“Cambodian Freedom Fighters”:A CPP Trap For Political Opponents

Sam Rainsy's letter to The Cambodia Daily, June 26, 2010

“CAMBODIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS”:
A CPP TRAP FOR POLITICAL OPPONENTS

In your article “Prime Minister Links Opposition SRP to Cambodian Freedom Fighters” (June 25, page 22), some old and groundless allegations were repeated.

There is a thick mystery surrounding the so-called CFF movement that has been accused of terrorism.

Some ten years ago there were several independent reports and press articles pointing to the uncertainties about the circumstances surrounding strange and clumsy military attacks in Phnom Penh that were attributed to the CFF. Many points have still to be elucidated.

The CFF movement was reportedly formed in the wake of the July 5-6, 1997 military coup, the ensuing bloody street battles in Phnom Penh, the subsequent massacre of Funcinpec soldiers and officers taken prisoners by CPP forces and the prolonged fighting along the border with Thailand between forces under the command of Second Prime Minister Hun Sen on the one hand, and those loyal to First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh on the other hand.

However, the politically theatrical and militarily unprofessional nature of the CFF since the very beginning pointed to the high dose of psychological warfare and political machination in a plot which was actually a judicial trap designed to eliminate many innocent people whose only crime was their alleged antipathy toward the ruling and hegemonic CPP.

Some ignorant, naive and poor people have been effectively manipulated and some others have been simply framed for subsequent political trials.

There had been in the past countless cases where a repressive regime created events or incidents so as to mount trumped-up charges against political opponents.

The Sok Yoeun case in 1998 definitely fell into this category of Machiavellian plot: a prominent SRP activist was accused of terrorism by the government following a mysterious rocket attack purportedly conducted against Mr. Hun Sen in person. But eventually, after several years in jail in a neighboring country where he had to flee to escape arrest at home, Sok Yoeun was declared innocent and obtained political refugee status from the UN after Amnesty International had declared him a prisoner of conscience. He has since been resettled with his whole family in Finland.

Similarly, a few months before the July 1997 coup, the CPP authorities were considering labeling me a “terrorist” when they hinted they might suspect me of being the mastermind of the March 30 grenade attack on a peaceful protest in front of the National Assembly. In their dreadful logic, they had thought they might make some people believe that I had organized the attack against my own supporters, at the risk of my own life, in order to discredit the government!

I had learnt to distance myself from any shady ideas, schemes or maneuvers that are totally inconsistent with the legal, popular, peaceful and legitimate fight for a true democracy that the Sam Rainsy Party is advocating for Cambodia.

I feel extremely sad for those intellectually and economically weak people who had been trapped, framed and convicted while the circumstances of their criminal involvement, if any, had not been fully and fairly investigated. I feel angry with, and ashamed for, those powerful persons who are causing endless suffering and misery for the Cambodian people.

Sam Rainsy

Member of Parliament
Manila (Philippines)