Hun Sen: 30 years in power in Cambodia amid corruption, abuse and human rights violations
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Prime Minister Hun Sen who has dominated recent history in Cambodia, is today celebrating 30 years of unchallenged power in the country. Among the longest serving heads of state and government in the world, he has maintained unopposed leadership for three decades, eliminating possible rivals over time, including the Prince and his former ally Norodom Ranariddh.
However, according to critics
the prime minister's years in power have also been characterized by
intimidation and political
plots, from abuse and corruption,
extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary
arrests. Cambodia is an anomaly,
warn critics and experts, because even
in nations like
China and Vietnam, where the
Communist Party dominates, there is a change of leadership after a number of years.
Voted into power for the first time at 33,
with his appointment as Prime Minister,
he has been able to consolidate his rule over time, using methods of violence and repression against
opponents. Moreover Hun Sen has also guaranteed
an - albeit
modest - growth and stability in a nation that
still bears the wounds of the
atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.
Speaking today at
the opening of a 2km bridge
over the Mekong River, the 62-year old prime
minister recalled his years
in power and defended his actions, stressing that his primary objective was to restore peace and unity to the country after the devastation of the regime Pol Pot. "If Hun
Sen had not been willing
to enter the lair of the tigers
- he said, referring to himself in the third person - how we could
take the tigers?".
Born into a peasant family, with a past among the militias of the Khmer Rouge, he fled to Vietnam returning in
1979, with the invasion of the Hanoi
troops that led to the fall of Pol Pot and his old comrades. Over
time he drifted from communist dogma
and his Vietnamese allies, choosing the free market and seeking alliances with
regional and world powers.
However, according to critics, he
has established a power based on patronage
and loyalty to the ruling party. "The government has not been able to
establish the rule of law and has not fought impunity"
emphasizes Chak Sopheap,
executive director of the Cambodian
Centre for Human Rights in Phnom Penh. For
Human Rights Watch (HRW), he is linked
to cases of violations and abuses of human
rights, including torture,
killings and arbitrary
arrests. According to the NGO based
in New York Cambodia is turning into a "one-party"
nation.
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