Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen shows a locally-made tourbillion watch, gifted to leaders attending the 40th and 41st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits, during a press conference at the conclusion of the summit in Phnom Penh on Nov. 13. (Photo: AFP)
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has taken his authoritarian rule to Europe, telling his supporters in Belgium that opposition groups “could not get rid of the Hun family even in another 500 lifetimes” while justifying a long-running and harsh crackdown on dissent.
According to a dispatch from the pro-government Fresh News, Hun Sen said those who wanted to get rid of him lacked the competency to compete with him. The report added: “He does not consider them stupid. Yet they can continue to be smart like that.”
“What do you really want from us? Will you be happy if you can get rid of [the] ‘Hun’ family? You cannot do anything to me even in 500 lifetimes,” Hun Sen said.
The government has rounded up, charged and jailed hundreds of supporters of the banned Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) for plotting to overthrow Hun Sen in four mass trials while many others have been charged with incitement and defamation.
Closing arguments were heard in the fourth mass trial last Thursday in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and the verdict is expected to be announced in regard to another 37 people on Dec. 22.
Hun Sen compared the crackdown in Cambodia with the arrests of 25 extremists from the Reichsburger movement in Germany who have been charged with allegedly planning a coup.
He said such actions were no different from his practices used against the CNRP who he said intended to overthrow his government, adding: “Why did Germany arrest these people?”
The CNRP, which was outlawed by the courts in late 2017 enabling the long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win every seat contested at elections a year later, is expected to stage anti-Hun Sen rallies in France tomorrow, to be led by leader in exile Sam Rainsy.
“I want to see how it is on December 14. How many people joining, and I request the leader to lead the demonstration directly,” Hun Sen said, adding accusations his government had paid people to attend his gathering in Europe were a “serious insult” and a “civil rights abuse.”
Hun Sen is no stranger to controversy when touring abroad. While attending an ASEAN summit in Australia in March 2018, he had threatened to follow Cambodian Australians into their homes and beat them if they burned effigies of him amid protests over human rights.
The effigies were subsequently burned.
“No one is pre-selected to join the gathering,” Hun Sen, who has groomed his eldest son to take over from him, said in Europe.
“It is a person’s right to come and join. I never think that those who come to live in the land of democracy can use such language [getting paid to welcome Hun Sen]. Perhaps it is their habit, yet it is not the habit of Hun Sen nor the CPP’s,” Fresh News also reported.
