Cambodia opposition leader arrested

[Klondyke]

In Bangkok not yet known?

Cambodia's strongman PM digs in with arrest of opposition leader
Kem Sokha, key rival of three-decade ruler Hun Sen, bundled away in police raid and accused of treason and foreign conspiracy as election looms in 2018

The Cambodian opposition leader, Kem Sokha, has been arrested accused of treason, according to the government, in the latest of a flurry of legal cases lodged against critics and rivals of the strongman prime minister, Hun Sen.

The surprise arrest raises the stakes as Hun Sen’s political opponents, NGOs and the critical press are smothered by court cases and threats ahead of a crunch general election in 2018.

Hun Sen is determined to extend his three-decade rule and withstand the burgeoning popularity of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP).

The government statement alleged “a secret plan of conspiracy between Kem Sokha, his group, and foreigners that harms Cambodia”, adding he was arrested early on Sunday.

On Saturday night a pro-government website – Fresh News – alleged that Kem Sokha had discussed overthrowing Hun Sen with support from the United States.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...osition-leader

[Wilsonandson]

[Wilsonandson]

I respond to a fan's email. I talk about why nationalism is foolish, along with why Cambodia is a corrupt third word country. I discuss how Pol Pot's Khmer Rogue has ruined Cambodia, and how
current Prime Minister Hun Sen, allows China and Vietnam to infiltrate and take over Cambodia from the inside. Prime Minister Hun Sen is evil, corrupt and hated by the Cambodian people. @nojokehoward

[Dragonfly]

he doesn't look happy,

looks like he is fooked, and won't be seen again

jesus, what a shithole

[HuangLao]

I respond to a fan's email. I talk about why nationalism is foolish, along with why Cambodia is a corrupt third word country. I discuss how Pol Pot's Khmer Rogue has ruined Cambodia, and how
current Prime Minister Hun Sen, allows China and Vietnam to infiltrate and take over Cambodia from the inside. Prime Minister Hun Sen is evil, corrupt and hated by the Cambodian people. @nojokehoward

Sounds familiar from a distance.

[Klondyke]

I respond to a fan's email. I talk about why nationalism is foolish, along with why Cambodia is a corrupt third word country. I discuss how Pol Pot's Khmer Rogue has ruined Cambodia, and how
current Prime Minister Hun Sen, allows China and Vietnam to infiltrate and take over Cambodia from the inside. Prime Minister Hun Sen is evil, corrupt and hated by the Cambodian people. @nojokehoward

However, if he hasn't been classified as a "dictator", there is no reason to be concerned as with other "unelected juntas". And we will also forget his involvement in Khmer Rouge, surely a "mistake"...

[Wilsonandson]

His arrest came after undated video footage from Australia-based CBN news was posted on Facebook, appearing to show Mr Sokha saying the US government had been helping him to push for regime change in Cambodia since 1993.

Kem Sokha to face court on treason count - Khmer Times

[TuskegeeBen]

On Saturday night a pro-government website – Fresh News – alleged that Kem Sokha had discussed overthrowing Hun Sen with support from the United States.[

^Loose lips, certainly do sink ships!

[HuangLao]

On Saturday night a pro-government website – Fresh News – alleged that Kem Sokha had discussed overthrowing Hun Sen with support from the United States.[

^Loose lips, certainly do sink ships!

Regardless, foreign power intervention won't resolve anything - only to create more chaos.

Who benefits?

[Wilsonandson]

On Saturday night a pro-government website – Fresh News – alleged that Kem Sokha had discussed overthrowing Hun Sen with support from the United States.[

^Loose lips, certainly do sink ships!

Regardless, foreign power intervention won't resolve anything - only to create more chaos.

Who benefits?

Hun Sen
His Wife
His Children
His extended family
His elite friends.

[Wilsonandson]

Published on Sep 4, 2017
Cambodia Daily, one of the biggest selling newspapers in Cambodia, has shut down amid fears of a growing crackdown on press freedom.
But the government has denied censoring the newspaper, which it said owed millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reports from Cambodia Daily building in Phnom Penh.

