After weeks of build up—including threats of protests in the U.S. and counterprotests at home—Prime Minister Hun Sen will join regional leaders today for the U.S.-Asean Summit in Rancho Mirage, California.
Facing government threats of anti-CNRP demonstrations in Cambodia if the prime minister is met by protesters during his visit, opposition leader Sam Rainsy has sought to distance his party from activists organizing rallies against Mr. Hun Sen as the prime minister makes his first official visit to the U.S.
However, as Mr. Hun Sen left Cambodia Sunday morning bound for the Sunnylands resort, where U.S. President Barack Obama will preside over a two-day summit with Asean leaders, a CPP spokesman continued to maintain that a planned protest against the prime minister was being sponsored by the CNRP.
“I wish to state that the opposition party has organized the demonstration to protest against Prime Minister Hun Sen, but they just used the private names for the demonstration,” said CPP spokesman Chhim Phal Virun.
The spokesman said Mr. Rainsy and his deputy, Kem Sokha, would invariably deny any role in the planned protests.
“But we have enough documents to prove that the CNRP organized the demonstration,” Mr. Phal Virun said of the protest being organized by the Cambodia-America Alliance, an activist group based in North Carolina.
Late last month, Mr. Hun Sen warned of counterdemonstrations if he were to be met by protesters in the U.S.—a threat that was particularly worrisome to the CNRP because a similar warning from the prime minister in October presaged the brutal beating of two opposition lawmakers at a protest outside the National Assembly.
“If you think that demonstrating against me is useful, please follow your heart, as that’s your expertise,” Mr. Hun Sen wrote in a Facebook comment on January 25.
“What you have to remember, and to tell your leaders inside and outside the country…is to recognize the right of my supporters to demonstrate against your leaders inside the country,” he added.
“So a demonstration inside the country [of Cambodia] has the possibility of happening against the opposition party leaders,” Mr. Hun Sen concluded.
Ruling party supporters have since made more explicit threats. One of them, a soldier and prominent pro-CPP Facebook personality, warned Mr. Sokha, the deputy opposition leader, to leave the country to avoid the possibility of being beaten or having his house set on fire.
The last time Mr. Hun Sen warned of anti-CNRP protests in October, military units staged public protests against Mr. Sokha as CPP lawmakers summarily stripped him of his leadership position in parliament. Protesters also surrounded Mr. Sokha’s house for hours, with authorities failing to intervene.
In response to the latest security threats, Mr. Sokha sent a letter to Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Friday asking for the ministry to provide protection to opposition leaders and lawmakers, according to CNRP spokesman Yem Ponhearith.
Por Phak, spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s general secretariat, said the letter had been received by the ministry but was still on its way to Mr. Kheng.
“The request is being processed,” Lieutenant General Phak said. “What we can be sure of is everyone is protected under the law.”
“The Ministry of Interior is responsible for the safety and security of everyone, not only the CNRP,” he added.
In an interview with Radio France International on Saturday, Mr. Rainsy said the party could not be held responsible for the activities of all Cambodian-Americans, and noted that peaceful protest was not a crime.
“We have to recognize that the USA has tens of thousands of Khmer people living there, but they have many groups and the groups have different ideas and opinions and this is the right of those people to do what they want to do,” he said.
“I think that people have a right to demonstrate,” Mr. Rainsy said, adding that the opposition party had already told its supporters to refrain from taking part in the planned protest.
“For the CNRP, we want to harness our feelings to work on the upcoming elections,” he said. “And we don’t want to do any activity that is not in the interest of our priority.”
(Additional reporting by Colin Meyn)
