China’s state-backed Global Times published an editorial focusing on VOA which it called “a lie factory” and “a thoroughly biased propaganda poison.”

“The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag,” it said.

In a Facebook post, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is Senate president and the father of the current premier, called the closure of U.S.-funded “propaganda” outlets “a major contribution to eliminating fake news, disinformation, lies, distortions, incitement, and chaos around the world.”

Meanwhile, human rights activists in some of the world’s most repressive countries spoke out in support of what they see as “beacons of hope” and upholders of the truth.

“There’s something I will remember forever … When my mother was told I’d be released after having served my sentence, she was sitting outside on the patio the whole day to wait for me. The first sound of my voice she heard was on Radio Free Asia and that made her cry out loud,” Le Quoc Quan, a Vietnamese dissident lawyer who served 30 months in prison and who now lives in the United States, recalled on Facebook.

‘Significant setback for the democracy’

Another Vietnamese democracy activist, who spent seven years in jail on subversion charges, said RFA and Voice of America had freed his thinking from the strictures of communist rule before he was imprisoned.

“These two stations played a pivotal role in helping me break free from the propaganda and indoctrination of the Communist Party of Vietnam, shaping my beliefs and actions,” Nguyen Tien Trung wrote from exile in Germany.

The discontinuation of RFA and VOA “represents a significant setback for the democracy and human rights movements in Vietnam, China, Asia, and globally,” he wrote.

“Communist parties in China and Vietnam will dominate narratives unchallenged, preventing Asian audiences from hearing alternative perspectives – stories of democratic progress, freedom, and the dignity that comes from respecting human rights.”

An executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump late Friday called for the reduction of non-statutory components of the United States Agency for Global Media, or USAGM, the federal agency that funds RFA, VOA and several other independent global news organizations that broadcast in more than 60 languages.

VOA Director Michael Abramowitz wrote Saturday that virtually the entire staff had been placed on administrative leave.

Staff at RFA were still working Monday and the Washington-based news organization has yet to announce how the funding freeze would impact operations.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said it was “devastating to lose Radio Free Asia from the media landscape in Asia.”

“RFA has many courageous reporters who shone a light on rights abuses that authoritarian governments would prefer to hide,” she said in a social media post. “This is a gift to abusive governments in the region.”

RFA covers some of the countries in Asia where press freedom is the most restricted, including China, North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. It sends news in 10 languages through text, social media, radio and television.

Chinese journalist and human rights activist Gao Yu said in a post on X that authorities had warned her against talking to VOA and RFA.

“This made me realize that these two American media outlets are what the Chinese Communist authorities fear the most,” she said. “This is undoubtedly a moment that the Chinese Communist regime will celebrate.”

A fan of RFA’s Cantonese service, the main language spoken in Hong Kong, where opposition politicians and Western governments say political freedoms have been severely curtailed, expressed disappointment about the possible closure.

“I read your RFA Cantonese news every day. You’re doing a great job! It’s such a pity for it to end like this. I hope there’s a turnaround. Keep going!” said the poster, identified as Lukacat Lime.

Messages of support from Cambodians, Burmese

Thousands of messages of support for RFA and VOA flooded Khmer-language internet forums, with readers and listeners expressing their dismay.

“Khmer people need help because if there is no RFA or VOA we don’t know which news we can listen to,” a woman named Sokra wrote.

The United States and other countries have criticized the suppression of democracy in Cambodia in the years since the U.N.-organized an election in 1993, hoping to heal the decades of conflict and genocide after Cambodia became embroiled in the Vietnam War.

“The news of the potential shutdown is devastating,” said Viriya Lim, another RFA Khmer listener.

“Your reporting has been a crucial source of truth and information for so many. Please know that your efforts have made a real difference, and we are incredibly grateful for your service,” Lim wrote on RFA Khmer’s Facebook.

In Myanmar, where successive generations have struggled to throw off military rule, people expressed their appreciation for RFA.

“Because my father listened to RFA early in the morning and late at night since I was young, so I knew about the dictatorship, democracy, civil society organizations and different countries,” Moe Aung wrote on Facebook.

“I will always give thanks to RFA. I pray you continue to stand.”

In South Korea, Ha Tae-kyung, a three-term lawmaker and vocal critic of North Korea’s woeful human rights record, said it felt as if Washington was undermining its standing by shutting RFA and VOA.

“These organizations have been dedicated to North Korean human rights and democratization for decades,” said Ha. “It takes decades to build a well-constructed tower but only a single day to bring it down.”

Beijing’s criticism

The Chinese government did not immediately react to Friday’s executive order. But the Global Times editorial took aim at VOA, claiming that its independence and credibility “have long been questioned and criticized.”

“Known for stirring up conflicts, inciting social divisions, and even participating in regime change efforts, VOA is widely recognized as Washington’s carefully crafted propaganda machine for peaceful evolution, earning itself a notorious reputation on the global stage,” the Global Times said.

It mentioned RFA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, too, saying that the organizations’ primary function is “to serve Washington’s need to attack other countries based on ideological demands.”

Hu Xijin, a top Chinese propagandist and former Global Times editor, praised the decision, calling RFA “malicious toward China” and the funding cut “greatly satisfying.” He shared his remarks on his WeChat channel, which quickly spread across Chinese state-owned media outlets like iFeng.com and other Chinese social media platforms.

Those remarks were amplified on social media by China’s army of nationalistic “little pink” commentators, who have started targeting VOA’s Chinese and Taiwanese journalists, posting their photos and accusing them of doing “dirty work” and being “yellow-skinned with white hearts.”

On Monday, an op-ed from Beijing Daily, a state-owned media outlet, mocked the shutdown of RFA, RFE, and VOA declaring, “The ‘beacon of freedom’ has collapsed.” and “U.S. Hegemony will eventually perish under global condemnation.

Some journalists working for Chinese media, such as Andy Boreham at the state English-language newspaper Shanghai Daily, said the prospect of RFA having to lay off staff over funding cuts was “excellent news.”

The New Zealand-born journalist labelled RFA “one of the U.S.’s most insidious anti-China propaganda outlets.”

RFA is funded by the U.S. Congress but retains full editorial independence from the government. All editorial staff are expected to conduct themselves professionally and ethically and promote the highest standards of journalism.

Edited by RFA staff.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

The incomplete boundary demarcation at the Ta Moan Thom temple led to a confrontation between Cambodian soldiers who visited the temple last month and Thai soldiers who are stationed nearby, according to independent online news outlet CamboJa.

The Thai military wrote a formal protest letter to the Cambodian Army following the confrontation, Thai Defense Minister told reporters on Feb. 17.

On Monday, Hun Manet said Cambodia wouldn’t be afraid to fight back if the Thai military violates Cambodian sovereignty.

“As a government, our priority is to adhere to peaceful resolution, using the basis of law and negotiation and our diplomacy, international law,” he said in a speech to the Cambodian Tycoon Association.

“But we will be ready at all times if there is the use of armed force to invade Cambodian territory,” he said. “Cambodia reserves the right to defend its sovereignty, using all means, including armed force.”

The Ta Moan Thom dispute has similarities to the decades-long disagreement over Preah Vihear temple, which was the site of deadly border clashes with Thailand between 2008 and 2011.

Ta Moan Thom is located in the border area between Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province and Thailand’s Surin province and is about 140 km (87 miles) west of Preah Vihear temple.

Preah Vihear temple, located atop a cliff in the Dangrek Mountains, was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 by the International Court of Justice, or ICJ. But that decision didn’t take into account the 4.6 square kilometer (1.8 square mile) area around the 1,000-year-old Hindu temple.

Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged several rounds of fire beginning in 2008 after Preah Vihear was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That dispute dissipated after the ICJ again ruled in Cambodia’s favor in 2011.

Hun Manet mentioned that case on Monday, saying that Cambodia has experience in filing complaints to the ICJ and in fighting to defend its territory.

Hun Sen and the ICC

Meanwhile, Senate President Hun Sen threatened to arrest anyone who compares him to former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who was arrested this week and sent to the Netherlands where he’ll face trial before the International Criminal Court, or ICC, for his bloody “war on drugs.”

Speaking at the same conference in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said people shouldn’t compare him to dictators or any other national leaders who face international arrest warrants over alleged crimes against humanity.

“I don’t interfere in the Philippines’ internal affairs, but for Cambodia, we have strongly announced that we don’t send our people to other countries for prosecution,” he said. “Our Constitution prohibits us from stripping citizenships and prohibits the arrest of people on behalf of foreign countries.”

Hun Sen’s autocratic rule as prime minister included complaints filed to the ICC by opposition activists and international lawyers over the 2016 shooting death of government critic Kem Ley, the 2017 dissolution of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and various land disputes prompted by mass evictions.

Hun Sen, 72, resigned as prime minister in 2023 in favor of his eldest son, Hun Manet.

Hun Sen’s track record from decades in power makes it difficult to prevent people from comparing him to dictators, legal analyst Vorn Chanlout told RFA.

“He has persecuted people and politicians and innocents,” he said. “People can’t be banned from comparing him negatively. He would need to do good now for people to compare with good people.”

Cambodia ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – the treaty that established the ICC – in 2002. The ratification gave the court jurisdiction over crimes committed on Cambodia’s territory or by its citizens.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

However, a top opposition party lawmaker said the claim was suspicious and would likely be used to designate opposition activism in Cambodia and abroad as terrorism.

“When they are called terrorists, the punishment is very serious, they could be imprisoned for many years, and they could persecute Cambodia’s opposition officials,” said Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, who now lives in the United States.

Speaking at a school building inauguration, Hun Sen said an audio clip was recently sent to him that revealed the assassination scheme, which would have targeted him at his home in Takhmao town, about 11 km (7 miles) south of the capital, Phnom Penh.

(Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

He warned “all foreign entities” to stay out of Cambodia’s internal affairs – a statement he has made repeatedly over the years.

“Be warned – the plan to attack my Takhmao residence with a drone is real,” he said in central Kandal province. “Supporting such an attack threatens national security. Do not dare to harm or kill me.”

Cambodian police haven’t made any statements about an arrest related to the alleged assassination attempt.

Just ‘an excuse’

Hun Sen, 72, stepped down as prime minister in 2023 but retains influence as the Senate president and as the leader of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. His son, Hun Manet, now serves as prime minister.

A recent draft law would label “extremist opposition” members as terrorists -– possibly a way of targeting overseas opposition groups.

Most opposition lawmakers left Cambodia after the CNRP was banned in 2017. More recently, Cambodian activists and government critics in Thailand, Japan, Australia and elsewhere have faced legal threats or other forms of pressure from Hun Sen.

Um Sam An told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen’s assassination plot claim was just “an excuse to protect the family’s power.”

“He will use it to tell the international community that democrats in Cambodia are not real democrats – that they are a terrorist group that must be suppressed,” he said.

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Um Sam An recalled an alleged bomb plot in 1997 that led to a fighting in the streets of Phnom Penh that saw Hun Sen overthrow Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who at the time held the title of first prime minister under a power-sharing agreement

There was another incident in 1998, when hundreds demonstrated in front of Hun Sen’s home in Phnom Penh. One person threw a grenade at the home, and Hun Sen responded by ordering the military and police to crack down on the protesters, Um Sam An said.

Assassinating Hun Sen with a drone at his heavily guarded Takhmao home would be almost impossible, political scientist Em Sovannara told RFA.

“Ordinary citizens do not have the ability to do this,” he said. “And I think that within the opposition party, it is difficult and they are not capable of doing such a thing.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

Early last month, a former Cambodian opposition politician, Lim Kimya, was shot dead in the streets of Bangkok. The Thai police are still investigating the crime, but we know that several suspects are tied to elite Cambodian politics, including one who was an advisor to Hun Sen, the ruling party chief and former prime minister. Sam Rainsy, the exiled opposition leader, is convinced that Prime Minister Hun Manet, who took over from his father in 2023, and Hun Sen were personally behind the assassination.

(Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, denies this. On Jan. 20, Hun Manet gave the government’s most effusive statement of denial thus far. “If we were truly behind this assassination,” Hun Manet said, “we would have taken sufficient measures to hide the killers. Instead, we handed over the killer to Thailand at the request of that country’s authorities, which proves that we are not involved in this assassination.”

That may not have been the clincher that Hun The Younger thought it was. One might enquire as to how Hun Manet knows what the ruling party would have done had it contracted an assassination. Moreover, it could have been an incompetent operation. And many hitmen are paid not only to kill but also to do the years in prison after having given a false reason for the crime. The social commentator Kem Ley was shot dead at a Phnom Penh petrol station in 2016, apparently over a personal debt — a very dubious motive.

Respect or violence?

Nevertheless, let’s accept Hun Manet’s reasoning. Yet much comes down to what he means by being “behind the assassination.” Sam Rainsy and some others are convinced it was a direct order from the very top. Yet the government’s own laws make illegal “incitement to commit a felony or disturb social security.”

(Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

So I ask: can anyone who has listened to Hun Sen over the past few years think that he doesn’t want political opponents to be killed? Put differently, suppose you’re an enterprising upstart who wants to please his political masters or a recent convert to the CPP cause. If you had even only given a cursory glance over Hun Sen’s comments, would you think that the most powerful man in the land, who has ruled for more than four decades, wants you to treat political opponents with utmost respect and toleration or would you think he wants you to treat them with utmost violence?

He was talking about something different, but Sok Eysan, the CPP’s greying spokesperson, noted in November that “statements from the party’s leader [Hun Sen] often translate into action.” Indeed, Cambodian politics often resembles working towards the Samdech. So let’s take a few examples of Hun Sen’s statements over the past few years. Last June, an audio recording was leaked of him imploring supporters to “smash” and “destroy” opposition activists. “You must smash this force to a point that they no longer disturb us,” he told his underlings. According to another account, he reportedly said that “we must crush and suppress the color revolutionaries one by one to maintain peace for the people.”

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In 2023, Hun Sen was almost kicked off of Facebook after live-streaming a speech in which he warned opposition supporters that he would rally CPP folk to “beat you up” and “send people to your place and home.” “Either you face legal action in court, or I rally CPP people for a demonstration and beat you guys up,” he stated. Per a different translation, he stated: “There are only two options. One is to use legal means and the other is to use a bat.” The same year, speaking about activists who allege he has close ties to Vietnam, Hun Sen proclaimed: “You cannot escape [prison] because you are a fish in a barrel. I can break your neck to eat any time I want to.”

Ahead of the 2017 local elections, he said if there were any protests, “the armed forces will crack down on them immediately … If war happens, let it be.” That same year, in an even more overt statement, he warned his political opponents: “you should prepare your coffins.”

In a speech to troops in 2019, he called on the military to “destroy ... revolutions that attempt to topple the legitimate government,” adding he is “not afraid to issue an order.” “Better to see the death of four or five people rather than the death of tens of thousands and millions,” he claimed. As for anyone in the military who is disloyal, he added, “they must be destroyed.” He then noted: “I am the one who steers the wheel.”

Statements = action

Only, he isn’t apparently at the helm when opponents and critics are destroyed (even figuratively). But this hasn’t stopped Hun Sen’s underlings from aping his terminology. For instance, five days before Kem Ley was shot dead in 2016, a general called on the military to “eliminate and dispose of [anyone] fomenting social turmoil.” All this must be coupled with the escalation of legal terminology. The government wants to pass legislation now that would brandish political opponents as “terrorists,” on top of Hun Sen’s claims that his opponents are “traitors.”

So, according to his own spokesperson, Hun Sen’s statements “often translate into action.” And Hun Sen isn’t shy about admitting the immense power he wields in the country. Thus, would a reasonable person listening to these aforementioned comments think that Hun Sen hasn’t committed “incitement to commit a felony or disturb social security?”

Granted, Hun Sen and his ilk could say that they were just being evocative; that when they say “smash” and “destroy” and “eliminate” and “suppress,” they only mean it figuratively. Okay, one can figuratively “smash” an opposition movement or even metaphorically prepare one’s coffins.

But what about the warning to “use a bat” or to “beat you up?” Frequently, Hun Sen has specifically referenced physical violence as a comparison to legal prosecution. There is no way other than the literal to interpret him saying that it would be justified to “eliminate” five people in 2019 or 200 people in 2017 to safeguard the rest of society. Worse, his recommendations of violence are unspecific. He never says who should constitute the five or 200 people who could be “eliminated” for the sake of the greater good. He never says who specifically he thinks needs to be “crushed.”

What is an underling supposed to think? That political opponents and activists, who the most powerful person in Cambodia says are “traitors” and “terrorists,” aren’t really a threat to the nation? That they should be tolerated? That one should not eliminate a few individuals to save the nation?

So I ask Hun Manet: do you think your father has incited violence or not?

David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.

Hun To posted an open letter on social media on Wednesday in response to accusations made by Heng Sithy, a businessman who filed a complaint with Cambodia’s Ministry of Justice on Jan. 5.

Hun To stated that Heng Sithy’s comments in the complaint and on social media were “untrue, misleading, malicious and defamatory.” He also said he was “ready to file a counterclaim and fight a legal battle with Heng Sithy.” His letter was also published by the government-aligned Fresh News online news site.

Heng Sithy’s complaint alleged that Hun To accepted the $9 million from Chinese businessman Sun Ruifeng but never followed up with promised support for the proposed mine in eastern Mondulkiri province.

(Heng Sinith/AP)

Heng Sithy also posted a statement on Facebook on Thursday, denying Hun To’s allegation that Heng Sithy had threatened to kill Hun To. Heng Sithy pointed out that Hun To has the protection of Hun Sen and top state institutions.

“Since you were a child, Hun To, you have been a bad person who did not go to school, did not know how to read, abused people, kidnapped their daughters, stole their systems, abused businessmen and lured them to your house to drink,” he wrote in the statement.

“In Cambodia, no one dares to threaten to kill you.”

RFA was unable to reach Hun To or Heng Sithy for comment on the allegations.

Family fixer

Hun To is the cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet and has long been viewed as the family’s fixer for some of its business interests.

Last year, he settled a defamation lawsuit with The Australian newspaper over a story that linked him to human trafficking, cyber scams and drug importation.

He was featured prominently in The Sting, a 2012 book by investigative journalist Nick McKenzie about Australian law enforcement’s attempts to tackle the international drugs trade.

According to McKenzie, Hun To was a target of an Australian police investigation in 2003 into the smuggling of heroin from Cambodia to Australia in timber shipments.

McKenzie claimed Hun To only evaded arrest thanks to the intervention of Australian Embassy officials in Phnom Penh seeking to avoid a diplomatic incident. When confronted with the accusations in 2012, Hun To claimed to have no connections to the drugs trade.

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In July, Hun To scored an apparent victory after he secured an out-of-court settlement over a years-long dispute with The Australian.

The outlet agreed to retract a 2-year-old story it had published about Hun To that “some readers may have understood” to have alleged that he “was linked to human trafficking, cyber scams and drug importation,” the paper wrote.

The retraction marked the conclusion of a defamation case Hun To had brought against The Australian in 2022. It came just after the Australian government had declined to renew his visa, Radio Free Asia reported earlier this year – even though he had spent decades living part-time in the country and he and his family owned extensive business and property interests around Melbourne.

Stripped of okhna title

Heng Sithy said in Thursday’s statement that he was prepared to sue Hun To in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and China.

It was unclear how Heng Sithy was connected to Sun Ruifeng and the proposed mine.

As chairman of Phnom Penh-based Maritime Development Group, Heng Sithy donated $1 million to the government during the Covid-19 outbreak and $100,000 to the Cambodian Red Cross in 2022.

But last month he was stripped of his okhna title –- an honorary bestowed upon Cambodians who are involved in business and have been generous with donations to charity or the government. He left Cambodia late last year.

The Ministry of Justice has remained silent on his complaint, which also named several senior officials as being involved in corruption and online gambling in Cambodia.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

Phorn Phanna told Radio Free Asia on Friday that he flew with his wife and their two children to North Carolina last week.

“I will find new means to reveal the government and Hun Sen’s family’s bad deeds so they can return to walk along the democratic path,” he said.

In September, Hun Sen said he wanted Phorn Phanna brought to Cambodia “dead or alive.”

“The working group in Thailand must work with Thai police to eliminate the group of people who are living in Thailand, one is Phorn Phanna,” he said in an audio clip posted to Facebook.

“He must be brought to Cambodia. We can’t let him be free. He is staging something to incite a movement,” Hun Sen said. “Our forces must bring him here at any cost – dead or alive.”

Six months in Thai detention

Dozens of pro-democracy Cambodian activists have fled to Thailand to seek asylum in recent years as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, has used intimidation and the courts to neutralize the political opposition.

In February, Prime Minister Hun Manet met with then-Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin in Bangkok to discuss a crackdown on what they called “interference” in Cambodian politics by Thai-based Cambodian political activists.

“I’ve assured Prime Minister Hun Manet that it’s Thailand’s policy to not allow anyone to use Thailand as a platform to interfere in internal affairs or conduct harmful activities against our neighboring countries,” Srettha told reporters at a news conference after the meeting.

A week before Hun Manet’s arrival, Thai police arrested Phorn Phanna and two other activists, as well as their family members.

“I am afraid that I will be deported back to Cambodia,” he told RFA from jail at the time. “The CPP were behind this arrest because the police are asking for details about other activists.”

He was held in Thai immigration for six months.

Hun Sen’s audio clip was posted a few weeks after he was released on bail and was likely prompted by online comments he made about the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development area – a decades-old economic cooperation agreement that sparked demonstrations and widespread arrests in August.

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After that, Phorn Phanna said he moved from place to place with the help of an undisclosed humanitarian organization.

“I was living from one hotel to another only a few days at a time,” he told RFA on Friday. “I felt I was living in Pol Pot’s regime, where I was being hunted by people who wanted to murder me.”

In June, Hun Sen encouraged CPP supporters to “smash” and “destroy” opposition political activists in audio comments that were purportedly recorded at a party meeting and circulated on Cambodian social media.

“You must smash this force to a point that they no longer disturb us, let’s make it clear,” he said.

Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister last year, a position he held since 1985, allowing his son, Hun Manet, to take over. But he retains power as the president of the Senate and head of the CPP.

The run-up to the 2023 parliamentary elections saw a months-long campaign of intimidation and threats against opposition leaders and activists. Some activists were persuaded to publicly switch their allegiance to the CPP.

Phorn Phanna was an official with the Candlelight Party – Cambodia’s main opposition party in 2023. Two months before last year’s election, the National Election Committee ruled that the party was ineligible for the general election ballot.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

A royal decree from King Norodom Sihamoni on Wednesday stated that Duong Dara has been dismissed from his role at the government’s Cabinet.

Earlier this year, he was named in a complaint filed by villagers in southern Svay Rieng province that accused the Phnom Penh-based Phum Khmer Group of scamming them out of investments that ranged between US$40,000 and US$120,000.

The company promised that its duck farms, animal feed factories, restaurants and real estate holdings would generate a monthly 4% payment for investors, according to the complaint. One investor told Radio Free Asia that he never received any interest or dividend payments.

Duong Dara, who was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with fraud after returning from a business trip to China, is believed to be a close friend of Phum Khmer’s chief executive, Som Sothea.

In addition to his position at the Council of Ministers, Duong Dara has also worked as a personal assistant and as an adviser to Hun Sen. He’s credited with creating and overseeing Hun Sen’s popular Facebook account, where the former prime minister continues to post statements and personal observations, as well as video clips from public appearances.

His arrest last month came just days after another adviser to Hun Sen, Ly Sameth, was publicly accused by Hun Sen of defrauding several Cambodians in a separate case.

Ly Sameth was arrested on Monday and transferred to Prey Sar prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh on Tuesday.

Duong Dara has been in custody at Phnom Penh Municipal Prison, also known as PJ Prison, since his arrest.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

It was unclear what charges Duong Dara could be facing. Earlier this year, he was named in a complaint filed by villagers in southern Svay Rieng province that accused a Phnom Penh company of scamming them out of investments that ranged between US$40,000 and US$120,000.

The Fresh News online news site and the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported that Duong Dara was arrested in connection with a citizen’s complaint. No further details were given.

Duong Dara was appointed secretary of state for the Council of Ministers – the government’s Cabinet – last year and has also worked as a personal assistant to Hun Sen. 

Duong Dara is credited with creating and overseeing Hun Sen’s popular Facebook account, where the former prime minister continues to post statements and personal observations, as well as video clips from public appearances.

The arrest comes several days after Hun Sen wrote on Facebook that another adviser, Ly Sameth, had defrauded several Cambodians over the last two years by soliciting bribes in exchange for favors and government positions.

Hun Sen wrote on Facebook on Monday that Ly Sameth’s assets should be frozen and Phnom Penh court officials should issue an order to return money he accepted from people. 

Police officers went to Ly Sameth’s house on Tuesday morning, but he wasn’t at home and authorities were unable to locate him on Wednesday, Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesperson Sam Vichheka said. Authorities haven’t charged Ly Sameth, he said.

Business interests

The complaint submitted at Svay Rieng Provincial Court in June stated that the Phum Khmer Group promised that its duck farms, animal feed factories, restaurants and real estate holdings would generate a monthly 4% payment for investors.

One investor told Radio Free Asia that he never received any interest or dividend payments, as promised in the signed contract.

Phum Khmer’s chief executive, Som Sothea, stopped responding to messages, another investor told RFA in June. Som Sothea is believed to be a close friend of Duong Dara.

Several investors told RFA that Duong Dara and his younger brother, Duong Virath, all have shares in the Phum Khmer Group.

Duong Dara said on his Facebook page in June that – other than joining company workers in distributing food to the poor on one occasion – he has no involvement with the Phum Khmer Group’s business interests.

RFA was unable to reach Duong Dara for comment on Friday.

Sam Vichheka, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman I Rin, Phnom Penh Municipal Police Commissioner Chuon Narin also didn’t respond to requests for comment on the arrest.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Nuon Toeun, a 36-year-old domestic worker over the past six years, was arrested Saturday at her employer’s home in the state of Selangor, which surrounds Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. She was escorted to Cambodia by an embassy official and handed over to Cambodian authorities on Monday.

After detaining her in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar Prison on charges of “incitement,” Cambodian authorities distributed photos of Nuon Toeun in front of the facility, handcuffed and under military escort.

Her deportation, arrest and public shaming drew condemnation on Thursday from observers and human rights advocates who slammed the Malaysian government for its complicity in Cambodia’s “transnational repression.”

Former Cambodian parliamentarian Mu Sochua, who is now living in exile, called the case an example of how autocratic regimes seek to “silence dissent.”

“A Cambodian domestic worker was immediately sent to prison after #Malaysia, complying with @hunsencambodia, deported her,” she said, in a post accompanying the photos of Nuon Toeun in handcuffs on the social media platform X.

Nuon Toeun often used social media to criticize Cambodia’s leadership including Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father Hun Sen, who held the post from 1985 until last year before passing the role to his son and taking a new role as president of the senate. 

She also criticized the Cambodian government over handling a variety of social issues.

‘Despicable guy’

A few days before her arrest, Nuon Toeun had posted a video to her Facebook page in response to a comment telling her to “be mindful of being the subject of sin,” in reference to talking negatively about Hun Sen.

“If I have sinned because I [have cursed] this despicable guy, I am happy to accept the sin because he has mistreated my people so badly,” she said in the video. “I am not a politician, but I am a political observer and expressing rage on behalf of the people living inside Cambodia.” 

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Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates Director Phil Robertson slammed the “shameful collaboration” between the two governments in deporting and jailing Nuon Toeun for her comments.

“Add yet another case in very long list of transnational repression actions undertaken by #Cambodia gov't of @Dr_Hunmanet_PM @hunsencambodia,” Robertson wrote. “Hun Sen going after a maid in KL who called him 'despicable' & embassy escorts her back!”

“What's truly despicable is #Malaysia's involvement in this!” he added.

Josef Benedict, a researcher with the Civicus Monitor, a global civil society alliance, expressed alarm that Anwar Ibrahim’s government in Malaysia would facilitate Cambodian efforts to punish dissent.

“A clear violation of international law & a new low for this government,” he posted to X on Thursday.

Nuon Toeun had been a supporter of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which had been the main opposition party in Cambodia prior to its supreme court declaring the party illegal and dissolving it in 2017.

Attempts by RFA to contact Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona for comment on Nuon Toeun’s case went unanswered Friday.

Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian rights group Licadho said that critics living abroad shouldn’t be deported for exercising their right to freedom of expression and warned that the case would only invite additional international scrutiny of the Cambodian and Malaysian governments.

“The arrest drew a lot of criticism of Malaysian authorities for working with Cambodia to deport the maid,” he told RFA Khmer. “The international community has raised the issue of freedom of expression, which the Malaysian government should respect.”

Am Sam Ath said that his organization is working to meet with Nuon Toeun at Prey Sar, who does not currently have legal representation.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The 1999 agreement between the three countries was aimed at encouraging economic development and trade between Cambodia’s four northeastern provinces and neighboring provinces across the border.

Last month, three activists were arrested on incitement charges after they spoke of concerns that the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Triangle Development Area, or CLV, could cause Cambodia to lose territory or control of some of its natural resources to Vietnam.

The activists made the comments in an 11-minute Facebook video. An angry Hun Sen ordered the arrests and has spoken publicly about the CLV several times since then.

On Monday, Hun Sen warned in a Facebook post of more arrests after overseas Cambodians set up a chat group on the Telegram app where plans for an Aug. 18 demonstration in Phnom Penh against the CLV were being discussed.

The Telegram group was created following a weekend of protests against the CLV among overseas Cambodians living in South Korea, Japan, Canada and Australia.

“My message to all brothers and sisters in this group, I listened to your conversation in the group long enough,” he said. “You are being incited by overseas people.”

‘Try it’

Hun Sen said he has spies in the Telegram group who have sent conversations and names to his private account. He added that he wouldn’t order the arrests for anyone who left the group.

“We cannot let a few people destroy the peace of 17 million people. Some have seen the events in Bangladesh and compared the events in Cambodia,” he said. “Try it. If you consider yourself a strong person, please try.”

Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister last year but remains a powerful force in the country. His son, Hun Manet, succeeded him as prime minister. 

Last week, Hun Manet warned Cambodians against protesting against the government, citing Bangladesh’s recent demonstrations in its capital that turned into deadly clashes and caused that country’s leader to resign.

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Hun Manet has also tried to reassure Cambodians about the CLV, saying that the agreement won’t result in the loss of any territory.

