Cambodia’s leader says arrested protesters were trying to overthrow the government

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s leader on Thursday condemned international human rights groups for criticizing the arrest of nearly 100 people for protesting against a decades-old regional development agreement with neighboring countries.

London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement of concern last week over what they called the arbitrary arrests since late July of at least 94 people for publicly criticizing the agreement that the Cambodian government signed with neighboring Laos and Vietnam.

“At least 59 of those arrested, which include environmental, human rights and other activists, remain unlawfully detained and charged for peacefully expressing their views, including several children,” said the statement.

“These wrongful detentions and charges show Prime Minister Hun Manet’s disrespect for the rights of Cambodians and the country’s international human rights obligations,” the statement quoted Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, saying.

Hun Manet, speaking at a ceremony for law school graduates, defended the crackdown, saying the authorities must protect the social order and security for the sake of all Cambodians, and accused the protesters of seeking to overthrow his government.

The Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area — or CLV-DTA — agreement is a development plan intended to facilitate cooperation on trade and migration in four northeastern provinces of Cambodia and border areas in Laos and Vietnam. It was signed in 1999 and formalized in 2004.

Critics on social media have focused on land concessions, charging that the pact privileges foreign interests, and particularly that it would cede land and sovereignty to Vietnam, a