PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen sent a message saying that that he could not guarantee peace of mind for all people, and even more so for bad people, but what he can guarantee is life without death or injury due to war. He made this statement while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new flyover in Russey Keo district on Monday morning.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said that he considers the statements of some analysts that if there are protests occurring, the country will not be at peace to be unsubstantiated claims. He said there are protesters all over the world and the existence of protestors alone would not be able to properly indicate whether a country is peaceful or not.

"It has been said that peace is not real because there are still people protesting. So in this world, maybe North Korea is the only country that has no protesters. […] In your house, you protest, demand this, demand that, then is there peace in that house? I do not guarantee that you will be afraid of this problem or that problem. Do not commit iniquity, there is no one to do anything to you! Do not worry too much, I can only guarantee that there will be no more wars like in the past."

He said that peace has allowed Cambodia to improve its living standard and allow its citizens to move freely in the country. He continued to directly ask those who have made accusations saying that people have become poor under his leadership to come forward and swear or make an oath to their cause.

He said, "Do you dare to swear? Swear to die? Like this the light won’t strike but Chinese ancestors might strike! Let’s think about this. Those who are cursing us, saying that people are getting poorer and poorer and life is getting harder and harder. In the past, it was harder than that, you walked barefoot, why don’t you say that? By now, you can ride a motorbike and a car, why did you say people have become poorer and poorer?”

It has been 23 years since Cambodia achieved peace and national reconciliation, gained full national unity under a single government, reaped from the success of the Prime Minister’s win-win policy which was formed after experiencing national division which had lasted more than 500 years in the Kingdom’s history. Achieving complete peace has given the Royal Government numerous opportunities to develop the country till date.

Prime Minister Hun Sen often states that he would not allow Cambodia to fall into a state of war as before, and has declared that peace must be maintained at any cost.

^{PHOTO: EAC NEWS}