Army did not move to stop CNRP: Tea Banh
The opposition yesterday accused a senior army general of
having ordered plainclothes soldiers to block the party from entering
the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng on Sunday, where they
were set to hold a public forum.
But Defence Minister Tea Banh strongly rejected the accusations.
Hong Sok Hour, an opposition senator from the northwest, said Anlong
Veng residents had informed the opposition that General Kun Kim, a
deputy commander-in-chief of RCAF and a chief adviser to Prime Minister
Hun Sen, had ordered his soldiers to block the Cambodia National Rescue
Party.
“The witnesses confirmed that this group was made up of soldiers,
because in Anlong Veng, people know each other. Civilians know
civilians, the commune chief knows the commune chief, the deputy commune
chief knows the deputy commune chief and the soldiers know the
soldiers,” Sok Hour said at a news conference in Phnom Penh.
“So Anlong Veng people said the group were made up of soldiers, and Mr Nhem En, the former deputy district governor of Anlong Veng [who defected to the CNRP in May], knows this group of soldiers are under the control of his excellency General Kun Kim.”
CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha yesterday blamed the events on
the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which they said was trying to
intimidate the opposition to join the National Assembly after months of
boycotting.
General Kun Kim could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Defence Minister Tea Banh dismissed the CNRP’s allegations.
“Where are the soldiers deployed and what would they be deployed for?
There is nothing [true about this]. If [we] wanted to block [Rainsy],
why would we do it there?” he said.
“[The CNRP] is the only group that has bad ideas and causes problems
by alleging like this and alleging like that. That’s why [people] did
not allow the [CNRP] to enter. Do not accuse soldiers. If solders wanted
to [intimidate] they would do it at [the leaders’] homes.”
No comments:
Post a Comment