Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that US President Barack Obama should hold Hun Sen accountable for any attacks on Kem Sokha and Cambodian opposition supporters.
North American Cambodian citizens protest in New York in 2013. Photo supplied
Threats posted ahead of PM’s US visit
A prominent ruling party activist has alluded to violent
attacks against CNRP acting president Kem Sokha if anti-Hun Sen
protesters picket the premier’s upcoming US visit,
in a sponsored Facebook post circulated a week after the prime minister
delivered his own veiled threats of retaliation should a demonstration
occur.
Prefacing his remarks with “according to observers”, Cambodian
People’s Party social media activist and soldier Khan Chan Sophal wrote
that the planned protests in the US would make the Cambodia National
Rescue Party acting president “not dare to live in Cambodia anymore”.
In a post “liked” 281 times as of last night, Sophal said Sokha was
afraid that CPP supporters would “burn [his] house”, and “pull him out
of a car like the two CNRP lawmakers last time”, a reference to the brutal bashing
of opposition parliamentarians by men from a pro-CPP rally on October
26. The CNRP acting president’s house was also surrounded by protesters
and pelted with stones that day.
“Come that day [the day of the protest], Kem Sokha will buy a ticket
to fly abroad before that happens. I think that the National Assembly
should have a meeting and call Kem Sokha to join the meeting … so then
where will he go?” wrote Sophal, whose page has 309,000 likes.
The message ends with Khmer script indicating laughter.
Contacted yesterday, Sophal insisted the remarks were not a threat
but a well-intentioned warning from an observer about the possibility of
violence, the likelihood of which he said was “50-50”.
“We’re afraid of violence against the CNRP locally again, the same as
the previous time, and I worry,” he said, adding he would not take part
in any demonstrations and that he didn’t fear possible arrest over the
remarks because they reflected a “real situation”.
Speaking yesterday, CNRP deputy director-general of public affairs
and Sokha’s daughter Kem Monovithya labelled the remarks a “specific
threat”, which the party would take to authorities this week.
“Considering the violence in October where justice is still yet [to
be] found, we need to take seriously CPP warnings,” Monovithya said.
Tension has been building ahead of next week’s US-ASEAN summit at
Sunnylands ranch in California, where on February 15, the Cambodia
American Alliance is planning “a rally against the tyrant Hun Sen”.
Late last month, the premier warned that any demonstrations in
California would result in retaliatory ruling party rallies against
opposition leaders back in Cambodia.
Similar warnings by Hun Sen preceded the mass rally and attack on October 26.
After the most recent threat, the opposition was quick to distance
itself from, and warn against, any planned protests in the US.
Via email, opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is in self-exile to
avoid prison on charges widely thought politically motivated, said the
party didn’t want to give anybody pretext to “increase the level of
political violence and tension in order to derail the election process”.
But Cambodia-America Alliance president Vibol Touch said the group
wasn’t associated with the CNRP and the rally would go ahead as planned.
“We are American citizens and we are concerned about what is going on
in the Kingdom, Hun Sen is a threat to democracy, a threat to his own
people and a threat to security in the ASEAN region.”
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that
US President Barack Obama should hold Hun Sen accountable for any
attacks on Kem Sokha and Cambodian opposition supporters.
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