[misskit]

Death knell to Cambodian democracy

In an unexpected move with wide-reaching implications, the president of Cambodia’s largest opposition party was arrested and accused of treason on early Sunday morning for allegedly conspiring with the United States to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government.

Kem Sokha, who took over as president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in February following previous leader Sam Rainsy’s decision to step down to save the party from dissolution, was arrested by over 100 soldiers at his Phnom Penh home.

He was immediately taken to a remote prison near the Vietnamese border and is being held incommunicado. Independent analysts see the move as a near final blow to Cambodia’s battered and bruised democratic credentials.

Hun Sen said his government had “no choice” but to arrest and detain Kem Sokha based on the treason allegations. If convicted, he faces a potential 30-year prison sentence. The premier also warned that the CNRP would be dissolved if its members try to “protect” him.

“We had the option of arresting only one person or sending troops to crackdown at the CNRP headquarters. Arresting only one person is better,” Hun Sen said on Sunday.

Kem Sokha’s arrest comes amid a rising crackdown on dissent. The Cambodia Daily, an English-language newspaper, closed today after the government demanded it pay US$6.3 million in alleged back taxes owed. The 24-year-old publication, owned by Americans and long a thorn in Hun Sen’s side, claims the move is politically-motivated.

Meanwhile, at least 18 radio stations which broadcasted programs by US Congress-funded news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have been shuttered on alleged violations of their operating contracts.

The closures coincided with a government order for the US State Department-funded National Democratic Institute to leave the country on accusations it had colluded with the CNRP to overthrow the government.

“The authorities have managed to pick-off one target after another,” said Sophal Ear, associate professor of diplomacy at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Now they might as well pick-off the biggest target of them all – short of [self-exiled] Sam Rainsy, who they can’t touch.”

“They want no stone unturned, no more taking chances. Metaphorically, it’s take no prisoners, but the reality is that it’s all about expulsions and taking prisoners,” Sophal Ear added.

The CNRP had remained conspicuously quiet about the ramped up repression of nongovernmental organizations and media outlets, apparently to protect its members from being directly targeted ahead of next year’s general elections. But Kem Sokha’s arrest was long in the making.

In February, the government rushed amendments to the Law on Political Parties through parliament that gave the state broad and arbitrary power to dissolve political parties for vague reasons. More controversial amendments to the law were made in July.

Moreover, Kem Sokha spent most of last year hiding in the CNRP’s Phnom Penh headquarters to avoid arrest over a more trivial crime than treason. He eventually left after receiving a royal pardon and campaigned openly for the CNRP at this June’s commune elections.

Even before Kem Sokha’s arrest, commentators agreed that the government’s crackdown is motivated by fear it will lose next year’s general election to the CNRP.

Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won nationwide commune elections, but the CNRP cut deeply into its previous super-majority. The CPP won the 2013 general election, but with only 300,000 more votes than the opposition CNRP.

“This apparently is quite worrisome for the ruling party. They run against a walking dead party and still barely win,” Sophal Ear said, referring to the 2013 elections, adding: “Could it be that people actually want change?”

Analysts are divided, however, whether the crackdown marks a return to Cambodia’s traditionally combustive politics or is indicative of a decisive move away from democratic politics.

The CPP unleashed a similar crackdown on critical voices ahead of the 2013 election. However, no independent newspapers were closed, nor were any international NGOs shuttered or expelled. Sam Rainsy, then the CNRP’s president who had lived in exile the previous three years, was even permitted to return weeks before the election.

“In many ways, this crackdown breaks with historical precedent. In the past, the government would walk back its crackdowns as a way of placating foreign critics and keeping the foreign aid flowing,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia.”

“Now, with strong Chinese backing, the government is announcing: ‘Enough is enough, we’re tired of this game of charades’.”

Other analysts wonder why the crackdown has been launched ten months before the next general election, rather than as in the past in the direct run-up to the polls.

Lee Morgenbesser, author of “Behind the Façade: Elections under Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia”, says it makes more sense to suppress the opposition now rather than just before the election, “when citizens will be more politically active and there will be international focus on Cambodia.”

He speculated that the “costs of repression” will be much lower now than in 2018, which could mean the government is “more likely to get away with it.”

