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I’ve won already, says PM
The Phnom Penh Post by Meas Sokchea with additional reporting by David, Wednesday, 01 February 2012

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday that at least one element of the 2013 National Assembly election is a foregone conclusion – he will still be in charge when it’s over. Prime Minister Hun Sen casts his vote on Sunday in Phnom Penh for the national senate election. The Prime Minister is confident of the outcome. Speaking only three days after his party won control of the Senate for the third time in a row, the premier said yesterday that there is no chance he will be displaced as prime minister, given the fact that he is the only candidate.

“Don’t worry; the opposition party has no possibility of breaking [the Cambodian Peoples Party],” he told a crowd at a ground-breaking ceremony inaugurating national road 76 in Ratanakkiri.

“At that time, who will be a Minister of Public Works? [We] don’t know yet, but the only candidate for prime minister is me.”

The premier also expressed his thanks to 797 members of Funcinpec, the Norodom Rannaridh Party and the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, who voted for the CPP at Sunday’s Senate election, including 179 councillors from the SRP.

From Paris, where he lives in self-imposed exile following a spate of criminal convictions in Cambodia, the eponymous party leader Sam Rainsy said the prime minister risked damaging international perceptions of his legitimacy by making such statements.

“So, Hun Sen, in Cambodia, the results of the election are predetermined. If it is a foregone conclusion, there is no need to organise elections, and it would be silly to pretend Cambodia is a democracy then,” he said.

The opposition leader said he would rather congratulate the 2,503 SRP councillors who voted on party lines, resisting attempts by the CPP to buy their votes – which had succeeded in only a small number of cases.

Last week, CPP member Cheam Pe A was fined US$1,230 by the Battambang Provincial Election Committee after he was taped trying to buy the Senate vote of an SRP councillor.

Preliminary results released on Sunday showed that the CPP had extended its existing Senate majority by one, winning 46 of 57 contested seats, while the SRP also increased its standing from two to 11 seats. The four remaining seats in the Senate are appointees.

Shooting blamed on firm
The Phnom Penh Post by May Titthara, Wednesday, 01 February 2012

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday threatened to fire one of his advisers, TTY Company director Na Marady, and withdraw his company’s economic land concession license if the tycoon did not turn in security guards wanted over the shooting of villagers during a protest in Kratie on January 18.

Villagers blocked road 76A, after security shooting villagers.
A provincial court official announced yesterday that security guards Koe Sovanna, 29, Yon Chhaina, 32, and Phin Oeun, 35, were wanted for questioning over the shooting.

Speaking at the inauguration of national road number 76 in Mondulkiri province, Hun Sen said Na Marady had a responsibility to bring the wanted men to police and find a lawyer for them, warning that if he refused to comply, it would him being questioned.

“I will fire you as PM adviser [if you do not turn them in],” Hun Sen said.

“The company is not free from blame – we have to ask how the company got guns like these and who the shooters are, because we have the picture.”

If TTY was found to be protecting the three men, it would be punished, he said.

A TTY security guard fired an AK-47 assault rifle into a crowd of about 400 that had tried to block the company’s bulldozers from clearing their cassava plantations in Veal Bei village in Phi Thnou commune, Snuol district, on January 18.

One man was left in serious condition with multiple gunshot wounds and three others were also hit by bullets.

A photo later emerged of a security guard standing on machinery pointing an assault rifle at villagers.

“I regret this issue, and I regard it as a serious issue that cannot be pardoned – we’re dealing with villagers’ blood here,” Hun Sen said.

“I condemn this activity and cannot pardon it. I am sorry to the victims’ families . . . it should not have happened.”

In 2008, TTY was granted a more than 9,000-hectare economic land concession that included farms and homes in Veal Bei village. But last week, during a visit to Veal Bei, Environment Minister Mok Mareth promised to return the villagers’ land.

Hun Sen said yesterday that he had already ordered Interior Minister Sar Kheng to arrest the security guards who fired on villagers and also urged the alleged perpetrators to hand themselves in, warning that Interpol officers would catch them if they fled abroad.

Heng Sarath, deputy-general of TTY, said he did not have information about the whereabouts of the security guards.

“I am investigating those who destroyed the company,” he said, adding that the security guards’ actions had resulted in the government taking back land.

Hak Hoin, deputy provincial prosecutor in Kratie, said details about the case had already been sent to an investigating judge and he could confirm that the three security guards wanted for questioning were Koe Sovanna, Yon Chhaina and Phin Oeun.

“The investigating judge will take a measure according to law and do more investigating to learn about their background.”

The prime minister also threatened action against companies who used violence against villagers.

“We will withdraw all licenses from companies who received economic land concessions if they use violence,” he said.

Any company given the right to develop land has a duty to ensure villagers were not mistreated and to find resolutions for those affected by development, he said.

Hun Sen challenged companies to develop in areas that would force fewer people from their farmland.

Ouch Leng, head of the land program for rights group Adhoc, said he welcomed the prime minister’s speech, but asked why the perpetrators were not arrested at the time of the shootings.

“If the gunmen are arrested now, Hun Sen will be shown to be a justice-maker. If they are not arrested, Hun Sen’s speech will have been made for his own political benefit.”