KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it had barred veteran Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy from a flight from Kuala Lumpur to the Indonesian capital Jakarta on the instruction of Indonesian authorities.

 

Rainsy later said on Twitter that he had missed his flight and would try to get another Malaysia Airlines flight to Jakarta on Thursday.

Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile in France, has been in Malaysia since the weekend after initially saying he planned to return home on Saturday to rally opposition to Cambodian authoritarian ruler Hun Sen.

 

“Malaysia Airlines denied boarding of the said passenger under the instruction of the Indonesian authorities,” Malaysia Airlines said in a statement in response to a Reuters question as to whether Rainsy had been stopped from boarding.

 

Asked about the Malaysia Airlines statement, Sam Fernando, the Indonesian Immigration Directorate General spokesperson, said that “from the Immigration’s side, there has not been a request to deny his entry here”.

Denny Abdi, director of the Southeast Asia division of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said: “We are not aware of him coming to Jakarta.”

 

Rainsy had said he planned to return to Cambodia on Saturday, Independence Day, in what Prime Minister Hun Sen characterised as an attempted coup against his rule of more than three decades.

 

But Rainsy was blocked in Paris from boarding a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok on Thursday. He then flew to Malaysia, saying he wanted to rally support for the Cambodian opposition in the region.

 

Reporting by Liz Lee in Kuala Lumpur and Tom Allard and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Toby Chopra

 

-- REUTERS

So much for non interference in ASEANs members domestic matters.

Birds of a feather,,,,,,,, when it suits them.

 

55 minutes ago, natway09 said:

So much for non interference in ASEANs members domestic matters.

Birds of a feather,,,,,,,, when it suits them.

 

Agreed,

 

But he has done no more than grandstanding to try to say, I tried but they wouldn't let me fly there. A bit of a silly thing to do in my view.

 

He knew he was going to get rejected and made his plans and travel schedule wide open to anybody that wanted it, especially the press.

 

If he had seriously wanted to go to Cambodia , he could have flown to Japan or South Korea and from there on to Cambodia.

 

Also, there is no way he would have entered Cambodia with Hun Sen holding an iron grip on the country backed by his cronies throughout government, the courts and the military.

 

No level headed person would have gone back to know for certain they would have been arrested o the spot by the despot and thrown in jail. There, he would have had no voice and the outside world, apart from the odd meeting on the sidelines of the UN, would forget about him.

The Malaysian government fully supports the Cambodian style democracy. ???? 

8 minutes ago, mickey rat said:

The Malaysian government fully supports the Cambodian style democracy. ???? 

yes ,but, in this particular case it wasn't a Malaysian Directive! 

 

“Malaysia Airlines denied boarding of the said passenger under the instruction of the Indonesian authorities,”