Soeung Senkaruna, the former spokesman for human rights group Adhoc, said Cambodians both inside and outside the country have the full right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and international law. 

Using force to keep people from expressing their opinions shouldn’t happen in a country “that the government claims enjoys democracy and peace,” he said.

Translated Sun Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

He is the notorious playboy cousin of Cambodia’s prime minister, and has long been viewed as the family’s fixer for all things they would rather not come into public view. 

Hun To has reportedly been investigated by Australian police for heroin trafficking; faced questions in connection to threats against the family of slain political analyst Kem Ley, which fled to Australia in 2016 and; in recent years, reporting by Al Jazeera and The Australian newspaper has tied him to cyber slavery, scam compounds and drug smuggling.  

But in bringing lawsuits against those news organizations, he inadvertently highlighted how Australia – a key regional partner for Cambodia – is running out of patience for the Hun dynasty’s antics. 

Earlier this month, Hun To scored an apparent victory after he secured an out-of-court settlement over a years-long dispute with The Australian.

The outlet agreed to retract a 2-year-old story it had published about Hun To that “some readers may have understood” to have alleged that he “was linked to human trafficking, cyber scams and drug importation,” the paper wrote. 

“The Australian did not intend to make any such allegations against Mr Hun and accepts his denials of such conduct.”

The retraction marked the conclusion of a defamation case Hun To had brought against The Australian in December 2022. It came just after the Australian government had declined to renew his visa, RFA has learned – even though he had spent decades living part-time in the country and he and his family owned extensive business and property interests around Melbourne. 

While Canberra gave no reason for its decision, Hun To’s lawyers insisted in court complaints seen by RFA that the rejection was spurred by news stories from The Australian and Al Jazeera linking him to organized crime, fraud factories and human trafficking in his native Cambodia. 

A case launched in parallel by Hun To against Al Jazeera is ongoing. The Qatari state-funded outlet did not respond to a request for comment.

Australian libel law is notoriously plaintiff-friendly, particularly in cases where the defendant is a news organization. This growing reputation led the author of a 2019 New York Times op-ed to dub the island nation “the defamation capital of the world.” 

In Australian defamation cases, the burden of proof uniquely rests with the defendants. No other type of case places such burden on the party being sued.

In such a legal environment, defendants run higher risks of losing and incurring hefty damages, and that has often encouraged news organizations to settle out of court.

The retraction might have gone little noticed until Hun To’s lawyer, Adam Lopez – who has been known for taking on controversial defamation cases – took to LinkedIn to gloat about his victory. The dispute with The Australian had been “resolved on a confidential basis,” he noted, suggesting that the newspaper had made further concessions beyond the retraction. 

Cambodia press and social media users quickly picked up the story, with some simply reporting on the retraction and others criticizing The Australian or the Australian court system.  

With the scrubbing of the controversial story, Hun To enjoyed precisely one day of victory. 

On July 10, news broke suggesting Hun To’s business interests were neck deep in exactly the type of allegations for which The Australian had just apologized. Elliptic, a financial compliance firm specializing in tracing cryptocurrencies, published a report alleging that a “Cambodian conglomerate with links to Cambodia’s ruling Hun family” had laundered more than US$11 billion for cyber scammers. The name of the company was Huione Pay, and Hun To is one of its three directors. 

A subsequent report by Reuters found evidence that Huione Pay had processed cryptocurrency worth $150,000 that had been stolen by the sanctioned North Korean hacking collective known as Lazarus. In response to the allegations, National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s central bank, told Reuters that it “would not hesitate to impose any corrective measures” on Huione, although it said so “without saying if such action was planned,” the news agency drily noted.

Following the revelations, digital finance company Tether announced that it had frozen $29 million of cryptocurrency held by Huione following a “a direct request from law enforcement.”

Whether the latest news make Hun To reconsider going after the press, however, seems unlikely, said Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates. 

Hun To “would be wise to abandon his case since all the dirt has come out on Huione, but he won't because he's a shameless, arrogant, rights-abusing tycoon who believes that whatever he does, the ruling Hun family will have his back.”

Neither Huione's nor Hun To’s lawyer had responded to requests for comment as of publication.

These allegations are far from the first time Hun To has caught negative publicity. Australian MP Julian Hill spoke in Parliament last March arguing that Hun To and other politically connected Cambodian figures “should never again be granted visas to visit Australia.” 

His speech charted Hun To’s long and checkered links to Australia, noting that as early as 2003 Australian police had sought to arrest him on suspicion of heroin trafficking. Since then, Hun To and his wife acquired millions of dollars' worth of property in Australia, Hill added, “with seemingly no legitimate explanation for where their wealth has come from.”

“It's no secret that Hun To has his finger in lots of pies — drug trafficking, illegal deforestation, animal trafficking, illegal gambling,” Hill said. “Most recently, we've heard reports he's dipping his toes into human trafficking, as well. That's diversifying, isn't it?”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jack Adamović Davies for RFA Investigative.

The Cambodian government has neither confirmed nor denied the veracity of the audio, which circulated widely on Facebook and other social media. Listeners say it sounds like the veteran leader, who currently serves as Senate president. It was purportedly recorded at a party meeting last week.

“Please all city, capital and provincial presidents of the party, be informed that in the past few weeks I sent a decision pertaining to a group of people who are experts in destroying the grassroots,” Hun Sen says in the audio.

“You must smash this force to a point that they no longer disturb us, let’s make it clear,” he said. “While we destroy their forces, we can persuade them to join us.”

In August, Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister, a position he held since 1985, allowing his son to take over. But he retains power as the president of the Senate and head of the Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP.

The run-up to the July 2023 parliamentary elections saw a months-long campaign of intimidation and threats against opposition leaders and activists. Some activists were persuaded to publicly switch their allegiance to the CPP. 

Additionally, the National Election Committee ruled that the main opposition Candlelight Party couldn’t appear on the ballot, citing inadequate paperwork. The decision paved the way for the CPP to win 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly.

Cambodia also held Senate elections in February and local provincial, municipal and district elections in May.

Care for the new ‘brothers and sisters’

In the audio, Hun Sen urged CPP officials to work on persuading opposition activists to defect now – instead of waiting to act months before the next round of elections. 

Cambodia has local commune council elections scheduled for 2027. Its next parliamentary election is set to take place in 2028.

Efforts should include incorporating party switchers into the CPP’s party structure and encouraging them to recruit more defectors, Hun Sen said.

“I ask the provincial party and local party offices to expeditiously administer these brothers and sisters [defectors] so they do not feel left out, or that there is a lack of care for them by the local party branches,” he said. 

“Let’s declare the incorporation [of the defectors] into the party from now,” he said. “Let’s break their grassroot bases now so that they do not have base support.”

Hun Sen is an avid social media user, with 14 million followers on Facebook and 925,000 on TikTok.

RFA messaged Hun Sen on Facebook on Wednesday to verify the audio, but he hadn’t responded by Friday. RFA was also unable to reach government spokesman Pen Bona for comment.

‘Psychological threat’

Eng Chhai Eang, a former opposition lawmaker who now lives in the United States, said the audio was forwarded to him last week after a CPP official had sent it to opposition activists in Cambodia.

He told RFA he believed the audio was real and reflects Hun Sen’s longtime approach to political opponents.

Eng Chhai Eang continues to serve as the vice president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which was the main opposition party until it was banned by the Supreme Court in 2017.

“His vicious deeds started after the CNRP dissolution,” he said. “He ordered attacks against those who refused to defect. Any activists were attacked.”

The audio was probably intended as a “a psychological threat,” according to Rong Chhun, a prominent opposition activist who is an adviser to the opposition National Power Party, which was founded last year.

Translated by Yun Samean and Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The former prime minister who is now Senate president posted on Facebook dozens of pictures of himself and Burns, apparently taken before and during their meeting on June 2 at his home in Takhmao town, near the capital Phnom Penh. 

Hun Manith – Hun Sen’s fourth son and head of the Cambodian military intelligence department – was seen attending the meeting, together with anti-corruption chief Om Yentieng and Dy Vichea, Hun Sen’s son-in-law and deputy national police chief.

In an earlier Facebook post, Hun Sen said that he had informed Burns that Cambodia won’t take part in the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland this weekend, not because of  pressure from China but because the conference could not be successful without Russia’s participation.

Hun Sen has condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

While not giving further details about the meeting, Hun Sen said that the main area of cooperation between Cambodia and the CIA was counter terrorism and “not against any country.”

Cambodia  has intelligence cooperation with other countries, he added, as this was a “normal course of a sovereign state.”

Hun Sen said in his Facebook post that he has had a working relationship with the CIA management since 1997 and met in person with some of the agency’s heads, including James Clapper and David Petraeus.

David Hutt, a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, said he suspected the latest meeting was about  Chinese-run online scam operations in Southeast Asia that the U.S. now sees as a major security threat.

A recent study by the Congress-founded U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) said that Cambodia, together with Myanmar and Laos, form the epicenter of the regional scamming industry that “target millions of victims around the world with illegal and unregulated online gambling and sophisticated scamming operations.”  

As of the end of 2023, the annual value of funds stolen worldwide by these syndicates could be as high as US$64 billion, USIP said, noting that in 2023 alone, U.S. citizens lost US$3.5 billion to online scams run from Southeast Asia.

The United States is also concerned about China’s access to Cambodia’s Ream naval base.

A U.S. think tank, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), said in April that Cambodia appeared to have given the Chinese navy extended and exclusive access to the base. Two Chinese warships have been docked at a newly built pier at Ream since early December and recently took part in an annual bilateral military exercise.

In an interview with RFA Khmer service, AMTI’s Director Greg Poling said that the real value of the naval base for the Chinese military could be in spying, intelligence collection, and satellite tracking.

Cambodia has repeatedly denied that China has been allowed to establish a permanent base at Ream as that would be against Cambodia’s constitution.

The publication of the  photographs of the meeting, observers say, could be aimed at demonstrating balance in Cambodia’s foreign relations in the face of accusations by critics that Cambodia has become too dependent upon China.

Edited by Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

The canal, proposed and approved when Hun Sen was head of the government, is increasingly portrayed in Cambodia as one of the veteran leader’s great legacies.

Hun Manet was quoted by the pro-government Fresh News as saying  that the canal was no longer a foreign invested project but was now primarily owned by Cambodian companies, with a  51% stake.

The main stakeholders are the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, he said at an event at the Kampot port, adding that the canal would still be developed as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project.

The prime minister did not mention China or a Chinese company in his speech, though the Cambodian government last October signed an agreement with the China Bridge and Road Corporation (CBRC) allowing it to develop the canal.

The 180-km (112 mile) canal, officially known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project, will connect the Cambodian coastal province of Kep on the Gulf of Thailand with the inland provinces of Kandal and Takeo and the capital Phnom Penh via a tributary of the Mekong River.

It has caused a rift with neighboring Vietnam, which is worried about the  ecological impact on its rice-growing Mekong  delta, as well as the overall influence of China in the region. The delta is already at risk of encroaching seawater, partly due to lower flows of fresh water down the Mekong.

Questionable viability?

Hun Manet was quoted as saying that the canal would benefit the Cambodian people and not foreign interests. He called for unity and support for the project that would take four to six years to complete at a cost of US$1.7 billion.

An analyst told RFA that the project “appears to be on shaky financial grounds.”

“The ownership and financing details change on this project from month to month it seems,” said Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

“First the project was to be financed by a Chinese entity and then built and owned for 40-50 years by CBRC. Now Khmer investors will pay for 51% and no construction company has been named by the prime minister,” Eyler said.

“It’s common though for projects to have a groundbreaking ceremony and then there is no further progress on the project for a long period,” the analyst said.  “I’m willing to bet the Funan Techo canal will be one of them.”

Experts also question the timing of the launch of construction as the project area sits in an active floodplain that is inundated during the monsoon season which generally runs from June to October, making it expensive and risky to dig a canal.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister on Monday summoned Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Huy Tang to discuss offensive comments posted on former Prime Minister Hun Sen's TikTok, said the Cambodian ministry of information.

Sok Chenda Sophea, who is also Cambodia's foreign minister, said the comments "caused bad feelings among the royal government and the people of Cambodia" and asked for Vietnam's cooperation to determine the identity of the people behind them.

The move comes after Hun Sen asked authorities to cooperate with Vietnam to track down people who left disrespectful comments in Vietnamese on his TikTok videos.

"I was really surprised when I saw the comments to the TikTok [clips] that I posted,” Hun Sen wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

In screenshots attached to his Facebook post, the comments in Vietnamese read: “Vietnam sacrificed its blood for peace in Cambodia,” and “Don’t forget tens of thousands of Vietnamese volunteers who were killed in Cambodia.”

The former prime minister, who is now president of the Senate and retains much power in Cambodia, was also called “ungrateful,” “China’s puppet,” and a “traitor.”

Hun Sen said he suspected the reason for the attacks was probably the Funan Techo canal project that was proposed and approved when he was head of government. 

The canal, connecting Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh with  its Gulf of Thailand coast via a tributary of the Mekong River, is to be developed by a Chinese company at a cost of US$1.7 billion.

The project has raised concerns in Vietnam as its Mekong River delta, home to 17.4 million people, is downstream and could be severely affected. 

Hun Sen, who sees the project as one of his great legacies, said last month that Cambodia would not negotiate with Vietnam over the canal. On May 16, he urged the government to begin construction as soon as possible.

Hun Sen rose to power in a government installed by Vietnam after its forces invaded in late 1978 and quickly ousted the Khmer Rouge regime. Vietnamese forces remained in Cambodia for the next decade battling Khmer Rouge guerrillas based in sanctuaries on the Thai border.

While Vietnam has long been a close ally, in recent years, Cambodia has leaned more towards China, which has become Cambodia’s main source of investment. Cambodia has in turn supported China diplomatically, most notably in 2016, when Cambodia blocked a bid by Southeast Asian leaders to take a united stand on what many in the region see as China’s unjust territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Avid influencer

Hun Sen called for an inquiry into the disparaging social media comments.

“I'm not sure who these Vietnamese are,” he wrote, “I request the Cambodian authorities to cooperate with the Vietnamese authorities to investigate the people who came to insult me.”

Vietnam has a force of state-sanctioned “public opinion shapers” on the internet, who usually target domestic dissent. Its military and police both  run cyber warfare units to counter criticism of the Hanoi government and the ruling Communist Party.

Hun Sen, however, said that he did not accuse the Vietnamese leadership of “using such people to insult me.”

There has not been any reaction from the Vietnamese government to his comments.

This is not the first time the Cambodian leader has been targeted in internet posts believed to have originated in Vietnam. In 2016-2017, he received thousands of offensive comments on Facebook and had to ask Vietnam’s party general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, to intervene to stop them.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in both Vietnam and Cambodia but TikTok’s popularity has been growing fast, especially among young people. There are nearly 50 million TikTokers in Vietnam and 7.1 million in Cambodia.

Hun Sen is an avid social media user with 14 million followers on Facebook and 925,000 on TikTok.

Edited by Mike Firn.

Updated to add comment from Cambodia's deputy prime minister.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

A group of Vietnamese experts suggested last week that Hanoi should ask Phnom Penh to delay the project for further discussions.

Former prime minister Hun Sen, who is now the president of the Senate and still retains much power, told a business banquet  that construction of the 180-kilometer (112 mile) canal will go ahead as planned  this year,  emphasizing the project was of national interest.

The Funan Techo canal, officially known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project, will connect the Cambodian coastal province of Kep on the Gulf of Thailand with the inland provinces of Kandal and Takeo, and the capital Phnom Penh via a tributary of the Mekong River.

It will be developed by a Chinese company at a cost of US$1.7 billion and, when operational in 2028,  will help reduce Cambodia’s dependence on Vietnam’s sea ports for its international trade. .

But the project has raised concerns in Vietnam where the rice-growing Mekong delta is vulnerable to sea water incursions if the Mekong’s flow is reduced. A series of dams on the river in China to the north has already raised fears about flows downstream. 

Some Vietnamese experts said the Cambodian canal could “reduce the flow of the river by up to 50%” in Vietnam’s delta, home to 17.4 million people.

Hun Sen dismissed the concern, saying any loss of water would affect Cambodia first.

No mistake in 47 years

The Funan Techo canal project was proposed and approved when Hun Sen was head of the government and analysts say it is being seen as one of his great legacies.

“Hun Sen has never made a wrong decision in the past 47 years,” the veteran leader, referring to himself, told a  dinner hosted by the Cambodian Oknha Association. Oknha is a title bestowed on Cambodians who are committed to charity or generous with  donations to the government.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who defected to fight alongside Vietnamese forces, and who first became prime minister in a government set up by Vietnam after it invaded Cambodia,   said his country “is not inferior to Vietnam.”

“Cambodia knows how to protect its interests, Vietnam does not need to care,” the Senate president was quoted in Cambodian media as saying.

While calling for Vietnam’s understanding, Hun Sen said Cambodia’s eastern neighbor also “built a lot of dams to protect their crops and these have an impact on Cambodia.”

He  said he was not pushing Cambodians to hate Vietnamese people and the Vietnamese side must do the same, the Khmer Times quoted him as saying.

Vietnamese analysts say the canal could also have security implications by allowing naval forces to operate on inland waterways near the Vietnamese border. Vietnam’s foreign ministry this month urged Cambodia to provide information and an impact assessment on the water resources and ecological balance of the delta region.

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh has also called for more information, saying that while the U.S. respects “Cambodia’s sovereignty in internal governance and development decisions,” the Cambodian people as well as people in neighboring countries “would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water and agricultural sustainability.”

“We urge authorities to coordinate closely with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to provide additional project details and to participate fully in any appropriate environmental impact studies to help the MRC and member countries fully understand, assess, and prepare for any possible impacts of the project,” an embassy spokesperson said last week.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

The former prime minister, who remains a powerful political figure, vehemently rejected suggestions that “the canal will further facilitate the Chinese navy near the Vietnamese border” in a post on social media platform X.

The Funan Techo canal, officially known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation Road and Logistics System Project, will connect the Cambodian coastal province of Kep on the Gulf of Thailand with the inland provinces of Kandal and Takeo, and the capital Phnom Penh via a tributary of the Mekong River.

The 180 kilometer (112 mile) canal is expected to be developed by a Chinese company as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project at a cost of US$1.7 billion and become operational in 2028. It will see a large amount of Cambodian goods bypass Vietnam’s ports, creating some independence for the country’s foreign trade.

Vietnam has expressed concerns about the potential environmental and economic impacts of the project, which Phnom Penh sought to dismiss during a visit by Prime Minister Hun Manet to Hanoi in December. 

Hun Manet, Hun Sen’s second son, reportedly reassured Vietnamese leaders that the project would not impact the Mekong river water system.

Some analysts were quoted in international media as saying that the Funan Techo canal marks a decoupling effort by Cambodia from Vietnam. Hanoi is Phnom Penh’s traditional ally and helped install Hun Sen in power in the 1980s but Cambodia has leaned more towards China in recent years. 

There were also suggestions that the canal could have a dual use that would allow Chinese naval ships to travel upstream from the Gulf of Thailand to near the border with Vietnam. Kep province is just kilometers from Vietnam’s Kien Giang province and the two countries share 1,258 km (781 miles) of land border.

Anti-constitution

In his post on X, Hun Sen wrote that he “would like to remind friends or non-friends” that the presence of Chinese troops on Cambodian soil is unconstitutional. 

“Cambodia needs Chinese troops for what?” he asked. 

Hun Sen and other Cambodian officials have also previously rejected allegations that China is developing a military base at Ream, Sihanoukville province, calling them “slanderous.”

"I don't think he [Hun Sen] is wrong,” said Virak Ou, president of Future Forum, a Cambodian NGO.

Ou said he doesn’t think the canal would be useful for the Chinese military as “any conflict between China and Vietnam will be played out in the seas and airs.”

“Hun Sen's statement seems to be an indirect assurance to Vietnamese leaders that the Funan Techo canal will not be used for military purposes,” said Huynh Tam Sang, a lecturer at Vietnam National University, “This statement is made at the time when Vietnam is concerned that Cambodia could help set up a Chinese military base in the region.”

“Hun Sen has been adept at walking a tightrope between China and Vietnam,” the political analyst told Radio Free Asia.

“Because of its modest influence, Cambodia relies on China for political and economic support. But if Cambodia and Vietnam can keep their relations stable, Cambodia will be able to retain agency while responding to China's demands,” Sang added.

Another Vietnamese analyst – Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at Singapore’s Yusof Ishak Institute – said that in his opinion, the apprehension surrounding the Funan Techo canal’s potential “dual” use primarily stems from concerns over the possibility of a Chinese military presence in Cambodia rather than concrete projections of how it could be used for military purposes.

“I don't see how the canal – if its announced capacity is true – can pose a serious military threat to Vietnam,” Giang said, adding “Hanoi might be more worried about developments in the Ream Naval Base.”

Geopolitical chessboard

According to the Vietnamese analyst, there should be bigger concerns about the environmental impacts on Vietnam's Mekong Delta and the possibility of Cambodia moving further away from Vietnam's economic influence as Hanoi has invested considerable effort to maintain close economic ties with Cambodia and Laos. 

Meanwhile Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia Program in Washington D.C. told RFA, “One only has to look at a map to see how the Funan Techo canal alters the regional geopolitical chessboard.”

The best way to reduce anxieties, Eyler suggested, is to let the Mekong River Commission – the intergovernmental body in charge of sustainable management of the river – carry out regional consultation as well as a third party technical review of the canal “as required for all projects that touch the mainstream.”

Vietnamese authorities should also be careful to “avoid inflaming Cambodia” over the Chinese military presence narrative, warned Huynh Tam Sang from Vietnam National University.

“Vietnam has valid worries, but the Hun Manet government has authority over its infrastructure projects, including the planned Funan Techo canal,” Sang said. “Hyperbolizing this problem could backfire as Vietnam could be seen as a troublemaker in the eyes of Cambodian leaders.” 

Translated by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

The Senate also approved two senior Hun Sen aides, ex-Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and ex-Secretary of State Ouch Borith, to be his vice presidents. As head of the Senate, Hun Sen will be acting head of state when King Norodom Sihamoni is out of the country, meaning that father and son are head of government and de-facto head of state.

The 71-year-old former strongman led the country from 1985 until last year, when he stepped down to make way for his son to assume the role. Supporters of democracy have criticized the passage of power from father to son, saying it amounts to dynastic rule. 

In Wednesday’s session all 62 Senators, including those of the opposition, approved Hun Sen as their president, a Senate statement said.

In theory, the Senate is meant to act as a check on the National Assembly, but in practice in Cambodia – where the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, is so dominant – it is essentially a rubber stamp body.

The king presided over the first session of the Senate and asked the Senate to protect the national interest, and Hun Sen during the session thanked the Senate and people for their support.

“The overwhelming support has reiterated people's confidence in the CPP which is the only party to guarantee peace, stability and development,” he said.  “As the Senate president, I am committed to lead the Senate to actively work with the national assembly and the government to fulfill their mandates responsibly to serve the country and its people.”

Political Commentator Kim Sok said Hun Sen is getting older and should retire, but has to remain active in government to protect his son. 

“He isn’t working to serve the country but to ensure that his son can stay in power,” he said, adding that the former strongman still wields a lot of influence.

He doubted that Hun Sen could improve democracy and unite the country.

“He robbed the voters’ will. He can’t do that,” said Kim Sok. “To serve the national interests, (Hun Sen) needs to talk to (opposition leaders) Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha to resolve (their conflict) for the sake of the national interest.” he said.

The two opposition leaders together founded the now banned Cambodia National Rescue Party. Sam Rainsy lives in self-imposed exile in France, while Kem Sokha is under house arrest as he appeals a 27-year treason sentence that rights organizations say is politically motivated.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Exiled former deputy opposition leader Mu Sochua announced the creation of the Khmer Movement for Democracy in September, saying it aims to reform Cambodia’s corrupt judiciary and reintroduce fair elections while training a new generation of political leaders.

Speaking with Radio Free Asia in Washington, D.C., on Thursday after meeting with officials from the National Endowment for Democracy and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mu Sochua conceded Hun Manet would likely not let the group operate openly in Cambodia.

Hun Manet last year took over as premier from his father, Hun Sen, after an election in which the opposition Candlelight Party was barred from competing. Mu Sochua, meanwhile, stands subject to arrest if she returns to Cambodia and faces an eight-year prison sentence.

But she said she hopes her group will in time be allowed to emerge from the shadows in Cambodia, and said the group’s aim was not to topple Hun Manet or his ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP.

“Of course, physically, we cannot be in Cambodia at this moment – in the near future, we cannot be – but at the same time, we are saying the approach that we take is not a confrontational approach,” Mu Sochua said, adding the group could “legitimize” Hun Manet’s rule.

“The message to Mr. Hun Manet is that there are solutions to reform the justice system and the approach, or technique, or strategy is not to … leave it to your own people,” she said, advising he instead “open up” and “go to talk to the people about how to reform the judiciary.”

Mu Sochua argued that Hun Manet’s power still rested on the support of Hun Sen, but that he has an opportunity to make his own name by stepping out of his father’s shadows and pursuing real reforms.

“If he wants to be the legitimate prime minister of Cambodia, that's the way to go,” she said. “Be free. Don't be afraid of your own people.”

Hun Manet did not respond to a request for a comment.

New generation

Mu Sochua served as minister of women’s affairs for the FUNCINPEC party when it was in a coalition with the CPP in the 1990s. But she emerged as one of Cambodia’s most outspoken opposition leaders as vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP.

The united opposition party, which formed from the merger of two previously rival parties in 2012, was forced to disband by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in 2017 after looking set to potentially unseat Hun Sen at the 2018 election. The Candlelight Party then emerged from the party’s ashes before itself being banned from last year’s election.

Besides repression, though, the Cambodian opposition’s top leadership faces long-running generational issues. Its two main leaders, Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, are aged 75 and 70, respectively, and have dominated the opposition scene for nearly three decades.

Mu Sochua herself turns 70 in a few months.

Meanwhile, after 38 years in power, the 71-year-old Hun Sen handed power to his son Manet, 46, following last year’s election as part of a generational turnover of the CPP that also saw the sons of the interior and defense ministers replace their aging fathers.

Though Mu Sochua said Thursday that age is only a number and she “still wants to be a part” of Cambodia’s pro-democracy movement when she turns 80, she acknowledged that “my role will be different” as the years go by and that a new generation of leaders was needed.

One of the barometers of success for the Khmer Movement for Democracy, then, will be its ability to train workers, community leaders and women to engage in politics, so they are one day “able to take over the torch from Mr. Sam Rainsy or Mr. Kem Sokha,” she said.

Still, that could be easier said than done.

Until the group is able to operate openly in Cambodia, the group’s training efforts will mainly have to take place through podcasts, short videos and written research documents, Mu Sochua said.

“It's a hybrid kind of capacity building: face-to-face when we can, and then through social media,” she said. “It’s like a marathon, you know – take one step at a time. It's a long journey.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alex Willemyns for RFA.

Many received all of the 120 votes during an extraordinary session chaired by Khuon Sudary, President of the National Assembly on Wednesday, local media reported. 

Many, 41, is the youngest son of Cambodian People’s Party president Hun Sen, 71, who stepped down as prime minister after last year’s national elections in favor of eldest son Hun Manet, 45.

The presumably proud father was not in the country to witness Many’s appointment.

Hun Sen was in Bangkok visiting Thaksin Shinawatra at the former Thai prime minister’s private residence after traveling “gangsta style,” according to Human Rights Watch Deputy Asian Director Phil Robertson. 

“So much for ‘good governance’ or ‘human rights’ in the Mekong sub-region,” Robertson posted on X.

Thaksin was released from the Police General Hospital on Sunday, after being held there due to ill health for six months on corruption charges following his return from exile. 

Hun Sen provided Thaksin with sanctuary during his 15-year exile, allowing him to visit frequently as a special advisor to Cambodia.

His son’s appointment was not unexpected. On Feb. 16, exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy said  Hun Many’s elevation to deputy prime minister would show, “this regime is a feudal clan, as far away from public accountability as any in the world.”

Hun Sen was Cambodia’s prime minister from 1985 to 2023, the longest-serving premier in the country’s history.

Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Mike Firn for RFA.

Party lawyers demanded 2 billion riel (US$500,000) in damages in the lawsuit against Soeung Sengkaruna filed in Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

The complaint signed by three lawyers for the Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, said that Sengkaruna commented last week to The Cambodia Daily that the party has used its influence with the courts to put pressure on its political opponents.

The lawsuit is the latest to target a critic of powerful Cambodian politicians. In November, a Banteay Meanchey man was sentenced to three years in prison for comments he made on Facebook over the CPP’s inability to prevent illegal immigration from Vietnam and drug use.

Last year, the Supreme Court upheld a US$1 million defamation judgment against Son Chhay, the vice president of the opposition Candlelight Party.

A lower court in 2022 ordered Son Chhay to pay the amount to the CPP and the National Election Committee following comments he made about local commune elections, which he said was marred by irregularities.

According to the lawsuit, Sengkaruna told The Cambodia Daily that the CPP should seek to compete with opposition politicians in the political realm, such as through free and fair elections, rather than through court complaints.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper closed in Phnom Penh in 2017. It was relaunched later that year as a Khmer- and English-language online news outlet based in the United States.

The outlet cited Sengkaruna’s paraphrased comments in a Khmer-language article on Friday. He was not directly quoted.

Hun Sen’s online threat

The lawsuit claims that Sengkaruna’s remarks seriously damaged the CPP's reputation and deliberately harmed the upcoming Feb. 25 Senate election.

It was filed the day after Hun Sen made remarks on Facebook threatening to sue Sengkaruna for commenting on the Son Chhay case. After stepping down as prime minister in August, Hun Sen was named president of the CPP.

Sengkaruna declined to comment about the CPP’s lawsuit when contacted by Radio Free Asia.

However, on Facebook he said his comments in the article were aimed at promoting “respect for human rights, law, social justice and democracy” without serving any particular political party.

“Any paraphrasing of my words to add or leave out [the meaning] in order to attack directly on the name of a political party was not my intention and goal,” he wrote on Facebook.

Sengkaruna has been actively involved in the promotion of human rights in Cambodia for more than 20 years, Am Sam Ath of human rights group Licadho told RFA.

“He is always active in helping people with land grabbing and other rights violations, and in asking the relevant authorities to intervene to find a solution for the people,” he said.

On Facebook, Sengkaruna added a note of thanks to friends and supporters.

