PM Hun Sen questions Vietnam’s loyalty, accuses Sam Rainsy of treason

Ben Sokhean | Publication date 14 March 2018 | 15:36 ICT

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Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at the opening of a government funded bridge in Kampong Cham on Wednesday. Photo supplied

Prime Minister Hun Sen questioned the loyalty of long-time ally Vietnam on Wednesday, while ordering the Interior and Justice ministries to thoroughly investigate former opposition leader Sam Rainsy for treason.

Rainsy was accused of treason by government officials last week over a 2013 video in which he pledged to award a degree of autonomy to Montagnard minorities living in Cambodia’s northeastern provinces.

“You want to cut off four provinces, this is not a small issue,” the premier said in a speech opening a new bridge in Kampong Cham. “You accuse Hun Sen of cutting land to Vietnam, but now we found your true face.”

Rainsy has denied that he ever spoke of ceding land, saying the reference to autonomy - made in a meeting with a pro-Montagnard activist in the US - was simply a pledge to allow ethnic minorities to follow traditional ways of life after years of losing land and forests under Hun Sen's administration.

Meanwhile, this week Facebook users and pro-government media went on to claim Rainsy held illicit meetings with Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in 2003 and 2004.

“Why you go to do a secret negotiation? At the same time you insult me as a Vietnamese puppet?” Hun Sen asked.

He said Rainsy, the former president of the now-dissolved CNRP, pledged citizenship to ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia, a position with which he professed to disagree.

“I will question our friend Vietnam, whether they are actually loyal with me and Cambodia,” he said.

The spat marks a bit of a role reversal for Hun Sen and his long-time political nemesis. Hun Sen’s government was original installed by the Vietnamese and he has enjoyed cozy relationship with its neighbour for years. Rainsy, on the other hand, has often been accused of racially charged rhetoric against the Vietnamese.

Representatives from the Vietnamese Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Rainsy, who left Cambodia in 2015, also could not immediately be reached.