Health problems prevented Prime Minister Hun Sen from attending a celebration for the founding of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party on Monday, officials said.
Some 10,000 members gathered to mark 59 years since the party was founded. Hun Sen, he party’s vice chairman, missed a meeting with a UN rights envoy earlier this month due to complaints of pain above his left eye, which he lost during fighting in the 1970s.
Party officials used Monday’s celebration to reaffirm their support for him as prime minster and his policies.
“The Cambodian People’s Party earnestly supports the royal government’s policies and measures in continuing to fight against corruption, forestry and fisheries offenses, putting a stop to anarchic grabbing of state land, while maintaining sustainable environment and natural resources exploration with conscience and responsibility,” CPP Chairman Chea Sim said in a statement.
Chea Sim applauded border demarcation that has come under criticism by the opposition party for reportedly ceding land to Vietnam.
“We condemn resolutely circles that campaign distorted facts against the royal government’s efforts, while placing hindrance and destroying the process which are tantamount to heinous crimes against the national interest,” he said.
He praised the work of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and said the party disapproved of “attempts to use the court for ill-intent purpose that would have impacts on peace, stability and national reconciliation that the Cambodian people have attained with greatest difficulties.”