Exiled Cambodia opposition leader lands in Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Cambodia’s exiled opposition figurehead Sam Rainsy arrived in Malaysia on Saturday as he sought to get home to rally his supporters against strongman Hun Sen, while security was ramped up at the kingdom’s borders and in Phnom Penh.
Rainsy, who has lived in France since 2015 to avoid jail for convictions he says are politically motivated, had promised a dramatic return on November 9, Cambodia’s Independence Day.
But Hun Sen, who has ruled the Southeast Asian country since 1985, has repeatedly vowed to arrest him and other exiled members of his party if they come back.
Dozens of activists have been rounded up in recent weeks in Cambodia, while the authoritarian leader has called on neighbouring countries to help thwart the opposition’s attempts to return for what he has described as an attempted coup.
After being barred in Paris on Thursday from getting on a flight to Thailand, Rainsy boarded a plane a day later and arrived at the main airport serving the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
A beaming Rainsy told his backers to “keep up the hope”, as he arrived and was greeted and hugged by a handful of supporters.
“We are on the right track,” said Rainsy, a founder of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was dissolved ahead of muchcriticised elections last year.
“Democracy has prevailed in Malaysia, democracy will prevail in Cambodia,” he told reporters at the airport.
While meeting his own deadline of returning to Cambodia by Saturday now appears out of the question, Rainsy insisted: “I will go back home, it is my right and my duty.”
But he refused to reveal further details, and appears to have few options.
Travelling overland to Cambodia now seems impossible as the leader of neighbouring Thailand has said he will not allow the opposition figure to transit through the kingdom.