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.