|
|
|
|
Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of June 12, 1998
PHNOM PENH The Constitutional Council canceled its first session on June 3 when its dean - Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum - boycotted the meeting because three of the council's members were put in place illegally by Second Prime Minister Hun Sen.Week of June 5, 1998
PHNOM PENH: The composition of the country's top appeals body was completed with the appointment of three final members allied with strongman Hun Sen. The Supreme Council of Magistracy nominations to the nine-member Constitutional Council paved the way for the body to meet - more than four years after receiving its mandate. The panel will have the final say in all constitutional matters and in disputes related to July's elections.Week of May 29, 1998
Hun Sen Gets a Lecture
Opposition leaders Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy called for a boycott of July's elections. Co-Premier Hun Sen's terse response: "If they don't participate, they will lose everything." Hun Sen is the sole man at the head of Cambodia these days. For a few months there was a charade that he had filled the U.N.-mandated post of co-premier, held by Ranariddh, with Ung Huot, the pliable foreign minister who stepped into the job after Ranariddh left following July's bloody coup. Ung Huot still handles foreign affairs, but it is Hun Sen who ultimately allowed Ranariddh to appeal for a pardon (while Ung Huot was on a weekend break at the Regent Hotel in Bangkok) and it was Hun Sen who met recently with Thai PMChuan Leekpai.Hun Sen got a firm lecture from the normally soft-spoken Thai, according to a person in the room at the time. Chuan pointed out that no one is a "prime minister for life." To make the message more palatable, he also commended Hun Sen on a speech he made in his home province of Kompong Cham committing himself to free and fair elections. The not-so-subtle message from Chuan: keep your word.
ASEAN will send observers to monitor July's elections. The monitors - there will be eight or nine from each member country - will be under United Nations supervision. The decision came even though Cambodian opposition parties called for a boycott of the polls.
Week of May 22, 1998
The military claimed it destroyed the clandestine radio transmitter of the Khmer Rouge. Rebel broadcasts had continued uninterrupted even after mass defections led to the loss of the guerrillas' last major base at Anlong Veng in March, but were silent at mid-week.Week of May 15, 1998
CAMBODIA-THAILAND Cambodian leader Hun Sen flew to Bangkok at mid-week for talks with Thai PM Chuan Leekpai and other top leaders. Conflict at the border and preparations for Cambodia's July 26 elections were at the top of the agenda.Week of April 24, 1998
An Undercurrent of Chaos
We cover this week's events in Cambodia in THE NATIONS(LINK TO NAT 6), but there is another aspect that needs to be brought to light. There is a growing general undercurrent of civilian murders, thuggery and kidnappings in Cambodia that indicates a disintegrating society.A defecting Khmer Rouge fighter recently gave a graphic depiciton of the murder last year of British anti-mine worker Christopher Howes, who was executed and cremated within a week of his abduction near Siem Reap. And in Phnom Penh there is chaos, too. In recent weeks an Australian lawyer was bludgeoned to death in his hotel. Heidi Jemai, the head of the U.N. Fund for Population Activities, was held at gunpoint for several hours after a minor traffic accident with some Hun Sen guards. Wealthy parents are keeping their kids home from school - a Khmer restaurant owner paid $30,000 to recover his son from kidnappers. The French general manager of a trading company was kidnapped and pistol-whipped by his own bodyguards. Two Singaporean nationals were kidnapped - one was carrying a large amount of cash to the airport. The employer of one of them paid a ransom of $60,000 to rescue them. It is the kind of mayhem that is driving away international sympathy for the troubled country.
Week of April 10, 1998
CAMBODIA-THAILAND Around 7,000 Cambodian refugees started to pour into Thailand amid fighting for the last Khmer Rouge stronghold in Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia, the Thai army said. Water on the Cambodian side was running short, aggravating the situation.Week of March 27, 1998
A military court convicted deposed Cambodian co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh on charges that he colluded with the outlawed Khmer Rouge to overthrow the government last year. Ranariddh, in exile, refuses to accept the court's legitimacy.Week of March 20, 1998
King Norodom Sihanouk unveiled his most pessimistic view of Cambodia’s situation to date. His monthly bulletin described the international community’s efforts to push a peaceful solution to the country’s current crisis as “naive” and “wishful thinking.”Week of March 6, 1998
Three gang members accused of killing Haing Ngor of The Killing Fields fame were high on drugs when they shot the actor in 1996, prosecutors in Los Angeles say. The men fired when he refused to give them a locket containing the only remaining picture of his late wife.Week of February 27, 1998
"The Japanese proposal is 100 % positive," Second PM Hun Sen said of Tokyo's plan for a ceasefire for warring factions. Prince Norodom Ranariddh is to cut his ties with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas still fighting the government and be pardoned should he be convicted of the criminal charges Hun Sen is demanding he face. ASEAN also backs the plan, and Ranariddh says he accepts it, too.Week of February 20, 1998
"If I dare grant him a royal pardon, a mass demonstration will be organized against me, then I will be deposed," ailing King Sihanouk said of his son Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Second PM Hun Sen wants Ranariddh to be tried on criminal charges.Week of February 13, 1998
CAMBODIA-THAILAND "We are willing to mediate, but to organize a meeting between Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh depends on the willingness of both parties," Thai PM Chuan Leekpai said. Ranariddh is ready to see Chuan; co-Premier Hun Sen has not responded.Week of February 6, 1998
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy called for a boycott of "any garments produced in sweatshops by unscrupulous investors." He led a demonstration of 300 clothing workers who marched on the U.S. embassy and the European Union office in Phnom Penh.Week of January 30, 1998
KHMER ROUGE radio called a ceasefire proposal offered by Hun Sen a "trick" to hide his alleged defeats on the battlefield. The rebels have allied themselves with deposed co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy is mediating with Ranariddh in Bangkok.Week of January 23, 1998
"We are trying to prevent any abuse of the press by authorities," Secretary of State for Information Khieu Kanharith says. His proposed anti-press laws were made public the day after the ministry ordered the closure of six opposition newspapers.Week of January 16, 1998
King Norodom Sihanouk left the country unexpectedly, after retracting an offer of unconditional amnesty for his son, ousted co-premier Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Palace sources said the King was angered by media reports criticizing the amnesty move.News from Cambodia in 1997
News from Cambodia in 1996
News from Cambodia in 1995
