By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Many treatment centers in Cambodia have raised serious human rights alerts as reports of physical abuse and involuntary administration of experimental drugs and medication become more frequent.
The Human Rights Watch issued a recent report describing the abuse and mal-treatment in eleven different government-run centers. The report indicated that electric shock, beatings, rapes, forced labor and forced donations of blood were practices at most of these institutions.
According to the report, “Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate.” It went on to state that, “the practice of torture and inhuman treatment [is] widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”
The Cambodian government dismissed the report, and uttered in a public announcement that the report was, “without any valid grounds.” Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, stated at a news conference that, “The centers are not detention or torture centers,” and that “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.” She declined to describe the specific treatment practices the centers uses.
Aside from the few government-run centers, there are very few other resources for drug users to rely on to seek help for their addictions. Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000.The United Nations believes this figure could be as high as 500,000. In light of such heavy use, desperate families sometimes commit their relatives to the centers. Others are said to be institutionalized against their will.
In December of 2009, the Cambodian government engaged in administering and experimental herbal drug to try and treat addicts. The treatment was heavily criticized by rights groups and health professionals because it was imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia. It is uncertain how many people the drug was used on, but twenty-one drug users documented and administered “bong sen” for ten days at various treatment centers before being released. There is no indication that a systematic follow-up was conducted, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.
According to Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, “No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs.”
“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”
For more information, please see:
The New York Times – Cambodian Addicts Abused in Detention, Rights Group Says – 15 February 2010
Voice of America – Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010
IPS – CAMBODIA: ‘Abuse Rampant in Drug Detention Centres’ – Human Rights Watch – 7 March 2010
Cambodia News – Rights Group Says Cambodia’s Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010
