Prime Minister Hun Sen repeatedly noted in a speech on Tuesday that he had told Foreign Affairs and protest groups that they shouldn’t bother the U.S. Embassy about a shoe thrown at him while visiting Washington.
But he also repeatedly pointed out that there had been no action by U.S. authorities or statements of condemnation about the attempted violence.
“I had given an absolute instruction” to his security detail to not retaliate in the event of an incident like the shoe throw, Hun Sen said. Those instructions were extended to supporters who wanted to protest at the U.S. Embassy over lack of action, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry which could have sent a diplomatic note to ask for legal action, he said. “I ask our brothers and sisters to tolerate it.”
The prime minister visited the U.S. last week for an Asean summit, and had a shoe thrown at him on a street, though the projectile missed him. The man who threw the shoe has not been arrested.
“Now this person they consider a hero,” Hun Sen said of the shoe thrower. He wanted to know if the U.S. considered shoe-throwing as legitimate expression.
“This is not a small deal. Please, the U.S. think thoroughly if it considers the violent action of attacking with a shoe as the right to expression,” he said. “I also want to know: Some organizations that always oppose violence with their statements — they are very quiet.”
