01-16-2019, 10:56 PM
*** 17-Jan-19 World View -- Cambodia's Hun Sen threatens to kill opposition politicians if EU ends preferences
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Cambodia's Hun Sen threatens to kill opposition politicians if EU ends preferences
****
![[Image: g190116b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g190116b.jpg)
Employees at Cambodian clothes factory whose business is benefiting from EU trade preferences (Reuters)
Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen is threatening to kill opposition
politicians if the European Union revokes its grant of trade
preferences to Cambodia.
The trade preference program, known as Generalized Scheme of
Preferences (GSP), grants to Myanmar the right to export goods to the
EU without paying tariffs. The GSP "Everything But Arms" (EBA) status
allows Cambodia to sell any goods except weapons tariff-free into the
EU.
The EU threat follows elections last year in July, when Hun Sen's
government party won all 125 parliamentary seats up for election. In
order to guarantee his victory, early last year Hun Sen jailed Kem
Sokha, the leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue party
(CNRP), the only viable opposition party, and then ordered the
complete dissolution of the CNRP. That's how Hun Sen's party won all
125 seats.
On Monday, Hun Sen threatened to retaliate against CNRP politicians if
the trade preferences were withdrawn, and that critics should
be prepared to flee to other countries:
<QUOTE>"If you (the EU) want the opposition dead, just cut it
[the EBA]. If you want the opposition alive, don’t do it and come
and hold talks together. People are prepared to flee, be
prepared. I won’t forgive them."<END QUOTE>
At the request of Hun Sen, Cambodia's Supreme Court banned 118 CNRP
party members in 2017, accusing them of working with the United States
to plot a coup. These 118 people are presumably the ones who
would be at risk of retaliation if EU withdraws the trade
preferences.
The EU is also considering withdrawing the same EBA trade preferences
from Myanmar (Burma) for the human rights atrocities associated with
the government's actions, led by Buddhist Monk Ashin Wirathu, of
torture, beatings, rape, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Muslim
Rohingyas in Rakhine State. ( EU considers revoking Myanmar's trade preferences because of Rohingya genocide (05-Jan-2019)
)
Hun Sen regularly threatens violence against political critics. At an
ASEAN summit meeting held a year ago in Sydney, Australia, he and
Myanmar leaders were both met with large groups protesting human
rights violations in both countries. Hun Sen warned protesters,
"I will follow you all the way to your
doorstep and beat you right there ... I can use violence against you."
There have been no reports that he followed up on these threats.
Asia Times and Reuters
****
**** Brief generational history of Cambodia
****
Hun Sen is following the same generational pattern that I've described
in numerous leaders from other countries, such as Bashar al-Assad in
Syria, Paul Biya in Cameroon, Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi, Paul
Kagame in Rwanda, the military junta in Thailand, Yoweri Museveni in
Uganda, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Salva Kiir in South Sudan, Joseph
Kabila in DRC, as well as Hun Sen in Cambodia.
What these countries have in common is that the previous generational
crisis war was a bloody ethnic or tribal civil war. After the war
ends, the leader of the country, usually from the winning tribe or
ethnic group, refuses to give up power, and becomes increasingly
violent and authoritarian, using as an excuse that peaceful protests
or negative news articles can turn into a new civil war. This excuse
provides justification for mass slaughter, rape, torture, mass
jailings, mutilations, and so forth. This happens in country after
country, differing only in level of violence. Bashar al-Assad in
Syria exhibits the most violence, using missiles, barrel bombs, Sarin
gas, chlorine gas, and other atrocities on hospitals, marketplaces,
schools, and civilian neighborhood, resulting in genocide and ethnic
cleansing of his Sunni Arab political enemies. ( "1-Dec-18 World View -- Evidence grows of Assad's 'final solution', extermination of Arab Sunnis in Syria"
)
Cambodian culture dates back to at least 5000 BC. During the period
500 BC to 500 AD, the Khmer people in Cambodia were strongly
influenced by Indian culture, via India traders, bureaucrats and
priests. When Khmer became a written language in about 300 AD, Indian
characters were adapted for its alphabet. Cambodia adopted some
Indian gods, but not the caste system of Hinduism. In the 1200s,
there was a mass conversion of Cambodians to Theravada Buddhism, a
religion that was also adopted by the neighboring Thais. There were
several centuries of wars between the Khmer and the Thais, until the
French arrived in the 1860s.
Cambodia became a French protectorate in 1863. Cambodia gained
independence from France in 1953, and supported the North Vietnamese
against the South Vietnamese and the Americans in America's Vietnam
war. It's easy to underestimate the horror of what happened next,
since in the vitriolic political atmosphere following the Vietnam war,
leftists like Jane Fonda vocally denied it was even going on, saying
"I will never criticize a Communist government."
And yet, the Buddhist society of the China-backed Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia in 1975-79, led by Pol Pot, perpetrated one of the three or
four top mass genocides of the 20th century, comparable to the huge
genocides of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong.
