February 4, 2008
FRENCH GOVERNMENT ADVOCATES RESPECT FOR POLITICAL PLURALISM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN CAMBODIA
Responding on January 28 to a question from French parliamentarian Chantal Brunel, Chairperson of France-Cambodia Friendship Group at the French National Assembly, Foreign Affairs State Secretary Pierre Lellouche declared that the Paris government is “preoccupied” by the situation facing the opposition Sam Rainsy Party in Cambodia.
Besides the case of SRP leader Sam Rainsy who has been recently prosecuted, the French government is also “worried” about the removal of the parliamentary immunity of Ho Vann and Mu Sochua, two other National Assembly members from the SRP.
About the recurrent lifting of opposition parliamentarians’ immunity and their subsequent trials, which the French government “deplores,” State Secretary Pierre Lellouche said, “We cannot accept these practices, which pertain to intimidation.” He stressed the importance that France attaches to the “respect for political pluralism and democratic debate” in Cambodia.
In conclusion, the French government will continue to pay “close attention” and to “actively follow” the situation facing the opposition in Cambodia.
To read the official minutes of the debate in French please click at http://tinyurl.com/ya6nl75
SRP Members of Parliament
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