PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday denied his ruling party orchestrated mass rallies against an opposition leader who allegedly described a notorious Khmer Rouge prison as a Vietnamese invention.
“The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is not playing dirty tricks,” strongman Hun Sen said in a speech on national radio, barely a week after all opposition MPs were controversially expelled from parliament ahead of upcoming elections. “If CPP leaders, especially Hun Sen... lead the protest, you cannot bear it,” he said.
About 10,000 Cambodians protested on Sunday against Kem Sokha, the deputy head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, who purportedly said that Tuol Sleng prison in the capital Phnom Penh was fabricated by Vietnamese soldiers who ousted the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The CNRP has said his remarks, posted on a website last month, were doctored to cause “political trouble” before the July 28 elections, when Sen is seeking to extend his nearly three decades in power. Sokha has accused the ruling party of inciting the protests against him, and complained that his political meetings were disrupted by hundreds of protesters this week. AFP
