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Hun Sen Blasts Spokesman for Claiming Sok An Jobs Going to Deputy PM


Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, right, sprays perfume together with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An during a ground breaking ceremony for the site where a statue of Cambodia's late King Norodom Sihanouk will be built, in front of Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, right, sprays perfume together with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An during a ground breaking ceremony for the site where a statue of Cambodia's late King Norodom Sihanouk will be built, in front of Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013.

Following Sok An’s death, Phay Siphan was reported as telling the Cambodia Daily that all of his positions would be granted to Bin Chhin.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday blamed the government’s top spokesman, Phay Siphan, for claiming that ten official posts held by the late deputy prime minister, Sok An, would be handed over to one man, Bin Chhin, the acting head of the premier’s cabinet.

A close aide to Hun Sen, An died earlier in March at a hospital in Beijing at the age of 66. Following An’s death, Siphan was reported as telling the Cambodia Daily that all of his positions would be granted to Chhin.

Hun Sen said on Wednesday morning that the information was erroneous.

“I do not know where His Excellency Phay Siphan got this information. The spokesman should not be famous. The boss is right here,” he said.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan in VOA studio, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for Hello VOA program.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan in VOA studio, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for Hello VOA program.

He added that Chhin would assume An’s role overseeing the Khmer Rouge tribunal, but other roles, such as his leadership of the Apsara Authority, the body that governs the Angkor Archaeological Park, would come under the remit of other government institutions.

Siphan told VOA Khmer he thought his comments had been “misunderstood” by the Daily reporter and were not quoted verbatim.

“We hear his advice ... this is [Hun Sen’s] instruction, not only for me, but also for journalists, and they should not act like the judge and play a bad role,” he said.

He declined to comment when asked if he had told the Daily that An’s former official positions would be handed to Chhin.

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