Hun Sen makes surprise visit to Sihanouk, raises party fears
Hun Sen makes surprise visit to Sihanouk, raises party fears
PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Cambodian co-premier Hun Sen made a surprise visit to King Norodom Sihanouk at his northern residence in Siem Reap to warn of party politics undermining a key impartial constitutional body, officials said yesterday.
Sihanouk and Hun Sen talked for more than an hour in their first meeting since early May, a palace official said.
"The meeting focused on preventing members of the Constitutional Council from involvement with any political party," he added.
Officials close to Hun Sen declined to comment when contacted by telephone yesterday.
The nine-member council was set up to judge constitutional and electoral disputes and is scheduled to play a crucial role in the July 26 national elections.
Three members were appointed by Sihanouk, three by the National Assembly and the remainder by the judiciary. Hun Sen was objecting to possible political activities by octogenarian veteran politician Son Sann -- one of the council members appointed by the king.
Son Sann retired from active politics several months ago, but the opposition party named after him continues under the leadership of his son and uses a bust of Son Sann as its logo.
"I got a call from the king's cabinet this afternoon warning us not to associate my father's image and name with the party," Son Soubert, Son Sann's son, told Reuters.
He added that the law did not prohibit the use of his father's name and image.
In another development Cambodia's Cabinet has named a police official implicated the execution of an opposition politician to protect opposition candidates during an upcoming election campaign, documents released yesterday said.
The Council of Ministers appointed National Police Director Hok Lundy to a seven-member task force that will coordinate security for all political parties during a 30-day campaign period before the July poll, according to council documents.
Hok Lundy was implicated in the July 7 execution of Interior Ministry Secretary of State Ho Sok, a senior supporter of deposed co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh, two days after the prince was ousted in the coup.
At least 88 other people, mostly members of the prince's FUNCINPEC party, were rounded up and executed in the months after the coup, allegedly by government forces backing strongman Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
Ho Sok was arrested July 7 and taken to Interior Ministry headquarters, where he was interrogated and shot dead in the presence of senior CPP Interior police officials, according to government and United Nations officials.
A bodyguard who witnessed the execution told a reporter a few weeks later that Hok Lundy personally executed Ho Sok, which Hok Lundy and government officials denied.
But a senior Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, corroborated the bodyguard's story, telling Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that Hok Lundy was the trigger man.
The Phnom Penh government, which the CPP controls, has acknowledged Ho Sok's murder, but has done nothing to investigate any of the killings despite repeated promises to the United Nations and foreign nations.