Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen turned out to be an unwelcome visitor to Myanmar as he began his two-day trip to the country on Friday, his arrival strenuously denounced by the people of the Southeast Asia nation for his engagement with the Myanmar regime, which has killed more than 1,300 people since seizing power last year.
Hun Sen landed in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw on Friday morning for a two-day visit at the invitation of the country’s coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. He met with the general, becoming the first foreign leader to meet the junta leadership since the coup.
Many fear his visit will confer on Min Aung Hlaing and his junta the legitimacy they have so far failed to establish, as Cambodia currently holds the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Myanmar belongs. They also questioned how someone with a record as a notorious violator of human rights could hold the junta to account for its abuses.
