February 3, 2014
The security forces involved in the labor crackdown also have a jaded
past. Brad Adams, the Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, wrote in the
Cambodia Daily on January 9 of the brutal history of Brigade 911 before
its reported deployment in the January 2-3 shootings. This Indonesian-trained
parachute brigade, commanded by the notorious General Chap Pheakadey, now a
member of the Central Committee of Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party
(CPP), was involved in the brutal human-rights abuses connected with Hun Sen’s
1997 coup against Prince Ranariddh’s political party, FUNCINPEC. On that
occasion, according to Adams, “dozens of people were being unlawfully detained
and tortured at the 911 base west of Phnom Penh International Airport.” Brigade
911’s history of brutality has apparently written another
chapter.
Another report of security-force involvement in the January 2-3
shootings was raised on January 17 by the Global Post. That report
asserted that the embassies of certain Asian countries that are major investors
in Cambodia’s garment industry “played a behind-the-scenes role in the
events leading up to the Cambodian military’s crackdown.” Foreign diplomats were
reported to have lobbied an official “from an elite agency whose role has
nothing to do with labor strikes: the country’s National Counterterrorism
Committee (NCTC).” This appeal was reportedly made under the rationale of
protection of the properties of foreign investors. Given the subsequent
bloodshed, foreign missions in Phnom Penh have rapidly moved to distance
themselves from any implied involvement in human rights abuses. The NCTC—“a
powerful, well-funded body with a brigade-sized military unit reportedly in the
hundreds”—has not been used extensively to address terrorist threats –which most
foreign observers agree are minimal in Cambodia. Rather the NCTC, whose special
forces unit, according to Global Post, is commanded by Hun Sen’s son,
Lieutenant General Hun Manet, a West Point graduate, has acted as the eyes and
ears for the Prime Minister in monitoring and, when necessary, cracking down on
his political opponents.
Such a description recalls an organization known as "the Voluntary
Militia for National Security," more commonly recalled in twentieth century
history as "the Blackshirts." This paramilitary organization was made up largely
of disgruntled former soldiers who opposed farmers' and laborers' unions. The
Blackshirts made use of violence and intimidation to advance their political
goals and support their dictatorial leader. Sound
familiar?
In 1922 the Blackshirts conducted "the March on Rome" to install
Mussolini as Il Duce, a position he held for over two decades. Fascist admirers
of Il Duce in Germany and Spain soon came up with similar paramilitary
organizations, based on terror and intimidation, and took control of those
countries. In the end, however, things did not turn out so well for
Mussolini.
There is an eerie echo of the Blackshirts in the reported organization
and tactics of Cambodia's security forces and “Third Hand.” Such a repeat of the
violent history of the twentieth century in today's Cambodia would be a great
tragedy. The world should speak out before the escalating violence and
intimidation in the land where the Khmer Rouge once ruled spirals completely out
of control.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Cambodia, Surya Subedi, ended
a six-day fact-finding mission to Cambodia in mid-January with a call for an
investigation into the January 2-3 incident. “I strongly recommend,” he said,
“that an investigation be undertaken on who issued and who carried out the order
to shoot; if no such order was given, the individuals who fired their weapons
must be brought to justice.” This was followed by a January 28 meeting of the UN
Human Rights Council in Geneva which reviewed Cambodia’s human-rights record.
The Council meeting reportedly reviewed “recent attacks on activists, union
members and journalists, violations of freedom of assembly and association, and
the recent ban on peaceful assemblies.” According to Al Jazeera America,
the Council recommended that Cambodia adopt legislative measures to “promote the
enjoyment of freedom of expression in order to protect opposition party members,
journalists and human rights defenders from arbitrary arrests and to lift all
restrictions to peaceful
demonstrations.”
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