Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Thursday he was strong enough to continue his hunger-strike for "many more days" to force authorities to weed out alleged corruption in the distribution of aid to flood victims.
Despite the stir created by an earlier press release in which he announced he was under medical supervision, he said he felt well enough toward the end of his second day of fasting.
"I am fine, and am strong enough to go on fasting for many more days," he told AFP in an interview at the Wat Ounalum (eds: correct) pagoda in central Phnom Penh, where he is staying after being evicted by police from a public park in front of parliament.
"I felt a bit sick this morning and did not want to go to parliament, but I am feeling better now and will probably work tomorrow," he said.
Rainsy's doctor, who is also a Senator and member of the Sam Rainsy Party, told AFP the opposition leader was feeling the affects of not eating for two days, but a glucose drip had revived him.
"He is strong and can keep fasting as long as he takes his glucose drip (for a few hours) every day," said Meng Rita.
Rainsy -- who has hit out at the government and local officials repeatedly in recent weeks saying they were filtering off donated food and aid -- pitched a tent outside parliament Tuesday night and vowed to fast until he was given concrete evidence that measures were being taken to weed out corruption.
The opposition leader moved to a pagoda on the Mekong River after police ordered him to do so, saying he and crowds of flood victims and supporters, had become a threat to public order.
"I chose to be here (at the temple) because this a place where I can sit and contemplate compassion. People can't visit me at home and I am not sick, so why should I go to a hospital," Rainsy said.
The government has repeatedly warned Rainsy not to "politicize" the issue of flood relief, and Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday brushed off the hunger strike as a publicity stunt.
"There is someone going on a hunger-strike, but I don't want to talk about it ... Some people received only a few seats (in parliament) and are trying to get attention by being very active."
Last week Rainsy led a mob of some 2,000-3,000 flood victims in an angry march on the offices of the United Nations and Red Cross demanding food and accusing the government of corruption.
The World Food Program is currently feeding more than 500,000 Cambodians who have lost property and crops due to the worst floods in a generation to sweep down the Mekong River basin, badly affecting Cambodia and Vietnam.
More than 300 people have been killed by flood waters and more than three million people have been affected -- PHNOM PENH (AFP)
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