CFF May Be Ready For Strip-Mall Revolution

With tax season behind him, Chhun Yasith, president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters and a California-based accountant, reported Sunday that he may have earned enough to fi­nance the overthrow of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“My tax season is over, so the funds from tax preparation fees could be enough to use for the strip mall revolution,” Chhun Ya­sith wrote, referencing a sobriquet given him by The New York Times in an article last month.

The militant group CFF is headquartered in a Long Beach strip mall and shares space with its leader’s tax preparation work. The headquarters also has served as a polling station for US voters since 1998, Chhun Yasith wrote in an e-mail Sunday. It is from there that he has relentlessly insulted Hun Sen and the CPP and promised a violent end to their rule.

The Times reported that under the US’ Neutrality Act, it is illegal for US citizens on US soil to plot militarily against governments with which the US is not at war.

But Chhun Yasith, a vehement supporter of the US Republican Party, says the CFF plots untroubled. He also sought to dispel Hun Sen’s description of his group. “CFF is not a terrorist group as the Cambodian government ac­cused…. CFF is an anti-communist group based in Long Beach, California, USA.”

In November 2000, the CFF launched an easily rebuffed at­tack on Phnom Penh that left several of its foot soldiers dead and about a dozen people wounded.

“CFF is performing its plans secretly and carefully to launch its second attack sooner. CFF never believes the fraud election which is orchestrated by those Vietna­mese puppets,” the e-mail said.

Chhun Yasith also reported that the would-be revolutionaries will be celebrating their seventh anniversary in Long Beach on May 8. He wrote that he expects about 400 people to attend.

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