PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - U.S. embassy officials in Cambodia can leave if they do not like it there, a Cambodian government spokesman said on Thursday, following criticism by U.S. diplomats that the Southeast Asian nation’s 2018 election was deeply flawed.

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CCP) won all 125 parliamentary seats in the election last year that rights groups said was neither free nor fair following the dissolution of the main opposition party.

 

In a Facebook post on Tuesday marking a year since the vote, the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, said the election had “failed to represent the will of the Cambodian people”.

 

U.S. officials should not make such “barbaric comments”, government spokesman Phay Siphan said in response.

“Although we are friends, if these officials don’t like Cambodia, they should pack up and leave. Let me be clear: We don’t welcome you,” Siphan told a regular news conference on Thursday.

 

Siphan said he was referring to a Twitter posting last month by U.S. President Donald Trump telling four ethnic minority Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to the “the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.

 

“We have the same right to speak as President Donald Trump. It’s simple. If you don’t like it here, leave,” Siphan said.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy declined to comment.

 

Tuesday’s Facebook post said the 2018 election excluded the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was dissolved by the supreme court in 2017.

 

It also banned 118 of the CNRP’s elected officials from politics for five years.

The party’s leader, Kem Sokha, was released from prison in 2018 after spending more than a year in jail on treason charges.

He has been under house arrest in Phnom Penh since last September following a government-led crackdown against its critics.

 

Cambodia has for years faced criticism for human rights violations and has increasingly turned toward its main ally, China, for diplomatic and financial support.

 

Its military ties with China have drawn increased scrutiny after concerns expressed by the United States and a media report, denied by Hun Sen, of a secret deal to allow Chinese forces to use a naval base in the country.

 

Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by James Pearson

 

-- REUTERS

“We have the same right to speak as President Donald Trump. It’s simple. If you don’t like it here, leave,” Siphan said.

 

Same in many other countries!!!

Western counties should immediately cancel all foreign aid to Cambodia.

Trump is a bad example, it gives others in the world with much worse intentions an excuse.

6 minutes ago, NightSky said:

Trump is a bad example, it gives others in the world with much worse intentions an excuse.

The goal of the Trump administration, stacked as it is with acknowledged veteran warmongers like Bolton and Pompeo, is war with Iran and Venezuela while continuing to support murder of innocent chidden in Yemen. Cambodia's intentions are clearly much more honourable than those of the US, and involve killing nobody outside their own country. War is the ultimate evil. Why people support war as the solution to every internal crisis, I will never know....I suppose when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like it could do with a nail bashed into it. 

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

The goal of the Trump administration, stacked as it is with acknowledged veteran warmongers like Bolton and Pompeo, is war with Iran and Venezuela while continuing to support murder of innocent chidden in Yemen. Cambodia's intentions are clearly much more honourable than those of the US, and involve killing nobody outside their own country. War is the ultimate evil. Why people support war as the solution to every internal crisis, I will never know....I suppose when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like it could do with a nail bashed into it. 

Are you high on drugs?

Go trump go!   I’m sure Cambodia is not the top destination for embassy workers.   Just don’t trade with Cambodia, see if China will buy everything- Europe and the USA buy 60-70 percent of all exports.  China would happily buy Cambodia for pennies on the dollar

And that is what happens when China buys out the country and the government 

6 hours ago, 4737 Carlin said:

Western counties should immediately cancel all foreign aid to Cambodia.

But not.... just because H.Sen shoved his fingers up at the US and quite rightly so.

 

If that is what you were suggesting.....

 

However, turning to the Cambodian dictator's  human rights record and suchlike, despite 'free' elections, the world should shun and turn the screws on him.

 

 

18 hours ago, 4737 Carlin said:

Western counties should immediately cancel all foreign aid to Cambodia.

Sounds a great idea but all Hun Sen would do is turn to his allies, the Chinese, who would pour in all the aid Cambodia needed.

19 hours ago, howbri said:

Are you high on drugs?

He makes sense to me.

Now if you want to shine a light on not free and fair elections where would you start I wonder luck would have it everything above board here so I read????

Look guys, I have this all figured out.

 

It's all about penis size.

 

The chinese are a little bit lacking, so they are trying to show their superiority by other means, like taking over other countries and perhaps the world.

 

The states are not much bigger, so they are trying to over-compensate by destroying countries and taking over their wealth.

 

You don't the africans doing this, right?  Coz they are pretty content with their size, and have no need to take over other countries or dominate elsewhere.....

 

????

yes, you welcome China and the corruption.

Sure US doesnt hand money under the table like Chinese so they can pack up and leave.

Also, China will just close their eyes for human rights abuses, corruption and more done by Cambodian officials too.

hence they favor chinese.

And dont want US or Europeans.

Soon, only Chinese will visit Cambodia.

altho we are friends we dont welcome you. aww shucks. snowflakes every way you turn