Cambodia PM threatens opposition leader with arrest

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned opposition leader Sam Rainsy that he could be arrested in connection with the online dissemination of a fake border treaty, local media reported Tuesday.

Hong Sok Hour, a senator with the Sam Rainsy Party, was arrested Aug. 15 after Sen said he had posted a fake version of a 1979 treaty signed between Vietnam and Cambodia on Facebook -- an act the premier described as treason.

In his trial, Hour has maintained his innocence and said he had nothing to do with the text in the video.

But speaking to a group of Cambodian expats living in France on Monday night, Sen -- whose three-day visit to the country ends today -- said Rainsy was also involved.

The Phnom Penh Post quoted Sen as saying the treaty had been posted on a page belonging to Rainsy, and that therefore, he would not have him pardoned.

Officially, King Norodom Sihamoni wields the power to pardon prisoners, not Sen.

Sen’s comments came on the same day that two MPs from Rainsy’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) -- which he established to contest the 2013 elections -- were viciously beaten outside the National Assembly by protesters who had been calling for the resignation of Rainsy’s deputy, Kem Sokha.

Later that day, a group of people gathered outside Sokha’s house, where rocks were thrown, according to human rights monitors Tuesday.

“They are threatening millions of people in Cambodia right now, not just Sam Rainsy,” CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann told Anadolu Agency.

“They are threatening 3 million voters who voted for the CNRP [in 2013]. The accusation [against Rainsy] is groundless and politically motivated.”

Sovann added that the two beaten MPs, Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Sophea, “are in Bangkok right now for treatment” for their injuries.

In a post on his Facebook page late Monday, Rainsy wrote that the protests and beatings -- reprisals for protests held against Sen in Paris -- are just the beginning, because “more acts of political violence are to be expected in the coming days” and “are obviously aimed at terrorizing the population, in the same way as threats of civil war -- if the opposition comes to power -- that Sen has been continuously making over the last few months".

Rainsy said they are part of a wider plan of “fascist methods” to “derail the electoral process with increasing violence” ahead of the commune elections in 2017 and the next national elections in 2018.

There was a months-long deadlock in the wake of the 2013 elections in which both parties claimed victory.

This ended when the two sides brokered a deal to overhaul the National Election Committee.

Monday’s violence was “orchestrated”, according to a group of Cambodian non-governmental organizations who issued a statement Tuesday demanding “an immediate independent and transparent investigation” into the incident.

“Observers identified a number of plain-clothes para-police -- also known as security guards -- and police officers among the crowd, which also included CPP [Cambodian People's Party] youth members and public officials," the NGOs said.

"In stark contrast to the usual large security presence during protests in Phnom Penh, policing of the event was limited to a small number of traffic police directing traffic.”

In a separate statement Tuesday, Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams said he believed “a new wave of political violence can be unleashed anytime and anywhere,” and would be reminiscent of “the same kind of crude political violence used against the opposition in the 1990s to fend off challenges to Hun Sen’s one-party rule".

In 1997, a grenade attack on an opposition rally -- allegedly at the hands of a unit deployed by the government -- left 16 dead and hundreds injured.

Political analyst Ou Virak told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the most recent violence and threats are a cause for concern, as they “show [Sen] is willing to risk international legitimacy to guarantee his power.”