Two prime ministerial bodyguards who moonlight as social media pundits are being discharged over their broadcasts, one for drunken antics in a bid to boost viewership and the other for criticizing Phnom Tamao deforestation.
Hundreds of personnel from the elite Bodyguard Unit have garrisoned the northeast corner of Phnom Tamao forest, which was stripped clean in 10 days, with soldiers now leading reforestation efforts ordered by the prime minister.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has promoted 25 people to be his official assistants, including a bodyguard who has received land on Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake and another who was nearly scammed online by a 14-year-old.
The government has allocated three plots totaling nearly 100 hectares in Kampot, Kandal and Preah Sihanouk provinces separately to the prime ministerial bodyguard unit, a businesswoman and 22 families, according to sub-decrees released this week.
Military police arrested a former general in the prime minister’s bodyguard unit and nine others who clashed with an investment company over land in a dispute-ridden area of Preah Sihanouk province, local officials said.
A soldier who was removed from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit over his involvement in a land dispute has this month been made an adviser to Interior Minister Sar Kheng, according to government letters and court documents.
Hun Manet presided over a military ceremony in lieu of Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday, making a speech in front of government ministers and high-ranking officials in what one analyst said was a display of his intention to eventually succeed his father.
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