A Change of Guard

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Saturday, 21 June 2008

The Plan To Lift Mr. Sam Rainsy’s Parliamentary Immunity Postponed


By Kim Pov Sotton
Radio Free Asia 20th June 2008
Translated by Khmerization

The EU has on Friday said that the plan to lift Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity has been postponed.

The head of the EU’s Election Observation Mission and also an EU parliamentarian, Mr. Martin Callanan, who had just arrived in Cambodian and who had a meeting with Foreign Minister, Mr. Hor Namhong, who is the plaintiff of defamation suit against Mr. Sam Rainsy (pictured), said on Thursday afternoon that Mr. Hor Namhong had agreed to postpone this matter.

Mr Callanan said: “I had a meeting with Mr. Hor Namhong and I raised the issue of a possible lifting of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity and Mr. Hor Namhong has assured me that the lifting of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity will not be proceeded before the election.”

Speaking in the press conference in the same afternoon, Mr. Callanan had offered some advice to Cambodian politicians in these terms: “As a politician we must expect to face all sorts of information that will affect us, whether it is true or not. So we must learn how to live with those kinds of untrue information because we are politicians.”

Recently, a Phnom Penh Court has requested to the National Assembly for the suspension of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity for accusing Foerign Minister Hor Namhong of being a chief of the Boeng Trabek Prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.

The request to strip Mr. Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary immunity has raised some concerns which the EU thinks will affect the upcoming election. The EU said that it will send 130 electoral observers from 22 countries to Cambodia in the upcoming weeks.

All EU’s electoral observers will work with all political parties starting from now in order to ensure that the election is conducted in a free manner and on par with the international standard. //

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have said all along that this particular lawsuit would not get any further at least for the time being [event leading up to the general election] for fact that:

a] PM himself has so far had no reaction and/or single word in supporting his senior minister.

b] PM is rather considering this is a personal issue rather than issue concerning his administration.

c] PM would not want to create an unpleasant environment or being criticized by the international community in the leading up to the general election, which is predicted to be a clean cut victory and will be able to form a government without junior partner.

I have a feeling that, once the election is over, and that the government is formed then and then there would be a lot of interesting affairs worth follow.

Mediawatch

Khmerization said...

Your last paragraph caught my attention, but do you mean when you say "a lot of interesting affairs worth following"? I hope you mean that after the election, Hun Sen and Hor Namhong will get back at Sam Rainsy. Is that what you mean?

Anonymous said...

It would be other developments not partiularly relating to the question you asked .

mediawatch