Hun Sen supporters held 10 of 11 seats on the NEC, which changed the electoral formula as ballots were being counted to give the CPP a parliamentary majority. Authorities denied opposition parties access to broadcast media, disrupted some opposition rallies, and banned political demonstrations in Phnom Penh during the election campaign. Politicians have deliberately kept institutions weak. The rudimentary judiciary is politically controlled. In February 1999, a UN experts group reported that Cambodia s judiciary lacked the independence and capacity to try Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes against humanity and for genocide in the 1970s.
Prisons are dangerously overcrowded and unsanitary, and authorities abuse inmates.
The CPP has carried out political violence with impunity, acting through the army or paid thugs. In September 1999, authorities arrested two members of the Sam Rainsy Party on the apparently spurious charge of being behind an alleged 1998 assassination attempt on Hun Sen. Security forces routinely harass and intimidate nongovernmental human rights activists. In the countryside, the central government has little authority and soldiers commit rape, extortion, banditry, and extrajudicial killings with impunity. The private press operates under severe pressure. Journalists are routinely harassed, threatened, and attacked.