Ranariddh Calls for Resolving Border Issue with Neighbors, Unifying Democrats

12 Dec 07
By Veasna
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer
Translated from Khmer and posted online

Cambodia's border issue with neighboring countries, especially with Vietnam and Thailand, continues to be a major worry for Cambodians of all political tendencies. Concerning this vital problem of the country, the president of the Norodom Ranariddh Party [NRP] noted the inability of the current ruling party to resolve this border issue, saying that it is not able to settle the problem even with Thailand with which all the documents are already available.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh reminded all Cambodians about the country's problems, such as the border problem with their neighbors. He said, "Cambodia must reexamine this problem if it does not want to become another Champa."

The prince referred to the motherland of the ethnic Cham people in present-day central Vietnam that was erased from the world map following its annexation by Vietnam.

Because of the policy of Vietnamizing the Cham country, or Champa, the Cham who were the masters of their country have become a minority in their own motherland and have lost all opportunity to easily recover the freedom of their race.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh talked about the danger facing Cambodia due to the policy of annexation pursued by the neighboring countries during a telephone conversation from abroad with the NRP leadership and activists in Phnom Penh a day before the International Human Rights Day during which he discussed Thailand's exploitation of the Cambodian leaders' situation and position of weakness.

He said, "The settlement of the border problem with Thailand cannot be done by the Cambodian Government. I expect the Thais to set up their posts wherever Cambodia cannot reach. They have talked about the White Zone, something that never existed in the past. For example, they planted their new border markers in Otdar Meanchey province."

The prince talked about the problem concerning the planting of border markers with Vietnam, saying that it was done incorrectly.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh said, "The planting of border markers with Vietnam was not right."

He said that although Cambodia made the supplementary law on 10 October 2005 to legitimize the law signed by Hun Sen with Vietnam on 25 December 1985 regarding the Cambodia-Vietnam border, the implementation of the border marker installation was not correctly done.

To emphasize it, the prince noted that in 2006 when the first Cambodian-Vietnamese border markers were planted the ruling Cambodian People's Party [CPP] did not invite the representatives of the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party, which he then headed, to take part in any thorough inspection of the process of planting the markers. And because he kept publicly talking about this issue so that the Cambodian people would know about the incorrectness of the operation to plant the border markers between Cambodia and Vietnam, Hun Sen, prime minister and vice-president of the CPP, ordered Nhiek Bun Chhay to oust him from his post as the FUNCINPEC Party's executive president.

Consequently, Nhiek Bun Chhay, Lu Laysreng, and their cronies staged a party coup on 18 October 2006 to overthrow Prince Norodom Ranariddh despite the fact that two days earlier His Majesty the Heroic King, founder of the FUNCINPEC resistance movement, issued a message affirming that he had handed full ownership of the FUNCINPEC Party to his august son, Samdech Krom Preah [royal title] Norodom Ranariddh.

The president of the NRP also talked about the border problem, saying that His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk prepared documents relating to the Cambodian territory of 181,035 square kilometers and deposited them in Vietnam [as received] during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum [Sihanouk's pre-1970 ruling party] regime.

The prince also talked about the immigration issue, meaning the huge number of Vietnamese nationals who continue to pour into Cambodia without anything or anyone stopping them.

The prince said that Cambodians cannot go in or out in a massive number as immigrants to neighboring Vietnam and Thailand like the Vietnamese nationals are pouring into Cambodia now.

The prince talked about Cambodians going to neighboring countries surreptitiously, working as beggars in the cities of these countries, and regularly being arrested and deported by the governments of Vietnam and Thailand back to Cambodia.

In addition to all of this, the prince pointed out the poverty of the Cambodian people under the leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP.

The prince said that in Cambodia of the times of Sangkum Reastr Niyum headed by His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk in the 1970s Cambodians lived a decent life and were not so poor as to be reduced to beggaring in neighboring countries.

The leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP, although the prime minister has boasted all along that he has been in power for more that 20 years now, has not been able to resolve the poverty problem affecting the Cambodian people.

On the contrary, since the natural resources of the country and the country's national assets have fallen into the hands of the big shots that rely on their power and the rich who rely on their riches, these big shots and rich people have become ever richer while more and more Cambodians have become poor and the poor have become even poorer.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh said that as a solution all democratic, royalist, and liberal parties should unite into a single party in response to the call of the people in order to win next year's election and jointly tackle all these problems of the nation.