Cambodian rivals finally bury the past
By Stefan Smith
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Just two years ago, Cambodia's co-premiers Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh fought out a bloody battle on the streets of the capital, their coalition government in tatters.
In today's political scene, the July 1997 coup d'etat is now "the July events," with sworn enemies back in coalition and happier than never before.
"For the sake of national reconciliation we should not dig up the past and must let bygones be bygones," explained government spokesman Khieu Kanharith, echoing a familiar phrase in Cambodia's often bemusing political scene.
In the short-term, the July battle left hundreds dead and an international community mulling the failure of Cambodian democracy, born as a result of the 1993 elections and the United Nations' most expensive intervention to date.
ASEAN postponed admitting their 10th member, and human rights groups rallied to blast Cambodia's strongman Hun Sen, who accused his senior partner the prince of plotting with the genocidal Khmer Rouge.
The battle dramatically reshaped a balance of power that 1993's polls left in an uncomfortable balance, and two years on Hun Sen is Cambodia's undisputed strongman -- his loyalist or Khmer Rouge rivals either dead, in jail or in the government.
An alliance of Prince Norodom Ranariddh and dissident Sam Rainsy after the July 1998 polls -- allegedly marred by fraud and intimidation -- and unprecedented anti-Hun Sen rallies on the streets of the capital failed.
The prince ditched Sam Rainsy, and took his royalist FUNCINPEC party into a new pact with Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
Cambodia became a full ASEAN member in April and donors have been lining up to praise government reforms and kick-start suspended aid. Last month the resident representative of UN chief Kofi Annan dubbed Hun Sen a "champion of democracy" during a meeting of foreign donors.
"Cambodia is really an experience in new realms of political expediency," quipped one western diplomatic source. "But on the other hand, it just goes to show how quickly things here can turn for the better -- or the worse."
Speculation here refuses to simply put the change in relations between the prince and Hun Sen down to making up: several suggest succession to the throne is at the heart of the patching up of relations.
Who steps into the 76 year-old King Norodom Sihanouk's riverside royal palace in the event of his death will be decided by the throne council, which remains dominated by senior members of Hun Sen's CPP.
"Privately, sources close to the (royal) family suggest that Prince Ranariddh has reached a secret deal with Hun Sen," wrote official royal biographer Julio Jeldres in an April edition of the English language Phnom Penh Post.
The royal-appointed biographer suggested the deal allows Hun Sen "a free reign in the political arena with just a semblance of opposition, in exchange for the prince being chosen to succeed his father when the moment comes."
Far from the "enormous international pressure" he complained of when he entered into a new coalition with Hun Sen last November, Prince Ranariddh appears publicly satisfied with his role as parliamentary speaker secured in the pact.
Which leaves just the opposition Sam Rainsy Party planning to mark the July 1997 fighting with a religious ceremony on Wednesday, forever eager to deliver a thorn in the side of Hun Sen and remind Prince Ranariddh of his abandoned allies.
Whatever deals have been made, FUNCINPEC and the CPP will ignore any commemoration "for the sake of national reconciliation," according to a spokesman.
"We feel regret for the July events but now we have a government and everyone is happy with the coalition," argued one FUNCINPEC MP. "For the time being."