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On August 16, Cambodian authorities forcibly disappeared 28-year-old Van Ness Hay. Cambodia’s former prime minister and current Senate President Hun Sen was detained after he threatened his brother Vanna Hay, an activist who leads the opposition Cambodia National Salvation Movement in Japan, at an event. speech Vannith Hay’s family has been unable to contact him since his arrest and has no idea of his whereabouts, and they remain concerned for his safety.
Vanna Hay is a critic of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development (CLV), an economic development plan involving the border provinces of the three countries. In July, Hun Sen urged the Cambodian government to “search and find all groups in Cambodia that oppose the CLV” and “compile the cases of all individuals outside the country, study their family history, and if they are abroad, where their family members are.”
Then came a crackdown: between August 14 and 19, Cambodian authorities detained 60 people who protested against the development. Vannith Hay, a civil servant at Cambodia’s Ministry of Health, did not criticize CLV.
“My brother has nothing to do with my politics,” Vana Hay told Human Rights Watch. “He is an academic, a civil servant, and a professor at the National Institute of Public Health. I call for his immediate release.”
This is not the first time that critics of the Cambodian government, such as Vanna Hay, have been attacked for their activities in Japan. In May, Sun Chanthy, the head of the opposition National Power Party, was Arrested After returning from Japan, he gave speech Supporters urged the Cambodian government to allow opposition parties to operate freely. Two months later, a Cambodian court ruled that opposition Candlelight Party leader Thiev Van Noor Defamation and fined $1.5 million criticize Prime Minister Hun Manet and Hun Sen give media interviews in Tokyo.
The Cambodian government does not like Japanese critics to voice their opinions. On August 15, Hun Manet asked: “Does Japan support using its territory as a base to lead protests and overthrow (the government)?”
As Cambodia’s main aid donor, the Japanese government should publicly call on Cambodian authorities to immediately stop intimidating domestic and foreign critics and release those wrongly detained for exercising basic rights or simply having family ties to Japanese human rights advocates like Vanis Hay.
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