Hun Sen warns SRP over potential leaks
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 15:02 Cheang Sokha and Vong Sokheng
Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned the leader of the Sam Rainsy Party that documents relating to secret talks held between the premier and its leader after 2003 are in existence.
The disclosure, made at a graduation ceremony at the Royal School of Administration in Phnom Penh yesterday, follows a leak of a recording late last month of a 2007 discussion involving Human Rights Party. On the recording, its president Ken Sokha can be heard asking Hun Sen for assistance in securing use of the Olympic Stadium for a party conference.
The SRP, the Kingdom‟s largest opposition party, seized on the recording as evidence of alleged collusion between the two parties and said that flagging negotiations on an SRP-HRP merger would be halted as a result.
Yesterday, Hun Sen insinuated that evidence of a three-hour talk conducted after 2003 with Sam Rainsy was also in existence.
Sam Rainsy - don‟t forget what you have talked with me [about]
Hun Sen said Sam Rainsy met him at his Takhmao home, in Kandal province, to talk over a potential amendment to the constitution.
The amendment to reduce the required parliamentary majority needed to govern outright from two thirds to 50 percent plus one was passed in 2006 – effectively reducing the CPP‟s need for a coalition partner.
“With Sam Rainsy [there are] plenty [of documents]. If they were leaked, there would be a bunch,” Hun Sen said yesterday, adding he had held many “secret conversations” with Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha in the past.
“Sam Rainsy – don‟t forget what you have talked with me [about],” he said.
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann yesterday dismissed any talk of “secret deals” between the SRP and the CPP stating that he was “not interested” in the Prime Minister‟s statement.
He claimed that the premier was attempting to create an atmosphere of suspicion around the SRP, but party supporters would see through it.
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said the comments seemed to be a political „„game‟‟ that would “not make [for] strong development of the nation”.