By Allen Myers
Since elections to Cambodia's National Assembly were held on July 26, leaders of the two losing opposition parties — Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party — have campaigned against the result, charging that the government used violence against the opposition and then falsified the voting results.
The charges appear aimed primarily at foreign audiences, in the hope that foreign governments will deny aid or otherwise pressure the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) government headed by Hun Sen to yield to opposition demands for a larger parliamentary representation.
Before the election, the media in Australia and elsewhere publicised widely a July 1 report prepared by the United Nations Human Rights Centre. This listed 140 cases of violence and intimidation, including a number of deaths, in the period from May 20 to the end of June.
In fact, although the figure of 140 instances was frequently repeated in the media, the UNHRC document referred only to 29 "confirmed" cases.
Even the higher figure would have compared favourably to similar cases in the Philippines during that country's recent presidential election, not to mention such models of western-approved "democracy" as Indonesia. But it now appears that even the lower figure in the UNHRC may have overstated the reality.
On August 20, Agence France Presse reported that the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had "dismissed most opposition claims of politically motivated killings" in the period before the election.
COHCHR had investigated more than 30 claimed political killings between May 20 and July 26. It reported that "fewer than half a dozen of these may be politically motivated".
The COHCHR has not been featured at all, let alone prominently, in the media that played up the earlier claim of 140 human rights violations.
The opposition complaints about alleged vote cheating appear even less reliable.
Both Sam Rainsy and Prince Ranariddh, the leader of Funcinpec, had indicated approval of the way the July 26 vote was run until they realised they were losing. They then demanded recounts in a number of districts; these were granted, but resulted in no substantive change in vote totals.
The quality of the opposition complaints is indicated by a message circulating on the internet and signed by Chao Kim Suor, "treasurer of Sam Rainsy Party of Australia-New Zealand region". This claims:
"On the 26 July 1998, more than 90 per cent of Cambodian eligible voters have voted for change. They voted for the two major opposition parties, the Sam Rainsy party and Funcinpec party. Only the Vietnamese who are illegally living in Cambodia, the crooks and the murderers voted for the CPP. That is the fact."
Such raving would be a joke but for the attempt to whip up racism against the Vietnamese ethnic minority in Cambodia — something that has characterised Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party.
Writing in the August 28 issue of Asiaweek, Tony Kevin appealed to Ranariddh and Funcinpec to "stop crying foul". Kevin, who was Australian ambassador in Phnom Penh from 1994 to 1997, helped to organise an NGO observer group for the election.
There were a large number of international observers, both from foreign governments and NGOs. As Kevin notes, they were virtually unanimous about the legitimacy and fairness of the election:
"[US member of Congress] Steven Solarz, a staunch supporter of the Cambodian opposition, and James Lilley, a former U.S. ambassador to China — hardly Hun Sen stooges — said of the election: 'A miracle on the Mekong'; ... 'We are not at this stage convinced by the complaints' ...
"The report of the U.S. National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and International Republican Institute was also upbeat about the election ('a successful exercise in national self-determination'), as was that of the 500-strong Joint International Observer Group comprising European, Asian and Australian government teams. Similar conclusions came in reports from two respected organizations with 4,000 neutral Cambodian observers."
Kevin's appeal, however, has had no noticeable effect on the Cambodian opposition leaders. The latter appear confident that they can count on the support of the western media, no matter how little substance there may be in their complaints. In that, anyway, they are undoubtedly right.