::: Asian Tribune :::
  Date : 10/02/2003 , Mon
A Newspaper Published by Asian Tribune Co.,Ltd.
Vol. 1 No. 223   








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Date : 2003-02-02
Hun Sen to blame for violence, says Rainsy


Bangkok, Feb. 02: The anti-Thai rioting in Phnom Penh this week was organised by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen to divert attention from local problems, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said in Singapore yesterday.

Rainsy flew into Bangkok from Singapore yesterday afternoon but had to return there after Thai immigration officials refused him entry at the airport.

He planned to hold a press conference at a Bangkok hotel in the evening to speak about the riots that were triggered by reports that a famous Thai actress had claimed Cambodia's world-famous Angkor Wat temples belonged to Thailand, comments which she denied.

"This is part of the whole thing. This is a real plan. This is not an accident," he told reporters at Singapore's Changi airport on returning from Bangkok late in the afternoon.

Rainsy said a pro-ruling-party newspaper in Cambodia had published a report on the Thai actress's alleged comments 11 days before the riots. On January 27, Rainsy said, Hun Sen "made a speech broadcast on national radio using xenophobic, anti-Thai language, inciting people to hatred and violence".

He described the speech as "not only an invitation but an encouragement to crime".

Rainsy said that on the eve of the riots he had received reports that government supporters were "organising an anti-Thai demonstration" and were circulating leaflets telling people to be prepared to attack Thai interests. "It was [like] a mobilisation for a war, asking people to join. Then on the 29th, this thing [the riot] happened," he said.

Rainsy was scheduled to meet Bangkok-based journalists at the Regent Hotel at around 7pm. His aides even proposed a live discussion on Nation TV shortly after his flight landed at Bangkok airport.

But Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said later that the government had decided to bar Rainsy from entering the country because the timing was inappropriate and could worsen the situation.

Chuan Leekpai, the Thai opposition leader, said yesterday that the Thaksin government should have permitted the Cambodian opposition leader to hold his press conference in Bangkok.

- Agence France-Presse, The Nation -




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