed his opponents, in 2017 he used the courts to dissolve another popular opposition party, the CNRP, and jail or exile its leaders.

He has also increasingly stifled dissent and free speech - shutting down most independent media in the country. Rights groups, trade unions and NGOs also report facing threats of closure.

Analysts had speculated that his clampdown this year was driven by the need for a smooth transition. It will be Cambodia's first transfer of power in four decades.

Compared to his father, whose iron-fisted rule was forged during and after the days of the Khmer Rouge regime, there is some speculation that Hun Manet, who attended US military academy West Point and the University of Bristol, could lead a less repressive regime and be more receptive to Western calls on human rights.

However analysts say he has shown no evidence that he may be more open. Hun Sen has also made it clear that he will continue to wield enormous influence over the running of the country.

[daddies-i-love]

Philippine President Bongbong Marcos and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 7/10/2023 | The Libertarian Institute

Here is your daily roundup of today's news:

News Roundup 7/10/2023

by Kyle Anzalone

Russia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has come out in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic alliance but remains firmly opposed to Sweden joining the bloc. The policy puts Ankara at odds with Washington, who supports Stockholm joining the alliance but not Kiev. The Institute

President Biden said Friday that Ukraine won’t be brought into NATO anytime soon but said he was willing to give Kyiv support similar to what the US provides Israel. AWC

President Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs has sparked rare Democratic criticism of his proxy war with Russia, and some of the US’s top NATO allies have also spoken out against the move. AWC

Richard Haas, a former US diplomat and former President of the Council on Foreign Relations, has defended a meeting he held with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that was first reported by NBC News last week. AWC

President Biden on Friday defended his decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs, which are banned by over 100 nations because they are exceptionally harmful to civilians. AWC

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has urged Ukraine not to employ US-provided cluster bombs in its war against Russia, pointing to the US legacy of cluster munition use in his country as a warning. AWC

China

A senior State Department official said Friday that the US was looking at building relationships with Southeast Asian nations to “push back” against China in the South China Sea. AWC

Read More

[mariacallous]

When insurrectionists stormed the US capitol on January 6, 2021, in support of former president Donald Trump, Meta had to confront the reality that world leaders—even those in democratic nations—might use its platform to call for violence against their own citizens and political rivals. The company had long kept a policy that forbade users from inciting attacks, but political figures had typically been given greater leeway, on the basis that a tech platform couldn’t be seen to interfere in political discourse.

But, facing immense pressure, Meta did, finally, suspend Trump’s Facebook account on January 7, and later announced a new policy on incitement to violence by public figures on its platforms, which threatens bans of between six months and two years for violations.

That policy was tested this January in Cambodia, when the autocratic prime minister Hun Sen went on a livestream to threaten opponents of his Cambodian People’s Party, saying he would “gather CPP people to protest and beat you up,” and send “gangsters” to their houses. Hun Sen, who has 14 million followers on Facebook, has a credible history of violence and intimidation against activists and political opponents. Though the video was reported for violating the company’s policies against hate speech and incitement, Meta left the video up, arguing that Hun Sen, as a world leader, made the video newsworthy. In June, Facebook’s independent Oversight Board, which makes judgements on select content moderation decisions, said that the platform had made a mistake, requiring it to remove the video and recommending that Hun Sen’s Facebook page and Instagram account be suspended for six months. The company took down the video, but said it would conduct a review of the board’s recommendation to suspend Hun Sen’s accounts.

Meta usually implements the Oversight Board’s recommendations. But this time, the company seems to be hesitating. It has until August 28 to review the board’s recommendation, and take action—or not—on Hun Sen’s Facebook page. The company now faces a decision that is fraught with risk, with consequences for itself and for users in Cambodia, and which could set an important precedent ahead of 2024, when more than 30 countries—including the US, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the UK—are due to hold elections. How Meta deals with Hun Sen’s account could set precedent for the standard to which world leaders are held on its platforms, which are used by billions of people around the world, and test the legitimacy of the Oversight Board.

“The difficulty is going to be where you draw that line of when a world leader demonstrated enough that they should be kicked off the platform,” says Katie Harbath, a fellow at the Integrity Institute and who formerly oversaw Facebook’s elections operations until 2021. “No platform has taken action in the middle of an election in terms of taking down a world leader. What does this look like in the case of India? Or Indonesia, or Mexico, all of these countries with elections next year?”

Just hours after the Oversight Board’s decision was released on June 29, Hun Sen announced on Telegram, where his channel has just over 1 million followers, that he would be leaving Facebook, and took down his page. The Cambodian government issued a ban on all of the Oversight Board’s members, and Hun Sen threatened to shut off access to Facebook in the country. But the departure didn’t last long. On July 20, three days before Cambodia held national elections, the page returned, managed by one of Hun Sen’s advisers, Duong Dara.

