Cambodia accuses US of political interference, calls US democracy ‘bloody and brutal’
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia hit back yesterday at US criticism over its decision to expel a USfunded pro-democracy group, accusing Washington of political interference and describing American democracy as ‘bloody and brutal’.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, the strongman who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, has taken a strident antiAmerican line in the increasingly tense run up to a 2018 election.
The US State Department criticised Cambodia’s decision to expel the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Wednesday and a statement from the U.S. embassy inPhnomPenhquestionedwhether Cambodia was a democracy.
In an open letter on Thursday, the Cambodian government asked whether the United States was ‘coming to Cambodia to help or hinder the Khmer people’ and blamed it for contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
“Cambodians are well aware of what a democratic process means. You do not need to tell us what it is,” the letter said, describing US-style democracy as ‘bloody and brutal’.
“We wish to send a clear message again to the US Embassy that we defend our national sovereignty,” it added.
Tensions have risen anew in Cambodia, with rights groups and the United Nations expressing alarm and the opposition accusing Hun Sen of persecution ahead of next year’s election.
After the government’s order to expel the NDI and a threat to shut a newspaper founded by an American journalist if it didn’t pay back taxes immediately, the US State Department voiced concern at the government ‘curtailing freedom of the press and civil society’s ability to operate’.
Government supporters have threatened to protest at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, the progovernment ‘Fresh News’ web site reported on Thursday.
“The protests are likely to be in large scale against the US Embassy in Phnom Penh like in the 1960s because of the American interference in Cambodia’s sovereignty,” it said, citing an anonymous government source. — Reuters