Police arrest a supporter of the Cambodia National Rescue party during a protest in Phnom Penh last week

Cambodia PM beefs up bodyguard as crisis deepens 

The Financial Times | 12 September 2016

[excerpts]

The discord came as news emerged that about 350 troops are due to join the premier’s bodyguard unit, a 3,000-strong private army equipped with armoured personnel carriers, missile launchers and Chinese-made machine guns. The new recruits would replace retirees, said Mr Phay Siphan, who dismissed longstanding allegations that the unit was implicated in human rights abuses. 

The bodyguards have become a formidable force protecting Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who has presented himself as the only figure capable of preventing the country returning to chaos. In May, a Cambodian court sentenced three members of the bodyguard unit to one year in prison each for assaulting two opposition parliamentarians whom they had dragged from their cars. 

The bodyguard unit formed a highly unusual “military-commercial alliance” in 2010 with Unite International, a company controlled by Fu Xianting, a well-connected Chinese tycoon who has big tourism interests in Cambodia. China has directed greater military and other aid to Cambodia, which has emerged as a crucial participant in quelling public criticism of Beijing’s maritime territorial ambitions by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Mr Fu did not respond to a request for comment. He has previously denied that the concessions his businesses enjoy in Cambodia are linked to his deal with the bodyguard unit, which has received a series of donations from Unite, including 220 motorbikes in 2009.

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