Exiled Cambodian Opposition Figure Sam Rainsy Denounces the Phnom Penh Francophonie Summit on November 13, as a UN Envoy Urged the Release of More Than 100 Detainees and 26 Cambodian Organisations Filed a Joint Petition
Exiled Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy denounced a gathering of leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, in Phnom Penh this weekend as a sham, saying political persecution and organised crime in the Southeast Asian nation made it an inappropriate venue.
Heads of state and senior ministers are meeting in the Cambodian capital for a summit of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, an organisation that promotes cooperation between French-speaking nations and lists peace, democracy and human rights among its core tenets.
I think the summit is going to take place at the wrong place at the wrong time, Rainsy told Reuters on Friday by phone from Paris, and he lives in self-exile after fleeing Cambodia, where he has been convicted of multiple offences in absentia and his political party has been banned.
Neth Pheaktra, Cambodia minister of information, said the government had no time for polemics and was focused on making the gathering a success.
On Monday, Tom Andrews, the United Nations human rights envoy to Cambodia, urged the government to release more than 100 people detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms, including environmental activists, before the summit, and said doing so would honor the organisation values, a coalition of 26 Cambodian organisations this week handed the Canadian and French embassies in Phnom Penh a joint petition citing democratic backsliding, human rights violations, and attacks on civil society and calling on states attending the summit to protest the rapidly deteriorating situation, and an Elysee official told Reuters that France had messages to convey at the summit and that human rights and rule of law were being addressed at all levels.
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：柬埔寨金边王宫的昌查亚亭，资料图。。Marcin Konsek，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: 柬埔寨金边王宫的昌查亚亭，资料图。 Marcin Konsek，CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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