(Heng Sinith/ Associated Press ) - Journalists take
photographs in front of the National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) office while
Chum Mey, a former S-21 prison survivor, unseen, submits a petition
demanding Kem Sokha, the party’s vice president, apologize for allegedly
saying that exhibits at a Khmer Rouge-era genocide museum in Phnom Penh
were faked, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, June 9, 2013. Cambodia’s
main opposition party denounced the large demonstration in the capital
Sunday, which they said was staged by supporters of Prime Minister Hun
Sen to intimidate rivals ahead of July elections.
(Heng Sinith/ Associated Press ) - Journalists take
photographs in front of the National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) office while
Chum Mey, a former S-21 prison survivor, unseen, submits a petition
demanding Kem Sokha, the party’s vice president, apologize for allegedly
saying that exhibits at a Khmer Rouge-era genocide museum in Phnom Penh
were faked, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, June 9, 2013. Cambodia’s
main opposition party denounced the large demonstration in the capital
Sunday, which they said was staged by supporters of Prime Minister Hun
Sen to intimidate rivals ahead of July elections.
By ,
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s
main opposition party denounced a large demonstration held Sunday
against one of their leaders in the capital, a rally they say was staged by supporters of Prime Minister Hun Sen to intimidate rivals ahead of
July elections.
More than 10,000 protesters gathered in Phnom Penh to lash out
against opposition chief Kem Sokha for allegedly saying that exhibits at
a Khmer Rouge-era genocide museum in Phnom Penh were faked. Sokha has
denied the allegations, and his party says the campaign against him is
politically motivated.
On Friday, the Southeast Asian nation’s legislature approved a bill
making it a crime to deny atrocities were committed by the country’s
genocidal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime. Critics worry the law will be used
as a weapon against Hun Sen’s political opponents.
The bill was
passed unanimously in the absence of opposition lawmakers, who were
expelled from the legislature this week, ostensibly on grounds they had
left their old parties to join a new, merged party to contest the July
28 vote.
The ruling party of Hun Sen, who has been in power since
1985, holds 90 seats in the assembly and is expected to win an
overwhelming share of the 123 seats at stake. Sokha is deputy president
of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, whose leader Sam Rainsy lives in
self-exile to avoid jail on what are widely seen as politically
motivated charges.
Pro-government media had recently publicized
comments allegedly made by Sokha that exhibits at Phnom Penh’s famous
Tuol Sleng genocide museum, a prison turned torture center, were faked.
Sokha, however, has said parts of audio clip of the comments were
altered by detractors.
Yim Sovann, a spokesnan for Sokha’s party, said the rally Sunday was “orchestrated” by ruling party supporters.
The
protest was led by Chum Mey, a survivor from Tuol Sleng prison who is
now president of the Victims Association of Democratic Kampuchea. But
the victims group issued a statement Saturday saying the group had
nothing to do with the protest and would hold a vote to replace him. The
group said Mey’s participation in the rally ran counter to the
association’s political neutrality.
Youk Chhang, who heads an
independent office that documents Khmer Rouge atrocities and said the
legislation passed this week risks politicizing the process of
reconciliation in the country, also expressed concern.
“The
protest this morning teaches us that genocide is a political act and as
long as human beings are around on this planet, genocide can be and will
be repeated” unless people are educated enough to stop it.
The
Khmer Rouge communist regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979,
claimed it was building a pure socialist society by evicting people from
cities to work in labors camps in the countryside. Its radical policies
led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation,
disease, overwork and execution.
Many former members of the Khmer
Rouge, including Hun Sen himself, hold important positions in Cambodia’s
current government. Human Rights Watch has also blamed Hun Sen for
obstructing the work of a U.N.-backed international tribunal set up to
bring justice for crimes against humanity committed during the Khmer
Rouge era.
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