Hun Sen vows to resist foreign interference
PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed to resist foreign interference, following international criticism of the arrest of his main rival for treason and a widening crackdown on his critics.
The United States and European Union condemned the detention of opposition leader Kem Sokha, who is accused of plotting with US support, and steps against the media that forced the independent Cambodia Daily to shut yesterday.
“We cannot allow any group to destroy the peace that we hold in our hands by being the puppets of foreigners,” Hun Sen said at the opening of a new mosque in Kompong Cham province.
“We cannot allow foreigners to use Khmers to kill Khmers any more.”
He was referring to the Khmer Rouge genocide that destroyed Cambodia in the 1970s.
Hun Sen, 65, is a former Khmer Rouge soldier who switched sides before it was driven out.
Opposition politicians, rights groups and independent media have come under pressure in the run-up to an election next year in which Hun Sen could face his greatest electoral challenge of more than three decades in power.
One of China’s closest allies in the region, Hun Sen has ignored criticism from Western donors, whose budget support is no longer as critical as during the early years of his rule when Cambodia was a little more than a failed state.
Kem Sokha was arrested in a raid on his home on Sunday.
He was not allowed to see his lawyer yesterday, his daughter, Monovithya Kem, said on Twitter.
“We do not know his condition, whether he is safe,” she said.
The EU called for his immediate release, based on the fact that he was meant to have parliamentary immunity as an elected lawmaker.
“Along with recent actions by the authorities against non-governmental organisations and media organisations, this arrest suggests a further effort to restrict the democratic space in Cambodia,” it said in a statement.
The US State Department expressed “grave concern” at Kem Sokha’s arrest on charges it said appeared to be politically motivated. It said it was worried about other curbs on media and civil society.
Spokesman Heather Nauert said the steps “raise serious questions about the government’s ability to organise credible national elections in 2018, which produce an outcome that enjoys democratic legitimacy”.
Hun Sen has increased his rhetoric against the US, ending joint military exercises, expelling a US pro-democracy group and accusing Washington of conspiring with Kem Sokha.
The Cambodia Daily, one of the country’s most stridently independent newspapers, published its last edition yesterday with the headline “Descent Into Outright Dictatorship” as it closed amid a crackdown on critics of Hun Sen.
The English-language paper had been given a one-month deadline to pay US$6.3 million (RM27 million) for years of back taxes, which the publication disputed and described as “astronomical”.
Its final front page led with the Sunday arrest of Kem Sokha, who was accused of treason in a significant escalation of the campaign against Hun Sen’s opponents.
The paper also reported on its own closure.
“We have been a burr in Hun Sen’s side for the entire time that we have been operating,” said Cambodia Daily’s American editor-in-chief Jodie DeJonge.
“This paper takes special pride in writing about some of the toughest issues.”
The paper printed only a few thousand copies a day, but had a reputation for breaking news about sensitive topics, such as corruption, waste, environmental issues and land rights.
Hun Sen defended the deadline given to the paper, saying it had to pay tax the same as any other business.
“When they did not pay and we asked them to leave the country, they said we are a dictatorship.”
The pro-government Fresh News website quoted tax authorities as saying the tax bill stands even if the paper shuts down, and that whoever was responsible at the publication would be barred from leaving Cambodia until the money was paid.