Tuesday, 05 January 2010 02:56 DAP-NEWS
(CAAI News Media)
With only three days left before celebrations of the 31st anniversary of the fall of the hated Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime on January 7, 1979, on the morning of January 4, 2010, prime minister Hun Sen issued a warning to any who criticized January 7 as Victory Day, the date of the liberation from Pol Pot.
During the inauguration of the International Children’s village built by the SOS organization in Battambang, Hun Sen indicated that, without January 7, there would be no October 23, referring to the date of the Paris Peace Agree-ments.
“It a shame for these bad persons who refused to recognize historical reality that we are not able to teach them, as they neither wish to know nor listen,” the premier said.
“Do not tell lie yourselves,” the PM instructed, “for those who used to dig and carry the land during that time now do not recognize January 7.”
However, the premier confirmed that those who choose not to celebrate January 7 are not regarded as enemies. But no-one should protest the holiday, he cautioned.
Hun Sen noted that even the high ranking members of the Khmer Rouge regime were rapidly being killed off in a wave of paranoid persecution, in addition to the countless ordinary citizens who perished.
He estimated that in “just 3 years more, all the people would have been killed by Pol Pot.”
This is not the first time that Hun Sen issued such a warning to the opposition and others who refuse to recognize the holiday, shunning it as the anniversary of what they allege was a Vietnamese-backed invasion of Cambodia.
Hun Sen’s warning was not welcomed by Cambodia opposition party officials.
Kem Sokha, Human Rights Pary (HRP) president, told DAP News Cambodia on Monday that January 7 was a Victory Day, “but it was also a day the Yuon (Vietna- mese) invaded Cambodia.”
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