U.S. role said key against Hun Sen

By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 11, 2005

The United States holds the key to stopping a slide toward authoritarian government in Cambodia, opposition party leader Sam Rainsy said yesterday.

In his first interview with an American newspaper since fleeing Cambodia Feb. 3, Sam Rainsy told The Washington Times the effort by the government of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen to prosecute him and two other leading opposition figures was part of a larger attempt to quash dissent and democracy in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

"The government is trying to silence us now because they know the long-term trends are against them," Sam Rainsy said during a Washington visit.

"The economy is very bad, the environment is a disaster, unemployment is very high, and our huge generation of young people have no interest in supporting the government. That's why they have to move now."

Cambodia's Southeast Asian neighbors have refused to take a stand in the country's latest crisis, Sam Rainsy said, leaving it largely to Washington to apply economic and political sanctions on Hun Sen's government.

"Our economy is heavily dependent on foreign aid and on the U.S. market in particular," Sam Rainsy said. "For us, Washington is the major player."

The Cambodian National Assembly, dominated by Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party, voted Feb. 3 to suspend parliamentary immunity for Sam Rainsy and deputies Chea Poch and Cheam Channy.

Sam Rainsy faces up to a year in prison on a series of defamation charges, including one where he is said to have accused Hun Sen of trying to kill him. He said yesterday he was not told of the parliamentary vote and immediately left the assembly and took a commercial flight to Singapore, even as the debate was proceeding.

Chea Poch has also fled the country, but Cheam Channy, the shadow defense minister, was arrested and is being held in a military prison on charges he was planning to build a private army.

The State Department and the United Nations' special envoy on human rights in Cambodia have condemned the legislature's action, as has the U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

"These events arouse concern about the future of democracy in Cambodia, confronted with a form of government which is more and more autocratic," Peter Leuprecht, the U.N. envoy, told reporters in Geneva earlier this week.

Virtually all of Cambodia's vital textile exports go to the United States. But the country faces sharp competition from Chinese producers and Cambodia has appealed to the U.S. government for a lower tariff rate to preserve its market.

Sam Rainsy said a U.S. threat to curb textile sales, coupled with a travel ban targeting senior members of the government, could force the Hun Sen government to back down.

He said he would not return home until the charges against him have been detailed and the question of his parliamentary immunity resolved.

He added that many of those fighting for democracy in Cambodia closely followed President Bush's inaugural address last month promising an aggressive U.S. defense of freedom around the world.

"Maybe Americans do not realize how far-reaching that message can be," he said. "Cambodia represents a chance for the United States to show it is serious about what the president said."