Liberals and Democrats welcome the dropping of charges against Sam Rainsy

5.54.10pm GMT Wed 8th Feb 2006

Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament enthusiastically welcomed the release of Cheam Channy, a top Cambodian opposition activist who had the charges against him dropped, together with opposition leader Sam Rainsy. This decision, announced on the 5th February 2006, clears the way for Sam Rainsy, Member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, to return to Cambodia after a year-long exile. In the case of Cheam Channy, he has been freed from jail after serving one year of a seven-year term.

Liberals and Democrats have incessantly called on Phnom Penh regime to release these political prisoners and have been at the forefront of Parliament's voice to maintain international pressure on this human rights question. The European Parliament adopted no less than three urgency resolutions on the situation in Cambodia since the beginning of this legislature and ALDE leader Graham WATSON highlighted it in his response to a statement from EU High Representative Javier Solana in the European Parliament last week.

"The royal pardon of Sam Rainsy and Cheam Channy is excellent news", said Graham Watson. "This shows how urgency resolutions of the European Parliament can have a concrete impact if the timing is right and if it 'names and shames' in the reports and resolutions it adopts. As our Sakharov Prize winner for 2005, Robert Menard from Reporters Without Borders reminded us recently, when some one's name appears on a resolution, that person is protected- even on the other side of the planet", he recalled.

Parliament's last resolution on Cambodia was adopted on the 19 January, urging in particular for the release of Cheam Channy and also calling for the "judgment against Sam Rainsy and Chea Poch to be overturned". It's timing was of crucial importance as it precedes an international donor's Conference set to take place in Phnom Penh on the 2nd March 2006. Furthermore, in Parliament's resolution, MEPs express their strong belief that continuing detentions of leading figures from the political opposition as well as the use of the criminal law in cases of expression of dissenting opinions send a "worrying message to the donor community on which the government relies for about 50 per cent of its annual budget". The Parliament also calls for an ad hoc delegation of Members to visit Cambodia in order to evaluate the human rights situation in the country.