By: Emma Murphy
LOWELL — Three local leaders are speaking out against the recent arrests of youth activists by the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia.
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, Vanna Howard, the Democratic candidate for the 17th Middlesex District seat at the Statehouse, and Lowell City Councilor Vesna Nuon issued a recent press release condemning the arrests.
The arrest of more than a dozen youth protesters is the latest in a long history of oppression by Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling party in Cambodia, according to Nuon.
“Democracy in Cambodia is only on paper,” the city councilor said.
Recently, Cambodian authorities arrested and charged 14 youth and environmental activists with incitement. The protesters had been organizing and participating in peaceful protests.
According to the release, about 12 of the activists had been organizing protests to call for “the release of Rong Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, who was previously detained on similar charges after calling on Hun Sen’s government to address a litany of criticisms on public radio.”
Three other activists were arrested after posting on social media about plans for a peaceful march to protest a development project that could harm the environment, the release said.
“We are protected under the (Cambodian) constitution to protest peacefully,” Howard said. “It wasn’t done violently, it was done peacefully.”
Like many in the Cambodian community, Howard and Nuon have long been following the events in Cambodia.
“They want to see democracy,” Nuon said. “They want to see people being treated with fairness, and they don’t want to go back to the Khmer Rouge time where you can’t say anything.”
Howard worries that the situation in Cambodia seems to be getting worse.
“As a genocide survivor, that’s the last thing I want to see in my country, going back to the time we were trying to survive,” Howard said. “Everyone needs to speak up, speak out and speak up without retaliation there and here.”
Over the years, Nuon said he has worked with many political leaders, including Trahan, former U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, to raise awareness and address the situation in Cambodia.
Nuon has traveled to Cambodia with Tsongas and has brought members of Cambodia’s parliament to meet with Trahan.
Following the arrests, Trahan reached out to Nuon and Howard to condemn the arrests.
“I believe we have a responsibility to call out violations of human and civil rights,” the Westford Democrat said.
According to Trahan, the foreign-relations committee in the U.S. House and Senate is looking into whether elected officials can sign a letter to the State Department registering the recent events in Cambodia and condemning the arrests.
“One of the things most alarming about violation of the Cambodian constitution is that the prime minister was one of the many people to sign the constitution,” Trahan said. “He’s repeatedly vowed to uphold it.”
Nuon hopes that the more elected officials who get involved, the more traction the effort will gain.
“A country as small as Cambodia still has to live by international law,” Nuon said.
