Ben Sokhean | Publication date 10 April 2018 | 11:53 ICT
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Prime Minister Hun Sen, in a speech on Tuesday to students at a graduation ceremony on Koh Pich, claims to have foiled a Khmer New Year terrorist plot. Photo supplied
Prime Minister Hun Sen, in a speech on Tuesday, claimed to have foiled a terrorist plot to bomb Wat Phnom and Siem Reap, and ordered the arrests of members of the activist group Khmer National Liberation Front.
“Last night, I sent secret information to the municipal governor,” about an April 12 plot to bomb Wat Phnom, the city’s best known Buddhist temple, the premier said. “You must be careful. I already control the situation.”
Denmark-based KNLF founder Sam Serey, who declares himself a political refugee and has repeatedly professed a commitment to nonviolence, was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison for “plotting” to commit an attack in 2016.
The charge was related to a protest at the Vietnamese Embassy in which 10 other members of the KNLF, which the government has branded "terrorists”, were arrested armed with nothing more than banners and pamphlets.
On Tuesday, Hun Sen described Serey as the “chief traitor” and ordered the arrest of his Cambodia-based followers
“Arrest them,” he said. “They want to make explosions.”
National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith declined to comment.
The KNLF, first branded a terrorist group in 2013, has long called for Hun Sen to be tried in international court for crimes against humanity. They have also accused his regime of being a puppet of the Vietnamese.
Over 20 members of the group have been arrested over the years, and despite the accusations of terrorism, none have ever been found in possession of weapons.
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