Prime Minister Hun Sen denied on Monday that comments he made last week about Thai actress Suvanant Kongying played any role in igniting the riots that resulted in the sacking of the Thai Embassy.
The violent events were organized by a group of “extremists” who had plotted the attack for more than one year, the prime minister said.
Though declining to name the so-called extremists, Hun Sen said the riots were well-planned and were orchestrated by plotters who had also circulated the rumors that the Thai actress had said the Angkor Wat temples were stolen from Thailand.
Hun Sen said the extremists were also responsible for spreading rumors that the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok was attacked and staff were killed.
Hun Sen defended his own public comments about the actress—made two days before the riots—saying his remarks were intended to ensure the starlet’s rumored slurs stayed on an individual basis and did not become a matter between the two countries.
Hun Sen said his comments, in which he said her life was worth less than a few blades of grass around the temples and TV stations should stop broadcasting her soap opera—were also intended to stop his supporters from joining the extremists.
“It is dangerous if there is no [Hun Sen] explanation,” Hun Sen told hundreds of villagers in Kampot province. “It was an interventionist step,” he said.
Hun Sen also said he did not eat for 26 hours as he worked to control the rioting mobs that looted or burned the Thai Embassy and Thai-owned businesses, hotels and factories.
Police were not given orders to open fire on the rioting mobs as the bloodshed would have further inflamed the situation, Hun Sen said.
“The government had to choose between two things: should we fire at the protesters and there would be a lot of people dead on the streets, or not,” he said.
If the protesters were subdued with force, bloodshed would still be continuing today, Hun Sen said, adding that Cambodia was now suffering economically because of the riots.
“We issued an order not to touch the demonstrators, even the extreme demonstrators who provoke violence,” he said.
While both Bangkok and Phnom Penh are on the road to mending their battered diplomatic relations, last week’s anti-Thai attack resulted in the mobilization of Thai military forces for possible intervention in Cambodia, according to a report in the Nation newspaper on Saturday.
As reports of the sacking of the Thai Embassy and the flight of Thai diplomats arrived in Bangkok, Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra warned Phnom Penh it had one hour to remedy the situation or Thai army commandos would be deployed, the newspaper said, though he quickly backed off this threat.
According to the Nation, eight F-16 fighter aircraft and two Chinook helicopters were placed on standby at a Thai airbase while in the Gulf of Thailand the aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebej was positioned off Koh Kong and Navy Special Forces troops were mobilized.
The Thai forces were poised for possible intervention if Cambodian rioters attacked C-130 Hercules transport aircraft sent to Phnom Penh to rescue some 700 Thai nationals and diplomats who fled during Wednesday’s riots.
The first C-130 to arrive in Phnom Penh carried two dozen commandos armed with communications equipment, an armored personnel carrier and camouflaged motorcycles, the newspaper reported.
Cambodian Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry officials confirmed last week that Thai border posts have been closed and their border security strengthened.
Cambodia didn’t reciprocate by re-enforcing its border positions, they said.
Co-Defense Minister Tea Banh said the Thai troops were placed on standby if Cambodia was incapable of protecting the embassy and Thai nationals.
“Finally we could protect Thai people’s lives—only the property was damaged and we allowed [Thailand] to pick up their people in the morning,” Tea Banh said Monday.
“Cambodia does not need this [security problem]. We are very sorry for this,” Tea Banh said.
A Cambodian military commander in Banteay Meanchey province said on Monday he has been watching reports of the Thai border security operation on Thai TV channels picked up in Cambodia.
The maneuvers were not worrying, several RCAF commanders said, adding that they had too much experience of fighting wars to be worried by the latest tension with Thailand.
(Additional reporting Kevin Doyle)
