Caught you telling fibs again, Mr. Hor 5 Hong!

France criticizes the political climate in Cambodia

08 Feb 2010
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

KI-Media Note: Recently, Mr. Hor 5 Hong, the Cambodian minister of Foreign Affairs, boasted that not a single foreign country intervened with the Phnom Penh regime about the case of opposition leader Sam Rainsy. The following report seems to totally contradict Mr. Hor's tall tale claim once again.

The President of the France-Cambodia Friendship group at the French National Assembly questioned the French government on the condition of Cambodia’s opposition MPs.

At 10,045-km from Phnom Penh, the French government did not mince its words towards Cambodia. At the end of January, under questioning at the French National Assembly from Ms. Chantal Brunel, a MP from France’s UMP party, regarding the loss of their parliamentary immunity by three SRP MPs, Pierre Lellouche, the French State Secretary in charge of European Affairs, couldn’t be clearer.

“At each of these episodes, we expressed our concerns and our worries regarding the recurring defamation lawsuits aimed at lifting the immunity of [Cambodian] opposition MPs. We cannot accept this practice which is nothing more than intimidation. Our embassy in Phnom Penh, in liaison with our EU partners, had taken all the opportunities to remind the Cambodian authority our attachment to the respect of democratic debate,” Pierre Lellouche explained while citing also the lawsuits launched by the government “against civil society and media representatives.”

In her question, Ms. Chantal Brunel, the President of the France-Cambodia Friendship group, underscored the fact that Cambodia, following China, is “the Asian country which receives from France the largest amount of development aid,” and that the French financial aids were all aimed “to the benefit of the democratization of the country.”

This exchange was taking place while France and Cambodia are opening discussions on a new phase of cooperation aimed at economic development which should be concluded by the visit to Cambodia by the French minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of the first semester of 2010.