Thursday, 18 June 2009

Hun Sen Warns Against Opposition Rally

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 June 2009

The prime minister on Wednesday warned supporters of an opposition lawmaker not to rally against a National Assembly vote to pull her immunity.

Mu Sochua, a Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian, is embroiled in a defamation case brought by Hun Sen.

The National Assembly, securely held by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, is expected to vote on stripping her parliamentary immunity on Monday.

Supporters from the Cambodian Confederation of Unions have said they will gather in protest, but Hun Sen said Wednesday supporters of the government would respond. Such counterdemonstrations have led to violence and deaths in the past.

“I’ll use the means of a thorn pitted against a thorn,” Hun Sen said at a ceremony at the Royal Administrative School Wednesday.

Rong Chhun, president of the Confederation of Unions, said he was not worried, promising peaceful demonstrations.

However, Chan Saveth, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the government should not propose such resolutions to demonstrations.

“It will kick back democracy in Cambodia,” he said.

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