The Prime Minister today marks three decades in government making him one of the longest serving leaders in the world. He defends his actions, saying that he restored peace and unity. For critics his rule is characterized by corruption, extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests. HRW: Cambodia is a "one-party" nation.

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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