French army paratroopers stand at attention as local people watch the ceremony marking the full deployment of French Untac peacekeeping troops in 1992. Stefan Ellis/AFP |
Hun Sen says he, not Untac, brought peace to Cambodia in 90s
Phnom Penh Post | 5 January 2018
Three days ahead of the highly politicised January 7 holiday marking
the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday
slammed the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (Untac) for its
alleged failure to bring peace to Cambodia in the 1990s, instead
claiming his own efforts had put a stop to warring factions.
But analysts yesterday said the peacekeeping mission, the most
ambitious ever undertaken at the time, had brought “unity” to Cambodia
by facilitating negotiations between the Khmer Rouge and the government,
noting Hun Sen himself acted to ensure many of Untac’s failures.
Untac was established from the beginning of 1992 until September 1993
to bring the Paris Peace Accords, a 1991 document that enshrined
multiparty democracy in Cambodia’s political system, into effect.
Speaking at the inauguration of a new Khmer-Soviet Friendship
Hospital building in Phnom Penh, the premier yesterday said the country
was still divided when the peacekeeping operation left.
“Untac spent around $2 billion to implement the Peace Paris
Agreement, but . . . when Untac withdrew, it left Cambodia with two
governments controlling two different parts [of the country],” he said.
Hun Sen added that Untac had “no ability” to enter Khmer Rouge
strongholds in Cambodia’s northwest, citing a famous incident where two
Khmer Rouge soldiers banned the head, deputy head and commander of Untac
from entering the region.
Instead, Hun Sen claimed, peace came when he implemented his “win-win
policy” between 1996 and 1998 by integrating Khmer Rouge holdouts into
military and government positions. Around the same time, Hun Sen, then
second prime minister to Funcinpec’s Prince Norodom Ranariddh, ousted
the prince in bloody factional fighting.
Political analyst Meas Nee said the premier did not give enough credit to Untac.
“Like the current government, it had weak points, but . . . if there
had been no international pressure, we would not have been able to find a
way to sit at the negotiation table,” he said.
Analyst Lao Mong Hay said the remarks were the latest in a string of
“anti-UN statements” and were an “insult” to those who had worked on the
Paris Peace Accords.
Hun Sen sought to “undermine” and “marginalise” Untac, while at the
same time “glorifying” January 7, the date when the Vietnamese army and
Khmer Rouge defectors, including Hun Sen, ousted Pol Pot.
Despite some shortcomings of the Untac period, Mong Hay said without
it and the peace accords, “Cambodia would continue to fight one another
until the last man”.
Mu Sochua, a self-exiled deputy head of the recently dissolved
opposition CNRP, said Untac brought “the seeds for democracy” by holding
free and fair elections.
“All this is what the CPP is trying to put an end to very rapidly and
effectively by taking Cambodia back to a one-party rule of oppression
and intolerance,” she said.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia
division, said the prime minister was deflecting from his political
crackdown “because his banning of the CNRP and crackdown on civil
society blatantly violates the treaty’s requirement that Cambodia must
be a rights respecting, multiparty democracy”.
“Since he doesn’t want Cambodia to go that way, he’s decided to bury the accord under verbal attacks on it and Untac.”
Funcinpec asked UNTAC to withdrew from Cambodia so that they can attack Mr. Hun Sen's force. Unfortunately, the plan back-fired. Mr. Hun Sen's force routed Funcinpec's force along with their KH new allies. Thus, Mr. Hun Sen was able to protect Cambodia's stability till today.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, CNRP has been trying many years to incite strikes, revolts, army uprising but to no avail. Cambodia is still stable and growing.