Funcinpec lawmakers will wear black and white to today’s National Assembly session, defying a ban by Prime Minister Hun Sen on commemorating the July 1997 factional fighting.
“We will dress in black and white tomorrow to mourn the anniversary of July 6 and 7. We can’t forget the souls of our friends,” royalist lawmaker Keo Remy said Thursday.
The Sam Rainsy Party has also vowed to hold its own memorial on the 5th anniversary of the fighting, according to an opposition party statement. A Funcinpec ceremony planned for the weekend was moved earlier this week to July 11.
On Tuesday Hun Sen said political parties should not commemorate the fighting, saying it could lead again to political instability. “If the wound does not hurt, don’t poke it with a stick,” he was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.
“Not surprisingly, Hun Sen doesn’t want anybody to recall his crimes,” the Sam Rainsy Party stated, alluding to Hun Sen’s seizure of power from then co-Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh in 1997.
An estimated 50 people died during the three days of Phnom Penh street battles. Dozens more—including several senior Funcinpec generals—were killed in the fighting’s aftermath, and many Funcinpec officers fled to the northwest, where they continued to battle the government through 1998.
Keo Remy said the government is unfairly restricting the actions of Funcinpec, when last week’s 51st CPP anniversary shut down both the assembly and the Council of Ministers.
“They ban us from doing even a religious ceremony,” he said, following the halt of Thursday’s assembly session, where six Funcinpec and Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers walked out, leaving the assembly short of a quorum.
“All the recommendations raised up by lawmakers never get considered by the government and they don’t answer our questions,” said opposition lawmaker Monh Siyon.
The assembly has recently been plagued by absences and Thursday was the fourth time in two weeks that lawmakers lacked a quorum, forcing debate on the draft forestry law to again stop.
