Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses the audience during a graduation ceremony at Phnom Penh's Koh Pich yesterday. Facebook
PM talks tough to donor nations over aid 'threats'
Tue, 14 June 2016 ppp
Vong Sokheng
Prime
Minister Hun Sen has warned European parliamentarians who are calling
for aid funding to Cambodia to be dependent on the country’s human
rights situation improving not to make “threats” – while noting that
China has never made such demands.
“Don’t
scare me. Don’t threaten me. Don’t threaten Cambodia by cutting off
aid,” the premier said yesterday during a speech to nearly 4,000
graduating students on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich, where the Chinese
ambassador was also in attendance.
“I
have never been afraid of China, and China has never made a threat to
Cambodia and has never ordered Cambodia to do something. I am just
saying that the other [donors] should not make threats to Cambodia.”
He
then added: “You threaten to cut off aid; please cut it and the first
person who will suffer will be the people who work with NGOs.”
The
European Parliament passed a motion on Thursday condemning a raft of
“politically motivated” legal cases against opposition party members and
government critics, and calling for aid funding to be dependent on
Cambodia’s human rights record.
The
EU’s legislature is independent from the union’s executive branch,
which decides upon aid distribution contributed by member states.
Noting
the seperation, the EU ambassador to Cambodia, George Edgar, yesterday
said the June 9 resolution expressed the concern of European
parliamentarians over recent developments in the Kingdom and made
recommendations for Cambodian authorities, the EU and its member states.
“It would not be appropriate for me to comment further,” Edgar said, via email.
Both
Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy and deputy
president Kem Sokha currently face criminal charges, which have been
widely criticised as politically motivated.
The
former has fled abroad while the latter remains holed-up at the party’s
headquarters, after facing a slew of allegations in relation to a an
alleged sex scandal that has also landed an opposition commune chief,
four human rights advocates and an election official in prison.
Two opposition lawmakers are in prison for criticising the government’s handling of the Vietnam border issue.
The CNRP has threatened to hold a mass demonstration if Sokha is arrested.
The
premier yesterday lashed out again at the opposition for protecting
Sokha, reiterating that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party would not
negotiate with the CNRP to end the legal action, and emphasised that
royal pardons were out of the question.
“This is an individual case of an affair with a mistress,” he said, adding a demonstration would “not be tolerated”.
Meanwhile,
the Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday released a stinging four-page
statement, saying that they were “astonished” at the European Union
parliamentary resolution, which they claimed was based on “many false
accounts”.
The statement set out a legal justification for the criticised cases, which it argued were in line with European norms.
1 comment:
This monster Hun Sen has never cared about Khmer people.
He should think about his actions against the CNRP whether it is wrong or right.
The punishment from the EU and the US will hurt the Khmer workers because the products have been sold mostly to the EU and the US, not to China.
Post a Comment