Day: November 10, 2022

Cambodian asylum-seekers in Thailand fear they could be forcibly repatriated as Thai authorities tighten security ahead of next week’s APEC summit in Bangkok, they told Radio Free Asia.

“If the Thai government supports the cause of democracy…, they should help protect us, which means that they are also protecting their own country,” said Sao Pulleak, who once led the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party’s operations in Banteay Meanchey province.

Sao Pulleak has been seeking refuge in Thailand the past four years after Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the party in 2017 and Prime Minister Hun Sen began a crackdown on opponents of his ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

He and other asylum seekers who fled persecution for their pro-democracy political views are worried that Thailand could determine that they are undocumented immigrants and send them back to Cambodia, where they would face Hun Sen’s wrath.

“We dare not to go outside as we please, because we fear arrest by Thai immigration,” said Chhorn Sokhoeun, another activist seeking asylum.

Thai police recently arrested 10 refugees from Vietnam’s Khmer Krom minority, – ethnic Cambodians living in Southern Vietnam – and they remain in custody, so Chhorn Sokhoeun said he is increasingly worried for the safety of his wife and three children.

Thailand doesn’t recognize asylum-seekers or refugees because it hasn’t ratified the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, so obtaining refugee status and carrying an ID card from the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, won’t protect an individual against being detained or deported by the police.

Chhorn Sokhoeun brought five dependent family members with him to Thailand when he fled in 2019 after threats from authorities over his support of a plot by Hun Sen’s chief political rival Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia from France, where he has been living in exile since 2015.

For Chhorn Sokhoeun, supporting his family in Thailand has been almost impossible because of his UNHCR ID scares employers away. He has therefore been jobless and his children have had to drop out of school because he had no money to support them.

Thai authorities sometimes demand bribes, Khun Deth, a refugee from Cambodia’s Pursat province, told RFA. He said Thai police extorted about 8,000 baht (about U.S. $220) from him during an ID search, threatening to send him back to Cambodia unless he agreed to pay.

“As a refugee who is actively involved in politics, if I am arrested and sent back to Cambodia, my life will not be spared,” Khun Deth said. “Cambodian authorities may kill me by dropping me into a crocodile pond. Or if not that, maybe they will shoot me. I think the Cambodian authorities will send me to jail only as a last resort.”

Cambodia is increasingly becoming an authoritarian society with rampant nepotism and corruption, said Sao Pulleak. It is heading toward dynastic rule as Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, has been preparing to anoint his son Hun Manet as ruler after he steps down.

RFA was not able to contact Katta Orn, spokesperson for the Cambodian government’s human rights committee, for comment.

Cambodian refugees should receive encouragement and support from the authorities  when they are in third countries instead of more persecution, said Dy Thehoya, program officer for the Phnom Penh-based Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights.  

“If we look into the law and the facts regarding each of their cases, they are the victims of a political system or political environment in Cambodia,” said Dy Thehoya. 

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially confirmed he won’t be coming to Bali to attend the G20 summit next week, a senior official of host country Indonesia said Thursday, adding the decision was for “the best for all of us.”

Minister Luhut Pandjaitan was echoing analysts’ comments that Putin’s presence could cause tensions with Western leaders who oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will go to Bali in Putin’s place, said Luhut, the coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs

“We have been officially notified that the Russian president will not come,” Luhut told reporters, according to BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

“We have to respect it. Whatever happened to Russia’s decision, it is for our common good and the best for all of us.”

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” said this week that 17 leaders had confirmed their participation at the summit, including the American and Chinese presidents.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely participate in the Bali summit via a video link, a local television channel quoted the presidential spokesman as saying on Tuesday. Ukraine is not a G20 member and its president will be participating as an observer.

Last week, Zelenskyy said he would not attend the Bali summit if Putin were present. In March, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Jokowi to invite Ukraine as a guest if Russia was not expelled from the Group of Twenty for invading its smaller neighbor in late February.

As this year’s holder of the rotating G20 presidency, Jokowi has sought unity within the grouping of industrialized and emerging economies ahead of the summit.

Western countries have condemned Russia for invading Ukraine while other G20 members including China, Indonesia and India have refused to follow suit and maintain ties with Moscow.

Russian setback in Ukraine

Putin’s decision not to attend the summit in person came a day after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson, the city on the Dnipro River that is the front line of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

A potential stalemate in fighting over the winter could give both countries an opportunity to negotiate peace, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Indonesian Minister Luhut did not give a reason for Putin’s absence from the summit, merely saying “maybe it’s because President Putin is busy at home, and we also have to respect that,” AP reported. 

Political analysts, however, attribute other motives for the Russian president’s decision to stay home.

“Putin’s absence from the G20 meeting in Bali is a net positive – every party stands to benefit,” Greg Barton, a professor at Deakin University in Australia, told BenarNews.