The speed of the prime minister’s about turn, and his unwillingness to act against Facebook, show how important the platform is in Cambodia.

More than 10 million of Cambodia’s 16.6 million citizens—or about 92 percent of the people who have access to the internet—use Facebook. Hun Sen, the country’s leader since 1985, has had an active page since 2010. In 2015, Facebook introduced its Free Basics program in the country, partnering with a local telecom company to make a select group of websites and apps, including Facebook and Messenger, effectively free for users. This meant that even poor Cambodians could access Facebook, and that for many, Facebook and its products were the internet.

“Facebook has been very important for [Hun Sen’s] political message, as well as in making him close to the electorate and the citizens of different parts of the country,” says Sokphea Young, a researcher at University College London who has studied the role the platform has played in Cambodia. In particular, people in remote areas of the country have been able to connect with the ruling party over the platform, Young says.

The ubiquity of the platform, he says, also allows it to function as a tool of state surveillance. “If you do anything ‘bad’ on Facebook, try to mobilize anything that does not go along with the law, you will be arrested,” he says. “Facebook is run in a democratic country, but in this way is supporting the ruling party.”

That function—and the economic significance of Facebook, which is used by many businesses in Cambodia—makes it unlikely that the country would completely ban the platform, Young says.

However, a ban is not impossible. The CPP won the national election, amid allegations of vote-rigging. In a widely anticipated move, Hun Sen announced that he would step down on August 22 and hand over the premiership to his son, Hun Manet. Hun Sen will become president of the Senate and acting head of state when Cambodia’s king travels abroad.

The country has previously ordered telecoms companies to block dozens of sites, including most independent media, and last year created its own internet gateway that gives it more control over what people in the country can access.

With the regime’s power over the country secured, there is less jeopardy for the government in blocking Facebook. “We see that as a real threat now,” says Golda Benjamin, Asia-Pacific campaigner with Access Now. “Because the election is over, I think there’s a real threat of blocking the platform and then also threatening the physical presence of any Facebook staff in Cambodia.”

The threat of a ban complicates Meta’s decisionmaking, and introduces both commercial and freedom-of-speech considerations into its deliberations: Is it better for the platform to enforce its policy strictly and risk millions of people losing access to information and services, or to compromise its policy—and the integrity of the Oversight Board—to keep them online?

Meta spokesperson Corey Chambliss told WIRED that the company “remains focused on making sure as many people as possible can use our services to share what matters to them, while removing content that breaks our rules.”

An Oversight Board member, speaking to WIRED on condition of anonymity, says the board did take into consideration the possibility of a countrywide ban of Meta’s platforms when formulating its decision. “It was our judgment that it was more important to keep the regime from being able to use the platform to threaten the political opposition, even at the risk that Facebook might be shut down now,” they say. “The point of a decision of this sort is not just to take down one post, but to try to nudge the company in the direction of more consistent enforcement of its already existing rules having to do with abuse of the platform.”

It’s not clear that suspending Hun Sen would have a material impact on his ability to reach supporters.

An analysis of mentions of Donald Trump after his suspension from Facebook and Twitter found that conversations around him did indeed decrease, but researchers were unable to tell whether that was also due to a simultaneous crackdown on many far-right groups that supported him as well.

Hun Sen’s supporters and other party members will almost certainly remain active on the platform. He uses Telegram, and has a popular TikTok account—although neither has as many followers as his Facebook page. Instead of an outright suspension, Access Now’s Benjamin says the company could take some half measures, such as removing the ability to share content from Hun Sen’s page or deprioritizing its reach. In its current policy, Meta says that pages that violate its community guidelines may “be removed from recommendations and have their distribution reduced.”

But Piseth Duch, a Cambodian human rights lawyer and legal analyst, says that Meta should remain consistent in its policies, no matter the risks. “I believe that they should strictly follow their principles, regardless of every country’s leader,” he says.

Even if, as some have argued, the threat of being suspended from the platform might have been enough to convince Hun Sen to stay within Facebook’s community guidelines since January, the lack of consequences for breaking the rules means that others will inevitably test the boundaries in the future. If Meta doesn’t impose consequences, “other people will continue to use Facebook to incite violence or speech of speech,” Duch says.

Meta’s decision could have consequences for the Oversight Board, which is a core part of the company’s governance. The body was set up in 2018 to act as a sort of independent judiciary for Meta platforms, particularly around issues of content moderation. Meta funds it via an irrevocable trust, but does not have any say in its decisions.