“Thank you very much for the kind words, greetings and concerns from my family, friends, media, civil society, international partners and foreign diplomatic friends for my safety,” he wrote. “I’m fine.”

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Kong Raiya, who was jailed twice for his outspoken activities against the government, senior Candlelight member Lim Sokha and opposition activist Phan Phana were caught in an immigration roundup at an apartment complex in Bangkok.

The three activists had recently fled to Thailand to seek asylum and had been granted refugee status, according to Phan Phana, who has ties to the Cambodia Youth Network. 

They had planned to hold a protest rally next week on the day Prime Minister Hun Manet is scheduled to arrive in Thailand on an official visit.

“I am afraid that I will be deported back to Cambodia,” Phan Phana told RFA Khmer before his phone was confiscated. “The [ruling Cambodian People’s Party] were behind this arrest because the police are asking for details about other activists.”

Kong Raiya told RFA that he was sent to an immigration police station. He said that Thai police worked with the Cambodian government to arrest him because he had criticized Hun Manet, who became Cambodia’s prime minister after his father, longtime leader Hun Sen, stepped down in August.

“The government was angry so I got arrested,” he said, explaining that Thai police might have known his location by tapping his phone or tracking him on the internet. 

Fellow Candlelight Party Activist Khem Monykosal, who is also seeking asylum in Thailand, told RFA that the three activists are detained in immigration detention center in Bangkok. 

“The situation is tense now. Police are patrolling buildings,” said Khem Monykosal. “If we go down there, they will arrest us. I beg the Thai government to give more consideration to refugee rights and stop harming us.”

Thailand should not arrest people who have been granted refugee status, Yin Mengly of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association told RFA.

“The Thai government can’t deport those activists based only on their politics or freedom of expression,” he said. 

The immigration roundup was made just ahead of Hun Manet’s scheduled visit to Bangkok Feb. 7, where he will meet with his Thai counterpart Srettha Thavisin for trade and border talks.  

Dozens of pro-democracy Cambodian activists have fled to Thailand to seek asylum in recent years as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, has used intimidation and the courts to neutralize the political opposition.

RFA was not able to reach government spokesman Pen Bonaa for comment on Friday’s arrests. 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

"It takes a long time to build a good reputation so that people will want to come to visit Angkor Wat but [this reputation] was destroyed within only six months after a few articles from Al Jazeera,” he said, without elaborating on specifically what the Qatar-based news outlet had reported.

In 2019, Al-Jazeera published a scathing piece about crime-ridden casinos in Sihanoukville, and in 2022 it produced a documentary about cyber slaves–people duped into working as scammers, usually in casinos–after they were promised high-paying jobs. 

Hun Manet’s remarks came at a forum to promote investment in Sihanoukville, where according to data by the Ministry of Finance there are 362 so-called “ghost buildings” – hotels, restaurants or casinos funded by Chinese investors who pulled out before construction was completed.

Hun Manet unveiled a plan to deal with the problem, which would allow special visas and tax incentives for investors to purchase the buildings worth more than US$1 million on the condition that they fix and maintain them.

"We will consider tax exemptions [for those who buy the ghost buildings and fix them] but we need to set conditions so that they are actually fixing them instead of sitting on them for resale,” Hun Manet said.

He said the government will also make Sihanoukville more attractive by introducing duty free zones, investing in infrastructure and fostering the creation of resorts and other services for tourists. And to prevent further bad press, Sihanoukville province should do more to prevent crime.

Minister of Finance Aun Pornmoniroth told the forum that Cambodia needed US$1.1 billion to take care of the ghost building problem. 

“Back in 2016 investment in Sihanoukville was booming, especially in construction of restaurants, hotels and shops, but since 2019, due to the financial crisis and COVID-19 everything stopped,” he explained. 

In addition to the 362 ghost buildings there are an additional 176 buildings that are complete, but are not being used, he said.

Concerning incentives

The new incentives might bring more casinos to Sihanoukville concerns Cheap Sotheary, the provincial coordinator for theCambodian Human Rights and Development Association. 

He told RFA Khmer that the province would have to deal with more crime, drugs and human trafficking unless it seeks out other kinds of investment.

"[Casinos] bring in gamblers through and sell drugs, alcohol and sex,” she said. “People don't want to see this kind of investment."

Social and political commentator Por Makara said corruption has scared away Western investors. 

"The ghost building situation will worsen because only Chinese investors … will be willing to deal with all the corruption,” he said. “European and American investors don't want to be involved with human rights abuses." 

Political commentator Kim Sok told RFA that the government's incentives would not attract good businesspeople to invest in the restoration of ghost buildings in Sihanoukville. He said that the main reason why Cambodia lacks good businessmen now is because the legal system is trampled by powerful people, corruption and crime.

"Hun Manet's incentives won't help the national or local economy but are only good for money laundering. Good investors won't invest in those buildings," he said.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said in a report that Cambodia is on a “recovery trajectory post-pandemic.” The country’s GDP grew 5.2% in 2022 and is projected to grow 5.3% in 2023, “fueled by a resurgence in tourism,” which saw gains due to the 2023 South-East Asia Games.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Sam Sokha told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday that she and her two children landed in Canada’s Alberta province on Jan. 12 and are being cared for by a refugee rights group.

She said she will continue to advocate for democracy in Cambodia.

“After going through detention, as well as the stories that I came across, I see that our Cambodian people are facing more difficulties than me,” she said. “I still do not give up my will.”

Last month, Sam Sokha was one of 10 people detained by Thai immigration authorities during a civic workshop in Bangkok. 

The workshop was held to inform Cambodian migrant workers and political asylum seekers in Thailand about Cambodia’s 1991 Paris Peace Agreement, which formally ended decades of war in the country and paved the way for parliamentary democracy.

The arrests were made several days after minor political parties and NGOs aligned with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, urged Thai authorities to monitor opposition activists in Thailand.

In 2017, video clips posted on Facebook showed Sam Sokha twice throwing her shoe at a CPP billboard in Kampong Speu province that included a photo of Heng Samrin, who was then the president of the National Assembly, as well as Hun Sen.

The videos prompted the CPP to file a criminal complaint. Party spokesman Sok Ey San said at the time that the videos showed her intent to curse the two leaders.

“We will not let her get away with this,” he said at the time.

In 2018, the Kampong Speu Provincial Court sentenced the former factory worker to four years in prison. 

She fled to Thailand but was arrested and returned to Cambodia, where she began serving her prison term in February 2018. She was released in 2022 after she paid a 10 million riel (US$2,440) fine. Then she again traveled to Thailand to seek political asylum.

Dozens of pro-democracy Cambodian activists have crossed into Thailand in recent years as the CPP continues to use intimidation and the courts to neutralize political opponents. Thailand is also host to more than 1 million Cambodian migrant workers. 

RFA was unable to reach government spokesman Pen Bona to ask for comment on Sam Sokha’s resettlement in Canada. 

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ieng Neang for RFA Khmer.

Hun Manet, who was handed the reins to the government by his father in August, used an annual meeting at the country’s Ministry of Environment to speak on the subject of deforestation for the first time. 

He thanked Cambodians for sharing evidence of illegal logging on his Facebook page and told officials they already had the power to stop it.

“I issued orders to relevant institutions to study the law, otherwise we will have problems,” Hun Manet said. “You have swords in your hands. I still stand behind you. You need to implement the law.”

The prime minister ordered Sao Sokha, who commands Cambodia’s national military police force and is the chairman of a task force on deforestation, to work with relevant ministries to stop illegal logging.

Environment Minister Eang Sophalleth promised harsher punishments, saying the government would end its practice of releasing perpetrators after they pledged not to repeat their offenses.

Rocket attacks

In his pledge to crack down on the practice, Hun Manet was reiterating similar declarations made more colorfully by father. Hun Sen called for rocket attacks against illegal loggers and once famously promised to cut off his own head if the practice continued under his watch.

And yet it has continued. Global Forest Watch, which tracks forest decline, has said that Cambodia lost 557,000 hectares of tree cover in protected areas between 2001-2018, or 11.7% of the total. Its rate of loss exceeds that in countries where illegal logging is also a problem, like Brazil and Indonesia, the group said.

A 2022 report from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, a Switzerland-based group that includes law enforcement officials, said in a 2022 report that “rings of illegality” – corruption from the local to the national level and in government and business – allows illegal logging to flourish. 

The country’s tax base is too small to support the political and military infrastructure, which requires alternative forms of income, including illegal timber sales, the group said.

Forest protection advocates said they welcomed Hun Manet’s statement but that the systemic illegality that allows illegal logging to continue will be tough to root out.

Hat Nai, an environmentalist who has pushed for more protection of the Preah Roka wildlife sanctuary in northern Cambodia, said rampant corruption leaves the forests unprotected.

“Regulations are just regulations, but the lower level officials cannot implement them because thieves have colluded with the police,” Hat Nai said. “There is no elimination of forest crime. Clearing forest land is happening all over the sanctuaries.”

Out Latin, the protect coordinator for the Cambodian Youth Network, which has also urged more action against illegal logging, told RFA that he welcomed Hun Manet's pledge to protect the forest but was skeptical his directive would be implemented. 

He said when activists have presented evidence of illegal logging environmental officials in the past have not acted, continuing to grant timber concessions to companies that are alleged to have logged in prohibited areas.

Translated by Yun Samean, and edited by Jim Snyder and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

He met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Hun Manet and Pham Minh Chinh signed a cooperation agreement between the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and another agreement in the areas of science, technology and innovation, the ministry said in a statement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to visit Hanoi this week, according to Reuters. 

Hun Manet traveled to Beijing in October to attend China’s Belt and Road Initiative conference. In September, he addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

On Sunday, the 46-year-old was named vice president of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP – a move that allows him to meet with his Vietnamese counterparts on an equal level, according to Men Nath, a Norway-based representative of the Cambodia Watchdog Council.

“If he went to Vietnam just as a permanent member of the party, it would not be insufficient,” he said.

Border issues and immigration

Cambodia’s National Assembly officially selected Hun Manet as prime minister on Aug. 22. The formality took place about a month after the CPP swept a general election in which the country’s only viable opposition party wasn’t allowed to compete.

Just a few days later, longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen announced at a July 26 news conference that he would step down as prime minister and would begin a transition to Hun Manet, his eldest son. 

After driving the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979, Vietnam administered Cambodia for more than a decade, appointing Hun Sen prime minister in 1985 and maintaining tens of thousands of troops on the ground. 

Over the years, Hun Sen’s opponents have often attempted to paint him as a tool of the Vietnamese. He remains the head of the CPP.

Unresolved border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam, former French colonies from the 1860s to 1954, have regularly inflamed nationalist sentiment. The disputed border has sparked incidents in the past, with the construction by Vietnam of military posts in contested areas quickly challenged by Cambodian authorities in Phnom Penh.

Cambodian activists also cite the fact that nearly 1.3-million ethnic Khmer people live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.

RFA was unable to reach foreign ministry spokesman An Sokhoeun or government spokesman Pen Bona for comment on Hun Manet’s visit.

Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Lawmakers voted to make 45-year-old Hun Manet the country’s new prime minister on Aug. 22. King Norodom Sihamoni swore him in at the Royal Palace shortly afterward.

How much the eldest son of a man who for decades ruled Cambodia – sometimes ruthlessly – would wield power on his own has been much discussed. 

On Thursday, Hun Manet marked his first 100 days with a warning message that sounded a lot like his father, Hun Sen, who first became prime minister in 1985.

“I won’t let people accuse the new government of being incapable of maintaining peace for the people, especially because that peace was difficult to attain with great devotion by our nation,” he said at a groundbreaking ceremony for a dam in Koh Kong province.

It’s better for critics to say he’s an authoritarian leader than for people to think he’s incapable of leading the country, he said. 

Such a perception of weakness could plunge Cambodia back into civil war, he said – a reminder of his father’s efforts in the 1990s to bring the remaining Khmer Rouge holdouts under government control.

Hun Sen, 71, resigned as prime minister in August but retains influence as president of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. He also recently became president of the Senate. 

At a Nov. 23 news conference, government spokesman Pen Bona noted that peace and order have been maintained following the August power transfer.

David Hutt, a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies in Prague and a commentary writer for RFA, said this week that “political instability” doesn’t appear to be a factor under Hun Manet.

“He has shown that his administration won’t be worse than his father’s, which isn’t saying much,” he said. “His power appears secure and there’s no sign of internal displeasure about his succession.” 

‘People are over-indebted’

For years, opposition leaders have criticized the CPP for not addressing government corruption and income inequality.

“The pressing issues are that our people are over-indebted and their properties are subject to being seized as they are unable to generate enough income to repay their debts and interest,” said Son Chhay, the deputy president of the opposition Candlelight Party. 

“Hundreds of thousands of our migrant workers go to work in neighboring countries without proper documentation,” he said. “This is an issue that has caused such difficulties for our citizens. Yet he has failed to do anything about it.”

Shortly after taking office, Hun Manet unveiled a 22-page strategy memo outlining the government’s plans for increasing employment, reducing poverty and promoting good governance. 

The goal is to make Cambodia an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income one by 2050, he said. 

In September, he addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York, insisting that July’s general election was free and fair and “credible and just,” even though the Candlelight Party wasn’t allowed to compete.

He also appeared to address U.S. claims and satellite imagery that may show that China is building a military base in the port of Sihanoukville.

In October, he traveled to Beijing to attend China’s Belt and Road Initiative conference – his second trip to the Chinese capital in 2023. Earlier this year, he and Hun Sen met with President Xi Jinping during an official visit.

And in November, he presided over the annual Government-Private Sector Forum in Phnom Penh, where he announced initiatives aimed at encouraging more foreign investment in property. He also urged microfinance companies to make it easier for homeowners to refinance delinquent mortgages.

‘Backseat driver’

But last week, a man who criticized the ruling CPP on Facebook over its inability to prevent illegal immigration from Vietnam and drug use was sentenced to three years in prison – evidence that the government’s longtime practice of going after critics will continue.

“No one should be expecting any political reform or opening up democratically,” Hutt said. “What will be interesting to watch is how much of a hostage he will be to the private sector, especially the powerful tycoons.”

Pen Bona told reporters that three months “isn’t a long period” to judge a new prime minister.

He pointed toward plans to achieve universal healthcare for all Cambodians, to provide free technical training to 1.5 million Cambodians from poor backgrounds and to put in place a national authority for settling civil disputes outside of the backlogged court system.

But exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy wrote in The Diplomat on Wednesday that “it’s useless to look for signs of positive change under a ‘new regime’ when a transfer of power has not in fact taken place.”

“There is no evidence that Hun Manet is capable of governing without his father as a backseat driver,” he said.

On Facebook, he wrote that Hun Manet’s first 100 days shouldn’t be marked as a celebration, but rather as a “mourning.” 

“There are more political prisoners, more threats, and more authoritarian rules,” he wrote.

At the Koh Kong groundbreaking, Hun Manet seemed to publicly respond to those comments. 

“Whatever such mourning is, you hold it alone,” he said. “Millions of our people have just enjoyed celebrating the Water Festival. Are they mourning or celebrating?”

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

In a speech before government officials, teachers and students, Hun Manet encouraged the students to take a day off from school once or twice a week to volunteer.

“[We should] train people and children to know how to help social work,” he said. “We can assign people to help improve sanitation, to help the elderly and to help plant trees.”

Hun Manet, who recently took over the prime ministership after his father Hun Sen ruled the country for nearly four decades, said that it was important to foster a volunteer mindset.

“[This is] a way we can encourage [students,]” he said. “Their grades [should] not just come from in-class examinations, but also come from their discipline and behavior.”

The request seemed disingenuous to Phuong Keo Raksmey, a member of the Mother Nature Movement environmentalist group. 

While she appreciated the encouragement to volunteer, she told RFA Khmer that students in 7th grade and up are regularly recruited into the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia – an organization led by the prime minister’s brother Hun Many – which, in her opinion, does not engage in activities that better the community, but serves the interests of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. 

“First, the definition of ‘social work’ should be defined,” she said. “It should not be limited to work that [directly] supports the government or the policies of any political party.”

She urged the government to allow people freedom to choose how they volunteer.

Keut Saray, the president of the Khmer Intellectual Students Association, said that the government should make amends for past crackdowns on volunteers, including himself.

“When young students became active in social work [in the past], they were restricted and charged under the penal code and then imprisoned,” he said. “So we’re seeing that they ‘talk the talk,’ but it doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t translated into action.”

The crackdown on social activists occurred under the rule of Hun Sen, not Hun Manet, but since taking over, the son’s administration has yet to take concrete steps to guarantee the rights of young people involved in activism.

For example, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court denied a request by three youth members of the Mother Nature Movement for permission to leave Cambodia so that they could travel to Sweden to receive an award this November in recognition for their environmental activism.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

In a speech before government officials, teachers and students, Hun Manet encouraged the students to take a day off from school once or twice a week to volunteer.

“[We should] train people and children to know how to help social work,” he said. “We can assign people to help improve sanitation, to help the elderly and to help plant trees.”

Hun Manet, who recently took over the prime ministership after his father Hun Sen ruled the country for nearly four decades, said that it was important to foster a volunteer mindset.

“[This is] a way we can encourage [students,]” he said. “Their grades [should] not just come from in-class examinations, but also come from their discipline and behavior.”

The request seemed disingenuous to Phuong Keo Raksmey, a member of the Mother Nature Movement environmentalist group. 

While she appreciated the encouragement to volunteer, she told RFA Khmer that students in 7th grade and up are regularly recruited into the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia – an organization led by the prime minister’s brother Hun Many – which, in her opinion, does not engage in activities that better the community, but serves the interests of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. 

“First, the definition of ‘social work’ should be defined,” she said. “It should not be limited to work that [directly] supports the government or the policies of any political party.”

She urged the government to allow people freedom to choose how they volunteer.

Keut Saray, the president of the Khmer Intellectual Students Association, said that the government should make amends for past crackdowns on volunteers, including himself.

“When young students became active in social work [in the past], they were restricted and charged under the penal code and then imprisoned,” he said. “So we’re seeing that they ‘talk the talk,’ but it doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t translated into action.”

The crackdown on social activists occurred under the rule of Hun Sen, not Hun Manet, but since taking over, the son’s administration has yet to take concrete steps to guarantee the rights of young people involved in activism.

For example, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court denied a request by three youth members of the Mother Nature Movement for permission to leave Cambodia so that they could travel to Sweden to receive an award this November in recognition for their environmental activism.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The announcement on Tuesday followed the release of a voicemail that former leader Hun Sen sent to government ministers about widespread criticism of the tax proposals.

“For the tax issue, please take a look into it,” Hun Sen said in the voicemail, which was released earlier this week on Facebook. “Why is it exploding? We are not taking any action yet, but the talk is causing an outcry.”

Hun Sen, 71, stepped down in August after leading the country since 1985. Hun Manet, his eldest son, was appointed prime minister on Aug. 22 – a move that had been planned for years.

The voicemail shows that Hun Sen continues to control the government behind the scenes and remains a potent political force, said Seng Sary, a Cambodian political analyst granted asylum in Australia.

Cambodia is attempting to recover from the economic damage brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused inflation, a decline in trade and increase in job losses in the vital garment sector. 

As a result of the downturn, the government’s General Department of Taxation reported that collections during the first eight months of 2023 were 21% lower than what was projected in the annual budget.

‘We have to be on top of the timing’

The department’s increased efforts at collecting taxes helped spark the recent outcry on social media, Seng Sary told Radio Free Asia.

Hun Sen noted in the voicemail that the tax issue came up just as Hun Manet was settling into office and while neighboring Thailand has proposed debt forgiveness measures and other ways to help people deal with economic hardship.

“Some problems, we have to be on top of the timing,” he said in the message to the ministers. “If we are not on top of the timing, we may go wrong. Please help with the direction of the government.”

On Tuesday, Hun Manet spoke in front of 20,000 workers in Phnom Penh, telling them the government won’t be creating any new taxes or increasing the old ones. 

“We did not take it and we will not take it,” he said of a decision on taxes. “So be clear on this.”

He noted that the government doesn’t currently levy taxes in some areas, such as farmland, agricultural materials and products, real estate worth less than 100 million riel (US$25,000) and inheritance. 

Details on future tax policies will be released in November, after the annual  Government-Private Sector Forum in Phnom Penh, he said.

The current tax payment procedures make it easier for corrupt tax officials to commit corruption and oppress taxpayers, Seng Sary said.

“Hun Manet should announce the reform of how to collect taxes effectively and reduce corruption in the tax sector so the people can have a positive view on the government of Hun Manet,” he said.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen handed power to his son after claiming victory in an election in which he banned the last remaining opposition party, the Candlelight Party, and threatened prison time and disenfranchisement for any Cambodians who joined the party’s efforts to boycott the vote.

His ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which has been in power since 1979, won 120 of the 125 available seats – a five-seat drop from 2018, with those seats going to its longtime coalition partner Funcinpec.

Speaking before the U.N. General Assembly in English, Hun Manet said it was his “great pleasure” to address the chamber “as the new prime minister of the kingdom of Cambodia,” and lauded the election.

“Over 8.2 million people cast their ballots, a turnout rate of 84.59%,” he said, pointing to the participation of 18 minor parties as evidence of fairness. “This is the highest turnout since the U.N.-supervised election in 1993, and a clear indication of our people's greater political maturity and enthusiasm in exercising their democratic rights.”

“The election has been widely assessed as free and fair, credible and just, by thousands of observers,” he said. 

The United States and European Union declined to send observers due to concerns about the election’s integrity.

Hun Manet also appeared to address U.S. claims and satellite imagery that appears to show China building a military base in the port city of Sihanoukville, which his father has also repeatedly denied.

“Cambodia shall not authorize any foreign military base on this territory, as clearly stated in its constitution,” he said. “Cambodia will continue on its present path of independence and a neutral foreign policy.”

Hun Manet became Cambodia’s new premier on Aug. 22, after 38 years of rule by his father, who rose to power in 1985 under the communist regime installed by Vietnam after its ouster of Pol Pot.

Hun Sen long ruled with an iron fist, banning the resurgent Cambodia National Rescue Party shortly before the 2018 election and jailing its leader after the party threatened to win even a flawed election. Some members of the CNRP then reassembled into the Candlelight Party to contest this year’s election, before that party, too, was banned. 

Hun Manet’s government has appeared no more eager for friendly competition, and has refused to give the party official registration documents it would need to contest in any future elections.

Change, or no change?

Outside the U.N. building on Friday, Cambodian-Americans and former opposition party leaders protested Manet’s appearance, calling for his government to be stripped of Cambodia’s U.N. seat.

Former CNRP lawmakers including Ho Vann and Kong Saphea, Eng Chhay Eang and Mu Sochua – all of whom face lengthy prison sentences if they return to Cambodia – were in attendance, and the protesters reprised popular chants from the party’s post-2013 election mass protests, including the rhetorical “Change, or no change?”

Sochua, who also served as Cambodia’s minister for women’s affairs from 1998 to 2004, told Radio Free Asia she thought Manet would not be able to completely quieten the sense of shame about how he took power, unable to campaign, on his own, in a free election.

“I don’t think that he sits in that seat comfortably,” Mu Sochua said of Cambodia’s U.N. seat. “Hun Manet is not a free man.”

It was clear, she said, that Hun Sen hoped to give his regime – known for arresting opposition leaders, banning rival parties and violently attacking critics – a new coat of sheen using Hun Manet’s face.

But Mu Sochua said the world should not buy what Phnom Penh was selling, and pointed to the decision to deny the opposition Candlelight Party its registration papers and the vicious beating of Ny Nak as evidence that the new prime minister was more of the same.

“If he wanted to be legitimized, if he wanted to be a new generation of Cambodian leader, we would have to start with free and fair elections,” she said. “You cannot fake legitimacy. How can he show a new face for Cambodia when he is under the control of his father?”

No change

Others said they had traveled to New York to make sure the world knew Cambodians wanted the chance to freely choose their leaders.

“I came here because Cambodia is going on the wrong path for democracy,” said Thy Doak, 63, who traveled from Boston. “This dictator passed his power to Hun Manet which goes against the Paris Agreements that [say] we should have free and fair elections.”

Doak said he arrived in Cambodia as a refugee in 1984 and wanted his compatriots back home to enjoy the same freedoms he did now in the United States. He said he had no hope Hun Manet would deliver that.

“He’s no different from his father. There’s no change,” he said. “I don’t want Hun Manet to be a part of this thing. Cambodia does not deserve it. We’re supposed to be a democracy, but we have a dictatorship.” 

Susie Chhoun, 45, who was born in the Khao-i-Dang refugee camp along the Cambodian-Thailand before her parents were given asylum in the United States in the 1980s, said she, too, held out little hope Hun Manet would usher in a period of change for her birth country.

“He already proved it. He wasn’t elected; power was basically handed to him in the regime,” Chhoun said, noting the irony of the situation.

“He got his education here in America, so you would assume he would have a different perspective and reform Cambodia to be more civilized. But it’s not the case,” she said. “He’s arresting people the same way, and this is when he’s new in power. Imagine after several decades.”

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alex Willemyns for RFA.

The current minimum wage is US$200 – set by then-Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government last September. But with rising inflation, independent unions have asked the Ministry of Labor to approve an increase to US$220 for 2024. 

“We are paying attention to the workers’ salary,” Hun Manet told workers in Kandal province, just south of Phnom Penh. “We are working to negotiate. We are committed to increasing the minimum wage based on our ability.”

The newly appointed prime minister made similar remarks to about 20,000 garment workers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh on Tuesday. 

“We will welcome the government, whether they increase a little or much,” Ath Thun of the Cambodian Labour Confederation told Radio Free Asia. “But if there is a small increase, it is not a gift for the workers. We need an appropriate increase or the workers will face a lower living standard.”

Top issue for opposition party

The minimum wage issue was a main source of support for the opposition Candlelight Party, which has attracted members in recent years with a policy platform centered around improving social welfare benefits. 

In May, the party was ruled ineligible for the general elections in a decision criticized as politically motivated. 

In June, Hun Sen urged thousands of garment workers to speak out against the Candlelight Party, saying that its efforts could bring international sanctions against the country’s garment industry.

More than 50,000 Cambodian garment workers have been laid off over the last few years amid a downturn in the sector that began with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Additionally, Cambodia has lost some of its preferential trade advantages with the European Union due to human rights concerns, which has meant higher tariffs on exports.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party swept the tightly controlled July 23 parliamentary vote. Last month, Hun Manet – Hun Sen’s eldest son – was named the country’s new prime minister.

‘Appointments will be removed’

On Friday, Hun Manet said he is reconsidering the number of recent appointments of government officials and advisers. 

The size of his cabinet – which includes 10 deputy prime ministers, 21 senior ministers and 30 ministers – has brought criticism about wasteful spending as well as conflict and confusion within the government.

Some advisers and aides have positions equal to minister or secretary of state, even though their titles indicate they are low level government officials. Other officials hold high-level government positions as well as the title of senior adviser, Hun Manet said.

The dual titles and numerous advisers were originally intended as a way to encourage people, but under an upcoming royal decree, ministers and advisers must choose just one title, he said.

“For government officials, police and military who were also appointed as advisers or as aides, those appointments will be removed,” he said. “I will choose a win-win choice so they can continue their work in the government.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Meta said in a statement on Monday that while it would remove the content that led to the review, it would not ban Hun Sen’s use of the site, citing the company’s “commitment to voice” in its protocol on restricting the accounts of public figures.

"Upon assessing Hun Sen’s Facebook Page and Instagram account, we determined that suspending those accounts outside our regular enforcement framework would not be consistent with our policies, including our protocol on restricting accounts of public figures during civil unrest,” the company said.

But Meta also said its protocol is not designed for situations where a history of state violence or human rights restrictions have resulted in ongoing restrictions on expressions for an indeterminate period of time.

“Applying the protocol in those circumstances could lead to an indefinite suspension of a public figure’s account, which (apart from fairness issues) could be detrimental to people’s ability to access information from and about their leaders and to express themselves using Meta’s platforms,” it said.

The company noted that in this case it had “applied appropriate account-level penalties associated with that action.”

Facebook is enormously popular in Cambodia, and Hun Sen, who ruled the country for 38 years, often uses it to communicate to the public and to attack political opponents. Hun Sen passed on rule to his son, Hun Manet, following elections in July that were deemed a sham. 

Board banned from Cambodia

The controversy surrounded a live video streamed on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page of a speech in January during which he made statements viewed as threats of violence against his political opponents. 

Meta initially referred the case to the oversight board because it said the matter “created tension between our values of safety and voice.” The board, which operates independently from Meta, advises the company on ethics issues.

On June 29, the oversight board ordered the removal of the video and called for an immediate suspension of Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months. It marked the first time that the oversight board instructed the company to shut down a government leader’s account, RFA reported. Hun Sen then called on his social media followers to switch to rival platforms TikTok or Telegram.

In response to Meta’s latest decision, Cambodia said Tuesday it would allow the California-based company to continue operating in the country, but banned the 22 members of the oversight board from visiting, accusing them of “interference into Cambodian affairs.”

“The decision reflects the integrity of contents posted on the official Facebook page of Samdech [honorific] Hun Sen,” it said.

Article19, a rights group that advocates for freedom of expression, declined to comment on the reversal and referred RFA to the International Commission of Jurists, or ICJ, an international human rights group based in Geneva, Switzerland. 

In March, the ICJ submitted a public comment to Meta’s oversight board concerning Hun Sen’s video, saying that the company had a responsibility to moderate content on its platforms in line with international human rights law and standards. 

Daron Tan, a legal adviser at the ICJ, told RFA that he could not comment on Meta’s latest decision, but that his organization was monitoring the company’s ongoing assessment of the feasibility of updating its newsworthiness allowance policy to state that content that directly incites violence is not eligible for this exception.   

“The newsworthy allowance has, to date, not been applied consistently or transparently,” Tan said in an email. “As we have repeatedly emphasized, discretionary exception should generally not be available for forms of expression that are prohibited under international human rights law, such as expression inciting violence.”

“It is especially critical to impose a restriction where there is a strong risk that the inciting words of a powerful actor like a Prime Minister may be acted upon,” Tan said.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Meta said in a statement on Monday that while it would remove the content that led to the review, it would not ban Hun Sen’s use of the site, citing the company’s “commitment to voice” in its protocol on restricting the accounts of public figures.

