Kem Sokha denies meeting with Ranariddh in France

**AlexKim** · 12-26-2007, 04:48 AM

Wednesday, 26th December 2007

Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Kem Sokha, HRP president, who just arrived from France on 25 December, denied that he met with Prince Norodom Ranariddh while he was in France.

Kem Sokha�s denial came after a number of local newspapers reported, a few days ago, that opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha traveled to France to meet with Prince Ranariddh, with the aim of uniting the royalists and the democrats based on the call issued by the prince. Sam Rainsy also rejected, at the end of last week, that he did not meet with the prince during his tour in Europe.

Kem Sokha, who was visiting France for one week, told the Kampuchea Thmei newspaper that he did not meet Prince Ranariddh in France, not even over the phone. He said that his trip to France was not to meet the prince, he visited France to participate in his party congress in Europe.

Besides meeting with his party members, Kem Sokha said that he met with French parliamentarians to discuss about the upcoming 2008 election in Cambodia. He told the Kampuchea Thmei, that during the meeting, he asked French MPs and EU MPs to conduct election observation in Cambodia, in order to provide transparency in the election under the democracy initiative.

Kem Sokha indicated that his travel would not be important, if he were to travel there to meet with the prince. Regarding the question as to whether the HRP will unite with the NRP or not, Kem Sokha told Kampuchea Thmei that the forming of an alliance is easy, but the main point is whether these individuals can serve the nation and the people or not.

Kem Sokha added that he used to know the prince very well. The prince kept on talking about uniting the royalists, and the democrats, and that he never commit any errors in the past, but how can one trust the prince, if his own party has problems starting from now already? Furthermore, the prince�s party also bears the prince�s name (and this is not an acceptable condition for the HRP).

[MEMBERS ONLY - REGISTER NOW...]