As the rhetoric by Cambodian-Americans opposed to Hun Manet’s current visit to the United States heats up, the premier’s eldest son played it cool over the weekend, telling Khmer media in America that he respects the group’s right to demonstrate.

Manet’s plans for a week-long visit to the US, where he arrived on Saturday, sparked outrage among some Cambodian-American communities there.

Manet, currently in California, was forced to pull out of a Khmer New Year parade in Long Beach. The Lowell city council in Massachusetts has also denounced his visit, after a backlash from some of its Khmer residents.

A coalition of anti-government groups has turned their attention to Washington state, and plan to hold rallies today and on Tuesday to coincide with Manet’s visit.

Fervently anti-Hun Sen, whom they accuse of being a dictator responsible for human rights abuses, they have developed a list of 119 slogans, extending such accusations to Manet.

But speaking to Voice of America on Saturday, Manet said he wasn’t upset. “If they [protest] in a way that is allowed by the law . . . it is their right; I’m not angry about that,” he said.