PHNOM PENH: Cambodia hit back on Thursday at US criticism over its decision to expel a US-funded pro-democracy group, accusing Washington of political interference and describing American democracy as “bloody and brutal.”
Prime Minister Hun Sen, the strongman who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, has taken a strident anti-American line in the increasingly tense run up to a 2018 election.
The US State Department criticized Cambodia’s decision to expel the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Wednesday and a statement from the US embassy in Phnom Penh questioned whether Cambodia was a democracy.
In an open letter on Thursday, the Cambodian government asked whether the United States was “coming to Cambodia to help or hinder the Khmer people” and blamed it for contributing to the rise of the genocidal Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
“Cambodians are well aware of what a democratic process means. You do not need to tell us what it is,” the letter said, describing US-style democracy as “bloody and brutal.”
“We wish to send a clear message again to the US Embassy that we defend our national sovereignty,” it added.
Tensions have risen anew in Cambodia, with rights groups and the United Nations expressing alarm and the opposition accusing Hun Sen of persecution ahead of next year’s election.
After the government’s order to expel the NDI and a threat to shut a newspaper founded by an American journalist if it didn’t pay back taxes immediately, the US State Department voiced concern at the government “curtailing freedom of the press and civil society’s ability to operate.”
’AMERICAN INTERFERENCE’
Government supporters have threatened to protest at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, the pro-government “Fresh News” web site reported on Thursday.
“The protests are likely to be in large scale against the US Embassy in Phnom Penh like in the 1960s because of the American interference in Cambodia’s sovereignty,” it said, citing an anonymous government source.
The spillover from the US war in neighboring Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s helped bring to power the Khmer Rouge regime, whose rule was marked by the genocide of at least 1.8 million Cambodians through starvation, torture, disease and execution.
Hun Sen, the former Khmer Rouge commander who is one of China’s closest regional allies, has warned of a possible return to war if his party doesn’t win elections.
In a statement on its website on Wednesday the NDI called on Cambodia to reconsider its decision to shut it down. The institute said it worked with all major parties and that its work was “strictly nonpartisan.”
NDI President Kenneth Wollack said the NDI has fulfilled all legal obligations for registration.
Hun Sen has also targeted local media in what rights groups say is a growing crackdown ahead of the election.
Cambodia’s ministry of information on Wednesday revoked the license of a local radio station for selling air time to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.
The station also rents out space to the US government-financed Voice of America (VOA) English news outlet.
Cambodia accuses Washington of political interference, calls US democracy “bloody and brutal”
Cambodia accuses Washington of political interference, calls US democracy “bloody and brutal”
Myanmar’s military government releases more than 6,100 prisoners on independence anniversary
- It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule
- The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo
BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates’ sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain.
It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule.
The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo.
State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 6,134 prisoners.
A separate statement said 52 foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar. No comprehensive list of those freed is available.
Other prisoners received reduced sentences, except for those convicted of serious charges such as murder and rape or those jailed on charges under various other security acts.
The release terms warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to any new sentence.
The prisoner releases, common on holidays and other significant occasions in Myanmar, began Sunday and are expected to take several days to complete.
At Yangon’s Insein Prison, which is notorious for housing political detainees, relatives of prisoners gathered at the gates early in the morning.
However, there was no sign that the prisoner release would include former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and has been held virtually incommunicado since then.
The takeover was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the nation’s political conflicts, more than 22,000 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, were in detention as of last Tuesday.
Many political detainees had been held on a charge of incitement, a catch-all offense widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison.
The 80-year-old Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted in what supporters have called politically tinged prosecutions.
Myanmar became a British colony in the late 19th century and regained its independence on Jan. 4, 1948.
The anniversary was marked in the capital, Naypyitaw, with a flag-raising ceremony at City Hall on Sunday.
