Members of Cambodia’s opposition who have fled to Thailand say their whereabouts, activities are monitored.

By David Boyle | VOA Khmer | July 26, 2018
អានអត្ថបទ​នេះជាភាសាខ្មែរ

Bangkok For the second time in his life, Tharo has been forced to flee a political environment in Cambodia that is so toxic he fears for his life.

He first escaped to a border camp here in Thailand as a teenager running from the political turmoil of Cambodia in the early 1980’s.

Almost four decades later, Tharo, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, had been working in a senior capacity for the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in the lead up to Cambodia’s election this week.

That was until the CNRP was dissolved in November and 118 members of the party were banned from politics for five years on allegations they were fomenting a treasonous color revolution.

Tharo left swiftly, back to Thailand, certain he was now considered an enemy of the state.

“Many high ranking politicians or political activists in the past have been killed, have been jailed and many of them have been exiled,” he told VOA.

“So we know that anything could happen to us especially when they decide to dissolve the CNRP,” Tharo said. “Then we know that time is becoming tough for us and there is no way that we can hang around.”

Thailand makes for a precarious refuge. Tharo lives in a building with locking doors controlled by facial-recognition technology. When Thai police paid him a visit, he said his landlord told them they could not enter without proper papers. Later in the week when he visits an associate from a rights organization, Tharo says someone is there photographing him.

As Tharo and an unknown number of other CNRP members in Thailand watch under these conditions, Cambodia’s election campaign rolls on.

Nineteen minor parties are also represented in the July 29 election. Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than three decades, hopes the “fireflies ” will help legitimize the ballot.

So incensed is Tharo by that suggestion that he wants to risk speaking out to proclaim the election a sham and those participating fundamentally compromised.

He fears the Thai police because even though Tharo says he holds refugee status through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), he is all too aware that Sam Sokha, a woman who shared the same protection, was extradited to Cambodia by Thai authorities in February.

Her alleged crime was throwing a pair of shoes at a poster of the leaders of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Rights monitors argued the extradition violated international law but as Thailand is not a signatory to the United Nations refugee convention, there was little that could be done.

Charles Santiago, a member of Malaysia’s parliament and chairperson of the group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said he had visited some of the Cambodian political exiles in Bangkok about two weeks ago.

“And from what I hear they are being followed. Every move is being supervised or monitored. And therefore [this is] indirect intimidation against their right to free movement,” he said.

“They’re very worried for their political safety. And also it’s not very clear how long they’ll be able to stay in Thailand and what’s going to happen to them after that,” Santiago said.

Targeting CNRP exiles during an election campaign all about legitimizing Hun Sen’s rule would “backfire in a big way,” he said.

Hannah Macdonald, associate external relations officer at UNHCR office in Bangkok, said there was no national framework to protect refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand.

“Due to the irregular and uncertain situation for all refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, while awaiting long lasting solutions, their lives can be difficult,” she said in an email to VOA.

“At the same time, as persons of concern to UNHCR, refugees and asylum seekers are protected by the principle of non-refoulement, which is customary international law,” she said. Non-refoulement is the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they are likely to be subjected to persecution or punishment.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Justice spokesman Chin Malin said “surveillance or not” it was the normal activity of the police to investigate the banned CNRP members if they were undertaking political activities, even outside the country.

“So, now there is no legal action against those people. But the authorities are also studying on them. I don’t guarantee that there is no action at all. This is because the investigation is done secretly,” he said.

Busadee Santipitaks, director-general of the Department of Information at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told VOA via email that while she could not comment on specific questions, Thailand considered each case on its individual merits.

“Having said that, although Thailand is not a State Party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, we have long provided shelter to those with genuine protection needs and have hosted a large number of asylum seekers in the past,” she said.

The Thai government has plenty to gain by cooperating with Cambodia.

Members of Thailand’s “Red Shirt” opposition movement have in the past taken refuge in Cambodia, where their spiritual and political leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, was once welcomed with open arms by Hun Sen.

“Those who fled the country … be informed, don’t come to Asia. Don’t come near Asia,” Hun Sen told local media, while going so far as to threaten using rocket launchers against them.

Thailand’s new military junta and Hun Sen have since become friends though, and in February after Sam Sokha was extradited, representatives of the two countries met to strengthen their prisoner exchanges.

That same month Hun Sen warned he could track down CNRP members anywhere in Asia, claiming the party was terrorist organization.

“Those who fled the country … be informed, don’t come to Asia. Don’t come near Asia,” he told local media, while going so far as to threaten using rocket launchers against them.

“Please, don’t have hope. I just want to tell you, don’t force someone to put nails in your coffin. If it’s in the court’s hands, it’s another issue, but if it is a secession issue, the BM-21 can be used to attack your area,” he said.

Some never made it out of Cambodia. When the CNRP was dissolved, Sok, a unionist and former CNRP activist whose name has also been changed, was told by CNRP party officials he should to leave Cambodia.

But he decided to remain because his family is in debt and without his contribution, “who is helping my family?”, he said.

After more than 18 years of enduring threats and occasional beatings from police as a union organizer affiliated with the CNRP, Sok said the CPP-affiliated provincial governor paid him a visit, took his photo and finally convinced him to defect to the ruling party.

“They made me believe that if I defected the situation regarding our financial issues will get better, and if I don’t make that decision, my house and land will possibly get withdrawn to payback the debt,” Sok said, adding a court order for the confiscation of his family’s land followed the provincial governor’s visit.

“So I decided to defect, if I didn’t do that I knew that they’d arrest me,” Sok said. “So yeah, their target is to arrest me. If I don’t join with them, I’ll have big challenges, I can say that.”