Cambodia opposition leader is arrested

CAMBODIAN authorities have been accused of cracking down on critics of prime minister Hun Sen’s government after a prominent opposition leader was arrested and an independent newspaper closed down.

Kem Sokha, the leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, was arrested in a police raid in the early hours of yesterday. He was later charged with treason.

Mr Sokha had spoken to “American and Canadian professors” about how to instigate a revolution in Cambodia “with similar strategy as that done in Yugoslavia”, Cambodian authorities said.

Staff at Mr Sokha’s party denied the charges.

Later yesterday, The Cambodia Daily, an independent English-language newspaper published since 1993, said it was closing after it failed to pay a tax bill of $6.3 million.

The Cambodian government had accused the paper of evading tax. Jodie Dejong, the newspaper’s editor, said: “The Daily has been targeted for an astronomical tax assessment, leaks and false statements by the tax department and public vilification by the head of government.” Hun Sen defended the move, saying in a speech on Sunday: “When doing business, you have to pay tax. But when they didn’t pay and we asked them to leave the country, they said we are a dictatorship.”