PM: Armed uprising to be destroyed immediately

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Monday said if an armed group were to rise up as announced by Sam Rainsy, the “acting president” of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), they would be destroyed immediately.

Hun Sen said Rainsy’s announcement of having a budget in place for members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) who defected from the prime minister gave him the right to deploy the army to quash “an armed rebellion”.

“If you have armed forces then I must fight you. I must fight you anywhere I see you, without needing a warrant. You have encouraged using the armed forces, including appealing to the army to start action.

“In a normal situation, the army would not come out, only the national and Military Police. But when you announce having armed forces like this, it means we have to start deploying the army. This would not be a normal protest but an armed rebellion,” Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen was speaking at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Monday where he received 443 high school students who achieved straight As in the recent Grade 12 examinations.

Referring to Rainsy, the prime minister said the leader of a rebel group had vowed to come to Cambodia on November 9 and arrest him.

He said it was Rainsy’s claim of having a budget for the military that gave the prime minister the right to launch a crackdown.

“We don’t need to talk anymore about the leader of a rebel group. It would come under the duties of [defence minister] Tea Banh because these people would have crossed a red line.

“Insulting the King is not a normal act. [Rainsy] used ‘it’ to refer to the King and called him the ‘King of theatre’, and told him to abdicate. You are too rude! His goal is not only to depose Hun Sen but to take out the King as well,” Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen said Rainsy had claimed to have the support of more than 65 per cent of the armed forces. If this were true, he said, then Rainsy should return quickly, even before November 9.

He said anyone showing support for Rainsy would be arrested