"Upon assessing Hun Sen’s Facebook Page and Instagram account, we determined that suspending those accounts outside our regular enforcement framework would not be consistent with our policies, including our protocol on restricting accounts of public figures during civil unrest,” the company said.

But Meta also said its protocol is not designed for situations where a history of state violence or human rights restrictions have resulted in ongoing restrictions on expressions for an indeterminate period of time.

“Applying the protocol in those circumstances could lead to an indefinite suspension of a public figure’s account, which (apart from fairness issues) could be detrimental to people’s ability to access information from and about their leaders and to express themselves using Meta’s platforms,” it said.

The company noted that in this case it had “applied appropriate account-level penalties associated with that action.”

Facebook is enormously popular in Cambodia, and Hun Sen, who ruled the country for 38 years, often uses it to communicate to the public and to attack political opponents. Hun Sen passed on rule to his son, Hun Manet, following elections in July that were deemed a sham. 

Board banned from Cambodia

The controversy surrounded a live video streamed on Hun Sen’s official Facebook page of a speech in January during which he made statements viewed as threats of violence against his political opponents. 

Meta initially referred the case to the oversight board because it said the matter “created tension between our values of safety and voice.” The board, which operates independently from Meta, advises the company on ethics issues.

On June 29, the oversight board ordered the removal of the video and called for an immediate suspension of Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months. It marked the first time that the oversight board instructed the company to shut down a government leader’s account, RFA reported. Hun Sen then called on his social media followers to switch to rival platforms TikTok or Telegram.

In response to Meta’s latest decision, Cambodia said Tuesday it would allow the California-based company to continue operating in the country, but banned the 22 members of the oversight board from visiting, accusing them of “interference into Cambodian affairs.”

“The decision reflects the integrity of contents posted on the official Facebook page of Samdech [honorific] Hun Sen,” it said.

Article19, a rights group that advocates for freedom of expression, declined to comment on the reversal and referred RFA to the International Commission of Jurists, or ICJ, an international human rights group based in Geneva, Switzerland. 

In March, the ICJ submitted a public comment to Meta’s oversight board concerning Hun Sen’s video, saying that the company had a responsibility to moderate content on its platforms in line with international human rights law and standards. 

Daron Tan, a legal adviser at the ICJ, told RFA that he could not comment on Meta’s latest decision, but that his organization was monitoring the company’s ongoing assessment of the feasibility of updating its newsworthiness allowance policy to state that content that directly incites violence is not eligible for this exception.   

“The newsworthy allowance has, to date, not been applied consistently or transparently,” Tan said in an email. “As we have repeatedly emphasized, discretionary exception should generally not be available for forms of expression that are prohibited under international human rights law, such as expression inciting violence.”

“It is especially critical to impose a restriction where there is a strong risk that the inciting words of a powerful actor like a Prime Minister may be acted upon,” Tan said.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Manet, the eldest son of longtime leader Hun Sen, took over as prime minister earlier this week after the newly sworn-in National Assembly gave its official approval.

“The core of the strategy is to focus on governance and modernize state institutions to become modern public administration,” the 45-year-old said during the meeting televised by national broadcaster TVK.

Hun Manet read from a 22-page strategy memo that he said would serve as a roadmap for increasing employment, reducing poverty and promoting good governance while maintaining peace and political stability. 

The government’s goal is to make Cambodia an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income one by 2050, he said.

An upper-middle income country has a gross national income per capita of between US$4,256 and US$13,205, according to the World Bank, where Hun Manet worked as an intern decades ago. 

A high-income country has a gross national income per capita of more than $13,205. 

Cambodia had a per capita income of US$1700 in 2022, World Bank figures show.

‘Can’t just eliminate nepotism’

But Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, said the strategy will be hampered by Cambodia’s ingrained corruption and nepotism. Hun Manet will have to look out for his family’s interest and other allies first, he said.

“This is a cancer in society. He can’t just eliminate nepotism and then do reform,” he said.  

The most effective way to implement the new strategy would be to reopen the political space, show respect for human rights and be more accepting of the roles that local and international NGOs play in society, legal expert Vorn Chan Lout told Radio Free Asia.

It should also establish a policy of not prosecuting opposition party figures, he said.

“The core element is to restore the rule of law,” he said. 

Activists and leaders from the country’s main opposition party, the Candlelight Party, faced threats, harassment and arrest over the last year as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party prepared for the July 23 national elections.

The CPP won 120 of the National Assembly’s 125 seats. The Candlelight Party was not allowed to compete after the government’s National Election Committee cited inadequate paperwork.

The NEC’s decision was widely condemned as politically motivated.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Manet, 45, spoke to lawmakers after the vote. He thanked his father Hun Sen for clearing the way for him and also attacked opposition parties and other dissidents. 

“The election results reflect a strong denial from the voters against those unethical groups that  are convincing Cambodians to walk away from democracy and the rule of law, and to incite people to fall into their ambitions that are vicious and dangerous to the country,” he said. 

Hun Sen was seen wiping away tears after the vote. After ruling the country since 1985, the 71-year-old announced just three days after the July 23 election that he would resign as prime minister and would hand over the prime minister role to his eldest son.

On Tuesday, Hun Sen was officially appointed to his new roles as president of the Senate and the Supreme Privy Council to King Norodom Sihamoni. 

He will also retain power behind the scenes as president of the CPP, which overwhelmingly won last month’s elections – in no small part because authorities kept the main opposition Candlelight Party from participating on a technicality.

‘Still the decision-maker’

Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy told Radio Free Asia that Hun Manet’s ascension represented only symbolic change.

“Hun Sen is still the decision-maker,” he said. “He will continue to protect the system. His son takes the position to make his government look good.”

The new Assembly also voted on Monday for a new cabinet, which includes 10 deputy prime ministers, 18 senior ministers and 22 ministers. 

Many of the new ministers are the adult children and relatives of the outgoing generation of government officials “who established the corrupt system,” Sam Rainsy said.

“Hun Sen is buying people to allow their children to take their fathers’ positions to secure his impunity,” he said.

‘They send people to attack me’

Last month’s election was condemned by the United States, France, Australia and others as neither free nor fair because of the exclusion of the Candlelight Party, as well as for efforts to neutralize the political opposition through threats, arrests and other means. 

In the run-up to the election, dozens of opposition activists were persuaded to publicly switch their allegiance to the CPP. 

But one activist who refused, and is now seeking asylum in Thailand, said that three men struck him in the face and tried to drag him into a car this week. Phorn Channa told RFA that he escaped with help from a bystander. 

“I got off my motorbike and was attacked,” he said. “I fled to a house for help but people shouted so the suspect fled.”

He said that Heng Suor – now the newly appointed minister of Labor – had previously tried to convince him to join the CPP. He said he declined because he believed that only an opposition party could bring democracy to Cambodia and respect for human rights.

“I thought when I arrived in Thailand I would be safe, but it is not safe,” he said. “They send people to attack me. I am very concerned. This shows that the Cambodian government is brutal. They are trying to harm democrats wherever we go.”

RFA couldn’t reach Heng Suor for comment on Tuesday. 

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The 71-year-old strongman prime minister is bequeathing his son a country that has changed considerably over the course of his reign. Cambodia is on track, by World Bank estimates, to reach upper-middle income status by 2030, but inequality is rampant and poverty remains widespread.

The government Hun Manet, 45, inherits is one where it pays to have powerful parents. His incoming defense minister, Tea Seiha, is the son of his father’s long-serving defense minister, Tea Banh, who was appointed in 1989. His new interior minister, Sar Sokha, too, is taking over from his own father, Sar Kheng, who has held the top security position for 31 years.

It’s a generational change of government taken to its most literal extreme. The new minister of commerce, Cham Nimol, is the daughter of Cham Prasidh, who ran the ministry from 1994 to 2013. The minister in charge of the civil service, meanwhile, is Hun Manet’s younger brother, Hun Many. Control of Cambodia’s central bank is passing from Chea Chanto, in charge since 1998, to his daughter, Chea Serey. 

In fact, almost a quarter of the 125 ruling party candidates who ran in the July 2023 national election are related, according to a recent analysis by the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association.

The newest government reflects the Cambodia that Hun Sen has built through decades of political violence and institutional control. It is one where absolute poverty has fallen, but where an idealistic system of electoral government created by the United Nations in the 1990s has been transformed into a constellation of family fiefdoms, glued together only by a knack for corruption.

“It is a ‘clanic’ succession; it is a whole clan renewing itself,” Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s longtime opposition leader, told Radio Free Asia this month. “The regime has become a hereditary dictatorship.”

Young reformist

A low-level Khmer Rouge military commander who turned on Pol Pot’s regime two years before its 1979 fall, Hun Sen rapidly rose to power in Cambodia’s Hanoi-backed revolutionary regime. 

In 1985, at the age of 33, he became the world’s youngest head of government and set about negotiating an end to the civil war with then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the father of Cambodia’s independence.

Viewed as a reformist at the time, Hun Sen bucked the older conservative wing of the regime to reach an agreement with Sihanouk’s shadow government that resulted in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement and the U.N.-run elections. 

The globally funded nation-building exercise, estimated to have cost in the end more than $20 billion, was meant to instill in Cambodia a vibrant multi-party democratic system, complete with an independent media and a professional civil service.

Instead, a series of power grabs by Hun Sen – particularly a coup d’etat in July 1997 and the crackdown that followed the rise of Cambodia’s united opposition in 2013 – mean those who openly oppose his rule could at best hope for prison or exile overseas.

After the 1997 coup, U.N. investigators found evidence that at least 40 of Hun Sen’s political rivals had been executed. In ousting his co-prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, he effectively overturned the results of the 1993 U.N.-run elections that the latter had won.

It would not be until the 2013 election that a viable challenge to his rule would re-emerge, when two long-bickering opposition parties merged into the Cambodia National Rescue Party and almost came to power in an election they said they only lost due to voter fraud. 

Months of demonstrations calling for a new vote followed. When the protests later dovetailed with a nationwide strike of garment workers calling for an increase in their $80 minimum monthly wage, the government responded with violence. Military police shot dead at least five of the workers, injuring and jailing dozens more. 

Hun Sen was once a hope for change but has become “the one who destroyed the political system in Cambodia,” said But Buntenh, a monk who helped lead protests after the disputed 2013 election before fleeing in 2017 amid a crackdown on regime critics.

“I recognize that he contributed to the rebuilding of Cambodia after the genocide, even though that had included him as a commander of the genocide,” But Buntenh, who now lives in Massachussets, told RFA. Hun Sen also was instrumental in the development of the Paris Peace Agreement. 

“That I accept and I appreciate,” he said. “But the people hate him because he took full control and ruled the country with his entire family, and takes Cambodia, as a nation, to belong to his family.”

Succession, ‘HBO-style’

Maintaining power has required more than just the violent vanquishment of foes. Hun Sen has also had to keep his own party behind him, even when not everybody has seemed on board.

In the end, Hun Sen’s own succession plan required him to cut similar handover deals with Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defense Minister Tea Banh.

Such an across-the-board generational transfer is necessary, explained Sam Rainsy, given the “dangerous and sensitive situation” of Hun Sen standing down while two powerful ministers with large security forces behind them could still loom over his son.

“Politically speaking, and psychologically speaking, those older officials cannot work under Hun Manet, so they all have to go,” Sam Rainsy said. “And Hun Sen has to find compensation for his colleagues, so he promised they will be replaced by their sons as well.”

But it also speaks to the fragmented nature of the government Hun Manet is taking over, one in which he lacks even the power to select his own most important cabinet ministers.

“It all resembles a kind of dynastic, corporate handoff,” Sophal Ear, a Cambodia expert at Arizona State University, told RFA. “It’s ‘Succession’ HBO-style, except within a government.” 

The state is me

Though he’s standing down as prime minister, Hun Sen will hold plenty of prime positions, including Senate president, a role that will make him the acting head of state when King Norodom Sihamoni is out of the country. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” Hun Sen noted in an Aug. 3 speech, in which he also warned he could return as prime minister if Hun Manet is endangered. “I’m just not going to be prime minister anymore – but I will still have power, as the president of the ruling party.”

The role of CPP president may have newfound prominence in Cambodia.

As the government-aligned Khmer Times noted in its report on his speech, Hun Sen pledged to respect the independence of the new government but noted their decisions “must not be different from the policy of the party that has made a promise to the electorate.”

In some ways, it’s a reversion to Hun Sen’s roots, as a young revolutionary trained by political minders from Vietnam, where the Communist Party secretary-general runs the show, and the prime minister, as head of government, implements party edicts. 

Stability, but for how long

At the very least, Hun Sen will be able to say he left behind a system of government that has lasted, said Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra and an election observer during the 1993 U.N.-run elections.

“Hun Sen will bequeath to Cambodia the longest-serving and most stable regime since Cambodia attained independence in November 1953,” Thayer said, even if the outgoing premier “also will go down in history as the destroyer of multiparty democracy in Cambodia.”

Hun Manet’s government, he added, will have a chance to “overcome baggage from the past” and forge new policy paths, as it searches for legitimacy. 

One of the weaknesses of a personalist authoritarian regime is its reliance, at the end of the day, on its central persona. 

Rainsy, the opposition leader, said that while the passing of ministerial fiefdoms from parent to child across the regime this week was meant to shore-up Manet’s position, there are no long-term guarantees.

“As long as Hun Sen is in good health, as long as he can show authority and threaten everybody, then this can last,” he said. “But the very day Hun Sen shows a sign of weakness, the day that his health deteriorates to the point that his authority is not as it is now, Hun Manet will not be able to hold onto his position.” 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Alex Willemyns for RFA.

The complaint, which CPJ reviewed, was filed by Md Shahinur Islam, who identified himself to The Daily Star as a reporter for the newspaper Amar Somoy, which supports the ruling Awami League party. It accused the journalists and other unnamed members of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party and Bangladesh Nationalist Party of working together to commit “anti-state crimes” and disseminate “conspiratorial news” in a July 27, 2023, Dainik Fulki article.

That article, titled “Asia’s longest-serving prime minister is finally resigning,” covered the resignation announcement of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen but mistakenly used a photo of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, president of the Awami League. The next day, the newspaper published a correction and apology, which CPJ reviewed.

Haque left Dainik Fulki around 2019 and was not involved in the article, the journalist told CPJ.

Sakib said he believed he was being targeted to undermine his campaign in the election for Savar Press Club president, which is set to be held in the coming months. He is opposed by about five journalists who strongly support the Awami League, he said.

Similarly, Haque said he believed he was being targeted for his campaign to be the press club’s organizing secretary. He is opposed by two journalists who strongly support the ruling party, he told CPJ.

The Savar Press Club is a trade group in the Dhaka district that advocates for issues, including wage distribution, labor rights, and journalist safety.

Sakib and Haque said they do not know Islam. Islam told CPJ via messaging app that his complaint was “accurate” and claimed the two journalists were involved in “information terrorism.” Islam did not respond to CPJ’s follow-up question about his journalistic background. CPJ called, messaged, and emailed the Amar Somoy newspaper for comment, but did not receive any replies.

Separately, on July 30, Sakib received a notice from the Dhaka district deputy commissioner’s office, reviewed by CPJ, ordering the journalist to explain within seven days why Dainik Fulki’s license to operate should not be canceled following an application filed by Manjurul Alam Rajib, chair of a local government unit and an Awami League leader in Savar. The notice alleges that the July 27 article “achieved the task of tarnishing the image of the state.”

Sakib’s response, dated August 6 and reviewed by CPJ, denied that allegation, expressed regret over the “unintentional mistake,” and mentioned the published correction and apology. Haque told CPJ that he did not receive a similar notice at that time.

Bangladesh’s next national election is set for January 2024 and expected to be met with increasing violence. In late July 2023, police fired at opposition party protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, and beat them amid mass arrests of Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists.

In response to the government’s announcement on August 7 that the Digital Security Act will be replaced, CPJ called on authorities to ensure the new Cyber Security Act complies with international human rights law.

Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh’s information minister and Awami League joint secretary, and Dipak Chandra Saha, officer-in-charge of the Savar Model Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also contacted Rajib and Anisur Rahman, Dhaka district deputy commissioner, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Hun Sen, who has led the country since 1985, is preparing to step down from his role as prime minister, passing the baton of leadership to his son, Hun Manet, who will assume the position later this month.

A call-in show produced by RFA’s Khmer Service this week discussed potential power struggles between Hun Sen’s family and other party leaders, including Minister of Interior Sar Kheng. Two guests speakers on the show pointed out that several high ranking CPP members have yet to declare support for Hun Manet.

Hun Sen said in a voice message posted on Telegram that it wasn't necessary to respond to the comments about the lack of announced support from Minister of Defense Tea Banh and CPP vice president Men Sam An. He implied that the transfer of power to the new government later this month would be smooth.

“RFA should not be too stupid, too timid and too provocative,” said Hun Sen.

Regarding the appointment of Khuon Sodary as president of the National Assembly, he said that it had been planned in late 2021 as part of the CPP’s strategy to promote women into prominent positions. Khuon Sodary is currently the Assembly's second vice president.

“If you are so stupid, you should seek clarity rather than concluding that everything is an internal dispute of the CPP,” Hun Sen said, addressing Radio Free Asia. 

“I request RFA as well as other foreign [media outlets] broadcasting in Khmer to always remember that the CPP has no habit of fighting one another for a power grab in the same [way] that you have, and that will lead to [your] eventual collapse due to your own internal disputes.”

Finland-based political commentator Kim Sok, who left Cambodia after he was imprisoned for his criticism of Hun Sen’s government, told RFA on Wednesday that Hun Sen chose Khuon Sodary over Sar Kheng because he wields a greater amount of power within the CPP, while she does not and is therefore less of a political threat.

“By choosing Ms. Khuon Sodary, it also does not mean that he really wants her for this post. He wants to choose only the people who are closest with him,” Kim Sok said. “[She] does not have enough power to be an obstacle to him [and she] is like the right hand woman to Hun Sen’s wife.”

Sam Rainsy, the self-exiled president of the dissolved former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, said that Hun Sen does not trust Sar Kheng and considers him a threat.

“The position of National Assembly president is so sensitive,” said Sam Rainsy. “If [Hun Sen] were to give the post of National Assembly president to Sar Kheng, [Sar Kheng] would have the ability to allow a vote to dissolve the newly elected government and to remove Hun Manet from power.” 

Um Sam An, former CNRP lawmaker, told RFA that Hun Sen is trying to essentially neuter the power of both Sar Kheng and Tea Banh by appointing them to be supreme advisers to Cambodia’s king.

“[Hun Sen] meanwhile, will consolidate more power for Hun Manet,” he said. “The father will be the head of the senate, holding the legislative branch in check, while the son, as prime minister, will hold the executive branch. 

He called the arrangement an obvious violation of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances, as stated in Cambodia’s constitution. 

“There is no country in the world that would uphold a system of having a son as the prime minister and the father as the head of state,” said Um Sam An. “Not even in any of the communist countries or in North Korea.”

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

According to the decree, Hun Manet will assume the office on Aug. 22, when the newly elected National Assembly adopts the new cabinet. It will be the completion of years of preparation for a transfer of power from father to son, as the 71-year-old Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, prepares to step aside.

Hun Sen did however say that he would continue to have a role in government for the next 10 years. 

Hun Manet’s royal appointment comes after the country’s electoral body on Saturday announced last month’s election results, which gave Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, 120 of the assembly’s 125 seats. 

The election has been criticized by the international community for being neither free nor fair, as the main opposition party was disqualified from participating.

Analysts and opposition party officials have criticized Hun Manet’s appointment as prime minister, saying that dynastic rule has no place in a democracy.

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told RFA’s Khmer Service that Hun Manet lacks the acumen to solve Cambodia's national problems.

“Hun Manet has only one policy: to follow his father. And his father, although the CPP has written hundreds of good policies, has implemented only one point: to persecute the people,” said Kim Sok. 

“[Hun Sen] has destroyed the nation, selling the nation to maintain power. Therefore the chaos that is the burden of the social crisis left by Hun Sen as a father will continue under Hun Manet and will be even more serious.”

Cambodian legal scholar Vorn Chanlouth told RFA that under the current legal process, there are no obstacles standing in Hun Manet’s way because the CPP has effectively prepared for the transfer of power. But there is still reason to doubt the legitimacy of it.

“The problem we have here is the transparency of PM candidate,” he said. “In this 7th legislative mandate election process, many political parties lack transparency, as they did not present their prime ministerial candidates to the public. For example, in the CPP, Hun Sen said he was the candidate, but when his party won, he passed the post to his son. This is not transparent.”

Chanlouth said that prime ministerial candidate should have come forward to explain to the public his party’s policies, but Hun Manet said nothing other than that he would follow in his father’s footsteps.

“We don’t know specifically or exactly what they are going to do to solve the national problems we face today,” he said.  

‘Not over yet’

Hun Sen, meanwhile, has assured the public that “It is not over yet” in an announcement on his Telegram social media channel.    

He said that in addition to being the father of the prime minister, he will continue in other positions until 2033.

Hun Sen is currently the president of the CPP, and he repeated his intention to become the president of the senate, a position currently held by CPP vice president Say Chhum.

Oum Sam An, a former lawmaker for the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said that Hun Sen’s intention to assume future positions in government shows that he is “afraid of his own shadow,” meaning that he is afraid to face the law after he resigns as the leader of the country.

“The leadership has not changed,” he said. “Most of them are the children of members of the senior government, so the new bloods are the old blood taking on the jobs [of their parents].”

Kim Sok said that Hun Sen’s rule would be remembered for its destruction of natural resources, arrest of dissenting citizens, and other rights violations.

"Because the Cambodian people, the international community, and the International Court of Justice, cannot forget the story that the general public cannot forget about Mr. Hun Sen as the leader of a coup that robbed power and led a society through state terrorism,” said Kim Sok. “He used the name of the state to abuse the people and destroy them."

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San, however, denied that Hun Sen was responsible for killings or injustices on the Cambodian people in the past. He said those who dare to criticize without evidence will be held accountable before the law.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum.  Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

And he occasionally imbues his successor, Hun Manet, with similarly mythical powers. In public speeches and to his biographers, Hun Sen has insisted that blinding light shot out from a centuries-old Banyan tree upon his eldest son’s birth.

“Five hundred people saw the light. That was when Manet was born,” he told the authors of Strongman: The Extraordinary Life of Hun Sen in December 1997. 

The anecdote, with its mythic overtones, seems calculated to portray Hun Manet as destined for the same kingly greatness as his father. But, speaking just four months after he ousted his coalition partners in a bloody coup, Hun Sen went on to tell the biographers that not only did he not want his son to walk the same political tightrope as he had, he did not think then-20-year-old Hun Manet would be well suited to it.

“I would like to be the last member of my family who was involved in politics,” Hun Sen is quoted as saying in Strongman. “I would rather see [Manet] working as an assistant to a politician, helping in national reconstruction, and not become a politician himself. … It seems he is interested in study, in research, in making recommendations rather than doing things himself.”

Hun Manet was appointed prime minister by royal decree on Monday and is poised to be sworn in on Aug. 22, following last month’s one-sided election. With the 45-year-old now taking the helm, many Cambodians are wondering what the rare moment of change will mean for the country. He is a trained economist and an experienced general. But as a politician he remains a cipher; and only time will tell whether he has his father’s autocratic tendencies. 

‘An innocent guy’

Those who knew Hun Manet as a young man offer accounts not dissimilar to Hun Sen's. They recall a humble and conscientious youth, mild-mannered almost to the point of timidity and determined to carve out a career for himself in development economics.

Hun Manet enrolled at West Point military academy in 1995, the first Cambodian ever to have done so, and one of fewer than 10 non-U.S. students in a class of more than 900. He struggled initially with communicating in English and was bewildered by cultural phenomena such as hazing, he told his father’s biographers in 2003.

Kevin James, who roomed with Hun Manet for two years, described him as a “tolerant individual who, at the time anyway, didn’t have any presumptions about any one person being different from any other.”

They got on so well their first year that they elected to bunk together again in their second, James told RFA.

“I had zero complaints about living with Manet. He was friendly, and a kind and considerate roommate. He didn’t cause any issues, and he tolerated my smoking in the room,” recalled James, who is now a lieutenant colonel in the 101st Airborne Division. “He was an innocent guy with no airs, and this is coming from a guy from rural Pennsylvania – I was occasionally shocked at how innocent he was.”

Having gained a bachelor’s degree in economics, Hun Manet continued his studies at New York University. There, he researched whether Cambodia would benefit from land reform for his 2001 master’s thesis. Back home, meanwhile, his father was beginning to parcel out the country to cronies and foreign investors in the form of economic land concessions. By 2014, according to a lawsuit, such ELCs had displaced 6% of the Cambodian population.

As his father’s government continued to enrich its powerful tycoon class at the expense of the poorest, Hun Manet appeared increasingly interested in learning how the world’s worst off can be lifted out of poverty. He took an internship with the World Bank, during which time he was posted to the Congo, according to a Facebook post by Hun Sen. Afterwards, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he undertook a doctorate at Bristol University. 

“He was an able student, always polite and respectful, and hard-working,” his Ph.D. supervisor, Jonathan Temple, told RFA last year, adding that he expressed a desire to work in development economics. “I did not learn about his family background until his studies were well advanced.”

Family values

If his studies brought Hun Manet geographically and perhaps intellectually far from his family, there was little sign that he left their orbit.  

In his second year at N.Y.U., Hun Manet and his then-teenage siblings spent $550,000 on a four-bedroom house in New York’s Long Island suburb, despite the fact that all were unemployed and their father’s official salary was just $12,000 a year. (In the year 2000 when the purchase took place, the house equaled 1,600 times the average annual Cambodian salary.)

In 2006 Hun Manet married Pich Chanmony, the well-connected daughter of a Labor Ministry secretary of state and minister attached to the prime minister. They would go on to have three children. As with his four siblings, whose spouses are the scions of powerful families, Hun Manet’s marriage reflected a growing dynasty intertwining business, politics and personal life. 

In November 2011, Pich Chanmony and the son of tycoon Choeung Sopheap (whose husband is ruling-party senator Lau Ming Kan) incorporated Phnom Penh Toll Way Co. Ltd. Soon after, the company won the $10.5 million contract to renovate and then collect tolls on Veng Sreng Boulevard. 

A month after toll collection started in November 2015, Hun Sen had announced that the government would buy the company out. Today, Pich Chanmony chairs four companies and is on the board of another six, according to the Commerce Ministry registry. 

The battle for Preah Vihear

Any ivory tower dreams Hun Manet might have harbored dissipated shortly after he left Bristol in February 2008. A long-running border dispute with Thailand over the Preah Vihear temple complex boiled over into live fighting in June of the same year. 

The clashes were well timed for Hun Sen, who used them to drum up nationalistic support ahead of the July elections. He also took the opportunity to put his son’s West Point education to the test, placing him in charge of Cambodian forces around the temples, and sending him back when tensions flared again in 2011.

The world took notice. Robert Willard, the U.S. Navy admiral in charge of American forces in the Pacific at the time, told a U.S. congressional committee that by sending Hun Manet to Preah Vihear, Hun Sen appeared to be grooming him as his “heir apparent.”

“This conflict builds Hun Manet’s credentials as a military leader and hero who defended national sovereignty against an external threat,” Willard told the committee.

The boy who would be ‘king’

In the following years, Hun Sen’s sons and sons-in-law took on greater roles in the government and military while his daughters became business magnates, but it was increasingly clear that Hun Manet was indeed being positioned for the top job. 

By 2015, the topic was the focus of a rare interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with signs that the young then-lieutenant general was growing more excited by the prospect.  

After spending most of the conversation quietly trotting out the Cambodian People’s Party line about the dangers of upending the status quo, Hun Manet's mask slipped toward the end. The interviewer first asked him how long his father planned to stick around. A smile broke across his face, and laughing, he chided the interviewer: “Cambodia is a democracy; as long as the people want him to.” 

His smile grew larger when she asked, “If the people want you to, you would be prime minister?” 

“Not no, not yes,” he said.

As speculation around Hun Manet’s future role mounted, he received promotion after promotion, moving rapidly up the military ranks. He spoke rarely with reporters and closely guarded his public image. While other members of his family today have a robust social media presence, showing off expensive watches and private jets, Hun Manet maintains only professional accounts and keeps his children mostly hidden from view. (Requests to Hun Manet for an interview went unanswered.) 

At times, he has shown little tolerance of criticism. In 2016, he complained to the press that he had been met with protests by the Cambodian diaspora wherever he went in Australia.

“Why are they looking down on me, causing divisions and conflicts?” he asked reporters. 

Ou Virak, president of the Phnom Penh think tank Future Forum, said past conversations with Hun Manet left him with the impression that the future premier was sincerely interested in tackling corruption and encouraging development. But along with the premiership, Hun Sen has also bequeathed his son a country whose power structures were forged in violent struggle and are precariously interlocked. Given such an entrenched political system, anything that upsets them could be disastrous for Hun Manet personally.

“At his stage, politics is still a zero-sum game to him, it could be dangerous for his family [to accept change],” he noted. 

Additional reporting by Keo Sovannarith 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jack Adamović Davies for RFA.

Speaking at an inauguration ceremony in Kandal province, Hun Sen said even his wife – Hun Manet’s mother – didn’t know about the plan to appoint the 45-year-old four star general as prime minister this month. Hun Sen had previously said that he would continue as prime minister until 2028.

But on July 26, he announced on state television that a new Hun Manet-led government would be formed on Aug. 22, after the National Election Committee officially reports election results. 

The news came three days after preliminary results showed Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the tightly controlled parliamentary election.

On Thursday, Hun Sen said he was worried that infighting among senior CPP ministers could result in bloodshed if a smooth and timely transition to a new government wasn’t made. But his plan to wield influence behind the scenes as head of CPP should maintain stability, he said.

“I warn you that if my son’s life is endangered, the possibility of returning to be the prime minister is that I have to come back and work,” he said. “I have to return to be the prime minister for a while. After that, I will choose who can be the next prime minister.”

Still a few days left

The abrupt transfer of power may be a sign that key CPP officials still don’t support Hun Manet's prime minister candidacy, said Um Sam An, a former opposition party member of parliament.

Longtime CPP leaders like Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defense Minister Tea Banh are also planning to step down this month.

Um Sam An said Hun Sen has appointed Sar Kheng, Tea Banh and others to the Supreme Council of the King – which has no real authority over government affairs – to keep them out of power. But failing to share some influence could eventually exacerbate divisions within the CPP, he said.

