‘Destroy all US weapons’

Leader Hun Sen ordered the country’s military to destroy any US weaponry or dump it in warehouses, after Washington imposed an arms embargo over human rights concerns.

The US on Wednesday imposed an arms embargo on Cambodia, citing concerns about human rights and corruption in the South-East Asian nation.

The actions taken by the US State and Commerce departments aimed to restrict access to “defence articles and defence services” by Cambodia’s military and intelligence agencies, according to a statement.

But Hun Sen downplayed the quality of US weapons and equipment on Friday.

“I order all army units to immediately review arms and military items that Cambodia currently has.

“(We) must recall all US arms and military items if there are any – put them in warehouses or destroy them accordingly,” he said in a Facebook post.

“(The US arms embargo) is a warning message to the next generation of Cambodians who lead the government that if they want an independent defence sector, please don’t use US weapons.”

Mocking US arms, Hun Sen quipped that groups resorting to using US weapons tend to lose wars, pointing to the Lon Nol regime in the early 1970s, which imported and used weapons from the US.

Their imports only brought debt to the kingdom, which continues to this day, he said.

“Even recently, the losers of the war in Afghanistan had used US weapons. I have trust in our troops’ courage, their spirit and will to fight on the battlefront to protect territorial sovereignty, rather than on weapons alone,” the prime minister said. — Agencies