III. HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES DURING THE COMMUNE ELECTIONSPre-Election Violence and Intimidation
Trials have taken place in four cases of suspected political killing dating from 2001, three of which resulted in convictions and lengthy jail terms for the defendants. However, in none of these cases did the courts accept a political motive for the killings, attributing one to a business dispute and two to revenge for alleged acts of "black magic". Observers of two trials that took place in February 2002 were concerned that in both cases key defendants were found guilty despite insufficient evidence, their convictions providing unwarranted justification for claims that the killings were not politically motivated. In addition to the killings, between January 1, 2001, and February 3, 2002 there were: · More than 200 reported cases of intimidation, threats and harassment against activists and candidates running against the CPP, including twenty-four death threats. There were two reported cases of threats made against CPP supporters. · Twenty-three cases of arbitrary arrest or detention of opposition party supporters.3 · Fifty cases of property violation against opposition parties, including forty-two cases where party signboards were damaged, destroyed or removed for fear of reprisal. Two cases of property destruction were reported against the CPP. Voter Coercion and Vote-Buying
Unequal Access to the Media
Despite substantial national and international pressure, the NEC did not change a pre-campaign decision preventing six local-level candidate debates from being aired on national television, although one debate was broadcast on a national radio station. In addition, the NEC reversed its decision to allow broadcast of fifteen pre-screened, national-level election roundtable debates organized by nongovernmental organizations during the campaign period. The NEC's media monitoring subcommittee primarily focused on the political content of voter education materials produced by election NGOs, rather than the lack of access to the airwaves by opposition parties during the campaign. With almost no access to any form of broadcast political discussion, voters' ability to make an informed choice on election day was severely limited. A report published by the nongovernmental election monitoring organization COMFREL (Committee for Free and Fair Elections) indicated that the activities of the government and the CPP dominated news coverage both before and during the campaign period, while the exposure given to opposition parties was negligible.5 Polling and Vote Counting
The increased transparency of the counting process, whereby votes were counted publicly in the polling station after close of polling, by contrast with prior national elections where they were collected in separate locations for counting, resulted in few complaints of electoral fraud, with the major cause of dissent relating to decisions taken over invalid ballot papers. By contrast with 1998, when all post-election complaints filed by the opposition were dismissed, the NEC did respond to some objections made by the Sam Rainsy Party, holding provincial-level recounts of ballots from eleven polling stations. The revised result from one station in Kompong Speu province handed the victory in that commune to the SRP. Calls to hold recounts in a further seven communes where the SRP lost by a narrow margin were dismissed by the NEC. The CPP emerged the winner, securing 68 percent of commune council seats and commune chief positions on close to 99 percent of all councils. The SRP obtained 12 percent of commune council seats and commune chiefs on thirteen councils, and Funcinpec received 20 percent of commune council seats and commune chiefs on ten councils. Inaction by the Government Mechanisms to Address Election-Related Violations
Post-Election Period
3 Of the twenty-three cases, some involved multiple victims, the total number of whom was thirty-four. In seventeen cases, a total of twenty-four victims were released without charge after being detained for periods varying between an hour and a week. In five cases, all in Battambang, the five victims were kept in detention and charged with offences related to the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group that launched an armed attack in Phnom Penh in November 2000. In the final case, five people were detained but four were subsequently released. The other, a leading SRP candidate, was kept in detention and charged with offenses relating to land grabbing. 4 Report on Cambodian Commune Elections 2002, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, April 2002. 5 Conclusions on the Findings of the Media Monitoring Unit of COMFREL, February 5, 2002 |