Kem Sokha’s alleged treason charge, coming just weeks after US-funded organizations and news outlets were targeted, could prevent Washington from making a punitive response.

If Washington does opt to impose some sort of sanctions, Hun Sen’s government would no doubt point to them as proof that its claim of American interference was founded.

It’s also possible the CPP-led government doubts whether US President Donald Trump, with his professed admiration for strongman rule, holds strong convictions about upholding multi-party democracy in Cambodia.

The CPP’s claim that Kem Sokha had conspired with the US to overthrow the government was well-rehearsed, drawing on America’s history of past interventions in the country’s politics.

“The third hand,” Hun Sen said on Sunday, referring to the US’s documented support for a 1970 military coup, “used to use Lon Nol to conduct a coup, now the same problem happened.” Five years after the US-backed Lon Nol coup of 1970, the regime fell to the radical and murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

The timing of Hun Sun’s crackdown could also relate to his personal affairs. Rumors about the premier’s supposed ill-health have been widely speculated about in recent months, as have claims that he is preparing to choose his self-anointed successor, most likely one of his three sons.

Some analysts had predicted that the father-to-son succession would take place after next year’s general election, based on the assumption that the CPP retained power. However, many now speculate that the handover could happen much sooner, while Hun Sen still has a firm grip on power.

The country’s politics were paralyzed for months in 2013 after the CNRP contested the official election result, a scenario the current clampdown underway apparently aims to preemptively avoid by weakening the opposition.

“Sweeping aside the opposition gives Hun Sen the space to tackle the sensitive challenge of planning a transition of power to a successor,” said Strangio, adding: “Cambodia is entering uncharted territory.”

Death knell to Cambodian democracy | Asia Times

[Wilsonandson]

“We had the option of arresting only one person or sending troops to crackdown at the CNRP headquarters. Arresting only one person is better,” Hun Sen said on Sunday.

We = Hun Sen, his family and his elite friends.

[misskit]

Kem Sokha formally indicted with treason

Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was officially charged with treason on Tuesday – a charge which carries jail term ranging from 15 to 30 years, The Phnom Penh Post Online reported on Wednesday.

Moreover, his Cambodia National Rescue Party could be dissolved if he is found guilty, based on a new legislation that prevents party leader from holding a criminal conviction.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ly Sophanna said public prosecutors had sufficient evidence to charge Sokha under Article 443 of the Criminal Code for “conspiring with a foreign power.”

The indictment came 34 hours after Sokha was arrested at his home and sent to Tbong Khmum prison near the Vietnamese border.

“Kem Sokha, head of the CNRP, was arrested by police for committing red-handed crime related to a secret plan and the activities of conspiring between Kem Sokha and foreigners which causes chaos and affects the Kingdom of Cambodia,” a court statement read.

Artile 80 of the Cambodian Constitution grants immunity to lawmakers unless they are caught “red-handed” which defence lawyer Pheng Heng said wasn’t the case in Sokha’s arrest, which was based on a four-year old publicly available speech.

Sokha’s daughter, Kem Monovithya, the deputy public affairs officer for the CNRP reiterated the party’s decision not to replace Sokha as party leader regardless of the consequences.

On Tuesday, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak appeared to go one step further, saying the party faced dissolution if they even defended Sokha.

CNRP deputy president Mu Sochua rejected outright the charges against Sokha, saying “it is a setup, totally political scenario.”

Kingsley Abbott, of the International Commission of Jurists said in an e-mail that the allegations against Sokha have all the hallmarks of being politically motivated which made a fair trial almost impossible.

Kem Sokha formally indicted with treason - Thai PBS English News

[misskit]

CNRP claims its members are barred from holding meetings

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) is further squeezed by Hun Sen administration after the arrest of its leader KemSokha as its members in Kampong Chhnang have been banned from holding meetings, according to The Phnom Penh Post Online on Thursday.

Keo Tha, CNRP’s provincial executive committee chief, said many communes were meant to have regular scheduled party meetings in the past few days but were banned by police from gathering even at their office or at home.

He disclosed that the restrictions started just after Sokha was arrested at his home early Sunday morning. Sokha was formally indicted with treason on Tuesday.

