Men Sophearnarin, Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party

Fighting, threats and various violation still continue in the country, and some parties

are not following the peace accord. Also, some parties still use arms to threaten

one another. As a result, my party has suffered more than 20 fatalities. How could

someone call this a neutral political environment in Cambodia?

Kim Vichet, State of Cambodia

We always talk about our country having a democratic and neutral political situation,

but this can exist only in theory. In practice it does not exist, as we have seen.

This country has experienced a lot of communism. There are now some small changes.

Sokheang, NGO staff member

In this country there is not yet a neutral political environment. The people don't

have total choice of freedom, which means the right given by the authorities to let

the people do what they want. Maybe there are small signs of a neutral political

environment.

Cheng Kim An, Molinakar party member

There has been some change in outlook within the system, but the idea of communism

remains in the leadership. There has been more suppression conducted on opposition

parties, and the people or party members still fear speaking freely. This will be

the case until the violations and threats stop completely and we can all respect

human rights.

Tan Kimhour, FUNCINPEC

There is not yet 100 percent political neutrality in Cambodia. In fact, there are

more killings, threats and violence against all parties, especially towards FUNCIPEC

members based in the countryside.

Sok Silo, Economics student

We have neither neutral politics nor democracy here. The authority in control of

the State of Cambodia im-plementing security measures for the whole country was communism

for many years. But since UNTAC came there has been more neutrality in the political

environment.