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As Cambodia's Opposition Leader Plans Return, Government Cracks Down

Sun Narin

   To protect her family, Him Taing Or lied to local authorities that she
   and her husband had divorced.

   Her husband, Oun Srean is a deputy head of the opposition Cambodia
   National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Cambodia's northwest Uddar Meanchey
   province, on the border with Thailand.

   To protect his family, Oun Srean fled Cambodia when Cambodia's Supreme
   Court in November 2017 dissolved the CNRP, which represented a growing
   challenge to Hun Sen, the prime minister for more than three decades.
   His ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) oversaw a purge of more than
   5,000 local CNRP representatives who lost their positions after the
   party's dissolution. They were banned from political activity.

   The result was that after billions of dollars spent in international
   effort to build democracy in Cambodia since the early 1990s, Hun Sen
   won all 125 seats in parliament in the July 2018 national election, and
   now enjoys an increasingly authoritarian one-party rule.

   And for the past month, the Hun Sen government has been doubling down
   on CNRP supporters because the self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy
   announced on August 18 that he plans to return to Cambodia on November
   9. The official position is that this amounts to "plotting a coup." The
   government has made clear that that anyone who supports Rainsy will
   face legal action.

   Dozens of opposition members have been arrested since Rainsy's
   announcement. Local TV news programs, all on stations controlled by the
   government or its allies, feature file footage of demonstrations
   against Hun Sen in 2013, when the opposition questioned election
   results that kept him and the CPP in power.

   In Cambodia, where 1.7 million people died between 1975 and 1979 as the
   Khmer Rouge attempted to create a Marxist agrarian paradise, there's a
   wariness of anything that might trigger instability. The TV footage in
   regular rotation shows government forces keeping the peace by shooting
   water cannons at the protestors.

   Soeung Sen Karona, a spokesman for the Cambodian human rights group
   [1]Adhoc, which has followed the threats against the opposition, said
   the situation has worsened since Sam Rainsy's announcement. Adhoc has
   received written and verbal complaints from activists who have fled and
   from their families. "Activists and supporters are now scared," said
   Soeung Sen Karona.

   Police visit

   Before the government dissolved the CNRP, "Police came to my house
   several times," said Him Taing Or. "So, I told them I have divorced [my
   husband]," she told VOA Khmer in a recent interview at a restaurant in
   Anlong Veng, a onetime Khmer Rouge stronghold now best known as the
   gravesite of [2]Pol Pot, the regime's mastermind who died in 1998.

   "I went to Thailand to live with my husband for a while in July 2018
   and then came back in November," said Him Taing Or, 47, the mother of
   two children.

   "I told local authorities a year ago that I have divorced," she said.

   Him Taing Or, who earns about $5 a day packing rice cookies made in her
   village, is afraid of giving an interview at her home because she
   believes she is under surveillance by local authorities.

   Oun Srean has been a wanted man since October 7 when he was charged
   with "plotting" because he backed Sam Rainsy's return. Him Taing Or
   found out authorities has issued an arrest summons for her husband when
   her father called with the news.

   "I am worried that he will be arrested and jailed," she said, knowing
   that the Uddar Meanchey provincial municipal court asked local police
   to arrest him.

   Oun Srean is just one of dozens of activists who have been charged with
   "plotting."

   The opposition activists arrested this month and who have been charged
   with "plotting" face prison terms of up to 10 years if found guilty.
   Others are in hiding or have fled the country.

   "The political situation is still dire for the opposition in Cambodia,"
   said Ear Sophal, an associate professor in diplomacy and world affairs
   at Occidental College, Los Angeles, California. "Phnom Penh loves power
   and money more than freedom and democracy."

   Unafraid activist

   Chhun Vean, a former deputy CNRP commune chief from the Kdey Run
   commune in Siem Reap province, now works in construction in Thailand.
   "I am not scared or willing to stop my work for democracy in Cambodia,"
   he said.

References

   1. https://www.adhoccambodia.org/
   2. https://projects.voanews.com/cambodia-election-2018/english/biography/pol-pot.html

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