Tha said that political situation in Cambodia has become very serious at the local level with party members unable to meet for regular party affairs, such as making reports about problems within their communes and discussing voter registration.

CheangSarun, recently elected CNRP’s Popel commune chief, said police banning their meetings was in violation of the right to peaceful assembly which is guaranteed under the Constitution.

He said CampongChhnang deputy provincial police chief Sum Socheat told the CNRP meeting in Boribor district that party members should not get involved with Sokha’s case.

However, Socheat on Wednesday said opposition members were not barred from meeting for routine business, but were not allowed to gather to discuss Sokha.

CNRP claims its members are barred from holding meetings - Thai PBS English News

[misskit]

Prime Minister Hun Sen has leveraged Beijing's rich support to rout the political opposition and repudiate the US and EU, previously his government's biggest financial supporters



When Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited a business expo held this month in China, his accompanying entourage expressed its gratitude for Beijing’s enduring support. China is a “strong backer who continues to help Cambodia in all conditions, without allowing any foreign countries to break us,” said commerce minister Pan Sorasak.


It was hardly an original sentiment: Hun Sen has long praised China’s no-strings attached approach to foreign and commercial policy, a departure from the democratic and good governance requirements often included with Western aid and investment packages.


But Sorasak’s praise for China had greater resonance than usual given the government’s recent arrest of the leader of the country’s largest opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), ahead of crucial elections scheduled for next year.


Kem Sokha was charged with treason this month for allegedly conspiring with Americans to topple Hun Sen’s government, charges both he and the US government have strongly denied. He is currently in pre-trial detention and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in jail if found guilty.


Days before Hun Sen’s trip to China, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang appeared to back Phnom Penh’s political crackdown, saying Beijing “supports the Cambodian government’s efforts to protect national security and stability.”


“China wanted to offer its support to… Hun Sen for arresting Kem Sokha, as Cambodia’s internal security will be guaranteed,” a Cambodian parliamentary spokesman claimed in comments to local media.


Many believe China’s support has emboldened Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to lead what is shaping into its most extreme crackdown on political dissent and opposition in years.


“China has given Hun Sen the diplomatic and economic wiggle room to launch the current crackdown,” said Sebastian Strangio, author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia.” “Previously Hun Sen couldn’t have repudiated US and other Western support so openly.”


In 1997, when Hun Sen launched a bloody coup to remove the royalist Funcinpec party from a coalition government, many Western nations cut all but humanitarian aid to Cambodia. China, however, came to Phnom Penh’s defense.


A visit by Hun Sen to Beijing a year before soothed longstanding bilateral tensions, dating back to China’s support for the radical Maoist Khmer Rouge. China tripled its investment in Cambodia between 1997 and 1998, and by 1999, it had become the largest donor to Cambodia’s state budget, providing more than US$250 million that year.


Still, the CPP government could not completely turn its back on Western democracies during the late 1990s or through the early 2000s, and reforms were vowed to assure sustained European and US support. Now, however, China is Cambodia’s largest investor, and provider of development aid and soft loans, funds which do not require any commitment to good governance, rights promotion or democracy.


“By making Cambodia less reliant on Western development aid, Chinese support has allowed Hun Sen to go further in repressing domestic dissent,” Strangio said.


That trend is gathering a harsh pace. Recent weeks have seen the closure of an independent American-owned newspaper, the Cambodia Daily, for what many saw as arbitrary taxation reasons. Other US-funded news outlets have also been banned, while the US State Department-financed National Democratic Institute was expelled.


While the US and European Union have expressed strong statements on the crackdown, Hun Sen’s government knows it is still less authoritarian than Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Since neither the US nor EU have applied any meaningful sanctions on Cambodia’s neighbors – the opposite, in fact, for Vietnam – the worst Western nations will likely do is curb aid and loans, analysts say.


Leaked White House documents showed in April that the US was already planning to cut international aid, including to Cambodia, irrespective of democracy or human rights conditions. According to the reports, American aid to Cambodia was set to drop from US$83.5 million to just US$21.5 million in 2018.


