カンボジア Cambodia ←Wikipediaリンク
Japan Times-Opinion/Japan shouldn't act like China in Cambodia
…英字新聞・本文 （人権団体サイドの見解）
カンボジア王国主催「クメール語、スピーチ・コンテスト2019年」が在日カンボジア王国大使館で開催され、見学する機会に恵まれました。小学校5年生から高校まで、私が英語を教えていた大学1年の生徒に、書類選考が通ったということで招待されたのです。正直、私はクメール語が全くわからないので、不安満載の訪問でしたが、初めてカンボジア人の方々と英語で話す機会も得て、とても楽しい時間を過ごせました。スピーチコンテスト時のブログはこちら
*1～*4はスラッシュリーディングによる直訳をしてみてください。番号をタップまたはクリックすると、解説に飛べます。by Teppei Kasai and Brad Adams Mar 27, 2019
In a dimly lit ballroom at a Tokyo luxury hotel, Sok Chenda Sophea, the
secretary-general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia and the
minister attached to Prime Minister Hun Sen, persistently asked about 200
Japanese businesspeople to invest in Cambodia.
“Cambodia is not mini-China, come [visit],” Sophea said at the Cambodian
Investment Forum on March 5. Sophea’s 30-minute speech mentioned everything
from special economic zones to Japanese Official Development Assistance
(ODA).
But Cambodia’s major crackdown on dissent and its ban on the main opposition
party before last year’s election were not on his agenda. When questioned
by Human Rights Watch about whether the Cambodian government has concrete
strategies to ensure rights protections for the Cambodian people amid a
growing number of foreign investments and development projects, Sophea
dodged the question.
“I’m sorry to say, but we’re in a business seminar,” Sophea said, apparently
not concerned that illegal land confiscation for business projects and
the abuse of workers are among the country’s biggest rights problems.
Japan has been important to Cambodia, for decades its largest aid donor
and one of its largest foreign investors. Now, with China surpassing Japan
in both areas, the Japanese government appears willing to throw its principles
out the window to compete with China for Hun Sen’s affections.
Given Hun Sen’s dictatorial and violent record, this is a contest that
Japan can’t — and shouldn’t want to — win.
Despite Sophea’s denials, in recent years, Hun Sen, who has held power
for 34 years, and Chinese President Xi Jinping have been inseparable. *1 They kicked off 2019 by striking a deal involving what Hun Sen described
as a Chinese grant of nearly $600 million and a pledge to import 400,000
tons of Cambodian rice. The two agreed on a target of $10 billion in bilateral
trade by 2023.
The deal was topped off by smaller investments and loans, including an
agreement from China to provide a bodyguard compound for Cambodia’s Council
of Ministers. This is very worrisome, given that Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit
has long been responsible for bloody attacks on the prime minister’s critics,
including an infamous 1997 grenade attack on a political demonstration
by the then-leader of the opposition, Sam Rainsy.
For Xi and Hun Sen, it was business as usual. *2 Since the 1998 demise of the Khmer Rouge, which China helped propel to
power, leading to the deaths of as many as 2 million Cambodians, China
has poured billions of dollars into Cambodia in loans, aid and investments.
By 2010, China became Cambodia’s largest foreign donor, though much of
its aid is in loans that Cambodia may never be able to repay. In 2018,
China accounted for nearly half of Cambodia’s $6 billion foreign debt.
Presiding over a one-party state at home, the Chinese government doesn’t
have to consider public opinion when supporting dictatorships or account
for the expenditure of its funds. It can bribe officials with impunity.
Things are different in Japan.
This has left Japan in a bind. Despite the worsening climate for human
rights in Cambodia, Japan still shies away from open and clear criticism, while
continuing to provide large amounts of aid and staging high-level visits, all
to charm the deeply unpopular Hun Sen.
But Japan is fighting a losing battle for Hun Sen’s support. Japan can’t
outspend China or deliver sweetheart contracts to Cambodia, yet its overt
and clumsy attempts to ingratiate itself have led to a backlash among Cambodian
activists, who see Tokyo selling out democracy and human rights to maintain
a friendship with a dictator. Activists see this “values free” Japanese
diplomacy contributing to the seemingly irreversible decline of democratic
values in Cambodia.
That became increasingly apparent in the lead-up to the July 2018
Cambodian national elections. Fearing defeat, the government dissolved the
opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), kicked its members out of
parliament and imposed a five-year political ban on 118 of its senior members.
Hun Sen also cracked down on independent media outlets and journalists, and
independent organizations promoting the rule of law, democracy and human
rights.
Hun Sen’s abuse of power evoked strong reactions from dozens of countries,
including at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Countries urged the
Cambodian government to reinstate the CNRP and all elected members.
*3 The European Union in December condemned the dissolution of the CNRP and
ended all funding for the 2018 general election, stating that “an electoral
process from which the main opposition party has been arbitrarily excluded
cannot be seen as legitimate.” Sweden, a longtime donor, announced that
it would end its aid to the Cambodian government except for education and
research. The United States suspended most aid.
Yet Japan broke ranks with the other democracies and stayed largely silent.
It provided Cambodia with electoral aid, ballot boxes and pickup trucks
to prepare for what was clearly a sham election. In April 2018, two months
after Japan announced its election aid, Foreign Minister Taro Kono and
Cambodia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn signed a grant and loan
agreement worth more than $90 million.
Hun Sen claimed a landslide victory for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party,
taking all 125 seats in parliament, effectively ending democratic governance
and joining the ranks of China, Laos and Vietnam as one-party states. Despite
this outcome, the secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic
Party, Toshihiro Nikai, sent a letter to Hun Sen extolling his electoral
success without a hint of irony: “I heartily congratulate you on your party’s
overwhelming victory in the general election.”
