Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday lauded his own government’s efforts of bringing “peace” to Cambodia without “foreign interference” while calling out the US for destabilising the Middle East, where he said American policy had given rise to destructive “colour revolutions”.
The premier made the comments at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh yesterday while announcing the winners of a youth role model competition.
While acknowledging the UN had spent $2 billion in Cambodia following the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements to organise elections, Hun Sen said the country was still at war at the time and it was his “win-win” policy – which integrated Khmer Rouge soldiers into RCAF – that had “finished” the conflict.
Praising the Kingdom’s subsequent development, he highlighted the fate of the Middle East, where he said US interference had been a destabilising force.
“Please look at the Middle East after there was inteference by foreigners to create colour revolutions such as in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq, where Sadam Hussein was toppled by the US,” the premier said.
“Have those countries received any achievement under the terms of democracy and human rights? From day to day, thousands of people have been killed. This is the result of doing wrong politics, and America is wrong.”
Hun Sen also noted the current Republican presidential candidate shared his critical view of US policy in Iraq, which had allowed the terrorist group ISIS a foothold in the region.
“Even Donald Trump, who is the presidential candidate for the Republican Party, also claimed that [the US] is wrong,” he said.
The US Embassy yesterday declined to comment.
