Government Tells Airlines, Airports to Bar Rainsy’s Return
Cambodia Daily Weekend | 22 October 2016
The government has barred
airlines and officials posted at airports from allowing self-exiled opposition
leader Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia, according to a Council of Ministers
letter sent to the country’s immigration chief.
Prompted by a September 16 note
from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the October 12 letter from Council of Ministers
Secretary of State Tekrat Samrach orders Sok Phal, director-general of the
Interior Ministry’s general department of immigration, to “take measures to
prevent the individual Sam Rainsy, leader of the CNRP, from returning to
Cambodia.”
The letter references a prior
meeting of top aviation officials, representatives of airlines operating in
Cambodia, heads of the country’s three international airports, Phnom Penh
International Airport immigration police, custom and excise officials, and Soy
Sokhan, undersecretary of state at the Secretariat of Civil Aviation.
“The meeting took the following
measures: First, all airlines operating flights to Cambodia must not allow this
person to board a flight to Cambodia,” the letter said, adding that the
airlines should also tell the government if “this individual buys a plane
ticket to travel to Cambodia.”
“Second, in cases where the
individual Sam Rainsy travels to Cambodia by any plane, that plane will be
diverted back to the original airport without allowing it to land in Cambodia.”
“Third, in case the aircraft
carrying the individual Sam Rainsy has landed at any airport in Cambodia,
passengers will not be allowed to leave the plane and it will be ordered to
return to the original airport.”
“Fourth, in case this person is
let out of the plane, immigration police shall take legal action to prevent
this person from entering Cambodia and take other measures as necessary.”
General Sok Phal confirmed that
he received the letter, but said he had yet to discuss it with Interior
Minister Sar Kheng.
“For this letter, I already
checked with my administration, it was sent to me,” he said Friday. “But I want
to say today that I did not join this meeting.”
“I will get the opinion from my
minister because this letter did not go through the [Interior] Ministry’s
minister,” he added, declining to comment further.
Civil Aviation Secretariat
spokesman Sinn Chanserey Vutha said he had not heard of the policy.
“If the government says it’s
not allowed, it’s not allowed,” he said, declining further comment.
Mr. Rainsy could not be reached
for comment, but said on Wednesday in a Facebook video that he was ready to
come home and face imprisonment if the government would guarantee the release
of what he said were 20 or 30 political prisoners in the country.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, a
prominent CNRP member, said on Friday that he hadn’t seen the letter, but that
Mr. Rainsy was not plotting an imminent return.
“I don’t believe he will come
back anytime soon,” he said. “It’s just another way to tell Sam Rainsy that he
shouldn’t come back anyway.”
The prince said he was part of
a minority within the party who wanted Mr. Rainsy to return to put pressure on
the CPP and “just to see what they will do.”
Deputy opposition leader Kem
Sokha, who has been living at the CNRP’s headquarters since being charged in
relation to a “prostitution” case in late May, said in an interview earlier
this month that he would like Mr. Rainsy to return.
Political analyst Meas Ny said
the outright ban on Mr. Rainsy’s return betrayed the frayed nerves of the
ruling party and the prime minister.
“They are afraid of many
things,” he said.
“If Sam Rainsy is in the
country and they arrest him, the opposition will become more influential…. They
could establish the big gathering and [the authorities] could not control it.”
By keeping Mr. Rainsy at bay,
Mr. Hun Sen was drawing from a familiar playbook in trying to splinter the
opposition before the election, according to Mr. Ny.
“They never want Sam Rainsy to
be back,” he said.
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