AHRC UA 990408 Cambodia 08 April 1999
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION URGENT APPEAL

Mr. Chham Chan Deun, a member of the Sam Rainsy Party, was killed. He was killed on March 25, 1999 at 2 A.M. by a group of unknown men in military uniform. Witnesses saw approximately seven armed military men around the house of the victim. Chham was sleeping outside the house when he was shot 11 times. Two sons of the victim were tied to a pillar of the house. The perpetrators then took a ring and a necklace from the victims' wife and left the house.

Mr Chham Chan Deun was planning to run for commune chief in commune elections, as a candidate of the Sam Rainsy Party. He had been in conflict with the village chief since the elections of July 1998, because of his opposition to alleged irregularities during the counting of the ballots.

Chham was a vegetable seller and did not posses any property. It is belived that his political activities and his conflict with the village chief led to his killing. This violence is related to the preparations for commune elections this Novemeber.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Commune elections are scheduled for November 1999. The Cambodian government is still preparing for the communal election. The draft commune election law is yet to passed. More then 1600 commune chiefs position will be decided through the ballot box. Most of the present chiefs were appointed in 1979. The commune election were initially planned for 1997 but was deferred for the 1998 general elections.

In light of the many politically motivated incidents preceding the national elections of July 26, 1998. Political violence may once again be prevalant during the preparations of the commune elections. 13 May 1998,human rights reports detailed forty-two killings and six long-term "disappearances" of people believed to be killed since the initial forty-one killings that during the July 1997 coup. After the July 1998, elections the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (COHCHR) recorded several hundred allegations of voter intimidation, death threats, acts of violence against individuals, illegal arrests and detention, forced removal or destruction of party signs or shooting at party offices, coercion of voters to join the CPP, temporary confiscation of voter registration cards by local authorities, and barring of party members from access to communities. The COHCHR discovered at least twenty-two political motivated murders.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

AHRC is deeply concerned about this election related violence. We encourage you to write your letters to Prime Minister Hun Sen and U.N.Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia Thomas Hammarberg. Please send letters, faxes and email. Request the Cambodian government to take the following action:

· to investigate this case and bring the perpetrators to justice,
· implement measures to prevent further political violence in the run-up to the commune elections.

SEND APPEAL LETTERS TO:

His Excellency Hun Sen, Prime Minister, Office of the Council of Ministers, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Fax: (855) 23-426-054

SEND COPIES TO:

Mr. Thomas Hammberburg, UN Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia, D-519 Palais des Nations, Geneva 10, Switzerland, Fax: 22 - 917 0022, Email: aparra.hchr@unog.ch

Mary Robinson, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais des Nations, 8-14 avenue de la Paix, CH 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, Tel: (41 22) 9173456, Fax: (41 22) 9170213, E-mail: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch

and Cambodia's diplomatic representatives in your country.