“The fact that Hun Sen consolidates power alone may result in armed conflicts that prevent the transfer of power,” Um Sam An said. “Sar Kheng may join hands with Tea Banh to prevent that transfer of power.”

“So, there are still a few days left, and Hun Sen is still worried,” he said.

Sar Kheng, Tea Banh and Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An were also recently promoted to vice president positions of the CPP. Hun Sen has said he will serve as president of the Senate.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San said he didn’t know yet who the CPP would appoint as president of the National Assembly. He added that the ruling party has no internal divisions.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Manet’s message on Thursday came a day after his father announced he would hand over the prime minister position next month.

The 45-year-old posted a photo along with the message that shows Hun Sen dressed in a military uniform and standing in a jeep at a 2019 anniversary celebration for the Royal Cambodian Army Command’s headquarters. 

Hun Manet, who until recently served as deputy commander of Cambodia’s armed forces, is also dressed in uniform in a second jeep following just behind Hun Sen.

“My father’s word that I will always remember and be determined to apply in all circumstances: ‘When you become the prime minister of Cambodia, you must maintain peace to ensure the development and tranquility of the people,’” Hun Manet wrote.

Hun Manet’s statement is welcome, but “peace” doesn’t just refer to “no war,” said Ny Sokha, the president of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) NGO. It must also include respect for human rights, social justice and social equality, he said.

“Determination is not enough. It needs real practice so that people can believe in him,” he told RFA. “We are waiting to see what priority issues he will address after he officially becomes the new prime minister of Cambodia.”

Peace and the political opposition

Hun Sen, 70, has served as prime minister since 1985. He told reporters on Wednesday that a new Hun Manet-led government would be formed on Aug. 22, after the National Election Committee officially reports the results from Sunday’s election. 

Preliminary results show the ruling Cambodian People’s Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly in the July 23 vote, which included Hun Manet as a first-time candidate for parliament from Phnom Penh. Critics have said the tightly controlled election was neither free nor fair.

Hun Sen was a signatory to the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and often touts his “win-win” initiative to persuade the remaining bands of Khmer Rouge guerillas to lay down arms in the 1990s.

He has also methodically co-opted all political opposition over the years, and he often points out that his long reign as prime minister has brought peace and economic development to Cambodia after decades of civil war. 

In the months leading up to last Sunday’s election, Hun Sen persuaded dozens of opposition activists to switch their allegiance to the CPP, while others were threatened with legal action.

“Now Hun Sen uses the word peace to arrest and put people in prison,” Chea You Horn, the president of the Khmer Association of Victoria in Australia, told Radio Free Asia last month.

Men Sothavrin, a former parliamentarian from the now-banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, said Hun Manet appears to be copying his father’s dictatorship style. 

“Hun Manet must show that he is different from his father and never repeat his father’s dictatorship,” he said. “He must reinstate genuine multi-party democracy and respect human rights, especially political rights, freedom of press and expression.”

Translated by Chandara Yang. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau have reached an agreement to settle the “land problem” in the southern region of Vanuatu before the end of this year.

Prime Minister Kalsakau made this declaration during his speech at the 7th Melanesian Arts and Cultural Festival (MACFEST) in Saralana Park yesterday afternoon, coinciding with President Macron’s visit to the festival.

“We have talked about a topic that is important to the people of Vanuatu in relation to the problem for us in the Southern Islands. The President has said that we will resolve the land problem between now and December,” he said.

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Though not explicitly naming them, it is evident that the southern land problem mentioned refers to the islands of Matthew and Hunter, located in the southern portion of Vanuatu, over which significant demands have been made.

In addition to this issue, the boundary between New Caledonia and Vanuatu remains unresolved.

The hope was that during President Macron’s visit, Prime Minister Kalsakau — carried in a traditional basket by Aneityum bearers during the opening of MACFEST 2023 — would address the Matthew and Hunter issue with the French leader.

As part of Vanuatu’s traditional practice, Kalsakau and President Macron participated in a kava-drinking ceremony, expressing their wish for the fruitful resolution of the discussed matters.

Matthew and Hunter are two small and uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Pacific, located 300 kilometres east of New Caledonia and south-east of Vanuatu.

Both islands are claimed by Vanuatu as part of Tafea province, and considered by the people of Aneityum to be part of their custom ownership. However, since 2007 they had also been claimed by France as part of New Caledonia.

Elation over statement
The announcement of the two leaders’ commitment to resolving the southern land issue was met with elation among the people of Vanuatu, particularly in the Tafea province.

“France has come back to Vanuatu; President Macron has told me that it has been a long time, but he has come back today with huge support to help us more,” said Prime Minister Kalsakau, expressing gratitude.

The Vanuatu government head revealed that France had allocated a “substantial sum” of money to be signed-off soon, which would lead to significant development in Vanuatu.

This would include the reconstruction of French schools and hospitals, such as the Melsisi Hospital in Pentecost, which had been damaged by past cyclones.

In response to the requests made by PM Kalsakau and President Macron, the chiefs of the Tafea province conducted another customary ceremony to acknowledge and honour the visiting leaders.

President Macron at MACFEST 2023
More than 4000 people gathered yesterday at Saralana Park to witness the presence of President Macron and warmly welcome him to MACFEST 2023.

He delighted the crowd by delivering a speech in Bislama language, noting the significance of Vanuatu’s relationship with France and highlighting its special and historical nature.

“Let me tell you how pleased I am to be with you, not only as a foreign head of state but as a neighbour, coming directly from Noumea,” President Macron said.

He praised Prime Minister Kalsakau for fostering a strong bond between the two countries amid “various challenges and foreign interactions”, emphasising that their connection went beyond bilateral relations, rooted in their shared history.

President Macron further shared his satisfaction with the discussions he had with Kalsakau, expressing joy that his day could culminate with the celebration of MACFEST, symbolising the exchange between himself and Vanuatu’s PM.

“My delegation is thrilled to participate in the dances and demonstrations that bring together delegations from across the region, celebrating the strength and vitality of Melanesia and the spirit of exchange and sharing,” he said.

The President expressed his pride in being part of the region, particularly in New Caledonia, and witnessing the young teenagers of Melanesia coming together, dancing, and singing, driven by the belief that they will overcome the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Last night, President Macron departed for Papua New Guinea to continue his historic Pacific visit. He expressed his happiness in meeting members from PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji, and other participating nations during MACFEST.

Doddy Morris is a Vanuatu Daily Post journalist. Republished with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“Please, Your Excellency, be assured that the new government’s policy toward China based on [our] mutual traditional friendship, trust and win-win cooperation will not be changed,” the prime minister wrote in a letter dated Wednesday.

Hun Sen announced his resignation after close to 40 years in power, saying at a news conference on Wednesday that a new Hun Manet-led government would be formed on Aug. 22, after the National Election Committee officially reports the results from last Sunday’s election. 

Preliminary results show Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party winning 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly. The election included the 45-year-old Hun Manet as a first-time candidate for parliament from Phnom Penh.

The tightly controlled vote was condemned by the United States, France, Australia and others as neither free nor fair because of the exclusion of the main opposition Candlelight Party, as well as for efforts to neutralize the political opposition through threats, arrests and other means. 

For China, close ties with Cambodia ensure that Beijing has a supporter in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Time and again, Cambodia has undermined ASEAN unity on the disputed South China Sea over which Beijing has made sweeping claims of sovereignty, angering competing claimants.

Power projection

China and Cambodia began developing the Ream Naval Base, in Sihanoukville province on the Gulf of Thailand, with Beijing’s funding in June 2021. Cambodian officials said this week that renovation work has almost been completed, according to Voice of America.

The base would help Beijing boost its power projection in Southeast Asia and the Taiwan Strait. It would be China’s first naval staging facility in the region and the second in the world after a base in Djibouti.

Phnom Penh has repeatedly denied that China is being given exclusive military access to the base, saying that would contradict Cambodia’s constitution. 

Hun Manet’s government will need Chinese support to maintain power, while Vietnam may be reluctant to have close relations, even with its historical ties to the CPP, for fear of indirect economic sanctions from the United States, Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia.

“China needs the Hun family government to achieve its long-term interests – the completion of the Chinese-related Ream Naval Base,” he said. 

In February, Hun Sen flew to Beijing for an official visit with Hun Manet and another son, 40-year-old lawmaker Hun Many.

The prime minister met with President Xi Jinping and then-Premier Li Keqiang and signed 12 agreements with the Chinese government, including the building of schools in Kratie province, a US$44 million grant for the removal of unexploded ordnance and the construction of a reservoir in Kampong Thom province.

A report by the Ministry of Economy showed that China held more than US$4 billion of Cambodia’s nearly US$10 billion in foreign debt at the end of 2022’s second quarter.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen, 70, has ruled Cambodia since 1985, making him one of the longest serving leaders in the world. 

During those decades, Cambodia saw an end to civil war, rapid economic growth and a steep decrease in poverty. But Hun Sen’s strongman rule has also been marked by extreme corruption, resource depletion, violence and political repression.  

The July 23 election had no viable opposition and many saw it as smoothing the way for a power transfer. Immediately before the election Hun Sen told a Chinese television station that Hun Manet could become premier within a month.  

Will Hun Sen retain any power after the transfer? 

Hun Sen will take on several powerful positions. He will become president of the Senate, president of the Supreme Council of the King, and president of the CPP. As a result, Hun Sen may well be expected to control much behind the scenes. 

He will also continue on as honorary president of the recently formed Cambodia Oknha Association. By heading the group of wealthy tycoons, Hun Sen is expected to also wield a potent economic tool. 

Why is this happening now?

Hun Sen has variously promised to rule until 74, 90 and indefinitely. But in recent years he has spoken more about an eventual resignation. In 2021, he said Hun Manet would take over between 2028 and 2030. The announcement was officially endorsed by the party. 

Even though Hun Sen announced a weeks-long transfer timeline just before the election, many were surprised by the speed at which he’s moving to implement the transition. 

According to Hun Sen, Hun Manet will be appointed Aug. 10 and sworn in Aug. 22. There has been speculation that the shift is related to Hun Sen’s health or internal party conflicts, though there has been no definitive sign that either issue is the cause. It is also understood that Hun Sen wants the transfer to happen in time for his son to attend the UN General Assembly in early September.  

What is clear is that Hun Sen and the CPP are attempting to prevent as little turmoil as possible when Hun Manet takes over. CPP spokesman Sok Eysan told RFA that only a few ministers will stay on when the new government is formed later this month.  

Who is Hun Manet?

Hun Manet, 45, has been groomed for decades to take over the premiership. He was the first Cambodian to be admitted to the U.S.’s elite military academy West Point and later went on to get a doctorate in economics at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. 

A four-star general, Hun Manet has served in Cambodia’s military since 1995. He was the commander of the army until stepping down recently to run as a lawmaker for Phnom Penh. 

What are the expectations for Hun Manet’s rule?

Hun Sen built his public persona as an everyman — partly through famously lengthy, bombastic but often funny and rough speeches. In contrast, the western-educated and mild-mannered Hun Manet carefully curates his every statement, rarely betraying his true thoughts or feelings. 

The effect has been to make him a sort of inkblot test for Cambodia watchers. Optimists see in Hun Manet a closeted reformist itching to step out of his father’s shadow and rescue a country teetering on the edge of pariah status. They note his academic credentials, including his 2001 master’s thesis exploring the idea of land reforms in Cambodia. They also point to his seeming reluctance to be dragged into his father’s dirtier political frays. 

Pessimists counter that Hun Manet has never veered from his father’s “stability” narrative, which is a thinly veiled threat that any attempt to unseat the Hun family would be met with violence. Moreover, any attempt at meaningful reform would run up against the vested interests of the nation’s tycoons and military leaders. Their support has been vital in sustaining Hun Sen’s 38-year reign and would presumably be equally essential to his son. 

The truth, however, is that nobody but Hun Manet really knows for sure what he has planned.

Another unknown is how much latitude Hun Sen will allow his oldest child. While he has vowed to step down, he will hardly be stepping out of politics entirely.  

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen is one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, running Cambodia since 1985.

His Cambodian People’s Party won a landslide victory in Sunday’s general elections, after the only viable opposition, the Candlelight Party, was disqualified on a technicality.

"I would like to ask for understanding from the people as I announce that I will not continue as prime minister," the 70-year-old said in a special broadcast on state television, AFP news reported.

Hun Sen said his son, 45-year-old Hun Manet, would be named prime minister once the final results of the election have been announced by the National Election Commission. 

He said King Norodom Sihamoni had agreed with his decision.

Preliminary results show the CPP winning 120 seats in the National Assembly, with the royalist Funcinpec party securing five seats, according to a message posted by the prime minister on Telegram. He said Wednesday that a new government will be formed on Aug. 22.

The news did not come as a surprise. In an interview with China’s Phoenix TV that aired last Thursday Hun Sen said he was preparing to hand over the reins of power to his son and a younger generation of politicians.

“I have sacrificed my power. Hun Sen has sacrificed power for peace for a long time,” he said.

The CPP has ruled Cambodia since 1979. Recent appointments and promotions in several government ministries indicated that the sons and daughters of longtime officials would be assuming new leadership roles after the election.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San confirmed to Radio Free Asia on Friday that a post-election government cabinet will be “90 percent new blood,” with only a few ministers staying on.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Preliminary results show the CPP winning 120 seats in the National Assembly, with the royalist Funcinpec party securing five seats, according to a message posted by the prime minister on Telegram.

Hun Sen’s CPP has neutralized the political opposition over the last six months by either threatening or co-opting activists. 

In May, the National Election Committee banned the main opposition Candlelight Party from running in the election, citing inadequate paperwork. Opposition activists have said the decision was politically motivated.

The ban meant that the CPP didn’t have any major challengers on the ballot. Funcinpec, which formed a coalition government with the CPP for several years in the 1990s, and 16 other parties qualified for the election but weren’t expected to be serious challengers.

An election observer in Koh Kong province near the Thai border told Radio Free Asia that there were no independent observers at his polling station. 

“In previous elections, people stayed and watched the election process after they cast their votes,” he said. “But this time, people knew the outcome – that the ruling party will win the election. So there’s no point for them to monitor.” 

Both the NEC and Hun Sen said that 84 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballot on Sunday. Official election results were expected to be announced between Aug. 9 and Sept. 4.

Worries about democracy

The prime minister said in a voice message Sunday evening that exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s plan to sabotage the election – by urging people to destroy their ballot – had failed. 

Earlier this month, the National Assembly approved an amendment to the election law that prohibited those who didn‘t cast a vote in Sunday’s election from running for office in future elections. 

At least three opposition party members who were accused of destroying their ballot were arrested on Sunday, authorities said. Another 40 opposition activists were being sought by police for allegedly being involved with plans to destroy ballots. 

The NEC said in June that those who “urge voters not to go to vote, recreate mistrust in the election and disturb the electoral process” could face fines of between 5 million-20 million riels (US$1,200-4,800) and prison terms. It did not specify the possible length of prison term. 

Photos of dozens of spoiled ballots were posted on Sam Rainsy’s Facebook page on Sunday. 

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San estimated that the number of spoiled ballots across the country was between 200,000 and 300,000.

Several voters interviewed by RFA on Sunday showed off the black ink on their fingers used to mark their ballots. They said they felt pressured to vote. 

One voter in Kandal province, who asked not be named, told RFA that many people at her polling station were unhappy about the coercion.
“I am worried and think that democracy will not be reinstated,” she said. “Everything from social morals to human rights have declined.”

Dozens of members of the Candlelight Party – the only party that could have mounted a serious challenge to the CPP – were arrested in several provinces in recent months. 

Some detained activists received pardons, were released from prison and given government positions after they publicly switched their allegiance to the CPP. 

‘The main opposition party is absent’

More than 23,000 polling stations opened nationwide at 7 a.m. Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, drove a black Mercedes to the polls near his home in Kandal province, just outside of Phnom Penh. Hun Sen did not say anything to reporters.

The prime minister’s eldest son, Hun Manet, voted at a primary school in Phnom Penh. He told journalists that he came to cast his vote to fulfill his obligations as a citizen.

Hun Sen, who has held power since 1985, told a Chinese television station last week that the 45-year-old Hun Manet could become prime minister as soon as three weeks after the election.

Ros Sotha, the executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition, said he and his group traveled from Phnom Penh to Kandal and Kampong Chhnang provinces to monitor polling stations. 

At Wat Dambok Khpos in Phnom Penh, the polling station was crowded in the morning, but near empty by afternoon. At other polling stations, there were almost no voters after 12 p.m. – just election officials and observers, he said. 

“The unhappy reaction of the people seems to be due to the fact that the main opposition party is absent from the election,” he said. 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

minister as soon as three weeks after Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

“I am walking on the right path to secure country stability for younger generations,” he said in the interview with China’s Phoenix TV that aired on Thursday. “I have sacrificed my power. Hun Sen has sacrificed power for peace for a long time.”

Until recently, it was widely believed that the 70-year-old Hun Sen would continue as prime minister through 2028, when the next general election is scheduled to take place. He said publicly in 2021 that Hun Manet would one day follow him as prime minister. 

“This is the closest we’ve had yet to a definitive public confirmation about the timing of the handover of power,” author and journalist Sebastian Strangio wrote on Twitter.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which currently holds all 125 seats in the National Assembly, is expected to sweep Sunday’s vote. 

The National Election Committee in May blocked the main opposition Candlelight Party from appearing on the ballot, citing inadequate paperwork.

Hun Manet is listed as the CPP’s top candidate from Phnom Penh. On Friday – the last day for official campaigning – he led a large parade of party supporters through the streets of the capital. 

“Within three or four weeks, Hun Manet can become the prime minister,” Hun Sen told Phoenix TV. “We will wait and see how people respond. After that Hun Manet is able to work.” 

New blood incoming

The CPP has ruled Cambodia since 1979. Recent appointments and promotions in several government ministries indicated that the sons and daughters of longtime officials would be assuming new leadership roles after the election.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San confirmed to Radio Free Asia on Friday that a post-election government cabinet will be “90 percent new blood,” with only a few ministers staying on.

“The new blood will be working with the old blood,” he said.  

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told RFA that the new cabinet will continue to be controlled by Hun Sen.

“Hun Sen knows that Hun Manet can’t work with the current ministers so he removes the existing ministers so his son can easily control them,” he said.

Hun Sen has said in the past that he would retain influence behind the scenes as head of the CPP after stepping down as prime minister.

West Point graduate

Hun Manet, 45, is a graduate of the elite United States Military Academy at West Point. He holds a masters in economics from New York University and another graduate degree from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

He traveled with his father to Beijing in February to attend meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy said at the time that Hun Sen was trying to cement personal ties with the Chinese Communist Party so that Beijing would support a handover of power to Hun Manet.

Sam Rainsy told RFA on Friday that Hun Manet will have no legitimacy as prime minister. He repeated a recent plea to voters to destroy their ballots on Sunday to show their support for the opposition.

In March, Hun Manet was promoted to the rank of four-star general. He recently suspended his role as deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Force to run for the Assembly. 

“I trained him to be able to work. If he can’t be a prime minister he can do something else for the sake of the country,” Hun Sen said in the Phoenix TV interview.

Changes to the Constitution last year did away with a requirement that the Assembly vote to approve a newly designated prime minister, a move believed aimed at easing the transition to Hun Manet.

“Hun Manet can become the prime minister or not based on the Constitution,” the prime minister told Phoenix TV. “No one has the right to stop Hun Manet when he doesn’t breach any law.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

With the apparent help of an aide, Cambodia’s leader began posting on a different page on Wednesday. 

The page has many of the same photos and old posts from his official page and also includes newer messages about campaigning ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, which the ruling Cambodian People’s Party is expected to easily win.

“The Cambodian People’s Party is the trusted hope of Khmer citizens in all walks of life and political trends,” one post from Thursday read. “The Cambodian People’s Party win is a Cambodia win.”

There were several dozen photos of campaign workers distributing fliers and voters marking their ballot. Many of the posts included a note that stated they were “Managed and Published by Doung Tara,” his aide.

There were also multiple posts urging people to watch a television program that tells the story of his younger years.

A June 29 announcement from the Meta Oversight Board ruled that a video in which Hun Sen threatened violence against his political opponents had violated Facebook’s guidelines against prohibiting incitement. Meta is Facebook’s new corporate name.

‘Addicted to Facebook’

Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has regularly taken to social media to deliver lengthy tirades against his opponents and threaten them if they defy him.

The board of independent experts ordered the removal of the video and recommended that his account be suspended. The prime minister reacted by deleting all content from his official page and declaring the 22 people on Meta’s oversight board “persona non grata,” which barred them from entering the country. 

He later told his social media followers that he was switching to Telegram and TikTok, and urged them to follow his posts there.

But the switch back to Facebook shows that Hun Sen’s usage of Telegram wasn’t reaching enough Cambodians, said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.

Meng Sotheara, an opposition activist who lives in Thailand, told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen is also likely worried that pro-democracy groups and opposition party supporters will post messages on Facebook that are critical about Sunday’s election, which will not include candidates from the main opposition Candlelight Party.

“I know that he is addicted to Facebook,” Meng Sotheara said. “So he cannot be disconnected because the opposition party officials still use Facebook.” 

Controlling access points

The renewed presence on Facebook comes a week after Hun Sen’s government ordered internet service providers to block the websites of Radio Free Asia and other news outlets.

The outlets were accused of misrepresenting the government’s reputation and prestige and of failing to meet the Ministry of Information’s conditions for doing business, according to a July 12 letter from the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia.

“What he wants to do is to control all access points,” Robertson said. “He realizes that people don’t just read the newspaper and listen to TV, but they are also getting a lot of information via the internet.”

The blocked sites include RFA’s Khmer and English websites and RFA’s Khmer language Twitter page. 

The regulator also ordered the blocking of the Kamnotra website, produced by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, or CCIM. The website posts information, data or documents that people can use. 

“There has been an ongoing effort by the Cambodian government to censor the internet to try to control what Cambodians are seeing on the internet and this is part of that,” Robertson said. “It is showing that Hun Sen has a thin skin for any kind of criticism that he is refusing to have someone saying something against him.”

‘Disturbed’

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday that he was “disturbed” by reports that the Cambodian government was stepping up efforts to control access to information ahead of the election. 

The move to block RFA and other media outlets was also condemned by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, who said that only dictatorial leaders are afraid of a free media.

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San insisted that the government’s decision has popular support.

“Overall, we have freedom of expression, but when the freedom of expression affects the tradition, culture and the rights of people in a country, or affects the national security, we have the right to cancel,” he said.

In February, the government closed independent news outlet Voice of Democracy. Several other independent media outlets were forced to shut down prior to the last general election in 2018. 

Most remaining media outlets in Cambodia only write about the government in a positive light, said Nop Vy, executive director of the Coalition of Cambodian Journalists. They don’t report on government shortcomings, he said.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

In a July 12 letter, the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia ordered local internet service providers (ISPs) to block the websites and social media accounts of The Cambodia Daily, U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Kamnotra, a new independent public database, according to reports by RFA, Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA), a local advocacy and news organization, and Voice of America (VOA), which is also funded by Congress. The order targeted a total of nine domains among the three news organizations, VOA reported.

The letter said the three outlets had broadcast information to “make confusion, affect the government’s honor and prestige, and failed to fulfill the operating conditions of the Information Ministry,” according to the CamboJA’s translation of the order which was issued in Khmer.  

The telecommunications regulator ordered local ISPs to block access to the listed websites and social media accounts “immediately,” according to VOA.

“Cambodia’s censorship order against The Cambodia Daily, Radio Free Asia, and Kamnotra is a crude attempt to curb free reporting on the country’s upcoming general election,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “As long as authorities harass and suppress the press, Cambodia will only be a democracy in name, not in substance.”

The Southeast Asia Globe reported on July 18, that the banned sites “are still mostly accessible through a virtual private network,” or VPN, which can be used to evade internet censorship.

In February, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the closure of Voice of Democracy over news coverage he viewed as slandering his son Hun Manet, who is widely expected to replace his father as prime minister after Sunday’s election.

Voice of Democracy was broadly recognized as one of the few remaining independent news outlets in Cambodia, with a track record of reporting on corruption and human rights issues in the country.

Several of its reporters fled the country soon after the closure order due to fears for their personal security if they remained in Cambodia, Voice of Democracy representatives told CPJ.

Kamnotra, which maintains two databases of government records and other non-government data aimed at informing the public, was launched in June by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, the same nongovernmental organization that ran Voice of Democracy until its closure, according to CamboJA.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information and the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The outlets were accused of misrepresenting the government’s reputation and prestige and of failing to meet the Ministry of Information’s conditions for doing business, according to a July 12 letter signed by Srun Kimsan of Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia.

The blocked sites include RFA’s Khmer and English websites and RFA’s Khmer language Twitter page. 

The regulator also ordered the blocking of the Kamnotra website, produced by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, or CCIM. The website posts information, data or documents that people can use. 

RFA condemned the order, calling it a “clear violation of Cambodian law and an attempt to censor the free flow of information ahead of the July 23 election,” according to RFA spokesman Rohit Mahajan.

“Access to timely, accurate news and information, which RFA’s programming and content provides to the Cambodian people on a daily basis, is essential in any democracy where the rule of law supports free speech and a free press,” he said. 

“Despite these unfortunate efforts, RFA will keep striving to inform its audience in Cambodia with up-to-the-minute journalism during this critical time and beyond,” Mahajan said.

‘Undermines their rights’

As of Monday afternoon Washington DC time, access to some of RFA’s websites were blocked within Cambodia, sources there said.

Some RFA monitors inside the country said they were still able to access RFA broadcasts on Facebook, YouTube, Telegram and Twitter. 

However, Kamnotra has already been blocked by major internet service providers like Cellcard and Ezecom, CCIM director Ith Sothoeut said. 

“When sources of information are blocked, it undermines the right to information of the general population, which is guaranteed by law, especially before the election,” he said.

“It undermines their rights as voters, who need to be fully informed to make it easier for them to make informed decisions,” he said.

Cambodia’s 1993 constitution guarantees press freedom. 

But in February, the government closed independent news outfit Voice of Democracy after it reported that the prime minister’s son had approved a government donation to support Turkey’s earthquake recovery efforts. 

Previous crackdowns

Several other independent media outlets were forced to shut down prior to the last general election in 2018. 

And a government crackdown in 2017 led to the closure of 32 FM radio frequencies, including those that broadcast RFA Khmer Service content, the arrest of two former RFA journalists and the closure of The Cambodia Daily newspaper.

The July 12 letter from the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia also ordered the blocking of a Khmer language website that has continued to publish stories under The Cambodia Daily name.

RFA has not been able to contact Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia spokesmen Seang Sethy and Im Vutha for comment. Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications  spokesman Sovisothy and Ministry of Information spokesman Meas Sophorn also weren’t immediately available on Monday.

However, Ministry of Information spokesman Meas Sophorn confirmed to CamboJA News on Monday that the ministry had ordered the closure of the websites.

Cambodia’s Information Ministry issues licenses to broadcasters and other media outlets. The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia is an autonomous unit within the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.  

Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Keo Sovannarith. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Pita Limjaroenrat and his Move Forward Party fell short of the 375 votes needed to clinch power in an initial round of voting on Thursday.

Hun Sen tweeted that Pita’s setback was also “a major failure” to Cambodia’s exiled opposition activists. He was most likely referring to Sam Rainsy, the former head of the now-disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party who fled to France in 2015.

“These traitors always expected that when Pita becomes the prime minister of Thailand, they would use Thai territory to do a campaign against the Royal Government of Cambodia,” Hun Sen wrote in the tweet.

“Now the expectations of the brute opposition group have vanished like salt in water,” he said.

In May, Sam Rainsy told Radio Free Asia that if a new pro-democracy Thai government is formed, he would look into traveling to Cambodia through neighboring Thailand. 

Thailand’s progressive Move Forward Party was the top vote getter in the May 14 general election. It heads a pro-democracy coalition trying to unseat an administration with deep military ties that has ruled Thailand for almost a decade.

Hun Sen has asked Thailand to arrest Sam Rainsy if he travels there. Last month, he publicly threatened to attack Sam Rainsy with a rocket launcher if he led workers from Thailand into Cambodia. 

“Do not do politics that depend on somebody else,” the prime minister wrote in Thursday’s deleted tweet. “This is my goodwill message for the extremist groups.”

Online reaction

After it drew angry online comments, Hun Sen removed the post from Twitter.

“Absolutely ludicrous,” wrote Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director. 

Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk tweeted that the 70-year-old Hun Sen is “a political dinosaur comfortable in the company of dictators.”

“When he looks at Pita, he sees the [political] liberalization & reform he fears might some day come to Cambodia,” he wrote.

Hun Sen posted another message on both Twitter and Telegram on Friday, writing that he doesn’t oppose Pita’s candidacy for prime minister. 

“I respect the decision of the Thai people and I will not interfere in the internal affairs of Thailand,” he wrote. “I am ready to work with Thailand’s leader, regardless of who or which party.”

He added that Cambodian opposition activists should stop using Pita’s name – “who does not know he is being used” – to oppose the Cambodian government.

Finland-based political commentator Kim Sok said the first message made it seem like Hun Sen doesn’t understand diplomacy and politics, even though he served as Cambodia’s foreign minister during the 1980s.

“Normally, a leader of a country uses good words and avoids bad words to other countries’ politicians, especially those who win the election,” he said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Friday.

Translated by Chandara Yang. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The ruling, reversing a previous decision, marks the first time the oversight board has instructed Meta to shut down an account run by a government leader, and suggests that the company may be shifting its stance on how it deals with content posted by users who have otherwise enjoyed impunity in what they say on its site.

Hun Sen didn’t immediately comment on the ruling, but called on his social media followers to switch to rival platforms TikTok or Telegram.

The Cambodian leader, who has ruled the country since 1985, has regularly taken to social media to deliver lengthy tirades against his opponents, warning them of consequences if they defy him. Such threats are often acted on by judicial authorities, security forces, and supporters of his ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP.

On Thursday, Meta’s oversight board of independent experts said that in one such speech, live streamed to Facebook in January, Hun Sen ranted about claims that the CPP had stolen votes in prior elections, offering his accusers the choice of “legal action or a club.” 

He warned that he would send thugs to beat them up or arrest them in the middle of the night.

While he did not name the target of his ire, Hun Sen’s “stolen votes” comment was widely viewed as a reference to opposition Candlelight Party Vice President Son Chhay, who was convicted of defamation last year after saying that local commune elections in Cambodia had been marred by irregularities.