The Buddhist Cambodian "Killing Fields" genocide, 1975-79, killed
something like 1.7 to well over 2 million people, out of a population
of 8 million. So around 20% of Cambodia's population were killed,
making it possibly the worst genocide, on a percentage basis, of the
20th century. By contrast, the Nazi Holocaust killed around 5
million, which was less than 3% of Germany's population. Pol Pot was
trying to imitate Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in China, which was
a genocide that killed tens of millions of people out of some two
billion. Mao Zedong and Pol Pot may be comparable in their genocides.
In all cases, these millions of people were the subject of almost
unimaginable atrocities, including torture and rape.
By January 1979, the Khmer Rouge had so destroyed Cambodia that the
country was too weak to fight off an invasion by Vietnamese forces.
At the time, many Cambodians welcomed the Vietnamese invasion, because
it freed them from the Khmer Rouge. The war between the Vietnamese
and Cambodians was extremely bloody, until the Vietnamese finally
withdrew in 1989.
In 1991, prime minister Hun Sen signed a peace agreement called the
Paris Peace Accords, a document that guaranteed democracy and human
rights in Cambodia. However, like other leaders we've described
following an ethnic or tribal civil war, Hun Sen has become
increasingly authoritative and dictatorial, using as an excuse that
unlimited violence is justified to avoid returning to the violence of
the civil war.
In October 2016, as Hun Sen was brutally cracking down in preparation
for these new elections, he said the following in a speech:
<QUOTE>"Don’t imagine you can hold a meeting like the Paris
Peace conference again because the Paris Peace [Accords] agreement
is like a ghost."<END QUOTE>
He told people to stop "dreaming" and harking back to the ideals of
the agreement, because the Khmer Rouge were gone now, and so the
agreement was useless "unless the Khmer Rouge returns."
Related Articles:
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cambodia, Hun Sen,
Kem Sokha, Cambodia National Rescue party, CNRP,
Australia, European Union,
Generalized Scheme of Preferences, GSP, Everything But Arms, EBA,
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN,
Cambodia People's Party, CPP, Paris Peace Accords,
Pol Pot, Killing fields, Khmer Rouge, Vietnam,
Myanmar, Burma, Rakhine State, Rohingyas,
Buddhists, Rakhines, Ashin Wirathu
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Cambodia's Hun Sen threatens to kill opposition politicians if EU ends preferences
- Brief generational history of Cambodia
****
**** Cambodia's Hun Sen threatens to kill opposition politicians if EU ends preferences
****
Employees at Cambodian clothes factory whose business is benefiting from EU trade preferences (Reuters)
Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen is threatening to kill opposition
politicians if the European Union revokes its grant of trade
preferences to Cambodia.
The trade preference program, known as Generalized Scheme of
Preferences (GSP), grants to Myanmar the right to export goods to the
EU without paying tariffs. The GSP "Everything But Arms" (EBA) status
allows Cambodia to sell any goods except weapons tariff-free into the
EU.
The EU threat follows elections last year in July, when Hun Sen's
government party won all 125 parliamentary seats up for election. In
order to guarantee his victory, early last year Hun Sen jailed Kem
Sokha, the leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue party
(CNRP), the only viable opposition party, and then ordered the
complete dissolution of the CNRP. That's how Hun Sen's party won all
125 seats.
On Monday, Hun Sen threatened to retaliate against CNRP politicians if
the trade preferences were withdrawn, and that critics should
be prepared to flee to other countries:
<QUOTE>"If you (the EU) want the opposition dead, just cut it
[the EBA]. If you want the opposition alive, don’t do it and come
and hold talks together. People are prepared to flee, be
prepared. I won’t forgive them."<END QUOTE>
At the request of Hun Sen, Cambodia's Supreme Court banned 118 CNRP
party members in 2017, accusing them of working with the United States
to plot a coup. These 118 people are presumably the ones who
would be at risk of retaliation if EU withdraws the trade
preferences.
The EU is also considering withdrawing the same EBA trade preferences
from Myanmar (Burma) for the human rights atrocities associated with
the government's actions, led by Buddhist Monk Ashin Wirathu, of
torture, beatings, rape, ethnic cleansing and genocide of Muslim
Rohingyas in Rakhine State. ( EU considers revoking Myanmar's trade preferences because of Rohingya genocide (05-Jan-2019)
)
Hun Sen regularly threatens violence against political critics. At an
ASEAN summit meeting held a year ago in Sydney, Australia, he and
Myanmar leaders were both met with large groups protesting human
rights violations in both countries. Hun Sen warned protesters,
"I will follow you all the way to your
doorstep and beat you right there ... I can use violence against you."
There have been no reports that he followed up on these threats.
Asia Times and Reuters
****
**** Brief generational history of Cambodia
****
Hun Sen is following the same generational pattern that I've described
in numerous leaders from other countries, such as Bashar al-Assad in
Syria, Paul Biya in Cameroon, Pierre Nkurunziza in Burundi, Paul
Kagame in Rwanda, the military junta in Thailand, Yoweri Museveni in
Uganda, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Salva Kiir in South Sudan, Joseph
Kabila in DRC, as well as Hun Sen in Cambodia.
