Cambodian authorities reject visa applications by environmentalists who won the alternative Nobel
Thon Ratha, Phuong Keo Reaksmey, and Long Khunthea will not travel to Sweden for the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. They are currently serving a 14-month suspended sentence and a three-year travel ban for raising environmental awareness. Meanwhile, Vietnam detains green energy expert Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên, a sixth environmentalist jailed in two years.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews) – A Cambodian court has denied travel papers to three environmentalists, recipients of the so-called alternative Nobel. All three were convicted with a suspended sentence and a foreign travel ban for their activism and awareness raising on environmental issues.
The three were due to travel to Sweden next month for the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, the Associated Press (AP) reported. However, Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s chief prosecutor, Chreung Khmao, ruled that the visit was “not necessary", despite a request by their lawyers.
Thon Ratha, 31, Phuong Keo Reaksmey, 22, and Long Khunthea, 25, had applied to travel from 24 November to 1 December to receive the prize, better known as the alternative Nobel in the fields of environment and ecology.
All three are members of Mother Nature Cambodia, an NGO that shared the 2023 edition of the much-coveted award with Phyllis Omido, a Kenyan community activist, and SOS Méditerranée, a humanitarian group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood Foundation chose the NGO for its “fearless and engaging activism to preserve Cambodia’s natural environment in the context of a highly restricted democratic space.”
This contains an implicit reference to the regime once headed by former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who resigned this year to make way for his son Hun Manet, a budding dynasty that has always shown zero tolerance towards protests, human rights, and environmental issues.
In June 2021, the three award recipients were convicted of inciting others to commit a felony as part of their work to protect the country’s natural environment between 2017 and 2020.
In December of last year, their appeal was turned down but their 14-month sentence was suspended. They are still banned from travelling abroad for three years.
Am Sam Ath, a senior member of Licadho, a Cambodian human rights group, bemoans the court’s decision. In his view, the three should have been encouraged to go for the sake of the country and as a good example for new generations.
Meanwhile, even in Vietnam, the authorities continue their crackdown against environmentalists. Thị To Nhiên, who works with United Nations on a US$ 15.5 billion project to eliminate fossil fuels, was the prime target.
The executive director of an energy policy think tank was detained and could face charges of “appropriating documents of agencies and organisations,” a Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security spokesman told reporters.
Her arrest shows that Vietnamese authorities will not tolerate environmentalists, so much so that some six, including Thị, have been arrested or charged in the last two years on trumped-up evidence.
The other five were charged with tax evasion, including climate activist Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng, who was recently handed down a three-year prison sentence.
Nhiên, who has worked as a researcher for the World Bank and USAID, is the executive director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition.
She was arrested on 15 September in the capital, a few days after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Hanoi (hailed as a diplomatic success in the media), during which he raised human rights and environmental issues with his Vietnamese hosts, who made pledges on human rights, seemingly not respected.
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