Intimidating opponents

Cambodia is preparing to hold a general election on July 23, but observers say that the ballot is likely to be neither free nor fair.

Meta initially reviewed the speech after receiving complaints that it violated Facebook’s guidelines on inciting violence, but decided to leave the content up because of its news value.

However, the company referred the content to its oversight board, saying it had created “tension between our values of safety and voice.”

On further review, the board found that the content had indeed run afoul of Facebook’s guidelines prohibiting incitement, citing “the severity of the violation, Hun Sen’s history of committing human rights violations and intimidating political opponents, as well as his strategic use of social media to amplify such threats.”

The board ordered that the video be removed, and called on Meta to suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months.

While the call for the account suspension is non-binding, Meta is obligated to take down the video and issue a statement to the public on its reasons for doing so within 60 days.

‘Finally called out’

Hun Sen has yet to comment on the oversight board’s ruling, but on Thursday, he posted a message to his Facebook page calling on his 14 million followers to switch to the Chinese video platform TikTok for future updates. Hun Sen’s TikTok account, set up on Wednesday, currently has nearly 22,000 followers.

Later, the prime minister wrote on the Dubai-based Telegram messaging app that he had found Telegram “more useful than Facebook” and told his 85,000 followers on the app that he will be posting content there going forward.

“This will allow me to easily communicate with people while I am traveling to countries where Facebook is not permitted,” he said. “I will keep my Facebook account but I will suspend using it so that people can get information from me through Telegram.”

Hun Sen said his newly created TikTok account would allow him “to more easily connect with the youth."

‘The stakes are high’

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, issued a statement on Thursday dismissing Hun Sen’s reason for leaving Facebook.

“Hun Sen is finally being called out for using social media to incite violence against his opponents, and he apparently doesn’t like it one bit,” he said. 

“That’s the real story about why he’s running away from Facebook, which dared to hold him accountable to their community standards, and into the arms of Telegram, the favored social media messaging system of despots ranging from Russia to Myanmar.”

Robertson said it was high time for tech companies such as Meta to confront world leaders who violate human rights on their platforms.

“The stakes are high because plenty of real world harm is caused when an authoritarian uses social media to incite violence -- as we have already seen far too many times in Cambodia," he said.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

“You are shaking hands while you are stepping on my feet,” Hun Sen said during a public appearance in Phnom Penh, using “you” to refer to foreign powers.

“I don’t pardon them because I don’t trust you,” he said. “You intend to destroy me.”

Hun Sen in recent months has frequently invoked the specter of national security threats at public appearances ahead of July 23 elections, which he has framed as a referendum on who can best maintain Cambodia’s sovereignty. 

“From now on, those who seek foreign intervention will stay in prison,” he said. “We don’t release you. Don’t include them in prisoners who will be pardoned or have a reduced prison term. We are stopping foreign intervention in Cambodia.”

In May, Hun Sen said that Western diplomats have insulted him in the past by visiting with Kem Sokha while he was under house arrest. He said he doesn’t “trust foreigners who insult me, insult my sovereignty, insult myself when they worked with me and at the same time worked with others.”

‘Let her die. So be it.’

Kem Sokha was arrested in 2017 on treason charges and was finally sentenced in March to 27 years in prison.

Before his sentencing, ambassadors from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States often met with him at his Phnom Penh home.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went to see him during a June 2021 trip that also included a meeting with Hun Sen. An angry prime minister later said that she secretly went to Kem Sokha’s home without informing the foreign minister.

Over the last year, several top U.S. officials have also called for the immediate and unconditional release of Theary Seng, who was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2022 on treason charges. 

The sentence prompted condemnation from rights groups and the U.S. government. During a visit to Phnom Penh last August, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Hun Sen to free her and other activists held on politically motivated charges.

The treason charges against Theary Seng and 50 other activists stemmed from abortive efforts in 2019 to bring about the return to Cambodia of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been in exile in France since 2015. 

Theary Seng often used costumes to make a political statement. During one court session, she dressed as “Lady Justice,” complete with blindfold, scale and sword.

Before her trial, she underscored her readiness to go to jail by cutting her hair during a video interview with Radio Free Asia. After her sentencing, she was transferred to Preah Vihear Prison in the country’s far north.

Hun Sen on Wednesday said that even though she has dual citizenship, her case applies only to Cambodia law.

“The bald Apsara is being jailed in Preah Vihear,” he said, referring to a female celestial being often depicted in Cambodian culture. “She wants to hold a hunger strike? Let her die. So be it.”

‘If we don’t shoot, they will look down on us’

Hun Sen also spoke again about drones that allegedly have been flying across the border from Vietnam in the country’s northeast.

Earlier this week, the prime minister ordered 500 troops and 200 anti-aircraft weapons systems to four provinces to hunt down the drones. He said the aircraft are believed to be operated by “ethnic insurgents” in Vietnam, but Vietnamese authorities have denied that the drones were theirs.

On Wednesday, Hun Sen offered a US$20,000 reward to each military unit that shoots one down.

“Starting this evening, we need to shoot it,” he said. “We can afford to shoot between two million to four million bullets. We haven’t shot it for a while, this is a chance to test it. We won’t be poor by shooting it. If we don’t shoot they will look down on us.”

He added that at least five drones crossed into Cambodia illegally on Tuesday night.

ADHOC spokesperson Soeung Senkarona told RFA that staff members for the rights group stationed in the four provinces haven’t been able to find any information about the alleged drone presence. 

“There is no irregularity reported,” he told RFA. 

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

He said aircraft are believed to be operated by “ethnic insurgents” in Vietnam, but Vietnamese authorities have denied that the drones were theirs.

“We urge those countries that allow drones to use their countries to violate Cambodia to immediately halt their actions,” he said. “It is an act of terrorism against Cambodia.”

Hun Sen urged calm in a pre-recorded address released via ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, mouthpiece FreshNews. The residents of Kratie, Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Tboung Khmum provinces have no reason to fear an impending conflict, he said.

“Don't worry about war in Cambodia – our troops … are intervention troops to help local authorities due to repeated violations by drones we don't know the source of yet,” he said.

The prime minister said that the military assets being sent to the four provinces will be there “not only to destroy drones, but also to search for those who fled from Vietnam to hide in Cambodia,” without providing further details.

On June 11, attacks on two commune offices in central Vietnam’s Dak Lak province – across the border from eastern Cambodia – left nine people dead. Last week, Vietnamese authorities said they will prosecute 84 people accused of being involved in the attacks. No one has claimed responsibility for them, and the motivation remains unclear.

Rallying voters

Members of Cambodia’s opposition said they believe Hun Sen – who has been in power since 1985 – is using the development to scare voters into throwing their support behind the ruling CPP ahead of a general election on July 23. He has used similar tactics in the past.

"Before the 2011 elections, there were skirmishes between Cambodia and Thailand, and in 2016 there was a border dispute with Laos, and [the government] deployed troops as the elections approached," said Morn Phally, an activist with the Cambodia National Rescue Party living in exile in Malaysia.

Hun Sen has frequently invoked the specter of threats to national security during speeches in the lead up to ballots, and framed the vote as a referendum on which party can best maintain Cambodia’s sovereignty.

Speaking to RFA on Tuesday, Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok questioned why Hun Sen was deploying troops to the border when Vietnam has denied involvement in the drone incursions.

“Hun Sen is using this strategy to intimidate people and control power,” he said.

Tuesday’s troop deployment follows the unanimous approval by Cambodia’s National Assembly of an amendment to the election law that prohibits those who don’t vote in next month’s elections from running for office in future elections.

Analysts say the change appears to be aimed at preventing a large-scale boycott of the July 23 vote by supporters of the main opposition Candlelight Party.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Dressed in military uniform, with five stars on his shoulder, Hun Sen told those gathered at the Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday that he was pleased with Defense Minister Tea Banh’s idea to build Techo Peace Parks in each of the country’s 24 provinces.

“Techo,” which means powerful or strong, and references an ancient Khmer warrior, is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.

“Each province should build it because it is a place of recreation for the people and it is not too expensive,” he said.

But critics said his idea is a waste of national money. The parks would be used for Hun Sen’s personal political gain just before the national election on July 23, said Chea You Horn, the president of the Khmer Association of Victoria in Australia.

“Now Hun Sen uses the word peace to arrest and put people in prison,” he said.

Bloody history

Hun Sen said he first introduced the “win-win” policy to co-opt the Khmer Rouge in 1987. The initiative allowed defecting Khmer Rouge cadres to keep their land and to join the government’s armed forces in return.

Other factors contributed to the end of Khmer Rouge, including the 1991 Paris Peace Accord which led to the 1993 U.N.-sponsored election.  

The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, killing some 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. They were finally removed from power by Vietnam, which invaded Cambodia in 1979.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge fighter who fled to Vietnam in 1977, took part in the invasion and first took office as prime minister in 1985.

The Khmer Rouge continued fighting from camps along the Thai border during the 1980s. They again took up arms in 1992, the year after the peace accord was signed. But by 1999, all members and leaders had surrendered or been captured.

The national budget

Tea Banh, the defense minister, said the parks will help Cambodian people remember and appreciate Hun Sen’s work to end the fighting. 

Chea You Horn noted, however, that many other political parties participated in the 1993 elections and also helped bring peace to the country.

If the government wants to use the national budget to build such a large project, it should be widely debated in the National Assembly, Candlelight Party Vice President Rong Chhun said. 

Recent large government spending plans haven’t gone through debate because the Assembly is controlled by one-party, he said.
“If we look at the law, we have to go through a debate to find a consensus,” he said. 

He added the country already has an Independence Monument in Phnom Penh – built in 1958 to commemorate independence from the French – and doesn’t need another monument.

The Victory Monument, built in 2018 to mark the end of the civil war, cost $12 million on an 8-hectare site in Chroy Changvar district near Phnom Penh. Hun Sen’s government has also built monuments in the provinces to commemorate the Vietnamese soldiers who helped defeat the Khmer Rouge.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Amendments to two articles in the election law would prohibit those who don’t vote on July 23 from ever running for any commune, district, provincial, Senate or National Assembly office, he said at a public gathering with workers in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. 

“If you dare not vote, you won’t be able to run for councilors or Senate,” he said. “You will be done.”

The move appears to be aimed at boosting voter turnout, and in reaction to talk of an election boycott by opposition activists, according to Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.

The boycott would be a way of expressing public anger over the banning of the main opposition Candlelight Party from running in the election.

The proposed amendment would also impact voters who don’t vote in this election, he said. “The amendment will change the vote from ‘right to vote’ to ‘compulsory to vote,’” he said.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said Hun Sun is trying to pressure people to vote because he thinks a high voter percentage will bring legitimacy to the election, said 

“There is nothing he can do to make the election legitimate because he has already engineered – through a bogus requirement – the disqualification of the main opposition party,” he told Radio Free Asia. 

“So this is Hun Sen running against a bunch of firefly parties, parties that really don’t have any chance of winning. And he’s trying to inflate the numbers,” he said.

‘If you dare’

Hun Sen also accused activists from the opposition Candlelight Party of launching an Internet campaign urging people not to vote. 

Last month, the National Election Committee ruled that the Candlelight Party couldn’t appear on the ballot, citing inadequate paperwork. The party had hoped to organize a demonstration this month to protest the ruling but postponed that after Hun Sen threatened to arrest the party’s vice president and other members.

Hun Sen has implemented many bad laws to protect his power since 2017, when the Supreme Court ordered the Cambodia National Rescue Party – the main opposition party at the time – to be disbanded, according to Eng Chhai Eang, a top CNRP official who now lives in the United States.

One way around the new requirement would be for voters to go to polling stations, take a ballot into a voting booth and then destroy it, he said. 

“All parties can join in this,” he said.

Only a dictator would change the election law just six weeks before an election, Robertson said.

“Hun Sen likes to borrow rights’ abusing ideas from other countries. He borrows from Singapore. He borrows from military coup governments in Thailand. He borrows whatever sort of thing he can use to try to justify whatever he needs to do,” he said.

“The reality is that this election is rigged. It’s fixed from the beginning.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The longtime leader also said that supporters living in exile were welcome to return to Cambodia as long as they renounce Sam Rainsy, one of Hun Sen’s most prominent critics and rivals. 

“The movement of the opposition party members who left the party is like a broken dam,” the prime minister said at a meeting with factory workers in Kampong Chhnang province. 

“We are welcoming all parties’ inclinations to live with the CPP,” Hun Sen said on Friday, referring to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. “But I won’t accept just one person: the traitor,” referring to Sam Rainsy. 

“Anyone who disassociates with him, I will pardon them but those who are associated with him will be prosecuted,” he said.

Hun Sen and the CPP have neutralized the political opposition ahead of the July 23 parliamentary election by threatening or co-opting activists. 

Additionally, members of the main opposition Candlelight Party have been arrested in several provinces in recent months, including two senior party officials in Tboung Khmum province who were charged this week with incitement. 

Some detained activists have received pardons, were released from prison and given government positions after they publicly switched their allegiance to the CPP. Some have made claims that they were cheated by Sam Rainsy.

Thailand and Vietnam

Once the head of the now-disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, Sam Rainsy fled to France in 2015 to avoid a series of charges that his supporters say were politically motivated.

His recent visit to Kuala Lumpur – where he spent time with Cambodian political activists living in Malaysia – angered Hun Sen, who threatened to attack him with a rocket launcher if he led workers from Thailand into Cambodia. 

In May, Sam Rainsy told Radio Free Asia that if a new pro-democracy Thai government is formed, he would look into traveling to Cambodia through Thailand. 

Hun Sen has asked Thailand to arrest Sam Rainsy if he travels there. This week, he said he has received information that Sam Rainsy has also considered traveling on a French passport to Vietnam, where he could walk across the border to Cambodia.

Last week, the prime minister threatened to arrest anyone who took part in a planned demonstration in Phnom Penh to protest against the National Election Committee’s decision – citing inadequate paperwork – to keep the Candlelight Party off the ballot for next month’s elections

“Please try me if you dare, you can come out now,” Hun Sen said. “I will handcuff you immediately and I won’t keep you in Phnom Penh.”

‘It is hard to accept’

Candlelight Party spokesman Kim Sour Phirith said party officials are working to collect information on this week’s arrests in Tboung Khmum and will provide defense lawyers.

“It is hard to accept [the arrests],” he told RFA. “The Candlelight Party can’t participate in the election and now many important activists have been arrested without proper reasons.”

Hun Sen is obviously worried that Sam Rainsy will return to Cambodia, where he continues to have support, said Duong Chantrea, an opposition party activist who fled Cambodia and is living in Bangkok. 

He said he won’t accept Hun Sen’s offer and will continue to associate with Sam Rainsy.

“People are struggling for freedom and a better economy like other countries,” he told RFA. “They won’t follow Hun Sen. They are waiting to get a good chance to change the dictatorial regime.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen said on Sunday he was worried that a new Thai government would enact policies that would jeopardize the status of migrant workers from neighboring countries.

“This policy will not be supported by Cambodia and Laos,” he said. “Cambodia doesn’t have much but I want to leave a message: ‘Please watch out.’ I don’t want to advise Thai politicians but please watch out.”

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor has said that at least 1.2 million Cambodians are working in Thailand. 

Move Forward, the top vote-getting party in the May 14 election, denied it has a policy to repatriate migrant workers. 

“The party's stance is to protect the welfare and labor rights of all workers in Thailand, regardless of their nationalities,” it said in a statement on Thursday. “The Move Forward Party recognizes the importance of the contribution made by the migrant workforce to the economic and social development of Thailand.” 

Move Forward and Pheu Thai – Thailand’s two largest opposition parties – dealt a resounding defeat to the country’s pro-military establishment in last month’s election. But an alliance of eight parties remains short of the 376 seats required to govern in Thailand’s 750-seat bicameral legislature, and no new government has been formed.

Thai economy’s need for migrant workers

On Thursday, Hun Sen said he welcomed the Move Forward statement. 

“So now we don't have any concerns that the workers will leave Thailand,” he said during a public event with thousands of garment factory workers in Kampong Chhnang province. 

But Sou Piseth, a migrant worker in Thailand, speculated that Hun Sen was making the statements simply to gain votes ahead of the July 23 elections.

He pointed out that Hun Sen’s government didn’t do anything to help workers who were stuck in Thailand during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. 

Mao Saron, another migrant worker in Thailand, told Radio Free Asia on Thursday he isn’t concerned that a new Thai government would expel migrant workers because Thailand relies on workers to boost its economy.

Dy The Hoya, the migration program director at the Phnom Penh-based Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, or CENTRAL, also said he wasn’t worried about Thailand sending thousands of Cambodians back across the border.

“Thailand won’t expel workers because they benefit from them as well,” he said.  

Move Forward said in its statement that it would like to “expand and improve regular pathways” for migrant workers and ensure that those pathways “are free from extortion, coercion, or other forms of exploitation.” 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile in Paris, arrived in Kuala Lumpur with his wife on Monday for a two-day private visit, Malaysian Parliamentarian Wong Chen said. 

It included a one-hour meeting with three non-executive members of parliament who are interested in human rights and free and fair elections, but not a visit with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian officials said.

The visit angered Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Sam Rainsy is one of Hun Sen’s most prominent critics and rivals. He was head of the disbanded opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, but fled to France in 2015 to avoid a series of charges that his supporters say are politically motivated.

“Anwar Ibrahim told me clearly that he wouldn’t allow Sam Rainsy to visit, and I told him that if he allows Sam Rainsy, the two governments can’t work together,” Hun Sen said at a bridge inauguration ceremony in Phnom Penh on Wednesday

A pro-Cambodian government website said Sam Rainsy was kicked out of the country – but Malaysia-based CNRP activist Morn Phalla said that wasn’t true.

Wong said the stopover was made on Sam Rainsy’s way back to France from Indonesia and Australia.

“We have been close friends for almost six years,” he said. “Originally, I had no intention of posting the above as it was a private visit. However, since the matter has garnered some media attention, I hope the above clarifies what actually transpired.”

Malaysia’s foreign ministry said Anwar wasn’t wasn’t aware of Sam Rainsy’s recent trip, and that the two men did not meet.

‘I will shoot you’

Hun Sen also threatened to attack Sam Rainsy with a rocket launcher if he led workers from Thailand into Cambodia.

“Sam Rainsy boasted that he stepped on Malaysian soil, and now he’s boasting about going to Thailand,” Hun Sen said on Wednesday. 

Sam Rainsy last week told RFA that if a new pro-democracy Thai government is formed, he will look into traveling to Cambodia through Thailand.  

“The Thai government can’t allow you – the non-interference internal policy,” Hun Sen said, referring to ASEAN’s principle of non-interference between its member nations. “If you cross the border from Thailand … I will shoot you. You don’t want to create chaos.” 

Sok Ey San, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, told RFA that he doesn't believe Sam Rainsy dares to return to the country. He also said he doesn’t believe many people will welcome Sam Rainsy.

“Why doesn’t he come if people are welcoming him?” he said. “He is conducting political propaganda for his political business.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The case involving Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, has drawn the attention of rights groups who say it undermines the work of civil society and is part of a “crackdown” on the opposition in Cambodia ahead of the July 23 general election.

On May 17, authorities in Kratie province arrested Savoeun and 16 of his colleagues for “inciting social unrest” and “conspiracy to commit treason.”

The local rights group ADHOC said they were simply advising farmers on their constitutional rights.

The detentions of the activists had prompted some 200 farmers – mostly women – from various provinces to travel to the Ministry of Interior in Phnom Penh to demand their release, claiming that they had provided assistance and done nothing illegal.

On Tuesday, the Ratanakiri Provincial Court released all three men after they apologized to Hun Sen for seeking to “overthrow the government” in a video later published by pro-government media outlet Fresh News.

"I, Theng Savoeun, would like to acknowledge the kindness of Samdech, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng and the court in forgiving the three of us and releasing us on bail so we can rejoin our families after we mistakenly listened to foreigners and opposition party extremists, leading us to gather and incite people to stand up and topple the government," he says in the video, using an honorific term to refer to Hun Sen.

Savoeun’s colleagues Hach and Pheap, as well as his wife and mother, appear in the video praising Hun Sen for the release.

‘Not from the heart’

The Cambodian Farmers' Community Association has vehemently denied allegations that its members were sowing the seeds of revolution, saying it only instructed farmers on agricultural laws and techniques. 

The group, which claims to have a membership of around 20,000 people across Cambodia, was founded in 2011 to assist farmers from 10 communities who say their land was encroached on.

Farmers and group officials welcomed the release, but said they believe Savoeun and his colleagues were “forced to confess” and make statements blaming Hun Sen’s political opposition.

"His confession didn’t come from the heart,” said farmer activist Det Hour. “If he committed a crime he would have confessed on Day One of his arrest.”

But Sok Ey San, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, denied that Savoeun was pressured to apologize.

"If the individuals made the confessions, it means they were true," he said.

Another activist named Ma Chetra called Savoeun “a victim of the justice system” in Cambodia, adding that his confession “can’t be regarded as real.”

"He chose to apologize so he can take care of his elderly parents," he said.

The trio’s release comes three days after Hun Sen accused unnamed officials from the opposition Candlelight Party of “wanting to kill” him and “seize power through undemocratic ways” during a meeting with workers in Phnom Penh.

Illegal land grabs by developers or individuals are not uncommon in Cambodia, where officials and bureaucrats can be bribed to provide bogus land titles. Disputes over land are one of the major causes of social disturbances throughout Southeast Asia.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

“In the future, don’t be arrogant again in the application of your foreign policy,” he said at the inauguration of a tire factory in Sihanoukville. 

“The diplomats in Phnom Penh should understand it,” the prime minister said. “It is because of you, you made me not trust you. Therefore, why should I do work that is in favor of you?” 

Kem Sokha was arrested in 2017 on treason charges. He was finally sentenced in March to 27 years in prison in a verdict widely condemned as politically motivated.

It was unclear if any diplomats have visited Kem Sokha since the March verdict. Before his sentencing, ambassadors from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States often met with him at his Phnom Penh home while he was under house arrest.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went to see Kem Sokha during a June 2021 trip that included a meeting with Hun Sen. An angry prime minister later said that she secretly went to Kem Sokha’s home without informing the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

‘Foreigners who insult me’

On Monday, Hun Sen said he doesn’t “trust foreigners who insult me, insult my sovereignty, insult myself when they worked with me and at the same time worked with others.”

He issued a similar public warning in April when he cautioned “Cambodia’s foreign friends” who support opposition party groups and politicians. 

“You have to choose between an individual group that breaks the laws and the government,” he said. “Please choose one. If you need those who were penalized by law, please do so, and you can then break diplomatic relations from Cambodia.”

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Stephanie Arzate told Radio Free Asia that the United States doesn’t “support any particular individual, institution, or political party” in Cambodia. But American officials “regularly meet with a wide range of individuals, in accordance with diplomatic norms and practices.”

Kem Sokha has always denied the charges that led to his arrest, which took place months after the party he co-founded – the Cambodia National Rescue Party – had a strong showing in that year’s local commune elections. 

The arrest kicked off a broad government crackdown against civic activists and journalists. A similar crackdown has taken place in recent months against activists for the Candlelight Party, which has taken the CNRP’s place as the country’s main opposition party. 

‘Just a political trick’

Last week, the National Election Committee ruled that the Candlelight Party couldn’t appear on the ballot for the July parliamentary elections, citing inadequate paperwork.

Australia-based social development researcher Seng Sary said Hun Sen may have brought up the embassy visits to divert public attention ahead of the election and to show he is a strong politician who isn’t afraid to confront powerful countries.

“This is just a political trick to draw support and to show power to the people and to the opposition leadership,” he said.

Hun Sen also said on Monday there remains a possibility that Kem Sokha could be pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni – but only if the prime minister chooses to make the request in writing to the king.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The Southeast Asia Games, hosted by Cambodia for the first time, featured a US$150 million stadium built by China specifically for the event. 

And on the first day, Hun Sen presided over an elaborate opening ceremony stage-managed by Chinese technicians. King Norodom Sihamoni, Cambodia’s constitutional monarch and head of state, did not attend. 

The stage and light show highlighted the prime minister’s achievements since he took power in 1985 and portrayed him as a national unifier after the dark years of civil war and Khmer Rouge rule. But the cost of the event has prompted some grumbling in Cambodia, where the economy continues to lag after the COVID pandemic.

Youth activist Kim Chilin was proud that Cambodia could host a big regional event, but questioned the decision to cover the costs for everything, and the way Hun Sen exploited the event to boost his reputation.

“The ruling party is using this event to promote themselves and for political gain,” he said. “You cannot claim for your own credit or say that it came from the ‘big heart’ of the prime minister.”

‘Grab the attention of the public’

Cambodia picked up the US$7 million cost of hosting and feeding athletes from visiting nations by waiving the daily US$50 per person that is normally charged to each sports delegation.

Hun Sen said he did that to bring in more competitors for the games, which included 608 events across 37 sports.

“I am not hostile to the money, but the fact that we didn’t take this money was to attract more foreigners to visit and know about Cambodia,” he said in a speech in Sihanoukville on April 30. “If we took that money, we still couldn’t become rich.”

About 5,000 sports delegates stayed at a newly constructed “Sports Village,” while another 2,000 stayed at four-star hotels near the stadium.

Just before the games began, the prime minister mandated that all Cambodia television channels show the events.

“Wake up all TV stations! Please broadcast the SEA Games events!” he said. “Public and private TV stations must broadcast the SEA Games to bring nationwide excitement!” 

He also ordered free entrance tickets for local and foreign spectators and granted free broadcasting rights for local and foreign media.

“These were all crazy ideas,” Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok said. 

The US$7 million spent on the visiting athletes is normally picked up by the competitors’ home countries, he said. 

“But we didn’t ask that from them,” he said. “I don’t know why he doesn’t take that money? We could take it and spend half of it to develop our sports and use the other half as a prize for our athletes.”

For Heng Kimsour, a university student in Phnom Penh, the games have been exciting and a source of pride for a country that has waited more than six decades to host the regional Olympiad. 

“We have shown our rich culture and civilization to the world,” she said. 

“Nevertheless, Cambodia has spent millions of dollars to organize this event while we are still a developing country,” she said. “It seems like the government hosts the free SEA Games to grab the attention of the public so that they forget about politics and the election, as well as the illegal privatization of natural resources.”

China’s involvement

The new 60,000-seat national stadium was originally announced as a gift from China to Cambodia, but its name – “Morodok Techo” – means “Hun Sen’s Inheritance.”

Hun Sen admitted that his government couldn’t have hosted the games without China, and he publicly thanked Chinese President Xi Jingping during the Sihanoukville speech. 

“Other ASEAN countries have already hosted the SEA Games; why didn’t Cambodia do it?” he said. 

“I told the ASEAN counterparts to understand that I needed money to build infrastructure, accelerate social and economic development and reduce poverty. We needed roads, bridges, irrigation systems, schools, hospitals. We needed money to build them up.”

Once the Chinese began building the stadium in 2013, Hun Sen told Minister of Tourism Thong Khon to prepare to host the games, he said.

China also helped with the May 5 opening ceremony. At the end of January, a team of nearly 100 people arrived in Cambodia to start working and rehearsing, Chinese director Chen Wei Tan told China Radio International.

The technical team was divided into directing, acting, lighting, sound and musical composition. Lights and LCD screens were also brought from China, Chen said.

“The Cambodian government needed help from China to organize the great opening ceremony and create a new image to the world,” he said. “We use our wisdom and power so that Cambodia and China can build up ‘a Community of Common Destiny’ with high quality and standards.” 

“Community of Common Destiny” is a phrase from a 2017 speech by Xi Jinping often used in Chinese foreign policy to promote mutual cooperation with neighboring countries.

Television commentators were heard using another slogan that is also often used in Chinese foreign policy: “Win-win.”

During the opening ceremony broadcast, the announcers praised the prime minister and spoke of his time in power as the “Techo” era. “Techo,” which means powerful or strong, and references an ancient Khmer warrior, is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.

“The win-win policy of the extraordinary founder and leader in the Techo-era fully and genuinely ended the civil war, bringing peace and full national unity, paving the way for a prosperous future and confidence and giving each and every Cambodian citizen the rights to hope, freedom and (a) warm smile,” the ceremony’s narrator said.

“Thanks for a win-win policy!” 

Translated by Yang Chandara. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Cambodia is hosting the SEA Games for the first time. The 32nd edition of the regional Olympiad, which is held every two years, has attracted some 12,000 participants from 11 nations who will compete in 36 sports, from billiards and jujitsu to sailing and volleyball.

The event, which runs until May 17, is an opportunity to burnish the international standing of Cambodia and its increasingly authoritarian leader. That was palpable on Friday.

The opening ceremony depicted centuries of Cambodian history with an elaborate stage and light show and plugged the achievements of Hun Sen. He has been prime minister since 1985 and is further tightening his grip on the country ahead of July 23 elections.

The commentator at the ceremony portrayed Hun Sen as uniting the nation after the “dark era of (the) genocidal Pol Pot regime” that fell in 1979.

“The win-win policy of the extraordinary founder and leader in the Techo era fully and genuinely ended the civil war bringing peace and full national unity, paving the way for a prosperous future and confidence and giving each and every Cambodian citizen the rights to hope, freedom and (a) warm smile,” the ceremony’s narrator said.

“Thanks for a win-win policy!” 

“Techo,” which means powerful or strong, and references an ancient Khmer warrior, is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.

The depiction of Hun Sen as a unifying force is contentious as the 70-year-old leader has used a combination of brute force and political suppression to cement his domination. Critics accuse him of rolling back Cambodia’s democratic freedoms guaranteed under a UN-backed peace agreement in 1991.

King absent

The games’ opening ceremony was not attended by Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni, although previous iterations of the SEA Games in other countries have customarily been opened by the host nation’s head of state.

The exclusion of the king, a constitutional monarch, has provoked criticism from exiled dissidents who say Hun Sen is disrespecting the monarchy and hogging the limelight as he prepares his own dynastic succession to his eldest son, Hun Manet, to become Cambodia’s next prime minister. 

Hun Sen denies those claims and accuses critics of trying to provoke a conflict between him and the king.

At the ceremony, Hun Sen, with his wife Bun Rany to his left and visiting Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith to his right, was the final VIP to hold the Olympic-style torch before it was carried by athletes on a final lap of the Morodok Techo National Stadium. The arena was specially built for the SEA Game with a U.S.$160 million grant from China.

