'Yes I am Afraid'

You were arrested because of a banner displayed at a rally on the United Nations Human Rights Day in December. What did the banner say and who wrote it?

It said: the prime minister is a traitor and he sells [Cambodian] land to Vietnam. It was a free-speech banner from the 2003 elections. My organization had allowed people to come to our offices to express themselves in writing [on the banner]. People wrote in very small handwriting. Nobody read it because we didn't want to censor people so I don't know who wrote it. At the rally [authorities] asked us to take it down, and we did.

Then what happened?

Police surrounded my office on Dec. 31. My staff wouldn't let them in. I called the U.S. Embassy, the ambassador and his deputy, and the British ambassador, and they came. But the police threatened to break down the door to my office, so I decided to go with them.

In March, Cambodia's main international donor countries will meet in Phnom Penh to decide on future economic aid. Will these prosecutions make Hun Sen look bad, or will the release of prisoners on bail help his cause?

They are still charging me, so it won't look good for him. Observers from abroad sometimes notice that, "There are many newspapers and many [non-governmental] organizations in Cambodia." We do have freedom, but our freedom is in the hands of the prime minister. If the prime minister lets us do something, we can do it, and if he doesn't, it stops. Right away.