Retired King Norodom Sihanouk announced he will regularly publish the demands of the poor to show how needy the people are, despite Prime Minister Hun Sen’s efforts to develop the country.
In a message posted on his Web site, dated Thursday, Norodom Sihanouk said he had asked Kong Som-Ol, the Minister of Royal Palace, to publish on his Web site and in his monthly bulletin the letters he has received over the past year from people asking for assistance.
“I want, in publishing these texts in-extenso, to show how many, despite the immense contributions of Samdech and Lok Chumtiev Hun Sen to help them, [of] our villages and our extremely poor compatriots deserving our aid” there are, he wrote, referring to the prime minister and his wife, Bun Rany, president of the Cambodian Red Cross.
Continuing with his recent criticism of a proposed UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, Norodom Sihanouk repeated that instead of spending more than $56 million to hold the trials, that money could be used to help the poor.
“I am very sad to observe that we only let ourselves be guided by the spirit of anti-Khmer Rouge vengeance and do not feel any pity for the unfortunate descendants of the victims of these Khmer Rouge,” he wrote.
