‘Half of Cambodia’s Opposition has fled govt’s crackdown’

Phnom Penh, Oct 4: Nearly half of Cambodia’s Opposition parliamentarians have fled abroad in the past month to escape a government crackdown that has battered their party with legal cases ahead of crunch polls, an MP said on Wednesday.

The exodus further imperils the prospects of a party that poses the only viable challenge at the ballot box to Premier Hun Sen, who has clung on to power for 32 years.

The strongman has smothered dissent in the lead-up to the 2018 national election and is accused of picking off his critics through a series of dubious court cases.

The crackdown was ramped up last month when Opposition leader Kem Sokha was thrown into a remote jail on treason charges, a dramatic arrest that sent fear rippling through the embattled Opposition movement.

Since then, more than 20 opposition politicians have fled the country, MP Mao Monyvann said of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which has 55 members of parliament.

“Now there are only a few more than 10 (MPs) still in the country,” he told AFP, with others having fled before Kem Sokha’s arrest.

Many have left for the US or European countries where they have family or dual citizenship.

Mu Sochua, an outspoken deputy to Kem Sokha, was the latest to bolt on Tuesday, a day after Hun Sen said there would be no let-up in his crackdown.