His father had stayed overnight in the largely empty house but was not present when the grenades were thrown against the house. Hun Sen needed to clamp down on the demonstrations. A travel ban was placed on all opposition MPs and senior party officials. The violence that ensued, particularly against Buddhist monks shocked Cambodia but there was no haste from the international community to condemn it. The European Union, Japan and the United States kept silent.
Observers believe that the international community is tired of Cambodia's never-ending problems.
If such is the case, those countries that signed the Paris Agreements on Cambodia should not have done so in the first place. By endorsing the Paris Agreements they acquired a certain responsibility, together with Cam-bodia's leaders, to protect the rights of the Cambodian people. If the Cam-bodian leaders are unwilling to do so, and return to the practices of the past, the international community is compelled to act to protect the people of Cambodia, who continue to suffer through no fault of their own. Thailand, to its credit, is the only country that has shown the courage in recent days to try to help the Cambodian people by making a number of suggestions to the CPP-controlled Cambodian government. After giving certain assurances to the Thai Deputy Foreign Minister, particularly as far as the lifting of the travel ban for opposition parliamentarians is concerned, the government went back on the assurances and only allowed Prince Ranariddh to leave the country.