Hun Sen critical towards NGO’s

Cambodge Soir

29-09-2008

The Prime Minister brought up the imminent adoption of a civil society law, believing that “terrorists” might try to settle in Cambodia under the disguise of non-governmental organisations.

During his speech about general politics, the Prime Minister highly criticised the NGO workers who are against the adoption of a law on NGO’s in Cambodia.

Friday morning, 26 September, during a five-hour speech, Hun Sen declared that: “The NGO workers are trying to teach us a lesson by asking us to respect the law, but they refuse the adoption of a law on NGO’s. It’s unfair”.

According to him, Cambodia is a legally constituted State and it’s thus necessary to know “the origin, the resources and the activities of those NGO’s”. In support of his remarks, Hun Sen brings up a quite surprising argument because he fears that “terrorists might settle in the Kingdom under the disguise of NGO’s”.

And while he was at it, he brushed away the accusations from the civic society, which he believes are directed to him. “The NGO’s are forced to insult the government in order to obtain funding. I told Kofi Annan, former General Secretary of the United Nations, that I lost the hope of reading positive reports concerning Cambodia when they’re written by the specialised human rights organisation or by local human rights NGO’s”, said the Government leader.

After attacking the NGO’s, in the best of form, he then accused the oil company which was asking the government for subsidies during the first three years of activities. “The long noses” aren’t always smart. They’re giving us advice on how to use the oil money, but this is of no interest to us. What is important is how to make our resources profitable”, continued Hun Sen.

In order to challenge his opponents, he then brought up the accusations of corruption around the management of these natural resources. “When five companies are competing, it’s unavoidable to be criticised by the four companies which lost out. The United States are careful not to attack us concerning this case because the American company Chevron will manage the Cambodian oil resources”, declared Cambodia’s strongman.

Finally, Hun Sen asked the CPP elected representatives to be aware of their responsibility: “During this new mandate, you won’t be able to blame Funcinpec when the time comes to make an assessment”, he warned.