Khmer Rouge slams Hun Sen after press closures

Khmer Rouge Voice of the National United Army radio has broadcast a denunciation of the Cambodian government's decision to suspend six pro-opposition newspapers for 30 days pending a legal inquiry into alleged defamation of government leaders.

The radio singled out Cambodian co-Premier Hun Sen for particular criticism.

"The puppet Hun Sen's fascist regime reportedly ordered the closure of six more newspapers in Phnom Penh on 8th January," the radio said, in a broadcast monitored at 2330 gmt on 9th January.

"People from all walks of life in Phnom Penh said the muzzling of the newspapers by the Communist Vietnamese is to warn others against publishing reports on their disintegration on the O Smach and Samlot-Koh Kong battlefields.

Reports on the defeats suffered by Communist Vietnam and its puppets on the battlegrounds are being widely circulated," the radio said.

"The Communist Vietnamese and the puppet Hun Sen are terrified because they are afraid the people who are the parents or relatives of the soldiers they sent to fight and die on these battlefields may rise up and attack to destroy their leaders.

This is the reason why they ordered the newspapers to close." "Nevertheless, the closure means that they have more strangled themselves to death.

Why? Because stronger pressure will be brought to bear on them for their being fascist, authoritarian, and undemocratic and disrespectful of human rights." "As for news about their progressive disintegration on the battlefields, the masses will continue to receive news and talk about it.

Should the news be banned from being published in newspapers, the masses will disseminate it through leaflets.

In particular, they will spread them through conversation, which are more effective than newspapers," the radio stated.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.