“For our Cambodia, let [the US] cut it off 100%. We have no problem,” Hun Sen said about the possible aid cuts at the time. He has also carped loudly about a revived US demand that his government repay a Vietnam War era US$500 million debt incurred under a US-backed rightist regime. Last week, Hun Sen ordered the US’s Peace Corps volunteer group out of Cambodia.


Sophal Ear, associate professor of diplomacy at Occidental College in Los Angeles, thinks that Cambodia’s importance for Beijing lies in its recent “undying loyalty.” While it is often said that China’s aid comes with “no strings attached”, that distinction is more true for domestic politics than foreign affairs, he says.


Case in point: Cambodia has twice irked its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) partners over China’s rising assertiveness in the South China Sea. Last year, Phnom Penh reportedly prevented Asean from issuing a strongly worded statement on the maritime area, which is contested by China and several Southeast Asian nations. Days later, China gave Cambodia US$600 million in new aid and loans.


Phnom Penh is now also known to be looking to China for guidance and support on local governance issues, which could explain Hun Sen’s recent lurch towards more authoritarianism. Last year, for example, Cambodia’s Ministry of Justice announced that China would help to “reform” its judicial system.


“At first I thought [China] was just going along with Cambodia, but now am not so sure anymore. Is the tail wagging the dog or the dog wagging the tail?” asked Sophal Ear.


In many ways, Cambodia and China’s relationship is ideologically aligned. Last year, the first China-funded think tank in Cambodia was launched at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. And this month the two nations announced they would establish another think tank in Cambodia that will study ways to prevent foreign-funded ‘color revolutions’ aimed at overthrowing their governments.


The overtly anti-US sentiment now on display in Phnom Penh certainly helps Beijing, which has long accused Washington of trying to covertly influence Asian affairs. The fact that Cambodia’s crackdown, laced with claims of an American conspiracy, comes just months before China’s Communist Party meets for its important Congress is likely to bolster President Xi Jinping’s nationalistic rhetoric as he seeks his third term as premier.


The Global Times, a jingoistic Chinese tabloid, recently claimed that “under the guise of ‘democracy and human rights,’ color revolutions upset development, accelerate societal splits, and will pose a huge threat to Cambodia’s security, stability and economic development.”


The article added: “The Hun Sen government’s vigilance on the issue is justified.”


According to author Strangio, Beijing has also shielded Cambodia from international criticism by “strengthening the idea that what happens inside Cambodia is Cambodian business.”


Indeed, a large part of Xi’s internationalist cache is built around notions of national sovereignty rather than international law. In December 2015, when he met with African leaders in Johannesburg, Xi stated that “China supports the settlement of African issues by Africans in the African way.”


Closer to home, he has spoken about the future of Asia being decided by Asians, or “Asia for Asians”, as the mantra goes. That notion, while criticized by some commentators as “Asia for China”, serves two important functions for Beijing.


First, it seeks to deny Western democracies the space to influence other nations’ domestic politics, with the tacit reminder of past colonialism. Second, it rebukes the idea of a multilateral world governed by universal human rights or shared values, giving precedence instead to matters of national sovereignty.


Not everyone, however, is convinced that ideology is the driving force behind strengthening Cambodia-China ties.


Strangio, for one, says that neither is the relationship built on “authoritarian solidarity”, as some have suggested in the wake of the recent clampdown. From Beijing’s perspective “the CPP is the best guarantor of peace and stability in the country, and hence, a useful partner for Chinese interests,” he said.


“Beneath all the high-flown language of eternal friendship,” the warming bilateral relationship “is a partnership of pure interests on both sides,” Strangio said.


China's largesse abets Cambodia's clampdown | Asia Times

[misskit]

Cambodia Rejects Bail Request For Opposition Chief Kem Sokha

Cambodia’s Appeals Court denied opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) chief Kem Sokha bail in absentia Tuesday as he awaits a trial on charges of treason, prompting his legal team to boycott the proceedings in protest.


Kem Sokha was arrested without a warrant in the capital Phnom Penh on Sept. 3 and accused of trying to topple the government with backing from Washington, in a move critics say shows Prime Minister Hun Sen is intensifying his attacks on political opponents ahead of national elections scheduled for 2018. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.


