Cambodian opposition leader jailed for two years over border row

Wed, 27 Jan 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy said he was not surprised after a provincial court on Wednesday sentenced him in absentia to two years in jail for destruction of property in a dispute about border markers. "I did expect such a verdict," Sam Rainsy said by phone from his home in France. "It did not come as a surprise."

The court in Svay Rieng province in south-eastern Cambodia also fined the opposition leader 13 million riel (3,200 US dollars) for his role in uprooting six wooden border posts in October.

Two villagers also were jailed for one year each and fined 1,200 US dollars by the court Wednesday for their part in the protest.

The case stems from an incident in October when the stakes marking the border between Vietnam and Cambodia were removed. Villagers had claimed the markers were placed in their rice fields, causing them to lose land to Vietnam.

The opposition party charged that the land rights of Cambodian farmers in the area were not being respected in the process of demarcating the 1,270-kilometre border, which was scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Sam Rainsy said he would return to Cambodia to serve his sentence on the first available plane provided the government freed the two jailed villagers and returned land that farmers claimed to have lost to the ongoing border-marking effort.

"I accept to be the only victim of this tribunal, provided the other people who have been accused of anything related to the border issue will be freed and their land returned to them," he said, adding that he would release further evidence of border encroachment by Vietnam into Cambodian territory.

"Everything is upside down in Cambodia: Those innocent people are in jail, and those who should be in jail walk free," he charged.

In late December, the Svay Rieng provincial court issued an arrest warrant for Sam Rainsy after he failed to appear for questioning over the incident, which riled Hanoi. The opposition leader was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in November, allowing the case to go ahead.

Vietnam has significant interests in agribusiness, aviation, telecommunications and banking in Cambodia. In December, Hanoi signed an agreement with Phnom Penh that could result in investments worth billions of US dollars, including a deal to look for aluminium ore, known as bauxite, in Cambodia's border province of Mondolkiri.

Critics accused the ruling Cambodian People's Party of using the courts to move against its perceived opponents in politics, the media and civil society. Last year, three opposition parliamentarians were stripped of their parliamentary immunity over various charges.