Exiled prince can return if king grants pardon
Exiled prince can return if king grants pardon
PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodian Second Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said he would not oppose the return of the exiled half- brother of King Norodom Sihanouk if the monarch grants the prince a pardon.
The statement came just two days after Hun Sen threatened to use tanks and multiple rocket launchers to prevent Prince Norodom Sirivudh from returning home from exile in France.
"Prince Sirivudh has sufficient rights to return to Cambodia safely after he gets a pardon from His Majesty the king," Hun Sen said in a speech at the Ministry of Veterans' and Social Affairs.
"If His Majesty the king gives him a pardon, I will support it," he said, adding: "I am ready to protect him at the airport and will even buy him a first-class ticket."
Prince Sirivudh was sent into exile last December for allegedly plotting to assassinate Hun Sen. In February, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy and illegal weapons possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia.
Despite the sentence hanging over him, the prince has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he wants to come back.
Meanwhile Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan said yesterday his guerrillas would protect exiled Prince Norodom Sirivudh if the prince returns to Cambodia.
"We will support and protect him," Khieu Samphan said in a broadcast on clandestine Khmer Rouge radio.
Khieu Samphan offered to protect Sirivudh, adding that "Hun Sen's declaration was very rude. It was not suitable for a prime minister to say."
Khmer Rouge hardliners recently vowed to kill Hun Sen.
The hardliners have been angered by his encouragement of recent mass defections of Khmer Rouge troops to the government side.
Strike
In a separate development yesterday, nearly 3,000 workers at Cambodia's largest garment factory walked off the job demanding higher wages and better conditions in the country's first ever strike.
The strike came just three days after employees of Cambodia Garment Ltd. organized a labor union with the help of prominent dissident Sam Rainsy, president of the unrecognized opposition Khmer Nation Party (KNP).
Led by Sam Rainsy, the workers, including the three women who founded the union who had been suspended from their jobs Tuesday morning, sat and stood outside the factory, chanting and cheering.
"We only earn 30 dollars a month -- one dollar a day," said one of the mainly young, female strikers. "We want 50 dollars a month, no more, and better working conditions."
She said the three union organizers had been suspended for encouraging other employees to join the union and lobby for higher wages.
She and others complained that the company's Malaysian and Cambodian management were abusive, docked pay for time lost going to the bathroom and fired people without proper justification.
A management spokesman said the workers demands were illegal and contravened Ministry of Industry regulations but would not elaborate, saying the owner was going to fly to Cambodia from Malaysia soon to resolve the situation.
The spokesman said the company had been operating for nearly two years without any problems and blamed the walk-out on Sam Rainsy's support for the union.
At the beginning of the strike, factory guards locked the workers inside and fired several shots in the air to prevent the gates from being opened, witnesses said, noting however that no one was injured.
It was unclear how long the workers would remain off the job, but officials from the Ministry of Industry were expected to try to moderate.