The board can issue binding decisions as well as non-binding recommendations. Its first decisions were released in January 2021, and since then it has submitted 191 recommendations to Meta, some of which have forced the platform to reevaluate its internal policies. Many of them dealt with thorny topics, such as whether content from a news outlet covering Afghanistan’s Taliban government (considered a “dangerous organization”) could stay up (it could), or whether a Croatian cartoon implying ethnic Serbians were “rats” violated Meta’s hate speech rules (it did). In the case of Hun Sen’s account, the board issued a binding decision that the offending video be removed, and recommended a suspension of the prime minister’s account.

Access Now’s Benjamin says that not following the board’s recommendation could throw into question how the company will approach issues of violent and hateful speech moving forward—particularly with how it handles the context in which a post is made. “If Meta doesn’t not comply with the recommendation of the Oversight Board, it also speaks so much about its sincerity and commitment to its own policies against violent and harmful content,” she says. “If they disobey this recommendation, we are forced to go back to the drawing board of looking at freedom of expression on a per-post basis.”

The Oversight Board member says that the body isn’t issuing any one-size-fits-all recommendations for how Meta should approach future elections. “Every election is going to be unique, the timing is going to be different, the nature of the issues that come up are different,” they say. But the board has recommended that Meta should adopt a new system so that when heads of state attempt to incite violence on its platforms, there is a rapid escalation to try to limit the harm it causes.

But what seems like a question relegated to a smaller market could have massive repercussions in other countries. In India, Facebook’s largest market, the far-right, Hindu-nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already banned TikTok and accused Meta of censoring nationalist users, even as reporting from The Wall Street Journal found that the company routinely let hateful and violent content by BJP members stay up on Facebook. Last year, the country announced the creation of a Grievance Appellate Committee meant to oversee moderation decisions made by large tech companies. The government also requires foreign tech companies to have in-country representatives who can be held legally responsible for company decisions, and has set up a state-run fact-checking arm that can flag content it determines to be misleading about the government, which companies, and even internet service providers, must comply with. After the US, India has submitted the most requests to have content taken off Meta’s platforms.

If a situation similar to Cambodia were to play out in India’s elections, Meta might face not only a possible ban, shutting off hundreds of millions of users, but also the arrest of its in-country staff.

And possibly nowhere else is this question more alive than in the United States, where Donald Trump, the person for whom Meta’s policy was originally written, has already begun to campaign for the presidency. His suspension from Facebook ended at the beginning of 2023, but “guardrails” remain in place–if he violates the company’s policies again, he will be suspended for between a month to another two years. How that will play out in the midst of an election is anyone’s guess.

The Integrity Institute’s Harbath says that the Cambodia decision could have afforded the Oversight Board the opportunity to help prepare Meta for these upcoming elections.

“I think that the Oversight Board put Facebook in a bit of a difficult spot with this one because they didn't really adequately address what this will look like in a place like India or a fairly free country ahead of an election,” she says. "I feel like they kind of kicked the can down the road.”

[zvaigzdelasas]

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[humanrightsupdates]

Cambodia: Environmental Activists Sentenced to 6 to 8 Years

Quash All Charges Against Youth-led ‘Mother Nature’

On Tuesday, the Phnom Penh Capital Court handed down a guilty verdict in the criminal trial of 10 activists from Mother Nature, an award-winning, youth-led Cambodian environmental group, on charges that stem from the group’s peaceful environmental activism from 2012 to 2021. At least four of the activists were immediately arrested outside the courtroom, where they were sitting with supporters and calling for a more just court system that defends environmental rights.

The group’s successful campaigns include stopping the Chinese-led construction of a hydroelectric dam threatening an Indigenous community and helping end the largely corrupted business of sand export from the coastal estuaries of Koh Kong, which was destroying the local ecosystem and fishing grounds.

The verdict is devastating for the 10 activists, who face between six to eight years in prison for their efforts to protect Cambodia’s environment. It also sends an appalling message to Cambodia’s youth that the government will side with special interests over the environment every chance it gets.

Arrest warrants were issued for all 10 activists, who were charged under Article 453 of the Criminal Code for plotting against the state. Ly Chandaravuth, Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Binh Piseth, Pok Khoeuy, and Rai Raksa were sentenced to 6 years in prison under Article 453.

Sun Rotha, Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, and Yim Leanghy were sentenced to 8 years in prison and a 10 million riel fine on plotting against the state and insulting the king under Articles 453 and 437, respectively.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, like his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen, has repeatedly ignored calls by United Nations experts to address the closing space for civil society and human rights defenders. Development partners and others who invest in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment for Cambodia should call on the government to quash these verdicts and support genuine freedom of expression and association.

