Sam Rainsy lands in Malaysia as Hun Sen’s government vows to ‘destroy him’
- The opposition figure flew from Paris to Malaysia en route to Cambodia for rallies against strongman Hun Sen
- He was earlier blocked from boarding a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, in a move he said was orchestrated ‘from high up’
Self-exiled Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy landed in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday after promising to return home to rally opponents of authoritarian ruler Hun Sen.
Asked whether he planned to return to Cambodia he said: “I cannot say anything. I do not deny, I do not confirm.”
The veteran opposition figure had planned to return to Cambodia on Saturday, Independence Day, in what Prime Minister Hun Sen characterised as an attempted coup against his rule of more than three decades.
If he comes to cause instability and chaos, we will destroy him.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan said that if Rainsy did return he would face outstanding charges against him in court. “If he comes to cause instability and chaos, we will destroy him,” he said.
Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy says Thai Airways blocked his trip home on orders ‘from very high up’
An official of Rainsy’s banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Thailand said that nobody would be returning on Saturday.
“We will be returning as soon as possible,” said Saory Pon, General Secretary of the Cambodia National Rescue Party Overseas.
Upon landing in Kuala Lumpur, Rainsy told reporters that he had been invited to Malaysia’s parliament on Tuesday as part of a private visit, indicating that he will remain in the country for a few days and miss his self-imposed Saturday deadline.
Some 50 opposition activists have been arrested in Cambodia in recent weeks.
In the capital, Phnom Penh, security forces patrolled in pickup trucks on the day that marked Cambodia’s 66th anniversary of independence from France. On Sunday and Monday, Cambodia celebrates an annual water festival.
Police armed with assault rifles lined up at Cambodia’s Poipet border crossing with Thailand, where Rainsy had said he planned to cross, pictures posted on Twitter by the independent Cambodian Centre for Human Rights showed.
Rainsy, a founder of the CNRP, fled four years ago following a conviction for criminal defamation. He also faces a five-year sentence in a separate case. He says the charges were politically motivated.
The 70-year-old former finance minister has been an opponent of Hun Sen since the 1990s. He also vowed to return home in 2015 in spite of threats to arrest him, but did not.
The CNRP’s leader, Kem Sokha, is under house arrest in Cambodia after being arrested more than two years ago and charged with treason ahead of a 2018 election that was condemned by Western countries as a farce.
“We will continue our journey home,” Mu Sochua said on Twitter on Saturday morning. “November 9 is marked in history as our struggle for democracy.”
Rights groups have accused Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand of detaining and returning critics of neighbouring governments, even those with United Nations refugee status.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
