Former Sam Rainsy Party President Kong Korm speaks at a ceremony marking the 1997 factional fighting at the CNRP headquarters yesterday in Phnom Penh. Photo supplied
7 Jul, 2017 Mech Dara
P
Former Sam Rainsy Party President Kong Korm, who in the 1980s succeeded Prime Minister Hun Sen as foreign minister before defecting to the opposition, said yesterday he had little doubt that the events of July 5 and 6, 1997, were a coup d’état.
Speaking at the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s headquarters to mark 20 years since the two bloody days that cemented Hun Sen as the country’s supreme leader, Korm said the ouster of First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh said enough.
“Some say it was a dispute, while some others say whatever – but the final result was the first prime minister was removed, the second prime minister gained more power and the ones who were close to the first prime minister were all killed,” Korm said.
“Therefore, this was a coup d’état,” he said, pointing to the tight control Hun Sen has maintained ever since. “We still have this problem today.”
Former Sam Rainsy Party President Kong Korm speaks at a ceremony marking the 1997 factional fighting at the CNRP headquarters yesterday in Phnom Penh. Photo supplied
Lu Lay Sreng – who became information minister for the royalist Funcinpec party after Prince Ranariddh returned from self-exile to compete in the 1998 national election and form a new coalition government with Hun Sen – said he could never forget July 1997.
“It was my friends who died, and that night we had been sleeping all together, and the only ones that escaped were me and Nhek Bun Chhay,” Sreng said, referring to Funcinpec’s top general in 1997, who became co-defence minister in a new coalition deal between Funcinpec and the CPP after the 2003 election.
Hun Sen dismissed Chhay as co-defence minister in 2006, breaking the coalition deal, and Lay Sreng said the events of 1997 and Hun Sen’s repeated toying with Funcinpec in the decade after showed that Hun Sen and his associates could not be trusted.
“The law is only in their mouth, and they can do whatever they want,” Lay Sreng said. Yet he also told attendees that July 1997 was in many ways inevitable after the flawed coalition deal of 1993 that installed two prime ministers.
“To put it simply, one mountain cannot have two tigers.”
“To put it simply, one mountain cannot have two tigers.”
Hun Sen and the CPP have long denied the events of 1997 constituted a coup, and have said the elimination of Prince Ranariddh, whose party won the 1993 elections, was necessary because they were themselves planning a coup against him and the CPP with the Khmer Rouge.
1 comment:
HOW TO SAVE CAMBODIA FROM BECOMING A PART OF VIETNAM ?
Hun Sen had risen to power by strictly following Yuon's orders to bring down his own leader Pen Sovann, who refused to implement Vietnam's policies such as the deadly K5 project.
People are still wondering how many thousands of Khmer people did Hun Sen kill in order to convince his master Yuon that he will be a forever faithful slave to Vietnam and put him in power to replace Pen Sovann?
If we follow all the critical events that Hun Sen had created to destroy his opponents, we could clearly understand that Hun Sen is an exceptional ruthless tyrant. Hun Sen is far worse than any tyrants in the world. He has never hesitated to destroy Cambodia, to violently suppress Khmer people to satisfy his master Vietnam's ambitions to annex Cambodia.
For instance, the destruction of Khmer natural resource, condoning millions of Vietnamese migrants to fill Khmer land, the 99 years massive land concessions to Vietnam including the strategic area of Phnom Bokor, the 2005 supplemental treaty with Vietnam, etc...are undeniably Hun Sen's traitorous acts. Additionally, he has put the "triangle area" under Vietnam's control already.
The result of the 2017 recent communal election proved that the CNRP is still a party for Khmer people. And that prompted Hun Sen and Yuon to amend again the party law.
This newly amended party law will further infuriate and alienate Khmer people - sinking the CPP in a deeper hole.
So far, with its reputation remains intact, the CNRP will have a good chance to win this next election. To ensure the win, the CNRP should try to get the international community to help monitoring this 2018 election.
After the NEC declares that the winner is the CNRP, Khmer people must be mentally prepared and ready to mount a nationwide peaceful demonstration if the loser CPP refuses to transfer the power to the winner. And that will be the RIGHT MOMENT for Khmer people to sacrifice their life to save Cambodia from the evil Yuon.
Finally, we must stay united to OFFICIALLY win the 2018 election first, then ready to sacrifice our life to save Cambodia. We need to help ourselves first before the international community could help us.
Bun Thoeun
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