THE LAST WORD: SAM RAINSY

In 1994, Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was fired as Finance minister and then stripped of his seat in the National Assembly for accusing then Prime Ministers Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh of corruption. He won back his parliamentary seat in 1998, but two weeks ago the Assembly removed his parliamentary immunity, along with that of his colleagues Cheam Channy and Chea Poch. Ranariddh is Assembly president, and Hun Sen, now the sole prime minister, is the most powerful figure in the Cambodian government. Rainsy fled the country, as did Poch, but Channy was arrested and charged with rallying an armed militia to overthrow the government. Poch and Rainsy have reportedly been accused of defaming Ranariddh. He claims he simply repeated previously published allegations that the prince received a $30 million bribe to join a coalition with Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party. (The prince has filed a libel suit against Rainsy.) NEWSWEEK's Eric Pape spoke to Rainsy by phone last week. Excerpts:

PAPE: Is this the beginning of a larger crackdown in Cambodia?

RAINSY: There has been a totalitarian drift. It is just the latest in a series of events. There have also been assassinations of two top union leaders and our party's activists, a ban on street protests, the exclusion of our party from all parliamentary committees, and now the arrest of one of our parliamentarians.

What happened in the Assembly on Feb. 3?

They unexpectedly added the lifting of our immunity to the agenda. Journalists, diplomats, cameramen and political observers were asked to depart. Once I learned that they would remove my immunity, I left, to avoid taking part in a charade.

Why now?