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RIOT CASE DROPPED AGAINST CAMBODIAN RIGHTS WORKERS

Reuters

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia, 21 July 1999 -- A Cambodian court on Wednesday dismissed a case against two local human rights workers charged with inciting a December riot over the import of hazardous waste on a lack of evidence against the pair.

``After three days of hearings and after listening to all the witnesses...the court has found nothing to show that Kim Sen, 37, and Meas Minear, 30, did anything wrong,'' judge Tak Kimsea told Sihanoukville court.

Charges against eight other people filed in connection with two days of rioting sparked by the discovery of 3,000 tonnes of mercury-laced waste dumped near Sihanoukville port, were also thrown out.

``The court has decided to drop the charges against these people,'' the judge said.

The trial was viewed as a test case for human rights groups and their freedom to operate in a country much criticised for its poor rights and judicial standards in recent years.

Kim Sen and Meas Minear of local rights group Licadho welcomed the court's decision.

``The court was really just, the system was fair for us,'' Kim Sen told reporters.

``I'm very happy that the court found we did nothing wrong. The judge did the right thing,'' said Meas Minear.

The two told the court on the opening day of the trial on July 8 that they had taken no part in the protests after the discovery of the waste imported from Taiwan.

They said they had only observed the demonstration in line with their duty as human rights monitors.

The discovery of the rubble-like waste imported from Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Corp triggered an exodus from the city of thousands of people fearing contamination.

Local customs offices were stoned and a hotel housing a state shipping agency was ransacked during the two days of protests. The home of deputy provincial governor Khim Bo was looted.

Formosa Plastics later removed the waste.

The court on Wednesday ordered Sihanoukville city authorities to pay Kim Bo damages of nearly $300,000 and a state shipping agency $15,000 for damage to their premises.

In June two Taiwanese businessmen were convicted in absentia on charges of bringing the waste into the country.

The two representatives of the Taiwanese firm Jade Fortune International Ltd, which was contracted by Formosa Plastics to dispose of the waste, were sentenced to five years in prison and fined more than $480,000.

The pair returned to Taiwan soon after the discovery of the waste in December and have not returned to Cambodia.

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