Rights group criticizes Cambodian crackdown ‎

Human Rights Watch criticized the Cambodian government's latest crackdown on dissent, urging ‎foreign donors Friday to condemn an “escalating wave of abuse”' against peaceful protesters.  In the ‎past week, authorities broke up a string of small protests and arrested more than a dozen people, most ‎of whom were convicted in quick trials and sentenced to one-year prison sentences, the New York-‎based rights group said.  “The Cambodian government's latest crackdown on peaceful protest makes a ‎mockery of promises of democratic reform,” Brad Adams, the group's Asia director said in a statement. ‎He called the government's actions “that of a dictatorship, not a democracy.” This week's protests were ‎not directly against the government but raised issues sensitive to the ruling party of Prime Minister Hun ‎Sen, which fared unexpectedly poorly in elections last year. Its majority narrowed in the 123-seat ‎National Assembly, while the opposition boosted its presence of lawmakers to 55, up from 29.  Hun ‎Sen has run Cambodia since 1985 with little tolerance for opposition and a reputation for ruthlessness.  ‎On Monday, authorities arrested seven protesters outside City Hall who were victims of forced land ‎evictions. On Tuesday, security forces arrested four more people calling for the release of those arrested ‎the day before. All were sentenced to one-year in prison on ``trumped-up charges'' in trials that did not ‎meet international standards, the statement said.  Also arrested separately this week were two ‎opposition party members, Meach Sovannara and Tep Narin, whom authorities have accused of ‎involvement in an ``insurrection'' in July, when the opposition staged a protest to seek the reopening of ‎a park used for opposition rallies. Both are being held without bail.  Human Rights Watch urged ‎international donors, which make up as much as half of Cambodia's central government budget, to ‎‎``publicly condemn this escalating wave of abuse.''‎  (Source: AP)