After Expelling Uighurs, Cambodia Approves Chinese Investments

By REUTERS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Reuters) — Cambodia signed 14 deals worth an estimated $850 million with China on Monday, two days after it defied international pressure by deporting 20 members of the Uighur minority who had sought asylum after fleeing a government crackdown in China.

China, which is Cambodia’s biggest source of direct foreign investment, agreed to help finance various projects, including roads and irrigation, the conservation of temples, and the construction of a new Parliament building. China has invested more than $4.3 billion in Cambodia in recent years.

The exact value of the agreements, signed during a visit by the Chinese vice president, Xi Jinping, was not disclosed. But the pacts were widely believed to be related to an accord worth $853 million that was agreed to when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China and Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia met in Sichuan on Oct. 15.

The agreements on Monday followed the decision by Cambodia on Saturday to deport 20 ethnic Uighurs at China’s request, despite Cambodia’s having signed a 1951 treaty banning the forced repatriation of refugees who face persecution at home.

The Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim group, were involved in ethnic rioting in western China in July that killed at least 197 people. They were smuggled into Cambodia about a month ago and applied for asylum at the United Nations refugee office in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur leader who is living in the United States, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday that Cambodia’s decision to deport the 20 Uighurs was “no doubt influenced by enormous Chinese pressure, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.”

China has repeatedly contended that the Uighurs in Cambodia were under investigation and were suspected of being criminals, without providing details.

“China thanked the government of Cambodia for assisting in sending back those people,” said a Cambodian government spokesman, Khieu Kanharith.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights accused Cambodia of bowing to pressure and deporting the asylum seekers after having given “strong assurances” that the office would be allowed to complete an investigation to determine their status.

Cambodia has said that the Uighurs entered the country illegally and that the country was simply applying its own immigration laws.