Hundreds of protesters urge Long Beach council to denounce visit from Cambodian leader

More than 200 protesters Tuesday descended on City Hall to denounce the scheduled visit by a son of the Cambodian prime minister who also was a former Khmer Rouge commander.

Hun Manet, a lieutenant general in the Cambodian military and the eldest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, is plaing to attend the April 10 Cambodian New Year Parade, and his impending visit has stirred outrage in the city’s Cambodian community, with many calling on Long Beach leaders to step in and urge that the man they say wants to take over a dictatorship be dis-invited.

<URL destination="http://player.tout.com/dailynews/bv7hka">• VIDEO: Protesters gathered at Long Beach City Hall to speak out

</URL>Several of the Long Beach council members said after more than an hour of public comment from the Cambodian community that they would not attend the event.

“I’m letting you know, as I sit here today . . . I will not be a part, or participate in a parade of that matter,” Councilman Dee Andrews said Tuesday night to applause from the audience.

Among those protesting during the City Council meeting on Tuesday was Saley Son, 43, of Long Beach, who said she lost both her parents, as well as siblings, under the Khmer Rouge, a Communist regime that killed nearly 2 million people in the 1970s.

“We want freedom,” Son said. “In the United States, we are free people. I ran out of the country because of the war. I lost my parents because of the war.”

Long Beach is home to the largest Cambodian population outside of the Southeast Asian nation. Thousands immigrated here in the mid-1970s during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Manet is the eldest son of Sen, the Cambodian prime minister who has been in power for 31 years and is seen by many as a corrupt dictator, with the organization Human Rights Watch calling the leader a man who rules by through “politically motivated violence.”

Some in the Cambodian community say Manet is simply using the Cambodian community here for photo opportunities to curry political favor in the motherland.

Among them is Peng Long, 51, of Long Beach, who pointed to several protesters wearing sunglasses and other face coverings, saying they fear the Cambodian govement recognizing them.

“We are not welcoming him to participate in our event,” Long said. “That’s our big conce, that for him to come here, he’s trying to get more support. For Cambodians, this (Long Beach) is their lifeline.”

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The office of the Long Beach-based Consulate General of Cambodia contacted the Cambodian Coordinating Council — which organizes the New Year Parade — to ask if Manet could march in the parade with a group of Cambodian govement representatives.

Monorom Neth, president of the council, earlier told the Press-Telegram that Manet’s participation symbolizes the embracing of Cambodian-U.S. relations and cultural exchange in an apolitical way, adding that Manet, who may be joined by influential Cambodian businessman Kit Meng, would not be walking in a military uniform.

In addition to calling on the coordinating council to dis-invite Manet, protest groups have already contacted City Hall and the Mayor’s Office, asking officials to denounce Manet’s scheduled visit.

Kalmine Ly, chairman of the nonprofit Cambodian Veterans group, wrote a letter to Mayor Robert Garcia last week, expressing fear over Cambodia Town becoming a “Cambodian battlefield.”

Ly told the City Council on Tuesday the Cambodian community here is frustrated, and those who attended were coming to “you as a Mayor and a City Council, as police, to reconsider what you can do to make our New Year’s happy, not broken.”

In a March 10 email to Veasna Roeun, vice president of the North Carolina-based Cambodia-America Alliance, Daniel Brezenoff, deputy chief of staff for Garcia, made clear that the mayor and City Council do not have the power to prevent Manet and Meng from visiting the city because it is a private event.

Garcia Tuesday night said he supports the local Cambodian community – he will not attend the parade, either – and called on the protesters to demonstrate peacefully should Manet attend.

Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal said she saw the tears of many in the audience.

“None of us is going to this parade,” Lowenthal said.