In a sign that opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s strategy of canvassing foreign governments to raise international awareness of his case may be bearing fruit, a top French politician recently condemned the tactics of the ruling CPP during a debate in the French National Assembly.
According to an SRP statement released Thursday, Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche expressed strong concern about the use of court cases in Cambodia to intimidate members of the opposition.
“We cannot accept these practices, which amount to intimidation,” he said in response to a question from lawmaker Chantal Brunel, the chair of the assembly’s France-Cambodia Friendship Group.
The French government is worried about “the quality of the [democratic] debate in Cambodia,” Mr Lellouche added, including issues ranging from “the representation of the opposition in parliamentary commissions to legal proceedings by the government against representatives of political parties, civil society [and] the press.”
In her questioning, Ms Brunel also highlighted the frequent stripping of parliamentary immunity, which is all too common in Cambodia. In addition to lifting Mr Rainsy’s immunity twice last year, the National Assembly stripped SRP lawmakers Mu Sochua and Ho Vann of their immunity in June so that they could be sued for defamation.
The debate in the French National Assembly took place on Jan 28, one day after Mr Rainsy was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for uprooting temporary demarcation posts along the Vietnamese border, an act he says he committed to call attention to issues of border encroachment.
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said on Friday that it was too easy for French politicians to simply condemn events in Cambodia without making a careful study of the situation.
Mr Siphan stressed that “rule of law” had been applied in Mr Rainsy’s case by a wholly independent judiciary.
“They have to do more than express concern. They have to study and find out exactly what is going on,” he added.
