UN's embarrassment does not clear Hun Sen

Human rights organizations, be they non-governmental bodies or part of the United Nations, are not the infallible institutions they sometimes pretend to be. They are as likely to be caught with their pants down as the governments they so often blame. It seems that this time round the United Nations office which produced a report on human rights violations in post-Prince Ranariddh Cambodia has found itself as naked as the Emperor who wore no clothes.

In the aftermath of strongman Hun Sen's takeover of Cambodia the UN produced a report detailing executions of opposition soldiers and civilians which startled the world and won international sympathy and support for the ousted first prime minister Prince Ranariddh Sihanouk.

Hun Sen's government vehemently denied the systematic killings but, as usual, such protests were dismissed as the pro forma denials of the guilty.

But Hun Sen had more tricks up his sleeve than mere verbal assaults on the UN rapporteurs. He particularly embarrassed the visiting UN Commissioner of Human Rights when four of the men listed as executed were produced very much alive. But this is not to exonerate the Cambodian leader from other kinds of political legerdemain which he has been increasingly guilty of since his capture of full power.

It is all too clear that he will not permit a free and fair election in Cambodia in July whatever the United Nations and the international community might say. The first sign that he is preparing to eliminate any serious opposition is his continuing refusal to allow Prince Ranariddh to participate in the elections before first standing trial for whatever charges that might be brought against him.

Hun Sen might not have killed all those the UN says his loyalists did. But that does not elevate him to the pantheon of political paragons.

-- The Hong Kong Standard