Sadly, Tokyo’s latest actions betray the admirable legacy of Japan in the
democratization of Cambodia in the 1990s. Japan was a major player in the
1991 Paris Peace Agreements, which set out the transformation of Cambodia
into a democracy and an end to the war with the Khmer Rouge. A Japanese
diplomat, Yasushi Akashi, led the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia,
the huge U.N. peacekeeping and national reconstruction mission. At the
cost of many lives, including two Japanese nationals, Japan helped bring
about Cambodia’s first democratic election in 1993.
*4 Cambodia’s return to a one-party state has prompted Akashi, normally very
wary of offering public criticism, and several Japanese academics and experts
on Cambodia to publicly call for a system that will “ensure that Japan’s
election and legal reform assistance are not utilized to justify heavy-handed
governments.” That would involve creating a new Japanese Foreign Ministry
post occupied by an external expert to require that Japan’s ODA programs
promote democratic values.
Their recommendations should be heeded. They are also consistent with long-standing
Japanese policy. The Japanese Development Cooperation Charter states that
“Japan will provide assistance so as to share universal values such as
freedom, democracy, respect for basic human rights and the rule of law.”
It does not provide an exception for competition with China.
The Japanese government should re-emphasize the democratic and human rights
values it had once placed at the core of its diplomatic relations with
Cambodia. The welfare of the Cambodian people should take precedence over
relations with an abusive leader like Hun Sen. Indeed, Japan’s priority
should be to join with other democratic governments to pressure Cambodia
to meet its international human rights obligations.
The European Union has initiated a review of Cambodia under the human
rights provisions of its Everything-but-Arms trade benefits program, and the
U.S. is considering invoking the labor rights provisions of its Generalized
System of Preferences trade program there.
The Japanese government should trigger human rights-based
conditionality enshrined in its ODA programs and charter and suspend aid unless
Cambodia stops violating those conditions. If Japan wants to have an important
role in Cambodia again, it should quickly switch its soft diplomacy approach
toward Cambodia to a values-based one. When Hun Sen one day loses power, the
Cambodian people will remember who was on their side.
Brad Adams is the Human Rights Watch Asia director and Teppei Kasai is
the program officer in its Tokyo office. ©2019, The Diplomat; distributed by
Tribune Content Agency, LLC
スラッシュリーディングと用語の説明など
複雑な文では、主語となる部分をピンク、動詞を青で示しています。
Human Rights Watch （1978年設立の人権に関するNGO)/ about whether the Cambodian government has concrete strategies/ to ensure
rights protections for the Cambodian people/ amid a growing number of foreign
investments and development projects, //Sophea dodged (dodge=《自・他動》～を避ける、～を巧みにごまかす＝evade, escape) the question.the Khmer Rouge,/ which China helped propel （～を突き動かす）to power,/ leading to the deaths of as many as 2 million Cambodians,/ China
has poured billions of dollars into Cambodia/ in loans, aid and investments.
カンボジアについての基本知識と英語表現 | Official Name | Kingdom of Cambodia | 正式名称 | カンボジア王国 |
| Capital | Phnom Penh | 首都 | プノンペン |
| Official language | Khmer (ｸﾏｴ） | 公用語 | クメール語 |
| Population | about 15 million (2013) |
人口 | 約1,500万人 （2013年） |
| Area | 181,035k㎡ cf.Hokkaido =83,424k㎡ |
面積 cf.北海道 =83,424k㎡ |
181,035k㎡ |
| King (Reign) |
Norodom Sihanouk （ｼｱｰﾇ） (1941-1955/ 1993-2004) |
国王 （在位） |
ノロドム・シアヌーク (2041-1955/ 1993-2004) |
| Norodom Sihamoni (2004-) |
ノロドム・シハモニ (2004-) |
||
| Prime Minister | Hun Sen (1998-) |
首相 | フン・セン (1998-) |
| Independence from France | November 9, 1953 (since 1863) |
フランスからの独立 | 1953年11月9日 （1863年から） |
| The Khmer Republic | 1970-1975 General Lon Nol The character of the new regime was. right-wing and nationalist. |
クメール共和国 | 1970年-1975年 ロン・ノル主導のクーデターでシアヌーク殿下が追放される。 |
| Khmer Rouge (Red Khmers) |
It was the name popularly given to the followers of the Communist Party
of Kampuchea. It was led by Pol Pot in 1976. The regime murdered hundreds of thousands of their perceived political opponents. |
クメール・ルージュ （赤色のクメール） |
1968-1996 初めは反政府であったが、1970年以降シアヌークを支持へ。 反植民地主義+毛沢東思想 1976年、ポル・ポトを首相に選出し、非共産党の政府指導者を排除。 |
| The Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (=Salvation Front/FUNSK) |
It was the nucleus of a new Cambodian Regime that would topple the Khmer
Rouge and later establish the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). Its aim was to expand as a Cambodian front in order to overthrow Pol Pot's regime of terror. |
カンプチア救国民族統一戦線 | 1978-1981 ポル・ポト政権に対する反政府運動を拡大。 1979年1月にベトナム軍の力を借り、ポル・ポト政権を崩壊させる。 |
| Paris Peace Accords | パリ和平協定 | 1991年 カンボジア和平について合意される。 |
|
| 世界遺産 | Angkor Wat | UNESCO World Heritage | アンコール・ワット プレアヴィヒア寺院 |
