Phnom Penh fears rebels massing in Thai border town

Phnom Penh fears rebels massing in Thai border town

Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province is a main gateway to Cambodia. (Bangkok Post photo)
Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province is a main gateway to Cambodia. (Bangkok Post photo)

Cambodia has asked Thailand to keep a close watch on anti-Hun Sen groups mobilising Cambodian labour support in the border town of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province.

According to Cambodia's intelligence agency, anti-Hun Sen groups would seek support yesterday from more than 1,000 Cambodian workers in the Rong Kluea border market in Aranyaprathet district to join the protest against long-ruling Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday.

Pol Col Benjapol Rodsawat, chief of the Sa Kaeo Immigration Office, said Thailand will not allow any mass foreign political activities.

Pol Col Benjapol was speaking on Tuesday after being contacted by Cambodia's Poipet Immigration and the Cambodian military.

He said he had sent a unit to the border market and found that sellers and workers scattered when patrol officers approached.

There were no anti-Hun Sen groups and police instructed those present not to engage in Cambodian political activities.

Meanwhile, officers are checking visitors to Cambodia rigorously, asking them to remove caps and face masks or else they will be denied entry, according to Pol Col Benjapol.

Cambodia has beefed up police and troops at checkpoints along its borders to prevent Sam Rainsy, the acting president of Cambodia's opposition party, and rebels from entering.

In Brussels, Sam Rainsy, also Cambodia's most prominent opposition politician, says he's ready to risk imprisonment or death by returning to his country from self-imposed exile to unseat the country's longtime ruler.

Sam Rainsy, co-founder of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said he hopes his planned return on Saturday will trigger a People Power-style movement to force Prime Minister Hun Sen from office. He said in Brussels, where he was seeking support from European Parliament lawmakers, that he is looking to end what he called Hun Sen's "brutal dictatorship".

Hun Sen's government has accused opposition members of seeking to overthrow him and said they'll be arrested if they try to enter Cambodia.

Sam Rainsy's party was touted as a threat to Hun Sen's party in last year's general but it was dissolved by the courts.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (19)