The Washington Post Democracy Dies in Darkness Sections Try 1 month for $1 Sign In Accessibility for screenreader Asia & Pacific The former Khmer Rouge commander who still leads Cambodia is again stoking anti-American sentiment
ambodia's
Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany dance on stage during an
opening ceremony for the Khmer New Year at the Angkor complex in Siem
Reap province. (TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images)
PHNOM PENH —
The United States has been busy in Cambodia these past few months, if
Hun Sen’s government is to be believed. Between trying to overthrow the
government and secretly backing the now-dissolved opposition party, it
has been supporting journalists who report “fake news” and spy for
Washington.
Oh, and the CIA has assassinated a
prominent political analyst. (Never mind that the analyst was actually a
critic of the government and should therefore have been on the CIA’s
side, if the conspiracy theories are to be consistent.)
As
Hun Sen, who has been Cambodia’s prime minister for the past 33 years,
takes steps to ensure he’s returned to office in a July 29 election, he
has been looking for an external threat to rally support against. And he
found the perfect bad guy in the United States.
“The U.S. has become the boogeyman here,” says Naly Pilorge, head of the Phnom Penh-based human rights organization Licadho.
A
former Khmer Rouge leader who later helped overthrow Pol Pot, Hun Sen
got a shock in national elections in 2013, when the main opposition
Cambodia National Rescue Party did surprisingly well. It was buoyed by
support from young voters who had not experienced the brutal genocide of
the Khmer Rouge era and therefore did not feel a special gratitude to
Hun Sen for leading them out of that awful period.
During
local elections in June last year, opposition parties won 44 percent of
the vote despite concerted efforts to suppress them. That was too close
for the government’s comfort, Western diplomats in Phnom Penh say.
Since
then, Hun Sen’s efforts to suppress opposition and criticism have
intensified – and much of it has a strong anti-American streak.
[As Cambodia crackdown gathers steam, opposition wonders, ‘Who’s next?’ ]
The
CNRP’s leader, Kem Sokha, was arrested on charges of treason last
September, accused of conspiring with the United States to overthrow Hun
Sen’s government. He has been held in a remote prison on the border
with Vietnam and will remain there until after the July 29 vote.
Shortly
after he was arrested, the party was formally dissolved for plotting a
“coup,” essentially wiping out the prime minister’s competition.
“That
body is dead and was taken to be cremated and buried. We don’t know
where the bones are, so there will be no resurrection,” Hun Sen said during a speech to students May 1.
The outside criticism has been pointed.
Rhona
Smith, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for Cambodia, said last
week that the election could not be “genuine” if the main opposition
party was barred from taking part.
There is no sign, though, that the authorities will have a change of heart.
The
United States and the European Union earlier this year cut off funding
to the National Election Committee, which is supposed to be an
independent election supervisor but is widely considered to be doing Hun
Sen’s bidding.
Both China and Russia, by contrast, have offered to send election monitors instead, as well as ballot boxes and voting booths.
The
United States in March joined 44 other countries in a joint call
through the U.N. Human Rights Council for the Cambodian authorities to
ensure that the election will be free and fair, starting by reinstating
the CNRP and releasing Kem Sokha.
“The international community has not exhausted all the options yet,” said Monovithya Kem, a CNRP spokeswoman and
the daughter of the party’s jailed leader. She is in exile in
Washington, and the Hun Sen government has accused her and her sister of
being CIA agents.
“We
have not seen democratic countries working together having a unified
message and a unified response to this Cambodian crisis,” she said.
More
international pressure could have a big impact, said Lao Mong Hay, one
of Cambodia’s leading public intellectuals, especially if sanctions were
imposed on Cambodia’s leaders.
“Without any
pressure from the outside or within the country, Cambodia is becoming a
dictatorship,” he said. “There is no democracy or human rights or rule
of law.”
While banning his rivals, Hun Sen’s government has been cracking down on independent media.
The
local branches of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America – both
independent broadcasters that receive funds from the U.S. government –
were shut down last year. Two RFA reporters were arrested on suspicion
of continuing to contribute stories to the Washington-based media
outlet, accused of espionage.
“It’s revenge,” one of the reporters, Oun Chinn, said during a recent court hearing. If convicted, he and Yeang Sothearin could be imprisoned for up to 15 years.
Local radio stations that carry RFA and VOA broadcasts have had their licenses revoked.
“I
think they are trying to stifle criticism and expression by anyone
campaigning against them,” said Nop Vy, executive director of the
Cambodian Center for Independent Media. “The government wants to close
the mouths of these people so they can’t criticize the government before
the election.”
The independent Cambodia Daily,
an influential English-language newspaper, was shut down in September,
ostensibly for tax breaches.
“They decided to
steal the election and they needed to take out the opposition and the
independent media,” said Doug Steele, general manager of the Cambodia
Daily. “We were basically the witnesses to what was happening.”
[This Cambodian city is turning into a Chinese enclave, and not everyone is happy ]
Then, over the weekend, the last remaining English-language paper, the Phnom Penh Post, was sold to a Malaysian investor and executive at a public relations firm that had previously done work for Hun Sen’s government.
Shortly after the paper reported on those links, the editor in chief, Kay Kimsong, was fired, multiple journalists wrote on Twitter. The chief executive and at least four reporters, all foreigners, resigned in protest.
In
contrast to other strongmen in the region such as Rodrigo Duterte of
the Philippines and Prayuth Chan-o-cha of Thailand, Hun Sen has not been
invited to President Trump’s White House – and in return he has been
attacking the United States while demonstrating his allegiance to China.
The
prime minister has told immigration authorities to root out American
spies, suggested the Peace Corps pull out and forced the nongovernmental
National Democratic Institute to shut down.
He called William Heidt, the Khmer-speaking U.S. ambassador, a “liar” and accused the United States of being behind the 2016 assassination of prominent political analyst Kem Ley.
But
this anti-American sentiment is not a reaction to Trump, Western
observers in Phnom Penh say, as it dates back to before the U.S.
election.
China has in the meantime been stepping up its role here.
The Chinese military held joint exercises in central Cambodia, with Beijing reportedly donating the tanks and armored personnel carriers that it brought here.
Beijing also helped establish Fresh News,
a media outlet that publishes articles favorable to Hun Sen’s
government and that recently put out a 700-page book of anti-American
sentiment.
Hun Sen has stated that he plans to
be in power for another decade, and that, according to Pilorge of
Licadho, means that the repression will only intensify in the months
ahead.
“Right now, the international community
still has leverage over the country,” she said. But “it’s only going to
get worse because after the election, there will be no constraints on
them at all.”
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