Thread by @RainsySam

1/13 The dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) by Hun Sen three years ago plunged Cambodia into an unprecedented crisis.

2/ The CNRP saw its 55 National Assembly deputies and 5,007 municipal councillors, including nearly 500 mayors, stripped of their functions. These were redistributed and, in some cases, resold to supporters of Hun Sen.

3/ The CNRP’s level of support in the 2013 national parliamentary elections may have been enough for it to gain power in the absence of the large-scale fraud which marred the exercise.

4/ In the name of the Khmer people, the great majority of whom support the CNRP, and in the name of all democrats, I proclaim that we do not recognise the dissolution of the CNRP and that the current regime of Hun Sen is illegitimate.

5/ The only way out of the current crisis is the reestablishment of the CNRP with its full rights as a political party, the return of its elected representatives to their functions and the repayment of the salaries of which they have been deprived for three years.

6/ The pretext for the dissolution of the CNRP was so-called collusion between Mr Kem Sokha and the US. We hope that the new US administration of President Joe Biden will help to ensure that these false accusations, which weigh on the US as well as on Kem Sokha, are abandoned.

7/ That will open the door to the reestablishment of the CNRP, the reintegration of those who have been elected into their functions and, at the right moment, the organisation of free and credible elections.

8/ The CNRP is dissolved on paper but no-one can dissolve the will of the Cambodian people. I would like to express my admiration for all the members of the CNRP and their local leaders who have kept their organisations intact.

9/ Their determination to fight for the national interest has led them to brave Hun Sen’s threats and injustices.

10/ The overwhelming majority of the members of the permanent committee and myself, as interim party leader, will never submit to the diktats of Hun Sen.

11/ We will continue to support our compatriots in their claims for liberty, justice and democracy.

12/ At the same time, we will continue to work with the international community to mobilise democratic support for our country.

13/13 The world is changing fast, and in ASEAN in particular. Those changes, sooner or later, will in turn favour democratic change in #Cambodia. #SamRainsy

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