Photo by: Sovann Philong

Traffic police on Mao Tse-tung Boulevard flag down vehicles Tuesday as they check for illegal RCAF and police number plates. Prime Minister Hun Sen has given drivers two weeks to give up the plates or risk losing their vehicles. 

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday issued a warning to drivers displaying unauthorised military number plates on their vehicles, saying that those who refuse to take them off will be taken off the road.

During a speech at the Ministry of Interior, Hun Sen ordered ministers to take action after he noticed that drivers were still flouting his recent ban on the use of RCAF and police plates by unauthorised vehicles.

"[Why are you] still ignoring this and using RCAF and police plates? Why don't you listen?" Hun Sen asked.

He said he had ordered the ministers of interior and  defence to establish a deadline for drivers to get rid of their illegal licence plates, saying any cars still bearing unauthorised tags would be confiscated by the state.

Illegal tags

Luy Thhin, director of the Ministry of Interior's Traffic Office, said Tuesday that his police officers would continue removing police plates on the

street, as they have done since Hun Sen's first announcement on April 30.

"We are going to remove police plates from cars on the roads [today] unless we get new orders from the top," he said, adding that since the beginning of the month his office had confiscated 34 sets of police plates - 12 from cars in the street and 22 from individuals who voluntarily handed in their plates to his office.

Tat Sreng, director of Phnom Penh's Vehicle Registration Office, said that so far the owners of 400 cars bearing RCAF plates and 150 with police plates had visited the office to register for civilian plates.