Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy will not return to Cambodia for a political summit unless the government clarifies security arrangements, both leaders said this week.
With time running out for a three-way summit before King Norodom Sihanouk leaves for Beijing this weekend, the opposition figures insisted on safety guarantees before returning from overseas.
In a letter to the King dated Monday, Prince Ranariddh welcomed his father’s offer of royal protection during a summit but demanded assurances that he would not face arrest on return to Phnom Penh. The prince contested a government statement from Friday giving safety assurances to all members of the National Assembly, except those facing charges in court.
“I would like to seek clarification from the Royal Government about this limitation,” the prince wrote. “Were such a limitation to apply to myself or my entourage, I would not feel safe upon our return to Cambodia.”
Opposition members including Prince Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy left the country in September saying they feared for their safety. They are demanding any summit be held outside the country. The King has not ruled out Beijing as a venue, provided the Chinese agree.
In a separate statement issued Monday from Paris, Sam Rainsy made a similar plea for the CPP to guarantee his safety if a summit took place in Phnom Penh.
“I would like to know if these [cases] could be brought against me or other Sam Rainsy Party officials during or after the negotiations,” the opposition leader wrote.
Sam Rainsy spent 10 days in September holed up in a UN office in a Phnom Penh hotel evading an arrest warrant.
“The experience…does not give me cause for reassurance,” he wrote.
Prince Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy both demanded that an agenda should be set for any summit meeting. The two leaders, however, added that they were encouraged by ideas about government expressed in an
Oct 22 speech by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.
“It therefore seems that there is some common ground which I feel…might form a good basis for discussion,” the prince wrote, asking his father for guidance in the matter.
The monarch replied Tuesday stating he would not act as an intermediary between the CPP and the opposition.
“You have to write to Hun Sen about the questions you raised in your letter in order to make them clear,” the King wrote in a letter Tuesday. “Papa will not get involved in the technical problems and the conflict between the CPP and Funcinpec-Sam Rainsy.”
The King had told opposition leaders that he would provide security and protection within the palace if they returned for a summit meeting with the CPP. As the monarch is due to leave Cambodia for medical treatment in Beijing on Nov 14, little time is left to organize such meeting.
The CPP has repeatedly insisted any summit must be held in Cambodia.
