Hun Sen Demands Sok Yoeun Back

Cambodia says Thais should extradite plot suspect.
22 December 1999
Reuters News

PHNOM PENH, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Cambodian premier Hun Sen said on Wednesday an opposition party activist accused of involvement in an alleged plot to kill him should be sent back from Thailand where he has sought United Nations protection.
Hun Sen said Cambodia and Thailand have an extradition treaty and anyone who protected Sok Yoeun, an activist from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, would be branded a "terrorist".

Sok Yoeun recently fled to Thailand after police named him in connection with the case. Hun Sen said the man was being looked after by the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but that he should not be considered a political refugee.

"We have an extradition treaty...and there's no reason for Thailand and the UNHCR to consider that person a political refugee," Hun Sen told reporters when asked if his government would seek the man's return.

"Anyone who protects Sok Yoeun will be known as a terrorist or a member of an international terrorist network," he added, saying Phnom Penh would raise the issue with the U.N. secretary general.

A UNHCR official in Bangkok declined to comment, saying the organisation could not discuss individual cases.

Sok Yoeun has been accused of involvement in a rocket attack in September last year on a convoy of cars carrying political leaders, including Hun Sen.

A rocket-propelled grenade exploded beside a road as leaders of the country's three main parties were travelling to the swearing in of parliament in the northern town of Siem Reap.

One bystander was killed in the attack, which the government said was an attempt on Hun Sen's life. Some opposition politicians said at the time they believed the attack was staged by Hun Sen supporters to justify a crackdown but authorities dismissed that speculation.

Two other Sam Rainsy Party activists were arrested in September in connection with the rocket attack and accused of plotting to kill Hun Sen.

Former finance minister Sam Rainsy has denied that he or any members of his party were involved in any plot to kill Hun Sen and the accusations were an attempt to discredit his party.

"(Sok Yoeun) was accused, groundlessly, of being involved in the so-called rocket attack in Siem Reap," Sam Rainsy told reporters on Wednesday. "This is ridiculous."

"He was going to be arrested and he escaped. It's unfair to the man and dangerous to the party because Hun Sen wants to discredit the Sam Rainsy Party."