Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday made an outspoken public appeal for one of his nephews to mend his ways and return to his family.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands gathered at the University of Phnom Penh for the ground-breaking ceremony of a municipal overpass, Hun Sen said he had sent National Police chief Neth Savoeun to look for Hun Chea, who the Premier accused of cheating on his wife and being involved with drugs.

“According to the investigation, now [Hun Chea] is staying in a hotel with a woman, and there is a group of drug [users] involved with him,” Hun Sen said.

“[I] will not tolerate involvement in [drugs] ... there must be law enforcement, it doesn’t matter if he is the nephew of the Prime Minister.”

Hun Sen said that Neth Savoeun, an elder cousin of Hun Chea’s, had been charged with locating and bringing the premier’s nephew home to his wife and children. The premier also appealed to the general public for help, and asked Hun Chea himself to consider the welfare of his family.

“Everybody and every hotel, if you see Hun Chea do not accept him, and tell him that the Prime Minister asked him to go home,” Hun Sen said.

“Today, with a loudspeaker, I would like to appeal to my nephew Hun Chea to return home. If you hear my appeal, please return home. Your parents and parents-in-law have been sick at home, and your wife and children are waiting at home.”

Hun Sen said he planned to call “a meeting of the Hun family”, noting that some other relatives of his might be in need of some “reeducation”.

“Only my children accepted reeducation; my nephew has never accepted reeducation,” he said. He added that another nephew, Hun To, “used to be the same as Hun Chea”, but was now “a good character with his wife and children”.

PM blasts World Bank

During his hour-long speech, Hun Sen also criticised the World Bank, which he said had failed to complete construction on a library that it began building four years ago on the University of Phnom Penh campus.

Hun Sen noted that the building was “just a few hundred square metres” and compared it to the new Council of Ministers building, which he said covered more than 50,000 square metres and was completed 18 months after a Khmer company began construction.

“[We] have to realise that’s how the foreigners build for us, and that’s how we build by ourselves,” Hun Sen said.

“There is no doubt that when the foreign consultants still make money from the project, the library building is still not completed.”

Bou Saroeun, a press officer at the World Bank, said the organisation had allocated US$1.8 million to building the library, and that delays had been caused by “technical problems”. He said construction was now expected to be completed by May next year.

The sky bridge

Hun Sen said yesterday that the capital’s second flyover, which is to be built over Russian Federation Boulevard, would be completed in about 13 months with a budget of $8.7 million.

At 345 metres long and 15.2 metres wide, the planned bridge will be larger than the capital’s first flyover, the Kbal Thnal Sky Bridge.

As construction began on the bridge yesterday, Hun Sen announced plans for a third flyover to be built near Stung Meanchey bridge in Meanchey district.

He said the bridges were designed to ease traffic congestion, which has been increasing with the city’s growing population.

“The traffic ... is becoming a concerning issue but we will be able to resolve it by building the Sky Bridge,” he said.