Cambodian PM accuses opposition chief of treachery

via CAAI News Media

Associated Press

2010-02-24

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen accused opposition leader Sam Rainsy of treachery Wednesday for disputing the government's position on a border dispute with Vietnam.

Hun Sen said while speaking to students Wednesday in Phnom Penh that government legal experts were preparing to file a lawsuit against Sam Rainsy for challenging whether the border is incorrectly marked to Cambodia's disadvantage. He did not make clear what the charge might be.

Hun Sen referred only to the opposition leader, not to Sam Rainsy by name. Sam Rainsy is living in exile in Paris and was sentenced in absentia by a Cambodian court last month to two years imprisonment for a political protest in which border markers on the frontier with Vietnam were uprooted.

Hun Sen described Sam Rainsy's actions as treacherous because Cambodia already has a volatile border dispute with Thailand on its northern and western frontiers, so causing trouble with Vietnam could open up a potential second area of confrontation.

He claimed that Sam Rainsy had publicized "false" information purporting to show that border posts had been moved several hundred meters (yards) inside Cambodian territory.

The Sam Rainsy Party is the sole opposition party in parliament and Sam Rainsy is a fierce, longtime critic of Hun Sen. His previous tangles with the government have seen him go into self-imposed exile for his safety and to avoid jail.

Hun Sen was installed in government by a Vietnamese invasion that ousted the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. He is sympathetic with Hanoi, while Sam Rainsy bases part of his political appeal on pandering to traditional anti-Vietnamese sentiment common among Cambodian who don't trust their much larger neighbor.

Hun Sen, a shrewd and tough politician, said he would not help Sam Rainsy get a royal pardon for his conviction in the border marker case, in which he was found guilty of destruction of public property and inciting people to commit a criminal act. He pointed out that without serving his sentence or winning a pardon, he would be unable to run for office.