21 January 2008By Lim Pisith Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
On Monday, Prime minister Hun Sen called, from the former hot battlefield in Cambodia’s northwest, for a stronger national unity.
Hun Sen made this declaration during an inauguration of a new building for the army region No. 5, based in Battambang province, on 21 January, by drawing parallel with the security situation in Thailand and in other countries in the region.
Hun Sen said: “However, in each country, peace is predominant … but, in southern Thailand, only in the past week, 3 days (of unrest) took place. On Monday, 8 soldiers were killed in the south (of Thailand). In this case, teachers were escorted by soldiers to their schools, they (Thai insurgents) attacked the soldiers directly. On another day, there was an explosion in one of the cities, then on another day, another explosion took place in another city. Therefore, problems take place like this … in The Philippines, Sri Lanka, once here, once there. That’s why we all must preserve it (national unity), this is a good opportunity, even though now we don’t have it, but at least we are not running away from it.”
Hun Sen’s declaration was welcomed by Sam Rainsy, the leader of the largest opposition party in Cambodia. Sam Rainsy applauded the issue raised by Hun Sen and he asked that peace and social justice be instituted.
Sam Rainsy said: “I also call on Cambodia people from all political affiliations, to unite in order to defend peace and stability in Cambodia, and I want a national reconciliation, so that Cambodian people do not oppose each other as what happened in the past. However, in order to guarantee peace, there must be social justice. Peace without social justice has no meaning, and this peace wouldn’t be strong either.”
According to Hun Sen, Cambodia suffered national discord and territorial split between 1959 and 1998, before the Democratic Kampuchea regime (or Khmer Rouge regime) finally ended.
This is the first time, during the last few days, that Hun Sen addressed the public and former KR army commanders in Cambodia’s northwest. His speech comes at the heel of a meeting held by KR Tribunal officials in Pailin to allay fears of arrest among former KR leaders.
Hun Sen made this declaration during an inauguration of a new building for the army region No. 5, based in Battambang province, on 21 January, by drawing parallel with the security situation in Thailand and in other countries in the region.
Hun Sen said: “However, in each country, peace is predominant … but, in southern Thailand, only in the past week, 3 days (of unrest) took place. On Monday, 8 soldiers were killed in the south (of Thailand). In this case, teachers were escorted by soldiers to their schools, they (Thai insurgents) attacked the soldiers directly. On another day, there was an explosion in one of the cities, then on another day, another explosion took place in another city. Therefore, problems take place like this … in The Philippines, Sri Lanka, once here, once there. That’s why we all must preserve it (national unity), this is a good opportunity, even though now we don’t have it, but at least we are not running away from it.”
Hun Sen’s declaration was welcomed by Sam Rainsy, the leader of the largest opposition party in Cambodia. Sam Rainsy applauded the issue raised by Hun Sen and he asked that peace and social justice be instituted.
Sam Rainsy said: “I also call on Cambodia people from all political affiliations, to unite in order to defend peace and stability in Cambodia, and I want a national reconciliation, so that Cambodian people do not oppose each other as what happened in the past. However, in order to guarantee peace, there must be social justice. Peace without social justice has no meaning, and this peace wouldn’t be strong either.”
According to Hun Sen, Cambodia suffered national discord and territorial split between 1959 and 1998, before the Democratic Kampuchea regime (or Khmer Rouge regime) finally ended.
This is the first time, during the last few days, that Hun Sen addressed the public and former KR army commanders in Cambodia’s northwest. His speech comes at the heel of a meeting held by KR Tribunal officials in Pailin to allay fears of arrest among former KR leaders.
8 comments:
I applaud both Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy for raising awareness about the need for National Unity.
Peace and Independence withou Yuan interfering is a dream come true to all Khmer."except" Hun Sen
I am all for peace and reconciliation. Peace is to forgive and forget. There is always a price for peace. I am afraid this is another one of youn's tactic using the word reconciliation as a tool to move one step closer to their agenda. Let's be careful and be watchful for hidden agendas. So many time, Khmer suffers and looses land due to unforeseen tricks by youn. Therefore, don't forget who is working for youn and what is youn really wants from us. There is no way youn will give up their goal on Khmer's land. They are vicious greedy monsters that prey upon a smaller neighbor. They have no compassion toward other human beings. All they see is expansion and concure. Although we wnat peace, but our peace comes with a price tag. The price is no more Cambodia, just like Champa. Perhaps, this reconciliation trick is to show people that the cpp is a good guy because they want unity, therefore people will vote for them to stay in power. As long as the cpp is in power, youn can move on with their mission.
it bothers mean that people keeping saying youn. I have no problem with the word youn being use in Khmer, but the thing is Youn, refers to an ethnic race, an entire group of people. And most youn like most Khmer care more about getting food on the table then politic.
Please stop making such big generalization. If you are a Hanoi conspiracy person just use Hanoi or the name of the country instead of its people.
10:12a.m., I read your good comment, Rainsy is so soft toward the unity proposed by Hun Sen. He might not be aware of that Hun Sen playing good guy to gain votes from the public. Hun Sen is now looking for strategies to win the election. Therefore, Sam Rainsy shoul reveal the facts that Hun Sen did this just to gain more supports to his party, so let no be fooled by that!!!!!!
HUN SEN DOES NOT NEED TO PLAY GAMES, IF NEED BE, HE'LL TAKE POWER BY FORCE, AND NO ONE CAN DO SHIT TO HIM (NOT EVEN THE U.S.). REMEMBER THAT -- AND REMEMBER IT WELL.
Cambodia does not need national security (for what?).
You can barely control your people and country, and now you want to have national security. Not a thousand years.
5:53PM fool! Hun Xen can control people and country very well! And he need no national security because he give any thing to the fucking Vietnamese-Vietcong.
He want national unity so he alway keep people under his feet without try to strugle!
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