Sam Rainsy, a brilliant, French-educated free market reformer, outspoken government critic and ardent anticorruptionist, is the darling of Western diplomats. Rainsy was stripped of his MP position in parliament and expelled from Funcinpec in May 1995. On November 9, 1995, Rainsy launched a new political party in Cambodia called the Khmer Nation Party (KNP) and later humbly renamed it The Sam Rainsy Party. Rainsy formed an alliance with Ranariddh in the run-up to the '98 elections, but has gotten a lot less press since the elections, in which he ran a distant third. (But Rainsy tallied enough votes that, combined with Ranariddh's support, he still remains Hun Sen's enigma.) Sammy boy's had a number of brushes with assassination. On March 30, 1997, three or four grenades were tossed into a demonstration he was leading in front of the parliament building, killing 19 and wounding 120, including Rainsy himself.
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