In the lead up to the hearing, the Ministry of Interior had said Kem Sokha would not be brought to the court from Trapeang Phlong Prison in Tbong Khmum province due to “security concerns,” after it learned that provocateurs might incite crowds planning to gather at the building.


On Tuesday, hundreds of armed security personnel were deployed on the streets surrounding the Appeals Court ahead of the hearing, which was closed to the media and the public, while dozens of opposition lawmakers and around 100 supporters stood outside calling for Kem Sokha’s release.


When authorities confirmed that the opposition leader would not be allowed to attend his hearing, Kem Sokha’s lawyers boycotted the proceedings, saying the decision was made in violation of their client’s rights. The court went ahead with the hearing and upheld Kem Sokha’s provisional detention, according to an earlier ruling by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.


Speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service after the ruling, one of Kem Sokha’s lawyers, Chan Chen, said there was no precedent in which the Appeals Court had barred an appellant from their own hearing, adding that the court had acted against the standards of both local and international law.


The court’s claim that it was acting in the interest of Kem Sokha’s security was merely an excuse to prevent him from attending the proceedings, the lawyer said.


“If we appeared at the hearing, it would have seriously impacted our client’s rights, which is unacceptable,” he said.


“We are just lawyers, so we are not party to this matter. Kem Sokha was the only person that needed to appear before the court.”


In a statement in response to the boycott, the Appeals Court said Kem Sokha’s presence was unnecessary because the hearing was not evidentiary, adding that by refusing to attend, his lawyers were hurting his case. No date has been set for his trial.


Following the ruling, senior CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay said that his party has no plans to hold mass demonstrations calling for Kem Sokha’s release, but vowed to stand outside of the opposition leader’s prison every Monday in protest of the charges against him until he is freed.


Son Chhay added that the CNRP will continue to request visits with Kem Sokha after being refused access to the party chief twice on orders by the investigating judge that only his family members and lawyers may see him before his trial.


On Monday, the opposition party launched an advocacy campaign for the release of its leader by hanging posters bearing Kem Sokha’s image and a call for his immediate and unconditional release would be posted at CNRP offices throughout the country.



UN protest


Also on Tuesday, more than 300 members of the Cambodian diaspora held a protest in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council headquarters in Geneva demanding that the group pressure Cambodia’s government to release Kem Sokha, end human rights violations, and respect the principles of democracy by allowing for free and fair elections in 2018.


The protest was the latest by overseas Cambodians to call for Kem Sokha’s immediate and unconditional release following others held in the U.S., France, Canada, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, and South Korea.
It came a day after French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged Cambodia to resume a pluralistic democracy and to respect human rights and freedom during a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhon in Paris.


Le Drian raised serious concerns about a political crisis in Cambodia following Kem Sokha’s arrest and a recent crackdown on voices critical of the government ahead of next year’s election.


Since late August, the government has expelled U.S.-funded NGO the National Democratic Institute (NDI), suspended some 20 radio stations that aired content by U.S. broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, and targeted the English-language Cambodia Daily with a hefty tax bill, leading to the newspaper’s closure.




Search suspended


Meanwhile, Pol Saroeun, the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Research and Exploration Commission on Tuesday ordered provincial and municipal governments throughout Cambodia to suspend activities related to the search for the remains of missing American soldiers in the country, following accusations that the U.S. was assisting the opposition in a plot to overthrow Hun Sen.


The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of U.S. experts, though the U.S. embassy has rejected any suggestion that Washington is interfering in Cambodian politics.


While Hun Sen first mentioned a suspension of search activities on Sept. 15, Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to issue any official diplomatic to the U.S. government about the decision.


Government-aligned media outlet Fresh News has cited Hun Sen as saying the suspension of cooperation with U.S. military-led teams on search activities was a response to Washington’s halt on the issuing of most visas to senior foreign ministry officials and their families, as well as “several other issues.”


According to the U.S. government, the remains of 48 American soldiers killed during the Vietnam War have yet to be located in Cambodia.


Cambodia Rejects Bail Request For Opposition Chief Kem Sokha