Hun Sen in late March announced that free tickets would be distributed for all the game's events, for foreigners as well as Cambodians, and international broadcasters would not be charged for live television coverage rights, The Associated Press reported.

The countries taking part in the SEA Games are Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, Vietnam and Cambodia. 

Boxing controversy

This edition of the games, however, has been marked by a dispute between Cambodia and neighboring Thailand over the name of the kickboxing event, with Cambodia insisting it be called “kun Khmer” rather than “muay Thai” – prompting Thailand to keep its kickboxers out of the competition.

And the run-up to the games, ahead of the Cambodian elections, has been marked by xenophobic rhetoric from the veteran leader and barbs against those he regards as political opponents.

This week, Hun Sen warned critics among the Cambodian diaspora against protesting the election results or lobbying foreign governments. He warned if they did so, they would face difficulties returning to Cambodia.

In recent months, Hun Sen has tightened his grip on Cambodian politics, by co-opting opposition supporters, activists and journalists with offers of jobs in the government. 

Authorities have also tightened a vise against the Candlelight Party, which has emerged as the main opposition in the run-up to the election.

Accusing foreign governments

On the eve of the games, Hun Sen revived his claim that foreign governments were trying to foment a “color revolution,” or anti-government protest movement.

Hun Sen released a video via Facebook on Thursday in which he said that activists who have defected to the Cambodian People’s Party had informed him of the plot against him by unnamed foreign countries that were recruiting social and political activists.

"What the government has been doing to prevent color revolution and toppling the government through undemocratic behavior are justified. Foreign adversaries have been trying to destroy us," he said.

Youth activists and NGO representatives criticized Hun Sen for his comments.

Student leader Keut Saray denied any involvement in a supposed color revolution. He said that Hun Sen was creating "social hatred" amongst the Khmer. 

"We are focusing on protecting the environment. In our heads, we have nothing but justice," said Mean Liza, an activist of the environmental protection group, Mother Nature. 

Edited by Mat Pennington, Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Cambodia is hosting the Southeast Asian region's premier sporting event for the first time. The May 5-17 games will include 11 nations in the region competing in 36 events, and the country has built a new Chinese-funded 60,000 seat stadium  for the occasion.

In host countries, including monarchies, the sitting head of state is usually given the honor of declaring the start of the games at the opening ceremony.

Though King Norodom Sihamoni is the official head of state in Cambodia, he rarely exercises his limited powers granted by the constitution and tries to avoid getting involved in politics. 

Hun Sen, 70, has ruled Cambodia since 1985, and is believed to be manipulating the government and the country’s laws in an attempt to pass his role as leader to his son Hun Manet before retiring. 

The country is scheduled to hold national elections in July that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party is widely expected to win.

At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sihanoukville container terminal on Monday, Hun Sen mocked his detractors.

"You should know well, if you do not know well, don’t act like you are so wise and do not be arrogant and incite conflict between the king and the prime minister,” he said. 

“The king does not take the role of prime minister, and the prime minister does not take on the role of the king, just as [the king] carried the torch before the SEA Games while the prime minister walked along with him,” he said.

Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia that Hun Sen’s slight was destroying the achievements of the king, the former king and the ancestors of the Khmer people.

“This is not only a violation of the role of the king, but a betrayal of the throne and the king, not only in front of the Cambodian people, but in front of international guests around the world," he said.

Driving a wedge

Hun Sen’s critics are trying to discredit him by trying to show that there’s a split between the prime minister and monarchy, said David Hutt, a journalist and researcher for the Central European Institute of Asian Studies.

“It’s a way for anti-CPP critics to try to paint Hun Sen as unpatriotic, given that he taints most opponents as traitors,” said Hutt. “They probably also reckon it might turn some ordinary Cambodians against the ruling party. But the monarchy has been a political football for some time.”

Tensions between Hun Sen and the royal house arise because of the monarchy’s protections, he said.

“After all, the monarchy is the only institution left in Cambodia that [Hun Sen’s] ruling party cannot completely dominate,” said Hutt. “Maybe Hun Sen has long thought it may become a rival institution, although that’s less so with King Norodom Sihamoni compared to his father.”

Hutt said that Hun Sen sees himself as a monarch, as he is preparing a dynastic succession of the prime ministership to his son.

But Kim Sok denied that he and other critics only want to drive a wedge between the king and the prime minister, and compared the treatment of the monarchy with other neighboring monarchies.

"In Thailand, when there are big sports events, both national and international, before the athletes enter the arena, they prepare the king's portrait for the athletes to respect him before entering the arena,” Kim Sok said. “But in the Kingdom of Cambodia, we have not seen such preparations yet.”

Hun Sen tends to get angry whenever his critics call him out on his disrespect, Bangkok-based social development researcher Seng Sary said.

"The prime minister seems to feel uncomfortable when he is compared to the king, who is protected by the constitution,” said Seng Sary. “The monarchy is a supreme institution that cannot be violated, but the prime minister is only the chairman of the executive branch."

Buddhist honors

Meanwhile, a Thailand-based international Buddhist organization has granted Hun Sen the honorary title “Patron of the World,” and made his son Hun Manet an honorary “senior advisor,” confusing some members of the organization.

The Venerable Buth Buntenh, who lives in exile in Massachusetts, said the Cambodian leader does not deserve the title and he does not understand why the organization gave it to him.

“Hun Sen has committed the highest immoral things in Cambodian society,” the monk said, adding that under Hun Sen’s rule, monks have lived in repressive conditions that rival the time when the country was ruled by Pol Pot’s regime, during which the Khmer Rouge defrocked and killed them.

“But now, under the rule of Hun Sen, monks are defrocked and put in jail. Or monks are shot dead by unidentified gunmen.” said Buth Buntenh.” So, the Khmer Rouge regime and Hun Sen are the same in terms of persecution of the Buddhists.” 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
UPDATE: Adds background information on the SEA Games.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Thousands of viewers watch Sorn Dara’s talk shows on Facebook during which he routinely attacks Hun Sen and calls for his removal from office. His father is a military officer and a longtime supporter of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and and his sister-in-law works at the Ministry of Interior. 

“You want to try me if your parents don’t teach you lessons. I will fire your parents – including your relatives – from their jobs,” Hun Sen said at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh. “You are so rude. I will invite your father and your sister-in-law to learn some lessons and don’t complain that I am taking your relatives as hostages,” an apparent reference to firing them.

Sorn Dara lives in exile in France and is seeking asylum there. He most recently criticized Hun Sen for promising free admission to people and participants during the upcoming Southeast Asia Games, which are being held in Cambodia next month.

The move has been criticized as a way to curry favor with voters ahead of July’s parliamentary election.

Following his threats on Tuesday, Hun Sen posted videos of Sorn Dara’s mother and brother on Telegram saying they were disappointed that Sorn Dara hasn’t joined the CPP. 

‘You insult your parents’

Hun Sen also spoke publicly about Sorn Dara in February, saying that he wasn’t a good son because he didn’t listen to his parents.

“You insult your parents to whom you owe gratitude saying they have less education than you,” he said. “Your parents gave birth to you. You still look down on them. How about the regular people? If you don’t recognize your parents, then you are not human.”

Sorn Dara is a former official of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November 2017. He said his father disowned him that same year because he had refused to join the CPP.  

Sorn Dara’s father, Col. Sok Sunnareth, deputy chief of staff of the Kampong Speu Provincial Operations Area and a ruling party working group official, publicly implored his son on Feb. 22 to stop criticizing Hun Sen and his government, according to a Khmer Times report. 

On Tuesday, Sorn Dara responded to Hun Sen’s latest angry threat with a Facebook post that said the prime minister should act in a more mature manner and lead the country with dignity.

Speaking to Radio Free Asia, Sorn Dara noted that Hun Sen has recently been using threats and tricks against political opponents as the election looms. 

“I don’t want to be associated with my family. They are different from me,” he said. “No one can stop me from doing something.”

‘I will try to advise my brother’

Sorn Dara’s parents appeared in a short video in February posted by the pro-government Fresh News, saying they had severed ties with their son.

His brother, Sorn Saratt, told RFA on Tuesday that he has also cut ties with him. But he said he will try to convince his brother to defect from the opposition party and join the CPP.

“I will try to advise my brother to stop attacking the King, the government and Samdech [Hun Sen], to stay away from traitors and return to the family and the country,” he said.

Ros Sotha, executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, told RFA that Hun Sen’s threat isn’t legitimate. He urged the prime minister to be patient and to avoid violating human rights and the law.

“As a leader, he shouldn’t be afraid of being criticized,” he said. “There is no law that [Sorn Dara’s relatives] will be fired because they are related to members of the opposition party.”

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Yim Sinorn met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday at his home in Kandal province, where he and his family posed for photos as the longtime leader sat at his desk. 

The defection of a prominent and outspoken opposition activist comes as the CPP continues to work to silence, intimidate and co-opt opposition figures ahead of the July general elections.

Yim Sinorn has been a close ally of Kem Sokha, the leader of the now-banned Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) who was sentenced to 27 years for treason last month in a decision widely condemned as politically motivated. 

On Friday, Yim Sinorn blamed officials from the opposition Candlelight Party for ignoring him while he was in detention last month and for accusing him of being a double agent.

“Samdech Hun Sen, I want to see Cambodia to have a strong democratic system based on Cambodia’s standard and to comply with the Constitution,” he wrote on his wife’s Facebook page, using an honorific title. 

“It is my duty to be committed to protect peace and prevent any attempts to destroy the country. I have little education and experience but I want to serve the country and her people,” Yim Sinorn wrote. “If Samdech gives me a chance I would like to join the CPP to be able to serve the people and the country.”

Messages from the coffee shop

Yim Sinorn was once the head of the CNRP’s youth movement in South Korea, where nearly 50,000 Cambodians work, mostly as factory workers. In 2019, he helped organize a demonstration of workers against the Hun Sen government in Gwangju.

Later that year, he and nine colleagues were charged in Phnom Penh Municipal Court with conspiracy and inciting serious social unrest in Cambodia and elsewhere. In September 2021, he wrote a letter to Hun Sen saying the charges against him were unfair and that he never supported leading opposition figure Sam Rainsy.

Hun Sen was apparently satisfied with the letter and the court dropped all charges against him and the other nine defendants. Yim Sinorn returned to Cambodia in January 2022.  

In March, he was arrested after posting a comment on Facebook that seemed to highlight the political powerlessness of King Norodom Sihamoni, who is required by Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution to reign as a national figurehead.

“According to the people at the coffee shop, today we clearly know who is truly the king,” Yim Sinorn wrote.

He was released a week later after he posted a video and a statement from prison apologizing for the message.

“I take this occasion to ask for forgiveness from the king and apologize to Samdech Hun Sen publicly with honesty,” he said at the time.

‘A core person to Kem Sokha’

In February, Radio Free Asia reported that environmental workers and opposition party members are being offered jobs in the government by the CPP as a way of weakening any competition ahead of the July general election.

Political analyst Seng Sary said Yim Sinorn’s switch to the CPP makes it even more likely that opposition party activists will continue to defect to the CPP in the coming months.

“Yim Sinorn was a core person to Kem Sokha,” he said. “I think there might be more people defecting [to the CPP]. This defection is like a pandemic.” 

Yim Sinorn said on Facebook that he asked Hun Sen to release his colleague Hun Kosal, who was also arrested last month after posting similar comments about the king. Hun Kosal hasn’t apologized to Hun Sen and is still in jail. 

Yim Sinorn’s wife, Sophat Makara, posted photos of Friday’s meeting with Hun Sen on her Facebook page, calling the prime minister “my Samdech father.”

“My husband and family will try our best to work hard and won’t disappoint my father,” she wrote. “I can survive because of my father and mother.” 

CPP spokesman Chhim Phalvorun said Yim Sinorn has his political rights and can choose any party that he likes. He said the CPP will look into his request and his qualifications. 

Hun Sen made no comment on his Telegram account about the latest news, but he did repost an article from the pro-government news site, Freshnews, about his meeting with Yim Sonorn. 

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

“I want to talk about the ministers’ Telegram group,” the prime minister said at a Phnom Penh hospital, referring to an instant messaging app. “When I sent my messages in the group, it took them seven days to get it. And they just responded ‘thank you.’ 

“These kinds of people, why do they need a phone? Some of the ministers are lazy.”

Hun Sen said the 71-year-old Kanharith was the worst, sometimes taking 15 days to answer a message.

“He is the minister of information but he doesn’t read the news,” the prime minister said. “I don’t know what to say. He posts on Facebook constantly but doesn’t look at WhatsApp and Telegram.”

Kanharith, a former newspaper editor and legislator who has served in top roles at the ministry for nearly 30 years, was heavily criticized on his Facebook page this week after he posted a photo showing a man spraying a water toy gun at a woman’s breast while she drove a motorbike during Khmer New Year. 

His comment next to the photo said: “What a really nice shot!” The post received over 15,000 reactions, 1,300 shares and 870 comments. 

‘Not just this photo’

Kanharith’s posting negatively affects the dignity of women, said Mean Lisa, a member of the Mother Nature NGO.

“It’s not just this single photo,” she said. “In the past, this information minister has posted photos implying sexual harassment on women. He shouldn’t make fun out of that. It creates a bad example.”

Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophoan couldn’t be reached for comment. Radio Free Asia sent several messages to Kanharith but didn’t receive a response.

Khmer Student Intelligent League Association president Keut Saray urged Hun Sen to re-educate his ministers by prohibiting Kanharith from posting any more inappropriate photos. 

“He is a public figure who is the servant of the people and an example for his subordinates. He should act as a good role model for Cambodians in general, especially journalists,” he said.

‘People are disappointed’

Additionally, the prime minister should also be blamed when his ministers don’t respond in a timely fashion to his messages, Keut Saray said. It looks like Hun Sen doesn’t effectively manage his ministers but instead runs the government like a family, he said.

Hun Sen on Thursday also called out Soy Sokha, the secretary general at the Office of the Council of Ministers, for being slow to reply. He also said that Minister of Planning Chhay Thorn and government adviser Ek Sam Ol were quick to respond to his messages but didn’t seem to closely read the content of the messages.

If ministers can’t respond to Hun Sen on time, how can they be trusted to respond to the needs of the people? asked Vorn Pov, president of the Independent Democracy of Information Economic Association.

The prime minister should look into reshuffling inactive ministers after the upcoming July parliamentary election, if the CPP wins, he said.

“People are tired of lagging services. People are disappointed in relying on ministers,” he said. 

Translated by Samean Yun and Keo Sovannarith. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The arrangement of more than 3.9 million origami hearts at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Siem Reap province was organized by Hun Many, the chairman of the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia and a parliamentary candidate in the upcoming July general election.

“Cambodia has between 16 and 17 million people. We can make about 4 million hearts, so if China and India can make more hearts then the committee must consider,” the prime minister said, referring to the Guinness World Records officials who determine whether a record has been set. “They must think about the percent of the country’s population.” 

The Angkor Sangkran 2023 celebration near Angkor Wat temple – Cambodia’s top tourist attraction – has been decorated with lights, souvenir shops, food stalls, concerts and floating boats. Volunteers from the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia, which is made up of supporters of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, did much of the work for the event.

But the festival hasn’t done anything to promote the country’s culture, political analyst Kim Sok told Radio Free Asia. Money was spent out of the national budget and civil servants were put to work just to make people happy ahead of the election, he said.

“Hun Sen doesn’t think about the country and its people. He organized the event for his face and for his family,” he said.

Hun Many is currently a lawmaker from Kampong Speu province. Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, has also been named a parliamentary candidate. He is currently the deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and is expected to eventually succeed his father as prime minister. 

Another Guinness record attempt

A member of the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia, Kean Savong, told RFA that another world record will be attempted at the festival on Saturday, when thousands of people will gather to do the Madison line dance. 

“People are volunteers so we don’t spend much money,” he said. 

A villager from Siem Reap province, Siem Vann, said Angkor Sangkran will make people happy for a short time but won’t really do anything to help the country when so many people are facing financial difficulties, are indebted to banks or are considering moving abroad to find work. 

He urged the government to think about increasing local markets for farmers and resolving political conflict.

“The government should use the budget to appropriately help the poor and restore democracy so that people will have freedom,” he said. 

Siem Reap authorities wouldn’t elaborate on how much the event will cost, but the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia said private donations from rich businessmen known by the honorific “Okhna” will cover most of the expenses.  

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Before he runs, Hun Manet, 45, the eldest son of Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, is expected to resign from the military – per election rules – where he is deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Hun Manet posted a short video clip to his Facebook page on Monday, saying that Cambodia would remain independent and strengthen ties with all countries around the world – not just China.

“Cambodia’s policy today is not being so close to China and not being so close to anyone,” he said. “It stands neutral, but we encourage and are determined to boost up close relationships with all the nations.

“That is our correct policy. We get closer to China, the United States and Japan and we get closer to all other nations,” he said. “That’s what we want.”

Hun Manet has had extensive experience overseas. A graduate of the elite United States Military Academy at West Point, he holds a masters in economics from New York University and another graduate degree from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

‘I have to protect my power’

Speaking at the inauguration of a hospital on Monday, Hun Sen used harsh language to respond to recent criticisms of his leadership and his son. 

The prime minister seemed to target a Buddhist monk now living in exile in Massachusetts who recently criticized Hun Manet for not being qualified to lead the country. In comments posted on Facebook on Sunday, the Venerable Buth Buntenh also said that if Hun Manet became prime minister, he would only do his father’s bidding. 

“The black guy, who lives in the U.S. – people would know when I call him the black guy,” Hun Sen said while not using Buth Buntenh’s name. 

“Last night, he said that Hun Sen fears losing power. What you said is right, the contemptible black guy. I have to protect my power because your people always attempt to kill me, why not let me protect it?”

Hun Sen also said he would continue to hunt and eliminate opposition groups – who he accused of committing treason – out of the political arena to protect peace and the constitutional monarchy. 

Warning to foreign embassies

He also cautioned  “Cambodia’s foreign friends” who support opposition party groups and politicians. 

“You have to choose between an individual group that breaks the laws and the government,” he said at the hospital inauguration in Tbong Khmum province. “Please choose one. If you need those who were penalized by law, please do so, and you can then break diplomatic relations from Cambodia.”

The ruling CPP and Hun Sen have been working to silence and intimidate opposition figures ahead of the July general elections through a series of arrests and lawsuits.

In the most high-profile example, opposition party leader Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years for treason last month in a court decision that was widely condemned as politically motivated. 

The charges against Kem Sokha related partly to a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of U.S. experts. The United States Embassy has rejected any suggestion that Washington was trying to interfere in Cambodian politics.

Hun Sen also mentioned last week’s visit to Phnom Penh of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

“He declared that the powerful countries should stop interfering into the affairs of other countries,” Hun Sen said. “I fully support him. I’ve got another good counterpart in ASEAN.” 

Political analyst Kim Sok said Hun Sen’s language on Monday was “undiplomatic.” Foreign embassies in Phnom Penh – such as the United States – are working to cooperate with Cambodia based on a 1991 multinational agreement that formally ended decades of war in the country and paved the way for parliamentary democracy, he said.

“They just monitor the situation to see if Cambodia walks in the path of democracy and multi-liberal pluralism, which is enshrined in the Paris Peace Agreements,” he said.   

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The eldest son, Hun Manet, has been tapped to be Hun Sen’s political successor. He is expected to resign from the military in the coming months to compete in the election, which is scheduled for July. 

The prime minister said he and Minister of National Defense Tea Banh agreed to promote Hun Manet from a three-star general to four stars. The 45-year-old Hun Manet is currently the deputy commander in chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF).

“Hun Manet should have been promoted to be a four-star general from 2018 but he refused to accept it,” Hun Sen said at a graduation ceremony for the Vanda Institute in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. “He didn’t know that he was promoted.”

The second eldest son, Hun Manith, was appointed on March 17 to be the deputy commander of the RCAF’s infantry. He is also the military’s spy chief. 

The moves are more evidence that Hun Sen – who has been in office since 1985 – intends to hand power over to his son and is willing to violate the military’s impartiality and independence to ensure that the transfer takes place, said Ros Sotha, the executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 22 local NGOs.

People are becoming fearful that the military is losing its neutrality and would use force if the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has a poor showing in July’s elections, he said. 

“Our country belongs to every one of us. It is not a private company,” he said. “If power is concentrated only with a group of people, it is not good. It will not serve the interest of the whole nation.”

Hun Sen wants Hun Manet to retain influence over the military when he goes into politics, said Um Sam An, a senior official in the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party who lives in the United States. And if he becomes the prime minister, his brother, Hun Manith, will be in a better position to protect him, he said.

Brothers and relatives

Hun Manith could eventually take over as the RCAF’s top commander, said Duong Chantra, a senior CNRP official who lives in Thailand. 

“Building up and strengthening military power – dictatorial regimes always do this by putting brothers and relatives in positions of control,” he said.

The appointments are an indication that Hun Sen no longer trusts anyone other than his relatives, said Keut Saray, the president of the Khmer Intellectual Students Association. Cambodia will continue to become a nepotism- and patronage-based system, instead of a democracy, if appointments like this continue, he said.

Responding to nepotism allegations in the past, Hun Sen has boasted that his children are qualified to carry out their duties.

“They are all capable of performing their jobs,” he has said. “My children hold PhDs and master’s degrees. Should I trash them or what?”  

On Wednesday, he said that Hun Manith won’t be appointed to Hun Manet's military post when he resigns. That position will go to RCAF Infantry Commander Mao Sophann, the prime minister said.

Army spokesman Mao Phalla declined to comment on Hun Manith's appointment, saying it was the responsibility of the Ministry of National Defense’s spokesman, Chhum Socheat.

Radio Free Asia was unable to reach Chhum Socheat for comment. Government spokesman Phay Siphan and CPP spokesman Sok Isan also didn’t respond to requests for comment on the appointments.

Translated by Samean Yun and Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Josh Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

The remarks, which came at a ceremony Monday to launch the country’s fourth phase of its financial management reform program, which will last from 2023 to 2027, were in response to a European Union resolution. 

It called on Cambodia to release jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha, improve its human rights situation and hold free and fair elections this year – or risk further suspension of its participation in the regional bloc’s “Everything But Arms” scheme, or EBA, which allows Phnom Penh access to the European market without tariffs.

The EU already withdrew about 20 percent of the EBA scheme in 2020, equivalent to about $1.1 billion of the country’s Europe-bound exports. 

Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, repeatedly said that Cambodia can still survive without EBA status, but critics told RFA’s Khmer Service that it is an indication that he does not care about Cambodian workers and their rights.

“When Mr. Hun Sen says he does not need EBA status, that means he does not need to respect human rights or women’s rights,” said Mu Sochua, the vice president of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which was the country’s main opposition party prior to its dissolution by the Supreme Court on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in 2017.

Mu Sochua said that losing EBA status completely would result in catastrophically high unemployment in Cambodia and would disproportionately affect women, who make up the majority of factory employees.

“Not only would factory workers lose their jobs, but also farmers and their families, small food vendors, and grocery stores around the factories, they would all lose their businesses too,” she said, adding that the female workers would then have to look for jobs in the entertainment sector or risk their lives looking for jobs abroad.

Reforms sparked survival

At Monday’s reform launch, Hun Sen also said that after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Cambodia carried out major political and economic reforms under his leadership to restore the country without waiting for any assistance from abroad, and that is the reason it has survived until now.

“In my life, I have encountered countless risks all the time,” he said. “Not only when I risked my neck for the survival of the people by leaving the Khmer Rouge regime, and not only when I risked my neck for peace that UNTAC was not able to attain, but I also risked my neck for reforms when I acquired formal post as the prime minister.”

Following the 1970 coup d'etat that installed Prime Minister Lon Nol as Cambodia’s head of state, Hun Sen joined the Khmer Rouge and fought what he considered to be foreign interference for the next seven years. 

When internal purges in the Khmer Rouge regime started in 1977, Hun Sen fled with many of the soldiers under his command to Vietnam, returning with the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia that defeated the Khmer Rouge. He was installed as deputy prime minister of the Vietnamese backed People’s Republic of Kampuchea in 1979, then in 1985, the national assembly elected him as prime minister.

With the Khmer Rouge still in control of parts of the country, Hun Sen was instrumental in the 1991 Paris Peace Talks that would broker a ceasefire and an end to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War and and brought in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, or UNTAC, to keep the peace as the country held elections in 1993.

When the elections favored another party over his Cambodian People’s Party, Hun Sen threatened to secede with seven provinces. It was then that UNTAC and the other party agreed to allow him to serve as second prime minister until 1997, when he led a coup that installed an interim first prime minister until elections the following year where his party was successful enough that it was able to elect him as the country’s lone prime minister, the office he holds today. 

Praise and criticism

Hun Sen on Monday also accused the United States of supporting the 1970 coup and supporting the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot. 

He also took the opportunity to praise Vietnam, saying that the presence of Vietnamese troops in Cambodia during the earlier years of his reign not only helped to overthrow and prevent the return of the Khmer Rouge, it also helped Cambodia advance in its political, economic and social relations.   

Social development researcher Meas Ny told RFA that Hun Sen's remarks reflect the reality of post-war political turmoil in Cambodia. 

However, he said that the current sanctions on Cambodia are a result of Phnom Penh’s lack of respect for human rights and unwillingness to follow the path of democracy in accordance with the principles of international law. 

Meas Ny said that although Cambodia claims to be able to survive without foreign aid, its development and economy may be sluggish compared to other countries in the region.

“At the present, every country needs commercial and economic relations with other countries,” said Meas Ny. “If we lose part of a relationship, it could lead us to an abnormal economic situation and we will be unable to catch up with other countries.”  

Former CNRP lawmaker Oum Sam An dismissed Hun Sen's claims as overly political fabrications of facts intended to draw votes in this year’s elections, scheduled for July.

He said reforms invoked by the People’s Republic of Kampuchea between 1978 and 1992 focused only on strengthening party power, and because of its adherence to the Marxist-Leninist ideology, it made the country’s economy reliant on the aid of communist allies like Vietnam and the Soviet Union. This made Cambodians suffer from hunger and hardship. 

“If the international community left Cambodia alone and let Cambodians depend on the economic reforms of Hun Sen, our Khmer people would still be living in misery and Cambodia would not have a bustling garment factory industry like today,” said Oum Sam An.  

“The livelihood of Cambodian people would have been the same as it was back in the 1980s.”

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

A report by The Wall Street Journal in 2019 said that Phnom Penh and Beijing had signed a pact to allow the Chinese military to use the Ream Naval Base, which lies on the northern stretch of the Gulf of Thailand and provides ready access to the South China Sea. 

Such a move would be in violation of Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution, which prohibits the construction of foreign bases in the country.

Hun Sen said at a graduation ceremony at Build Bright University in Phnom Penh on Thursday that such reports are part of a “campaign to slander Cambodia by foreigners and politicians.” 

“Unless you want to cause us harm, is it wrong that we are strengthening our military ports? It’s Cambodian territory – Cambodia has a right to expand Cambodia’s naval capabilities,” Hun Sen said, explaining that Ream desperately needed deepening.

“We want to build a complete navy base,” he said, denying the base would be used to wage war. “It’s not a threat against anyone.”

Critics of Beijing’s alleged plans for Ream point to Article 53 of Cambodia’s Constitution, which says the country “shall not permit any foreign military base on its territory” and must maintain “a policy of permanent neutrality.” 

American officials have repeatedly called for Cambodia to be transparent about the true plans for Ream.

Bird’s eye view

The initial report in The Wall Street Journal has been followed by a spate of reports quoting U.S. officials saying they believe the base is intended for use by China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, including in The Washington Post. Satellite imagery of the construction has also shown extensive development of the site already completed.

Radio Free Asia on Feb. 22 published satellite images from Planet Labs that show land clearance and new construction at the base. On Tuesday, Naval Technology, an industry news website, published more images from geospatial intelligence firm BlackSky.

During his speech on Thursday, Hun Sen reiterated that he appreciated China’s help with expanding the base despite the widespread criticism, and added that he did not care if “foreigners” obtained satellite images of Ream’s ongoing development. 

Criticism from foreigners about the expansion is fine, he said, so long as the critics in turn accept the explanations he provides.

“Cambodia accepts that [criticism], but when we explain to them that it is important to develop our military sector to prevent crimes and our [protect our] sovereignty, they refuse to accept it,” he said.

American animus

Hun Sen has long been a critic of both the United States and foreign media, having cut his political teeth in two wars involving America.

In the 1970s, he fought for the Khmer Rouge against the U.S.-backed Lon Nol regime in Cambodia’s first civil war, and was then foreign minister and prime minister of the Vietnamese-backed regime that ousted Pol Pot from power and fought another civil war against a U.S.-backed coalition of forces in the 1980s.  

The United States has also been one of Hun Sen’s most vocal critics since Cambodia’s 1990s peace, with Republican lawmakers in particular calling for administrations to oppose his continued rule.

Em Sovannara, an independent political commentator, told Radio Free Asia he believed Hun Sen was bringing up Ream now due to the U.S. government’s criticism of his treatment of opposition leader Kem Sokha, who was this month sentenced to 27 years of house arrest for “treason” over an alleged U.S.-backed coup plot.

Sovannara said he feared an escalation in tensions between the United States and Cambodia to the point of five years ago, when American lawmakers threatened to remove Cambodia’s trade privileges. The U.S. market accounts for more than a third of Cambodian exports.

"Cambodia is a small country. It relies on trade from the West, especially with the United States,” he said. “If the two countries don't have a good relationship, it will affect Cambodia’s foreign policy and economy. It will make things difficult for the country's development.”

Another political commentator, Seng Sary, told RFA he believed Hun Sen needed to find a better way to get his message across, and that accusing critics of a conspiracy was not helping the premier’s case.

“Cambodia needs to find a good way to explain to the international community that Cambodia wants to strengthen its naval capabilities and its trade, rather than mocking and insulting people,” he said.

Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Alex Willemyns and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Khmer.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, the prime minister alleged that some recent converts to the CPP have told him that foreign donors and activists have been working to get younger Cambodians to conduct a “color revolution” – a term sometimes used to describe an anti-regime protest movement. 

He added that the young activists were being paid to go against the Cambodian government.

"I am telling those who claim to be a democracy don't respect democracy,” he said, a likely reference to the West and its support for democratic activists. “You regard your supporters as good people, but you see those who support the government as selling out.”

