Cambodia downplays fallout from leaked cable

Cambodia downplays fallout from leaked cable

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Cambodia's Interior minister has downplayed the impact of a harshly critical cable written by a former Australian ambassador to the country and leaked last week, saying it was unlikely to affect relations.

Speaking at a cocktail party on Saturday night to mark the opening of an Australian food and wine festival, You Hockry when asked if relations would be harmed, replied, "I don't think so."

The leaked 3,500 word cable, written in June by former ambassador to Phnom Penh John Holloway said Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, was "pathetically pursuing power although riddled with cancer."

It also said the Cambodian government was riddled with corruption at all levels.

Details of the cable were published last Wednesday in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, but so far the scathingly critical report has failed to cause a stir in Cambodia.

One reason might be that the report recommended Australia consider training the Cambodian army.

Hockry said it was important to remember the secret cable had been written when Holloway was employed as an ambassador working for a sovereign country. Holloway, 52, regarded as one of Australia's leading experts on Asia, is currently working as an advisor to the Cambodian foreign ministry.

He served as Australian ambassador from December 1991 until June this year.

The interior minister, citing a conversation with First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh about the cable, said he (Ranariddh) believed some parts of the cable "went too far."

On the claim that King Sihanouk still sought to reign with executive power, Hockry said, the ailing 71 year-old monarch "had taken pains to make clear he would reign but not rule."

Hockry said he accepted that some aspects of the leaked cable were true but the government had not attempted to hide these details.