Amid thousands of cheering supporters, deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh led a rousing rally at his restored party headquarters, vowing to lead his party to victory in the forthcoming elections.
“According to our Constitution, it will be only one prime minister next time,” the prince told the crowd of reporters outside the building. “I am fighting to bring my party to victory, and if as expected we win…I will of course be the next prime minister.”
The prince also called on Second Prime Minister Hun Sen to do his part to see through the Japanese-sponsored peace plan for Cambodia, calling on him to grant pardons to resistance generals convicted with him last month.
“I always stress very clearly that we should give pardons to General Nhiek Bun Chhay and General Serey Kosal,” the prince said of the two senior resistance commanders, who received heavy jail sentences in last month’s trial on charges of colluding with the Khmer Rouge.
The prince voiced his support for the suggestion put forward in a statement Tuesday by King Norodom Sihanouk, who called for the reintegration of the prince’s resistance forces into the government army to encourage Hun Sen to request amnesty for the senior commanders. The generals themselves are seeking assurances they will be pardoned in advance of reintegration.
Prince Ranariddh said he was happy to follow the King’s suggestion. But he, too, called for advance guarantees that the generals would be pardoned and their security assured by the UN.
“His Majesty the King bestowed me already with his pardon. To give amnesty to General Nhiek Bun Chhay is to pave the way for the next step,” he said, stressing that all four points of the Japanese plan must be followed through to ensure free and fair elections.
In a letter to the King last week, Hun Sen ruled out amnesties for the generals, calling them “guerrillas” still engaged in a military alliance with the Khmer Rouge.
After the rally Tuesday, the prince called for an independent international commission to
monitor the cease-fire and to determine whether his resistance troops maintain links with Khmer Rouge forces, which he vehemently denies.
After a meeting Tuesday between the prince and a group of diplomats representing the Asean troika countries of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, top aide Lu Laysreng said he remained hopeful that the issue of pardons for the resistance commanders could be resolved. “In order to complete the Japanese proposal we have to work out amnesties [for the generals] first in order to get a proper cease-fire,” he said.
But after Japanese Ambassador Masaki Saito’s meeting with the prince, Saito stressed that only the prince’s amnesty was called for under his country’s plan. “Our four-pillar plan does not mention anything about amnesty for those generals,” he said.
He admitted “some hurdles” still had to be crossed before the prince can become eligible for the elections, citing an electoral law forbidding political parties from controlling private militia or autonomous areas of the country.
But the ambassador encouraged dialogue between the prince and Hun Sen as a means of overcoming the remaining obstacles to free and fair elections.
A meeting between the former coalition partners may be distant, however, as Hun Sen has declined to meet the prince for the time being. He is in an official mourning period until the end of April, following the death of his mother last month, and has canceled all official engagements.
According to the prince, however, Hun Sen may find time to meet him next month. “Now it is still the period of mourning…but he has said he is willing to see me in May,” the prince said at Tuesday’s Funcinpec rally.
Much still remains to be done, the prince said, before free and fair elections can take place. In a series of interviews before his meetings with diplomats, the prince reiterated that he was willing to work with anyone to achieve peace, Agence France-Presse reported. But he said that for the election to be held fairly, serious human rights abuses, including the executions of more than 40 of his supporters, must be addressed.
“If the election is to be more credible, human rights abuses must be addressed, otherwise the election will be very bloody for Funcinpec,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The prince also noted that equal access to the media remains a key obstacle to free and fair elections, given the government’s almost total dominance of the airwaves. “My return has been broadcast worldwide, all around the world, except in Cambodia…it is very worrisome for the future, for free and fair elections,” he said.
Only one television station contacted Monday, TVK, had sent a film crew to cover the prince’s return, but the station chose not to broadcast the footage of cheering supporters greeting the prince. “It is shameful for our country that the prince’s return has been ignored by Cambodian television,” Lu Laysreng said. “It is a sign of unfairness and unfreeness.”
At his rally, however, the prince had free reign to deliver his rallying call to his supporters, paying tribute to the groundswell of support. “Funcinpec is still really alive. If there was a split, it was a split amongst the leadership, but the basis of it is still very strong,” he said.
He touched on his campaign strategies for the elections. “Don’t expect me to shout out against anyone,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about the past. I will talk about the corruption, I will talk about the management of natural resources, I will talk about the civil servants, how to raise their salaries, which is one of the ways to fight against corruption.”
He warned against viewing him as an itinerant leader. “I am back to stay in Cambodia, but please allow me from time to time to leave because I have to travel abroad.”
(Additional reporting by Kimsan Chantara)