“Putin is fearful of a Kremlin coup – leaving Moscow at the moment is just too risky,” he said, adding that many members of the Russian elite wanted to see him go.

Radityo Dharmaputra, a political analyst at Airlangga University, echoed Barton’s observation.

“There are many considerations. There may be elements seeking to overthrow him because he hasn’t won the war,” he told BenarNews.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

An agreement with China to include mandatory Mandarin language classes in Cambodia’s public secondary schools has Cambodian educators worried about growing Chinese influence that will undermine the kingdom’s culture and sovereignty.

On Wednesday, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding in Phnom Penh to introduce the new subject to students from 7th to 12th grade, one of 18 agreements signed during a ceremony between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

In response to the move, teachers and political observers say the Cambodian government should strengthen its national culture instead, so citizens will not imitate foreign cultures, especially that of China. 

The new requirement would serve only to increase Beijing’s influence in Cambodia, said Rong Chhun, an adviser to the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association and a member of the Cambodia Watchdog Council.

“It is about political influence,” he said. China “wants to mainstream its culture as well as political influence to dominate Cambodia because there is competition in the region, and we know that Cambodia is now in geopolitical competition with the great powers in the world.” 

As an alternative, Rong Chhun suggested that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport set up separate language schools so that students can choose whether they want to study Chinese.

Currently, Cambodia offers English and French language instruction in its education curriculum throughout the country from grade four to 12. Korean classes are offered from grade seven to nine in six high schools.

Em Sovannara, an academic expert in political science and international relations, said the inclusion of Mandarin in the state education curriculum is similar to the Soviet era, when Cambodian school children had to learn Russian and Vietnamese.

“If the Cambodian people do not maintain their strong cultural identity, they will be vulnerable to the imitation of East Asian and Chinese cultures,” he said. “And so, it can [lead] to the loss of our cultural balance if the Cambodian people have little understanding of our culture.”

RFA could not reach Ministry of Education spokesman Ros Sovacha or Cambodia government spokesman Phay Siphan for comment on Thursday.

However, Ros Sovacha told a domestic pro-government news outlet that the memorandum of understanding would boost Cambodian-Chinese ties. He also said the ministry would conduct a pilot phase, offering Chinese language classes in 20 high schools in two or three provinces, while also expanding Korean language instruction to six high schools in Phnom Penh. 

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will discuss their respective “red lines” during a meeting on Monday before the Group of 20 leaders summit in Bali.

The face-to-face meeting will be the first between the pair since Biden came to office, and comes in the wake of the Communist Party congress in Beijing that reappointed Xi to a third term in power and this week’s midterm elections in the United States.

Tensions in the U.S.-China relationship have flared since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in August. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month said Beijing was aiming to take over Taiwan “on a much faster timeline” than before, and a senior military official said that could happen as early as next year. Relations have also been complicated by new U.S. microchip export controls.

Biden told a press conference on Wednesday that his focus for the meeting with Xi will be on “competition, not conflict,” but that he was also “not willing to make any fundamental concessions.”

“What I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what each of our red lines are and understand what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China,” Biden said, adding that if they clashed with U.S. interests, they would broach “how to work it out.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the face-to-face meeting would take place on Monday, before G-20 leaders gather for their annual pow-wow on the Indonesian island.

A senior administration official added that topics that would be addressed included Taiwan, North Korea’s recent missile launches, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the status of the U.S.-China relationship itself.

“The president believes it is critical to build a floor for the relationship and ensure that there are rules of the road that bound our competition,” the official said. “It’s also ensuring that we’re working together on areas where our interests align, especially transnational challenges that affect the international community.”

But the talks would otherwise be informal, the official said.

“There’s not going to be a joint statement,” the official said. “This is really not a meeting that’s being driven by deliverables.”

Speaking at a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace event on Thursday, Evan S. Medeiros, the Cling Family Distinguished Fellow in U.S.-China Relations at Georgetown University, said it was clear why Biden was making a concerted effort to repair U.S.-China ties.

“Nobody in Asia wants to choose between the United States and China – it’s the great strategic truism of this new era of U.S.-China strategic competition,” Medeiros said, explaining that recalcitrance from the United States would be interpreted poorly across Asia.

“Biden needs to signal that he wants to pursue stability in the U.S.-China relationship,” Medeiros said, “that he’s not committed to long-term rivalry, and that he wants to manage problems.”

The U.S. and governments in Europe and the Americas are investigating alleged Chinese secret police stations operating on their soil after the Madrid-based rights group Safeguard Defenders reported that China is carrying out “illegal, transnational policing operations” from more than 50 so-called police service stations in 30 countries. Beijing says the stations were set up to provide essential services to Chinese citizens overseas, but the rights group says they are used to coerce emigrants into returning home to face criminal charges and to silence dissent abroad.