Cambodia opposition leader, under threat of arrest, says PM is scared
After a month living in an office at his party's headquarters to avoid arrest, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha remains defiant and said Prime Minister Hun Sen is scared of losing the 2018 election.
Kem Sokha called for "national reconciliation" talks to end a crisis that both he and the self-styled strongman, Hun Sen, have warned could nudge the Southeast Asian nation into political conflict.
Tension has risen as Sokha and other opposition members face legal charges they say are trumped up by a judiciary in thrall to Hun Sen. Sokha claims the prime minister has been intimidating the opposition in an attempt to avoid a rerun of a 2013 election that nearly cost him the premiership. "What he is scared of most is defeat in the election," Sokha told Reuters in his first interview since he holed up at the party headquarters on May 26. "His strategy is to remove the opposition party leadership, so now he is targeting me."
