US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has criticized the US State Department for not taking his call more seriously to condemn Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.
And in a letter to US Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth, made public Friday, Rohrabacher suggests steps the CPP should take to promote compromise.
Rohrabacher, a frequent critic of Hun Sen, sponsored a non-binding resolution in the US House of Representatives calling for the second prime minister to be tried for crimes against humanity. The resolution, which reflects an opinion only and has no force of law, was passed by the full House nine days ago.
In a government statement released in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Rohrabacher was accused of “aiming to make [a] new war in Cambodia.”
Rohrabacher’s Friday letter was in response to an Oct 8 statement by the US Department of State which emphasized the resolution was an opinion only and didn’t represent US policy.
“It is my hope that despite recent inexplicable actions by the Department of State…to undermine efforts by the House to promote democracy…that we can find common ground to bring freedom to Cambodia…,” Rohrabacher’s letter says.
The congressman also calls on the CPP to accept the charges of election fraud and to account for the people reported missing after the crackdown on opposition demonstrators in September. He wants Hun Sen to disband his private security forces and National Police Director-General Hok Lundy to step down “from the brutal Interior Ministry.”
and an independent judiciary should be created.
The US Embassy was unavailable for comment Saturday and Sunday.