What these countries have in common is that the previous generational
crisis war was a bloody ethnic or tribal civil war. After the war
ends, the leader of the country, usually from the winning tribe or
ethnic group, refuses to give up power, and becomes increasingly
violent and authoritarian, using as an excuse that peaceful protests
or negative news articles can turn into a new civil war. This excuse
provides justification for mass slaughter, rape, torture, mass
jailings, mutilations, and so forth. This happens in country after
country, differing only in level of violence. Bashar al-Assad in
Syria exhibits the most violence, using missiles, barrel bombs, Sarin
gas, chlorine gas, and other atrocities on hospitals, marketplaces,
schools, and civilian neighborhood, resulting in genocide and ethnic
cleansing of his Sunni Arab political enemies. ( "1-Dec-18 World View -- Evidence grows of Assad's 'final solution', extermination of Arab Sunnis in Syria"
)
Cambodian culture dates back to at least 5000 BC. During the period
500 BC to 500 AD, the Khmer people in Cambodia were strongly
influenced by Indian culture, via India traders, bureaucrats and
priests. When Khmer became a written language in about 300 AD, Indian
characters were adapted for its alphabet. Cambodia adopted some
Indian gods, but not the caste system of Hinduism. In the 1200s,
there was a mass conversion of Cambodians to Theravada Buddhism, a
religion that was also adopted by the neighboring Thais. There were
several centuries of wars between the Khmer and the Thais, until the
French arrived in the 1860s.
Cambodia became a French protectorate in 1863. Cambodia gained
independence from France in 1953, and supported the North Vietnamese
against the South Vietnamese and the Americans in America's Vietnam
war. It's easy to underestimate the horror of what happened next,
since in the vitriolic political atmosphere following the Vietnam war,
leftists like Jane Fonda vocally denied it was even going on, saying
"I will never criticize a Communist government."
And yet, the Buddhist society of the China-backed Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia in 1975-79, led by Pol Pot, perpetrated one of the three or
four top mass genocides of the 20th century, comparable to the huge
genocides of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong.
The Buddhist Cambodian "Killing Fields" genocide, 1975-79, killed
something like 1.7 to well over 2 million people, out of a population
of 8 million. So around 20% of Cambodia's population were killed,
making it possibly the worst genocide, on a percentage basis, of the
20th century. By contrast, the Nazi Holocaust killed around 5
million, which was less than 3% of Germany's population. Pol Pot was
trying to imitate Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in China, which was
a genocide that killed tens of millions of people out of some two
billion. Mao Zedong and Pol Pot may be comparable in their genocides.
In all cases, these millions of people were the subject of almost
unimaginable atrocities, including torture and rape.
By January 1979, the Khmer Rouge had so destroyed Cambodia that the
country was too weak to fight off an invasion by Vietnamese forces.
At the time, many Cambodians welcomed the Vietnamese invasion, because
it freed them from the Khmer Rouge. The war between the Vietnamese
and Cambodians was extremely bloody, until the Vietnamese finally
withdrew in 1989.
In 1991, prime minister Hun Sen signed a peace agreement called the
Paris Peace Accords, a document that guaranteed democracy and human
rights in Cambodia. However, like other leaders we've described
following an ethnic or tribal civil war, Hun Sen has become
increasingly authoritative and dictatorial, using as an excuse that
unlimited violence is justified to avoid returning to the violence of
the civil war.
In October 2016, as Hun Sen was brutally cracking down in preparation
for these new elections, he said the following in a speech:
<QUOTE>"Don’t imagine you can hold a meeting like the Paris
Peace conference again because the Paris Peace [Accords] agreement
is like a ghost."<END QUOTE>
He told people to stop "dreaming" and harking back to the ideals of
the agreement, because the Khmer Rouge were gone now, and so the
agreement was useless "unless the Khmer Rouge returns."
Related Articles:
- Cambodia denies major China-funded seaport project is a military base (16-Dec-2018)
- EU considers revoking Myanmar's (Burma's )trade preferences because of Rohingya genocide (05-Jan-2019)
- Cambodia's Hun Sen threatens violence at protesters at ASEAN meeting (18-Mar-2018)
- Cambodia dissolves the opposition political party so that Hun Sen can be reelected unopposed (17-Nov-2017)
- Burma's (Myanmar's) leaders may be inspired by Pol Pot's Cambodian 'Killing Fields' genocide (29-Sep-2017)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cambodia, Hun Sen,
Kem Sokha, Cambodia National Rescue party, CNRP,
Australia, European Union,
Generalized Scheme of Preferences, GSP, Everything But Arms, EBA,
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN,
Cambodia People's Party, CPP, Paris Peace Accords,
Pol Pot, Killing fields, Khmer Rouge, Vietnam,
Myanmar, Burma, Rakhine State, Rohingyas,
Buddhists, Rakhines, Ashin Wirathu
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
