Sara Colm reports from Siem Reap on how a former prisoner is helping improve

conditions in the town's jail.

During the Khmer Rouge regime, Meas

Thunchey endured an 11-month ordeal of torture and hunger at the provincial

prison in Siem Reap town.

Now he spends a lot of time in the prison as a

human rights activist, regularly visiting the inmates to monitor conditions.

Thunchey, 45, is president of the Siem Reap chapter of ADHOC, Cambodia's

oldest and largest human rights organization.

When I accompanied

Thun-chey on one of his prison visits, he walked through the courtyard of the

French-built jail, shaking hands with the guards before checking whether anyone

was being held in one of two isolation cells.

As he passed through the

prison, several inmates slipped him letters to mail to relatives outside.

Bending over a prisoner with tuberculosis he said: "Have they given you

your medication today?"

Three years ago Thunchey's visits would have been

unthinkable. Not only were Cambodian human rights advocates barred from the

country's prisons, so were international rights organizations such as Amnesty

International and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But

during UNTAC's 18-month term, international human rights monitors were allowed

to regularly inspect prisons - particularly those under the control of the State

of Cambodia.

Last September, when the UN's human rights mandate ended in

Cambodia, Siem Reap became the first province to allow Cambodian human rights

activists to take over UNTAC's prison monitoring role.

"It's important

that in Cambodia, even prisoners have rights," says Thunchey, who knows

first-hand about human rights abuses.

A radio mechanic under the Khmer

Rouge regime, he was beaten, tortured, and thrown in prison for not fixing an

official's radio quickly enough.

On the day of Thunchey's visit, a dozen

inmates carrying hoes and shovels stream in from the outer yard of the prison,

where they have recently planted a large vegetable garden.

Inside the

inner courtyard, other inmates are chopping and cleaning freshly-picked

watercress and cabbage, while others hammer away at carpentry projects or crouch

over smoky hibachis, grilling small fish.

The mood is active and upbeat,

more so than 18 months ago when UN monitors first entered the prison.

At

that time, shackling, torture and isolation of inmates in dark cells was

commonplace in many Cambodian prisons and many prisoners were not tried.

The Siem Reap jail was overcrowded and lacked toilets and adequate

bathing facilities. Many of the inmates were gaunt and thin and suffered from

skin diseases; the daily food rations consisted of a plate of rice, plus a small

fish every other day.

UN human rights officers collected complaints from

inmates, secured the release of political prisoners, and worked with staff from

the prison and the provincial court to improve conditions and insure that trials

were conducted in a more timely manner under a transitional penal code adopted

by the Supreme National Council.

Thunchey has built on UNTAC's work after

its departure, enlisting several international agencies based in Siem Reap to

help work on development proj-ects in the prison.

In the last four

months, there have been dramatic changes at the prison and in the appearance of

the inmates, many of whom have gained weight and are wearing clean new uniforms.

The improvements are due to the collaboration of several organizations.

The World Food Program provides rice, oil, and canned fish, Ecole Chantiers

repaired several prison doors, Church World Service provided new mosquito nets

and sleeping mats, Action International Contre le Faim installed wells and

pumps, Concern built latrines and provided seed and tools for the vegetable

garden, and the International Committee of the Red Cross painted the prison.

In addition, several other NGOs, including ADRA, Redd Barna, and UNHCR,

provide general support to ADHOC in their prison monitoring and negotiations

with local officials.

Major Chan Sitha, who became prison director last

September, says he is eager to continue the collaboration with ADHOC and the

NGOs.

"I have meetings with the prisoners, and we run things more

democratically than before," he said. "The treatment is better and there's more

food, so people don't try to escape."

Several other ADHOC branch-es have

followed the lead given by their colleagues in Siem Reap and begun monitoring

their provincial prisons, including Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Kompong

Chhnang, and Kompong Cham.

ADHOC started its Siem Reap operation in

November 1992, initially borrowing classroom space at Wat Bo before renting its

own office near Psah Leu.

It now boasts 5,000 members, of whom more than

4,000 have gone through a five-day training course in human rights. The

organization receives about ten human rights complaints each month, which they

do their best to investigate.

"We have very good cooperation with the

police and the court and feel free to bring up any problem with them," Thunchey

says. Now that a new governor has been appointed, he is hopeful ADHOC will

receive approval to open offices and conduct training classes in the rural

districts.

"If people don't understand about their rights we will never

have peace in Siem Reap or the whole country," says Thunchey. "Otherwise, people

only know how to abuse each other and there can be no unity."

Guy

Janssen, UNHCR Field Officer for the province said: "I'm really impressed by the

situation in Siem Reap. [Court] cases are progressing, and at least there's a

procedure now.

"The judge has the ability to make decisions, and the

governor has promised to support ADHOC.These are quite important improvements.

"

Now that prison conditions and treatment of prisoners are improving,

the main challenge for Siem Reap ADHOC, Thunchey says, is to improve court

procedures so that a backlog of prisoners awaiting trial can be dealt with.

In fact, when the UN Special Representative for Human Rights in

Cambodia, Justice Michael Kirby, visited the country last month, he said that

prisoners' complaints were primarily about the court system, not their treatment

during incarceration.

One of the main tasks facing the newly-opened

field office in Phnom Penh of the UN Centre for Human Rights is to train and

advise legal professionals in the justice system.

Shortly before UNTAC

closed down its human rights component in Siem Reap last September, an inmate

slipped a UN human rights officer a handwritten note.

"Things have

improved a lot here in the prison since UNTAC has been here," the inmate had

written. "We worry that when you return to your country, things will return to

the old ways here - when we were often beaten and mistreated."

Now, some

four months later, the work of ADHOC and its network of allies in Siem Reap may

help to insure that the inmates worst fears won't be realized.

 

- Sara Colm worked as UNTAC Human Rights Officer in Siem Reap from

July-September 1993.