[outlookindiacom71]

As the country’s authoritarian government promised to deal harshly with those caught flouting the ban.

Prime minister Hun Sen announced the cessation of what had become Asia’s second-biggest egaming market, after the Philippines, last August in an apparent kowtow to Beijing.

“In days to come, online gambling will completely disappear,” Hun Sen said in a public address last week, as translated by Voa Cambodia.

“I see that if Cambodia’s economy continues to depend on online gambling, Cambodia’s national security will be threatened,” he added. “We’ll be under [the influence] of organized crime groups who will come to Cambodia to carry out their activities.”

Beijing Loses It Both Cambodia and the Philippines have encouraged the growth of their respective online gaming industries in recent years. The gaming industries are prohibited from offering their services domestically, but overwhelmingly target players in China, where gambling is illegal.

China’s patience finally snapped in late May, when its state-controlled media accused Macau-based junket operator Suncity of offering online gaming operations based in Cambodia and the Philippines. The media reports claimed the gaming was milking Chinese citizens for billions of dollars per year.

While the Philippines’ populist president Rodrigo Duterte chose to ignore the warning with characteristic defiance, Hun Sen got the message. The Cambodian online gaming explosion was short-lived – perhaps lasting three years.

Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You China has become Cambodia’s largest economic influencer by far and its closest trading partner and political ally in the region.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in the country as part of its Belt and Road initiative – a long-term plan to improve infrastructure in developing countries in Eurasia and Africa in order to build a China-centric economic corridor.

Hun Sen had hoped to have it both ways — encouraging mainly Chinese companies to invest in the casino industry, online and land-based, while maintaining his economic dependence on Beijing.

Cambodia’s government has consistently been ranked by the World Justice Project as one of the most corrupt in the world, and had been handing out gambling licenses to Chinese investors like candy in recent years, much to the disapproval of Beijing.

The explosion of the casino industry has transformed the once sleepy backpacker town of Sihanoukville into a gambling mecca in just a few years. The city is now home to over half of the country’s 140-odd casinos, most of which also hosted online gaming operations.

Thousands Jobless The casinos have created a Chinese tourism boom, and the Chinese workers who staff them now account for 20 percent of the city’s population, according to unofficial estimates.카지노사이트

Radio Free Asia claims some 120,000 Chinese workers left Cambodia in the two weeks after Hun Sen announced the end of online gaming in the country, although there are reasons to question these figures.

According to Reuters, more than 7,000 Cambodians who worked in the online gaming sector have been left jobless, and an unspecified number of land-based casinos have shuttered.

The Finance Ministry said that inspections began on January 1 to ensure operators were complying with the ban.

[thxnews]

Is Cambodia Picking Sides? Austin Visits in Show of Force

Imagine a tug-of-war between two giants, and a small country stuck in the middle, trying not to get pulled apart. That's kind of what's happening in Southeast Asia right now. The U.S. and China are both flexing their muscles, and Cambodia is caught in between. To counter China's growing influence, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin just visited Cambodia on a mission to strengthen military ties.  

Key Points:

- Big Names, Big Stakes: Secretary Austin met with Cambodia's new Prime Minister, Hun Manet (son of the longtime leader Hun Sen), and other top officials. They discussed ways to work together on military training, disaster relief, and bomb disposal. - Why This Matters: The U.S. is worried that China might be building a secret military base in Cambodia, which could give them a foothold in Southeast Asia. Cambodia says that's not true, but the U.S. wants to make sure. - Shared History, Shared Future? Both Austin and Hun Manet are actually graduates of the same U.S. military academy, West Point. This shared experience could help them work together better.  

Military Tensions

The U.S. is feeling nervous about China's growing military presence in Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia, which is a close ally of China. There's been a lot of talk about China upgrading a Cambodian naval base, and the U.S. worries they might get exclusive access to it. Cambodia says this isn't true and that their constitution forbids foreign bases on their soil.   Mending Ties Secretary Austin's visit aimed to rebuild a stronger military relationship with Cambodia. They discussed things we can work on together, like training programs to help with disasters or clearing landmines left over from past wars. They also want to offer Cambodian officers chances to study at U.S. military schools. This visit might also be a fresh start for the U.S. and Cambodia, since they have a new Prime Minister. Maybe their shared military background can help them understand each other better and work together more smoothly.   The Takeaway The U.S. and Cambodia agreed to keep talking about ways to cooperate on defense. There's no set plan yet, but both sides seem open to working together to keep the peace in the region. Cambodia is stuck in a tough spot between the U.S. and China. This visit is a sign that the U.S. is trying to win them over, but it remains to be seen if Cambodia will choose sides or try to stay neutral.   Sources: THX News & US Department of Defense. Read the full article