Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy condemns the crackdown in Cambodia

Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy condemns the crackdown in Cambodia

Tuesday 19 December the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Italy, chaired by the Fabrizio Cicchitto MP, has adopted a resolution condemning the crackdown that has worsened in the last months in Cambodia, a country that has been under the iron fist of Prime Minister Huns Sen for 32 years. The text filed by Pia Locatelli MP, chair of the Human Rights Committee which works within the Foreign Affairs Committee, deplores the violations perpetrated, under an apparent legal cover, against the main opposition party to eliminate any political accountability.

The text follows a hearing of 12 October 2017 granted by the Mrs. Locatelli to Cambodian parliamentarians Rainsy Sam and Saumura Tioulong accompanied by members of the Presidency of the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparty (NRPTT) Elisabetta Zamparutti and Matteo Angioli and NRPTT Representative at the UN Laura Harth. It aims to restore the respect for fundamental civil and political rights in Cambodia and it shed light on the condition of a country that is falling back under Chinese influence.

The resolution condemns the decision of Hun Sen’s government to dissolve, with a political use of the judiciary, the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescuae Party of Sam Rainsy, in exile, and Kem Sokha, in prison since September 3 this year, both members of the Radical Party as all 66 (now former) parliamentarians of the opposition.

The Commission also commits the Italian government to express this condemnation in all international bodies and to obtain information on the trial of Kem Sokha and other illegally held opponents, and it calls on Italy to coordinate with the countries signatories of the Paris Agreements of 1991, including the members of the UN Security Council, to resume the process of democratization and establishment of the rule of law in Cambodia, starting from the holding of free and fair elections for the Cambodian people scheduled for July 29, 2018.

By adopting this resolution, Italy joins the United States, Canada, France, Australia, the EU and the ASEAN Parliamentary Assembly (Association of South-East Asian Nations) that have already condemned the attack launched by Prime Minister Hun Sen against the democratic forces of that country.

Read the resolution in English and French 

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