Once again the world's attention is turning to Cambodia as the troubled country gears up for its third election since 1993. This time, it's the turn of ordinary people throughout the countryside to run for office --Feb. 3 will see the first local, or "commune" elections to be held since before the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, and the first ever that can lay any claim to being democratic. But despite the relative stability of the past two years, a recent trip to the country confirmed that the worst fears of Cambodia-watchers are being realized: Political intimidation, violence and murder are on the rise as polling day draws near.
When the U.N. Human Rights Special Representative Peter Leuprecht visited Cambodia in November 2001, Prime Minister Hun Sen responded with a call for nonviolence in the run up to the elections and a pledge to repeat that call 15 times before election day. This week, in the wake of increased election-related violence, he reiterated his call. The prime minister's statements are welcome, but clearly not enough.
The political climate looked much better a year ago. After years of delay, in January 2001 the government finally adopted a law to establish commune elections. When Cambodians head to the polls next month they will be voting for new leaders of the country's 1,621 communes (groupings of four to seven villages), who to date have been appointees of the ruling Cambodian People's Party.
Cambodian democracy advocates were frustrated that the final version of the election law established an electoral system based not on individual candidacy but on party affiliation and party lists. This, they felt, exacerbated traditional problems of political party patronage and inter-party conflict. Nonetheless, they were pleased that elections were finally in sight.
As voter registration got underway in July 2001, there were reports of an intimidation campaign by the CPP, with local party officials allegedly pressuring people to sign loyalty oaths, threatening opposition candidates and trying to buy-off voters. Similar complaints have continued to surface through to the official campaign period.
Worse still, reports of violence and threats against opposition candidates started coming in thick and fast, with little evidence of government efforts to identify let alone prosecute the perpetrators. Opposition party signboards were torn down and many activists were told by their local authorities that if they continued to support the opposition their security could not be guaranteed. In November two candidates and an opposition activist were murdered, and in December there were three more killings. Just earlier this month, four opposition members -- two of them female council candidates -- were shot and killed within three days. In total, at least fifteen opposition candidates and activists have now been killed since the start of 2001. Human-rights groups fear the violence and intimidation tactics will intensify once the official election campaign, which kicks off today, is underway.
The mechanisms put in place by the government to deal with violations have so far proved woefully inadequate. The National Election Committee and its local level sub-commissions have not once exercised their considerable powers to punish perpetrators of electoral abuses, despite hundreds of reports flooding in. The Central Security Office for the Defense of the Elections has been similarly ineffective, its occasional declarations failing to ensure the safety of opposition candidates and supporters.
It's not surprising that Cambodian human-rights activists doubt the sincerity of the government's declarations. Ending political violence and intimidation may not be as easy as closing karaoke bars, as Hun Sen did unilaterally last November, but there's little doubt that should the government genuinely wish for a clean election, it could achieve it --or at least come close.
The CPP needs badly to win these elections. After 20 years of controlling the government, the CPP faces the possibility that it may lose the next national elections, scheduled for 2003. This situation would be no more acceptable to the CPP than it was in the U.N.-sponsored elections of 1993, when the royalist Funcinpec party took the lead role in a fragile coalition government -- only for the CPP to seize back near control in the coup of July 1997.
The current commune chiefs are political appointees of the ruling party, and many have been in place since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Before candidate registration took place in November 2001, local authorities began surveying the voters to find out which commune chiefs were particularly disliked, and many of these either failed to make the party's candidate lists, or were placed far down the order of preference. The commune elections therefore will be an important test of whether the CPP is able to maintain its influence at the local level, which in turn will affect the strength of its national network.
With no sign that the government is yet taking serious steps to end the violence, it is now up to the international community to exert strong pressure. Donor countries that support Cambodian development projects should demand concrete action from national and local authorities in investigating violations and punishing those responsible. The donors should call for access to the broadcast media for all political parties during the campaign period beginning this week, including airing of candidate discussions on national TV and radio. Access to the media, which is dominated by the CPP, is a critical problem for opposition parties.
Donors should continue to support the work of independent Cambodian election monitoring organizations and international observers to monitor and report on the election period and any post-election violence and reprisals. The Cambodian government needs to send a strong message to its citizens that this time around, they can vote for the party of their choice without fear, that their choice will be secret and that the final results will accurately reflect the will of the Cambodian people.
Joe Saunders is Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.
