Threat of Worsening Unrest in Cambodia as Opposition Lawmakers Refuse to Take Seats
Prime Minster Hun Sen may face constitutional hurdles as opposition intensifies and negotiations prove fruitless
Buddhist
monks who are supporters of the Cambodia National Rescue Party react
during a protest as party leader Sam Rainsy announces the result of a
meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, at Freedom Park in Phnom
Penh Sept. 16, 2013.
Cambodian strongman Hun Sen extended his 28-year tenure as prime
minister by a further five years on Tuesday, unanimously elected by his
fellow Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) lawmakers. However, he took the
helm amid a boycott of the legislature by the Cambodian National Rescue
Party (CNRP), which is protesting electoral irregularities.
As analysts debate whether the 61-year-old former Khmer Rouge battalion
commander can constitutionally form an administration in the face of
the boycott, another crackdown on peaceful protesters is stoking fears
of further bloodshed.
King Norodom Sihamoni swore in 68 CPP legislators at the Royal Palace
on Monday, while 63 CNRP party members — comprising 55 elected
lawmakers and eight candidates who claim they were defrauded of their
rightful seats — protested by holding an alternative ceremony at the
historic Angkor temple complex in the country’s north.
“We denounce [this] constitutional coup, because the CPP are clinging
onto power by resorting to blatantly violating the constitution after
manipulating the election,” CNRP leader Sam Rainy told TIME. “This is a
return to the one-party communist system prior to the 1991 Peace Paris
Accord on Cambodia.”
Hun Sen’s party has held power since the start of Vietnamese
occupation in 1979, and closely controls every aspect of political,
judicial and social life. The CNRP claims that widespread irregularities
— including “ghost” (or absentee) voters, incomplete electoral lists
and media manipulation — have invalidated the CPP’s latest victory.
Phnom Penh has witnessed sporadic violence, including the death of
one protester, since the controversial July 28 ballot result was upheld
by the Constitutional Court earlier this month. Protestors and
opposition supporters are spurred by a litany of social ills — including
rampant corruption, land grabs and human rights violations — as well as
the desire for more equal society and a functioning justice system.
Sam Rainsy, who only returned to the country from exile ten days
before the polls, says he expects “tensions to rise over the next few
days and weeks.”
According to Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International researcher for
Cambodia, a peaceful vigil at Wat Phnom on Sunday was subject to a
“really brutal, vicious attack by civilians working in coordination with
the security forces” that resulted in four people hospitalized, among them a woman in her 70s. Military personnel currently block main roads into the capital, supposedly to head off an influx of opposition supporters.
Negotiations between both sides took place last week — including a
five-hour session on Monday — but no progress has been made other than a
pledge to help rein in the worst excesses of violence.
“I hope that both sides can come together again around the table and
strike a deal — that would be the best scenario we can hope for,” says
Ou Virak, adding that Hun Sen has shown he is susceptible to
international pressure in the past. Similarly, Abbott hopes “foreign
governments can really be firm and put some pressure on the [Cambodian]
government to not let this escalate.”
The alternative, Abbott says, is a situation in which “more public
pressure for change” leads to a worsening crackdown. “The status quo
just won’t do any more,” he says.
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