More than 20,000 Cambodians from all walks of life gathered outside the Koh Pich theatre on Tuesday morning to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the 7 January victory over the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (7 January 1979 - 7 January 2025).
Addressing the participants, Samdech Techo Hun Sen briefly recalled the historical facts of almost three decades of civil war and certain aspects of Cambodia's struggle for victory on 7 January and total peace at the end of 1998. According to Hun Sen, after this historic victory:
“Cambodia has successfully risen to the challenge and developed the nation to this day, with unity, political stability, democracy, rule of law and development.”
Hun Sen added that the CPP was a symbol of change and Cambodia's challenges against poverty, that the country had moved from a lower-middle income economy to an upper-middle income country by 2030 and would become a high-income nation by 2050.
During the event, Hun Sen called for the establishment of a law against anyone attempting to overthrow the legitimate government.
“With this in mind, I believe it is time to establish a law that will define as terrorist any person or group that plans or conspires to create an extremist movement, cause chaos and insecurity in society, provoke conflict with other states and attempt to overthrow the legitimate government, and that person or group must be brought to justice,” he said.
He stressed that the country had to understand that peace could not last long without national reconciliation, justice and sustainable, inclusive development. At the same time, the President of the Senate also called on the relevant institutions to ensure that the law against non-recognition of crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea is implemented ‘in the strictest possible way’.
The Senate President pointed out that for Cambodia, even though peace has remained total for 26 years, it is still an ongoing problem in the daily lives of the people, as ‘there are still a small number of extremists who are constantly trying to sow extremist sentimental politics in our society in order to incite, instigate and inspire the people, armed forces and officials to work against the legitimate government, which is a real threat to peace’. ‘
“The Kingdom of Cambodia is currently striving to progress along the path of peace, democracy, rule of law and development to build its future and become a civilised country like other countries in the world, without the recurrence of war and genocide,” he stressed.
With AKP
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