the citizen-viewer

As they do every year or so, representatives of the foreign donors who prop up Cambodia's government are meeting to talk about the aid package and make their pledges. This Consultative Group is meeting in Phnom Penh this week.

It's a familiar pattern to those who have watched Cambodia over the years. Hun Sen cracks down on his critics at will, and presides over one the most corrupt regimes in the world, but when the CG is coming, he rolls out the red carpet so the visiting dignitaries can't see the graves that lie beneath. Suddenly he's a champion of human rights and a master of political compromise.

This is a lovely time for his opponents and critics to return to Cambodia, or step out of jail as the case may be, and work as best they can ... until the new aid package is generously pledged, and the foreign representatives head home in a cloud of chatter about how "significant progress has been made" in this or that area, despite "some regrettable setbacks," but fortunately the government has "shown its commitment" to improving its record by agreeing to create some more commissions who will certainly look into the matter.

In the last few months Hun Sen went so far as to prosecute and imprison several of his critics, only to demonstrate his generosity by releasing them just before the CG (although all are still subject to future rights violations). Meanwhile other critics have been murdered. Many over the years. The rare prosecutions in these cases have put innocent men behind bars.

Past pledges on the part of his government to clean up corruption have gone unfulfilled, year after year. Claims that the judiciary is independent remain laughable: Hun Sen and his spokespeople are quite open about the fact that it is only Hun Sen who decides who is safe and who is not.

Some of the members of the Consultative Group are not concerned by these things. Take China for example. Others claim that they are. Take France, whose loyalty to Hun Sen through thick and thin shows no bounds.

It is time for those who claim to be concerned about human rights, democracy, transparency and judicial independence, to back up their claims. You know, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"? How about "fool me eight times"? What then?

Hun Sen will not relinquish unitary power whether they keep funding as they have been or cut funding back. Threatening to cut funds, or worse yet, doing so, will push a reluctant Hun Sen into the arms of China, which will be only too happy to make up for what he loses in Western aid, in exchange for raising the red lantern over Hun Sen's doorway.

This is a bidding war, and donors will have to use their financial leverage to reward progress, not to punish failure. That means setting meaningful benchmarks for respecting rights and cutting corruption and seeing that they are met, and rewarding the government with increased funding if they are met -- after they are met.

The job the donors need to do cannot be done in Phnom Penh this week; it has to be done in their home capitals. But while they're in Phnom Penh, they can do one thing. Tell the truth. Don't cover for Hun Sen. When they claim that things have been improving, they are only deceiving their own citizen-viewers. The people of Cambodia know perfectly well what kind of regime they live under.

Human Rights First has put up a handy web page that sends your message to the donors who are meeting this week.