Lessons from the 1970s

Hun Sen also appeared to warn the United States about the possible unintended consequences of committing a “third mistake” against Cambodia.

The prime minister didn’t mention the United States by name, but he said the first mistake came out of the 1970 military coup d’etat – sponsored by the U.S. – that removed Prince Norodom Sihanouk from power. The coup intensified civil war and paved the way for the Khmer Rouge to come to power five years later.

The second mistake was supporting the Khmer Rouge’s claim to Cambodia’s seat at the United Nations in the 1980s, he said. The Cold War-era move followed an invasion by Vietnam that drove Khmer Rouge insurgents to the Thai border, and it came at the start of a decade that saw more turmoil and slow economic development.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier who took part in the Vietnam-led invasion, was a part of the government installed in 1979. He became prime minister in 1985.

He said Wednesday that, as a leader, he’s had to rebuild the country from scratch. 

“I advise you not to commit a third mistake,” he said. “This is what I said to those countries who claim to be the father of democracy when they met me.”

Leaders ‘must be open’ to all opinions

The prime minister’s remarks come amid a recent campaign to co-opt activists, opposition figures and journalists ahead of the July general election.

In the latest example, at least 25 former staffers of the recently shuttered media outlet Voice of Democracy have applied for government jobs, a CPP spokesman said on Tuesday.

In a democracy, someone like Hun Sen can't avoid being criticized, said Soeung Sengkaruna, a spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), a local rights group. He can’t just regard any criticism as an abuse of human rights and democracy, he said.

"A leader must be open to accept all opinions. If they give constructive feedback, [the government] should accept it for reform," he said.

In mentioning the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen should have pointed out that China was their main supporter during the 1975-1979 Pol Pot regime and also provided support during the 1980s, said Um Sam An, a senior official in the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party who lives in the United States.

Vietnam’s recent closer relationship with the U.S. – even as bitter memories of war from the 1960s and 1970s remain – is a good example for Hun Sen of flexible thinking in international relations, Um Sam An said. 

"A leader needs to think about the national interest rather than the past," he said.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Activists from the Candlelight Party — the main challenger to the ruling party — say authorities are defacing and stealing party signs and billboards, and police are monitoring their meetings. Candlelight Party activists in almost all provinces have reported cases of intimidation and harassment, party spokesman Kim Sour Phirith said. 

Police and local authorities have threatened those who join the party, saying they will take away their state-issued poverty cards that allow struggling families to collect about 176,000 riels, or U.S. $43 per month, to buy dry food ingredients and products with long shelf lives.

Su Yean, deputy chairman of the party’s executive committee in Tbong Khmum province, said authorities directly and indirectly threatened him and others amid an increase of harassment of the party’s leaders and activists in February. 

“It is a scheme to discourage the public and Candlelight Party grassroots leaders not to carry out any activities to support the party,” Su Yean said.

‘Not a good son’

Additionally, Prime Minister Hun Sen has lately directed his attention toward Sorn Dara, a prominent political commentator on social media who is now living in exile in France and seeking asylum there. 

Thousands of viewers watch Sorn Dara’s talk shows on Facebook during which he routinely attacks Hun Sen and calls for his removal from office.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Royal University of Phnom Penh on Friday, Hun Sen told the crowd that Sorn Dara, whose father is a military officer and a longtime Hun Sen supporter, was not a good son because he didn’t listen to his parents.

“You insult your parents to whom you owe gratitude saying they have less education than you,” he said. “Your parents gave birth to you. You still look down on them. How about the regular people? If you don’t recognize your parents, then you are not human.”

His father, Col. Sok Sunnareth, deputy chief of staff of the Kampong Speu Provincial Operations Area and a ruling party working group official, publicly implored his son on Feb. 22 to stop criticizing Hun Sen and his government, according to a Khmer Times report. 

Sorn Dara is a former official of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or the CNRP, which was dissolved by the country’s Supreme Court in November 2017. He said his father disowned him that same year because he had refused to join the CPP.  

Parents held ‘hostage’

“My parents support for the Cambodian People’s Party is a fact,” Sorn Dara told Radio Free Asia on Monday. “However, the fact that he came forward and attacked his own son is not true.” 

He went on to say that his father’s criticism of him “was inspired by threats and intimidation” that amounted to his family being held “hostage” by Hun Sen and his government. 

“My parents are not politicians,” Sorn Dara said. “If you [Hun Sen] want to target me, go ahead with me, but not my parents. … This is an inhuman act, a crime against humanity and an act of terrorism.”      

Ros Sotha, executive director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 22 local NGOs, said Hun Sen is targeting Sorn Dara because he is very influential.

“This will dilute Hun Sen’s popularity,” he said. “Hun Sen worries about it.”  

For nearly four decades, Hun Sen has used repressive measures, including violence, arrests,  detentions and lawsuits to keep the political opposition at bay so he can remain in power, especially before elections. 

Before the last general election in 2018, Cambodia's Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP and banned 118 of its members from participating in political activities for five years. Now, in the run-up to the July election, Hun Sen and his party are targeting the Candlelight Party. 

‘Threatening to a high level’

Khem Monikosal, Candlelight’s president in Pailin province, told RFA on Monday that party members have been photographed while attending meetings. Authorities have also said they would confiscate the poverty cards of those who own the homes where the meetings take place, he said.

Up to now, police have refused to accept party complaints that commune authorities and unidentified men stole and destroyed their signs, he said.

“This situation is threatening to a high level, and it is my concern, and all colleagues in this Candlelight Party, especially activists at the grassroots level, are concerned about their safety after coming under more pressure and oppression at the grassroots level,” Khem Monikosal said.

Election watchdogs urged Candlelight Party members and activists to collect evidence of political persecution and submit complaints to the Ministry of Interior, which governs the country’s police.  

RFA could not reach Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak for comment.

Hun Sen, 70, has also tried to lure political opposition and environmental activists to the side of the ruling party by offering them government positions.

RFA recently reported that environmental workers and opposition party members were being offered government jobs by the CPP as a way to weaken any competition ahead of the general elections. At least eight activists have recently joined the ruling party and have taken government positions.

Similarly, Hun Sen publicly offered government jobs to staff members of the recently shuttered Voice of Democracy, saying they could apply for positions without taking the required civil service exam. His government revoked the operating license of the independent media outlet earlier this month, leaving Cambodia with no independent source of news.

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

"I am not diabetic yet, but it is very close. It is alarming,” he said. “[Doctors] asked me to reduce sugar intake.”

This is a rare instance of Hun Sen making a public announcement about his health. Previously, the 70-year-old has said that he was fit and that his family has no history of diabetes. 

The announcement comes after his brother Hun Neng, 72, passed away in May 2022. The prime minister’s wife previously secretly built a stupa for him at a pagoda, but Hun Sen has said he won’t be buried there and would rather be buried at his home.

In November, he tested positive for COVID and left the Group of 20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, as a precaution despite having no symptoms.

Hun Sen has ruled the country for nearly 38 years. He expects to remain in power until 2028, when he plans for his son Hun Manet to take over.

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

On Sunday, February 12, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a statement on his official Facebook page authorities would revoke Voice of Democracy’s license on Monday morning, according to multiple news reports.

At 10 a.m. Monday, a group of 10 Ministry of Information officials, police officers, and other authorities delivered a letter to the outlet’s office in Phnom Penh, the capital, formally revoking its license, a Voice of Democracy representative who requested anonymity told CPJ.

The outlet will stop publishing news while pursuing all options to reinstate its license, Voice of Democracy associate editor Ananth Baliga told CPJ via email. CPJ emailed the Ministry of Information and the prime minister’s office for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s order to close the Voice of Democracy is unacceptable and should be immediately reversed,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “If Cambodia wants to maintain any pretense of democracy ahead of this year’s general elections, independent media must be allowed to report without fear of reprisal. This type of government harassment of the free press is all too familiar and must stop now.”

In his Facebook statement, Hun Sen said Voice of Democracy had intentionally slandered him and his son Hun Manet in a February 8 article about Cambodia’s official assistance to earthquake victims in Turkey.

The article alleged that Hun Manet, who serves concurrently as joint chief of staff and deputy commander of the country’s armed forces, overstepped his authority by signing a US$100,000 aid agreement on behalf of the prime minister.

The prime minister initially gave Voice of Democracy 72 hours to verify the story’s facts and issue an apology, but Hun Sen later said the news organization’s response was unacceptable and ordered its closure, those news reports and the Voice of Democracy representative said.

Voice of Democracy, which is run by the Cambodia Center for Independent Media nongovernmental organization, issued a second apology letter early Monday morning, but Hun Sen replied on Facebook saying he was standing by his closure order, the Voice of Democracy representative said.

 “The absence of independent media will only allow corruption to go unchecked and those in positions of power to run amok,” Ananth Baliga told CPJ.

Voice of Democracy is widely recognized as one of the few remaining independent news outlets in Cambodia, and has investigated corruption and human rights issues in the country.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

In the video, Long Sokunthearak, who lives in Ohio, said that Hun Sen’s son Hun Manet was only able to rise to a position of power because of his father’s influence, and that the elder Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, has been targeting opposition party politicians to make it easier for his son to one day take his place.

“I wanted to tell the public that my fake uniform has no value, just like the uniform given to Hun Manet by Hun Sen,” Long Sokunthearak told RFA’s Khmer Service.

Hun Manet is Cambodia’s Deputy Commander in Chief of the army, with a rank of infantry commander. 

Supporters of Hun Sen called for action against Long Sokunthearak over the video.

“The individual’s actions, through incitement by illegally impersonating as a military officer, affected the national security and dignity of the Royal Army,” Cambodian Defense Ministry Spokesman Chum Socheat said in a statement.  “It is a serious breach of law that can't be forgiven."

Chum Socheat also said that the video insulted the prime minister and the dignity of Hun Manet.

 Hun Manet’s brother Hun Many took to Facebook to condemn the video, saying, “This is an insult that can't be accepted.” 

“This is baseless and derogatory speech and it has affected me as a family member,” Hun Many said. “I appeal to the authorities to take actions that impersonate a military officer."

Long Sokunthearak said that he had no intention to pass himself off as a Cambodian military officer, and that the government was only targeting him because it wants to link him to the Candlelight Party, which is the current main opposition party, to justify action against that party ahead of this year’s general elections, scheduled for July.

Long Sokunthearak is affiliated with the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which was once the country’s main opposition party until Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved it in 2017 after the party performed well in communal elections that year.

He distanced himself from the Candlelight party, saying he only had ties to the CNRP.

“I am a supporter of the victim,” he said.

Political commentator Em Sovannara said that Long Sokunthearak’s stunt was an example of “bad culture” that he does not support.

He said that  politicians should be mature and ethical so people can trust them and urged them to compete on the issues rather than attacking each other.

 Translated  by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

First, in response to accusations that he was threatening the opposition, he said his opponents were lucky he hadn’t sent thugs to attack their headquarters. 

"You have two options, first we could use the court,” Hun Sen said during a public appearance at a hospital construction inspection. “Secondly, we can go to hit you at your home because you don't listen. Which option do you prefer? The second? Don't be rude.” 

Then he offered to allow former opposition lawmaker Ho Vann to return to Cambodia from exile in the United States – as long as he renounces Sam Rainsy, one of Hun Sen’s chief political rivals.

This marks the third time in the past two weeks that Hun Sen – who has ruled Cambodia since 1985 – and his Cambodia People’s Party have targeted opposition politicians. 

Earlier this week, Candlelight Party Vice President Thach Setha was arrested on charges of writing false checks – charges that opposition activists say are politically motivated.

About two weeks ago, Hun Sen targeted Kong Korm, a former deputy foreign minister who is now a senior advisor to the Candlelight Party, demanding he return his Phnom Penh home, worth about U.S.$10 million, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The government and the CPP maintain that none of the cases are politically motivated, but the Candlelight Party issued a statement saying the cases were examples of political persecution.

"The Candlelight Party strongly opposes pressures, threats and persecutions committed by the ruling party and demanded the ruling party to end it immediately," a statement said, adding that it would continue to work toward ensuring that the election would be free and fair.

The statement also appealed to the signatories of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, which were supposed to set the framework toward Cambodia becoming an independent democratic country, to “fulfill their duties to promote the respect of human rights implementation of democracy and pluralism in Cambodia."

"Don't assume every case is a politically motivated case. I beg you but there will be a legal measure against you,” Hun Sen said on Thursday about Thach Setha.

“You can't issue a statement blaming the ruling party accusing it of intimidation. Please watch out, the CPP will sue you,” he said. “You issued bad checks so when there is a lawsuit, it is very appropriate.”

Hun Sen asked his legal team to study the Candlelight Party's statement to file a complaint, and asked Candlelight to apologize if it wanted to avoid a lawsuit. The ruling party also issued a statement denying Candlelight’s claims.

Ho Vann has been convicted in absentia on charges of incitement, and would face a long jail sentence if he were to return. He told RFA’s Khmer Service that he would consider Hun Sen’s pardon offer – although other activists who have been lured back to Cambodia have been put in jail.

‘“This would be one of my life’s important decisions,” Ho Vann said. “I love my life, society, and my country.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, ordered that the senior advisor to the main opposition Candlelight Party, who was once Cambodia’s deputy foreign minister, vacate his home within the month, saying that it was the property of the ministry.

Kong Korm, who is the father of senior Candlelight party official Kong Monika, has been living in the home located in the heart of the capital Phnom Penh since 1982. He had maintained that the property was legally his based on land titles he received in 1990 and 2015. 

The change in heart came after he and his wife met for three hours with Om Yentieng, head of Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit, whom Hun Sen ordered on Wednesday to investigate the case.

"My wife and I have agreed to return the land ....in Cham Kar Mon district, Phnom Penh, back to the government,” Kong Korm wrote in a letter addressed to Om Yentieng Wednesday.

He said he made mistakes by not fully understanding the process of obtaining ownership, and he apologized for wasting the Anti-Corruption Unit’s time by causing the investigation.

“We thank the Anti-Corruption Unit and the government, specifically Prime Minister Hun Sen, who have forgiven my mistakes,” he wrote. 

Hun Sen said on his Facebook account that he would take no further legal action against Kong Korm over the matter.

“I have decided not to sue him and I agree to end the case when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repossess the house next week,” Hun Sen said.

RFA was unable to reach Kong Korm for comment as of Thursday.

Political commentator Kim Sok told RFA’s Khmer Service that in giving in to Hun Sen, Kong Korm was choosing freedom over wealth.

“The decision was made to lose wealth in order to avoid prison or threats to personal security,” said Kim Sok.

Kim Sok said that he believes Kong Korm legally owns the property, but that he may have presented a threat to Hun Sen because he knows the ruling Cambodian People’s Party inside and out as a former member, dating back to the days he was a senior government official in the 1980s and 1990s.

Legal trouble might jeopardize Kong Korm’s right to assist the Candlelight Party during the upcoming general election in July, or his son Kong Monika’s right to run for office, Kim Sok said.

 Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Kong Kaom, who was once Cambodia’s deputy foreign affairs minister, is the father of Kong Monika, a senior official in the main opposition Candlelight Party. 

Since 1982, he has been living on property that Hun Sen claims is owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It is time for the ministry to take the land back,” Hun Sen wrote on his Facebook account Wednesday. 

He said that although he has allowed Kong Koam to live on the property, the former deputy minister has since faked documents to try to establish ownership for himself. 

A government sub decree in 1989 conferred ownership of the disputed property to him, Kong Koam told RFA’s Khmer Service on Wednesday.

“I didn’t secretly apply for the land title. I received the land titles in 1990 and 2015 for ownership of the house and land,” he said.

Kong Koam claims that Hun Sen is threatening him for his association with the Candlelight Party. The party secured around 19% of votes in last June’s nationwide local elections while Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, secured around 80% of the contested seats. 

Kong Koam is a former member of the ruling party, but he changed his political affiliations in the 1990s, when he returned home after a stint as Cambodia’s ambassador to Vietnam. 

He said that despite the threats, he will remain a supporter of the opposition.

“I love democracy,” he said. “I won’t support the ruling party [in exchange] for my house and clemency.”

Defamation suit

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s office in the southeastern province of Tboung Khmum filed a defamation suit against Kong Koam over comments he made during a recent speech to Candlelight Party members, where he mocked the CPP by alleging that it has origins in Vietnam.

According to the suit, the comments were an attempt by Kong Koam to incite chaos. 

The CPP asked the court to prosecute Kong Koam and fine him U.S.$500,000 in compensation for damages.

Kong Koam maintains that his comments did not incite anyone.

“I want to raise awareness about my opponents. The CPP doesn’t want us to raise any issues that [negatively] affect them,” he said. “Hun Sen has reacted and asked [other parties] not to say anything that hurts the CPP.”

The lawsuit is an attempt to disrupt the upcoming general elections, scheduled for late July, said Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.

He urged the ruling party to forgive the comments, engage in dialogue with the opposition and avoid lawsuits “to have a good environment so the election will be recognized as free, fair and just.”

 Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered an opposition party advisor to turn over his house to the government within a month, the latest wrinkle in a property dispute that dates back to the 1980s.

Kong Korm, who was once Cambodia’s deputy foreign affairs minister, is the father of Kong Monika, a senior official in the main opposition Candlelight Party. 

Since 1982, he has been living on property that Hun Sen claims is owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“It is time for the ministry to take the land back,” Hun Sen wrote on his Facebook account Wednesday. 

He said that although he has allowed Kong Korm to live on the property, the former deputy minister has since faked documents to try to establish ownership for himself. 

A government sub decree in 1989 conferred ownership of the disputed property to him, Kong Korm told RFA’s Khmer Service on Wednesday.

“I didn’t secretly apply for the land title. I received the land titles in 1990 and 2015 for ownership of the house and land,” he said.

Kong Korm claims that Hun Sen is threatening him for his association with the Candlelight Party. The party secured around 19% of votes in last June’s nationwide local elections while Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, secured around 80% of the contested seats. 

Kong Korm is a former member of the ruling party, but he changed his political affiliations in the 1990s, when he returned home after a stint as Cambodia’s ambassador to Vietnam. 

He said that despite the threats, he will remain a supporter of the opposition.

“I love democracy,” he said. “I won’t support the ruling party [in exchange] for my house and clemency.”

Defamation suit

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s office in the southeastern province of Tboung Khmum filed a defamation suit against Kong Korm over comments he made during a recent speech to Candlelight Party members, where he mocked the CPP by alleging that it has origins in Vietnam.

According to the suit, the comments were an attempt by Kong Korm to incite chaos. 

The CPP asked the court to prosecute Kong Korm and fine him U.S.$500,000 in compensation for damages.

Kong Korm maintains that his comments did not incite anyone.

“I want to raise awareness about my opponents. The CPP doesn’t want us to raise any issues that [negatively] affect them,” he said. “Hun Sen has reacted and asked [other parties] not to say anything that hurts the CPP.”

The lawsuit is an attempt to disrupt the upcoming general elections, scheduled for late July, said Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.

He urged the ruling party to forgive the comments, engage in dialogue with the opposition and avoid lawsuits “to have a good environment so the election will be recognized as free, fair and just.”

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

Update corrects the English spelling of Kong Korm's name.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, made the threats on Monday while speaking at the opening ceremony for National Road No. 7 in Kampong Cham province, targeting Candlelight Party advisor Kong Koam. 

The Candlelight Party secured around 19% of votes in last June’s nationwide local elections while Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party secured around 80% of the contested seats. 

"What do you think? I want to ask you. There are two choices, one is using the law, the other is using a stick [violence]. Which one do you take?” Hun Sen said during the speech. 

“I would like to warn you, we will not let you accuse us of being thieves for life. I want to tell you that we must end the culture of protest after the election,” he said. “The CPP cannot accept the word 'vote fraud’. Whoever dares to say this, we must sue.”

Kong Koam's son, Kong Monika, a senior official of the Candlelight Party, said that Hun Sen’s remarks threatening his father are meant to instill fear among the opposition.

“The threats, blackmails and the seizure of other properties’ to stop them from criticizing the government and ruling party are dirty means,” Kong Monika said. 

“For me, as a politician of the new generation, I want to see older politicians in Cambodia act as role models for the new generation of politicians, and the next generation of politicians can compete on an equal footing and have a free and fair electoral system,” he said.

Activists and citizens told RFA that the legal threats will only serve to worsen the political climate ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for July 23.

“[Hun Sen] became a dictator, who uses the law as a tool to persecute the opposition. Because he is afraid of losing the election through free and fair elections,” former opposition lawmaker Oum Sam told RFA. 

“He is afraid that he will not successfully transfer power from him to his son, Hun Manet,” he added. 

Hun Sen has repeatedly dodged questions about whether he is setting up his son to succeed him as prime minister, but many in Cambodia fear that Hun Manet will take office after his father is no longer in office. 

Courts used by Hun Sen

Cambodia’s court system has long been dominated by Hun Sen loyalists, and the prime 

minister has repeatedly used the judicial system to target his political opponents. 

In one of the more prominent examples, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has challenged Hun Sen’s leadership in previous elections, has been barred from returning to Cambodia. The government has also targeted opposition members it accuses of supporting Sam Rainsy’s return. 

The Candlelight Party was formed by various opposition groups seeking to compete in Cambodia’s communal elections. Previously, the Cambodian National Rescue Party was the main opposition, but it was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in November 2017. 

Dr. Meas Ny, a Cambodian social development researcher, told RFA that Hun Sen’s strategy could eventually backfire. 

“The ruling party should review its conduct, whether the results of such threats can gain popularity from the masses or not. Sometimes it does not mean that suppressing such threats is profitable,” Mean Ny said. “Sometimes the more frequent the threats, the greater the loss of popularity, and the concerns of the ruling party will only get worse in the future."

He added that the CPP’s suppression will likely continue in the runup to the 2023 elections. 

Courts in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh ruled in favor of the CPP’s defamation claim against Candlelight Party Vice President Son Chhay after he told “The Cambodia Daily” that the 2022 election was rigged. 

The courts ordered Son Chhay to pay damages of more than U.S.$1 million to the CPP and the National Election Commission. Son Chhay refused to pay, saying he stood by his right to make those comments. The courts then ordered the seizure of his two houses, one in Phnom Penh and another in Siem Reap. Son Chhay has since filed an appeal to Cambodia’s Supreme Court. 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, was in the Belgian capital to co-chair the event. After exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy called for the protest, hundreds of Cambodians traveled there to hold a rally against the authoritarian leader.

The demonstrators, who stood outside in below-freezing weather held banners and posters demanding the release of political prisoners and the end of violence directed at Cambodians, also called for greater freedom and the restoration of democracy.

They defied a threat by Hun Sen, who urged his Cambodian supporters in Brussels to take photos of the protesters and post them at Phnom Penh International Airport so authorities back home could visit their families.

Activist Venerable Luon Sawath, a Buddhist monk granted asylum in Switzerland after fleeing Cambodia, also participated in the demonstration. He left the Southeast Asian nation after being threatened with violence, arrest and defrocking for using videos and songs to defend people’s right to housing for those forcibly evicted without compensation.

“The reason that I joined the demonstration is because I want to demand the government of Cambodia to lead the country in a just way and to respect human rights and democracy,” he told Radio Free Asia. “I want to urge the signatories of the Paris Accord and the EU to help intervene to give us peace.”

Luon Sawath, who said he participated in the protest of his own accord because he is “a victim of human rights and religious abuse” also argued with what he called spies sent to the demonstration to take photos of him.

“The spies accused me of being a fake monk because I joined the demonstration and wore a coat,” he said. “This is a cold country, [and] it’s below-zero.”

Demanding rights and democracy

Tep Monorom, a protest organizer, told RFA that the demonstrators also petitioned the EU External Action Service, the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defense ministry of the European Union.  

“We demand the restoration of human rights, labor rights and democracy,” he said. The protesters also called for the release of detained NagaWorld labor union leader Chhim Sithar, activists and political prisoners.

Tep Monorom said Hun Sen’s threat against the protesters was “beyond belief” and that the prime minister, who has ruled Cambodia for 37 years, is stomping on democracy.

“We can’t accept this threat,” he said, adding that demonstrators also filed a complaint with local police.  

“We wrote a letter to the EU Commission to inform them that the demonstrators had been threatened,” he said. “We provided a video [as] evidence. Hun Sen must be responsible for any incident against us in Cambodia or in the EU because he has threatened us.”

“Watershed moment”

The day before the summit, a dozen EU lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to EU President Charles Michel, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and Josep Borrell, vice president of the commission and high representatives of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, expressing concern about the human rights situation in Cambodia as it prepares for key national elections in July 2023. 

“The upcoming elections will be a watershed moment for the Southeast Asian nation, which will define whether Cambodia will return to the path of constitutionally defined multiparty democracy, or it will further cement the authoritarian drift in breach of its international
obligations,” they wrote.

The MPs also said the situation had reached “a crisis point” earlier this year when the government conducted an intensified crackdown on the political opposition, journalists, independent media and civil society under the guise of COVID-19 measures, prior to communal elections in June 2022.

On Wednesday, Hun Sen also met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris where they issued a statement urging Russia to end its drone and air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. 

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Vuthy Huot for RFA Khmer.

Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, is in Brussels to co-chair the EU-ASEAN Summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy and hundreds of protesters plan to travel by plane, train and bus to join a rally against the autocratic leader, said Men Sotheavarin, an official with the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.

The prime minister met Monday night with about 2,000 Cambodian nationals living in Europe in the Belgian capital, thanking them for their support. He praised his own leadership and mocked exiled political opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who fled to France in 2015 to avoid arrest for various charges his supporters say were politically motivated.

“We need to take pictures of their faces, then we can easily post their pictures at Pochentong Airport,” Hun Sen said, referring to Phnom Penh International Airport. “It doesn’t mean that I’m threatening them not to return to Cambodia, but I want to know their faces, and I also want to find their family members who are living in Cambodia and see how they are doing.” 

In 2017, Cambodia’s Supreme Court disbanded the CNRP at Hun Sen’s behest and imposed a five-year ban on 118 of its members from working in politics. That ban expired in November, allowing the former members to re-enter politics ahead of general elections in July.

“Democratic countries allow people to have political freedom,” said Men Sotheavarin. “Hun Sen’s threat is showing the EU that he is a dictator. People who are living in the free world will be working against dictatorial leadership.”

Ny Sokha, president of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, or Adhoc, which assists human rights victims and disseminates information on democracy, agreed.

“Regardless of the majority or minority, the leaders should respect dissenting opinions and consider resolving the issue,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It is good for the leaders, but on the contrary, if they are using threats and restrictions, I think it makes people understand about their dictatorial leadership which goes against democracies,” he said. 

Prior to the demonstration, the CNRP youth group submitted a petition signed by Cambodians in Europe to urge the Cambodian government to respect the Paris Peace Agreement, open the space for civil rights and press freedom in the authoritarian Southeast Asian country, and release political opposition party activists.

Hun Sen is leading a high-level delegation to the Commemorative Summit celebrating the 45th anniversary of dialogue relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union. He is co-chairing the event with Charles Michel, president of the European Council.  

Participants will discuss the promotion of economic and people-to-people exchanges, digital transformation and connectivity, ensuring green transition, energy and food security, and sustainable development, according to a statement issued by Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

'This is a threat'

Kien Ponlok, secretary general of the Federation of Cambodian Intellectual Students, said he believed that Hun Sen’s threat would lead to serious human rights violations.

“This is a threat to the people living abroad and to all those people in Cambodia,” he said. “It is not a violation of the freedom of expression and rights to [stage] nonviolent strikes.” 

In an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, Sam Rainsy expressed alarm that Macron agreed to receive Hun Sen during the latter’s visit to Europe.

“This is a dictator who is hated by the majority of the Khmer people and who has been condemned by democratic nations throughout the world,” Rainsy wrote. “When he is outside the country, he has only one aim: to rebuild his international legitimacy, which has been seriously impaired by his increasingly grave violations of human rights in Cambodia.”

“Such a meeting is also a mistake in moral terms if we consider the sufferings of the victims of Hun Sen’s endless brutality,” he wrote. “These are detailed in the latest report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia published on August 26, 2022.”

In the report, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Cambodia, said the government should remove restrictions on political participation and introduce other democratic reforms to address “severe human rights challenges.”

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

Critics countered that the money would have been better spent on helping Cambodia’s people.  

Hun Sen commissioned a total of 25 tourbillon watches from Prince Group, Cambodia’s fastest growing conglomerate, as gifts to VIP attendees of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Summit in Phnom Penh last weekend. 

Each cost about $20,000, he said during a press conference at the conclusion of the summits on Sunday.

The timepieces were meant to show the world what “Khmers can do,” he said.

“We want to show Cambodia’s ability to produce watches,” Hun Sen said, while raising one for the media to get a good look.

Luxury watch collection

A luxury watch aficionado himself, the Cambodian leader owns a collection of watches worth at least $13 million, an apparent discrepancy with his $2,500-a-month salary, according to his detractors. 

He vowed to wear the commemorative watch to future ASEAN summit meetings and noted that some of the other ASEAN leaders were already wearing theirs.

“I’m sure my grandkids will demand this watch from me. But I will not give it to them because it is a souvenir of my 3rd ASEAN Chairmanship,” he said. Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and Cambodia has chaired the Southeast Asian bloc twice before, in 2002 and 2012. 

The 70-year-old leader said he would likely not chair for a fourth time because of his advanced age.

Pricey swag

The government should have given gifts that reflect Cambodia’s national identity, rather than wasting money on lavish trinkets, Ly Chandaravuth of the Mother Nature Cambodia environmentalist group told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Many Cambodians are living under the poverty line,” he said. “So I think by showing off wealth and pride by giving these watches as souvenirs is not something that I should be proud of if I were the leader.”

“The real pride should be when our people  are able to live in happiness with genuine peace—free from fear or from any social insecurity,” he said.

Cambodia’s minimum monthly wage is the equivalent of about $200 per month.

The expensive gifts were not necessary, especially when the government is underfunded, said Yong Kim Eng, president of the local People’s Center for Development and Peace NGO.

“Some of our local authorities always complain about lacking budget … to provide necessary services to their citizens,” said Yong Kim Eng. 

“At the same time, some people living in rural areas flock to neighboring countries to become migrant workers due to their difficulties and suffering,” he said. “They become over indebted just to make ends meet.” 

RFA was not able to contact government spokesperson Phay Siphan for comment as of Monday.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.