Khmer Intelligence News 01 February 2010

KHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS

01 February 2010

Thaksin obtained Cambodian citizenship in March 2009 (2)

Thailand's fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra obtained a Cambodian passport in the last week of March 2009. The Royal Decree granting Thaksin Khmer citizenship was signed off by CPP and Senate President Chea Sim in his capacity then as Acting Head of State. King Norodom Sihamoni had been “advised” to unexpectedly but discretely leave Cambodia for France in that last week of March 2009 in order to keep secret the CPP decision to grant Khmer citizenship to Thaksin.

Former anti-Vietnamese Resistance soldiers confront Thai Army at Preah Vihear (2)

The Hun Sen government has deliberately selected former anti-Vietnamese Resistance soldiers – from the Khmer Rouge, Funcinpec and Son Sann’s KPNLF – to confront the Thai Army in the defense of Preah Vihear Temple. The Vietnamese-inspired CPP policy is to eliminate all Khmer soldiers who fought against the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia in the 1980’s, especially the Khmer Rouge warriors who continued fighting the Hun Sen government until 1998. The objective of this policy is to prevent any possible armed rebellion against the current regime in the future and to turn a “completely new page” in the relations between Cambodia and Vietnam.

A long history of border encroachments by Vietnam in Svay Rieng province (1)

Even opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who pulled out a so-called border post in Svay Rieng province last October, may not know that there had been continuous attempts by Vietnam over the last century to encroach on Cambodian territory, especially in Svay Rieng province.

- In 1930, under French colonial rule, King Sisowath Monivong (1875-1941), fearing and wanting to contain Vietnamese encroachments, ordered on-the-spot land measurements, border delineation and mapping of that part of Svay Rieng province where Sam Rainsy pulled out the so-called border post. The concerned area was around Koh Khsan (later on known as Koh Kban) in Chantrea district. See the 12 February 1930 Royal Declaration at http://tinyurl.com/ycg2den

- In 1986, under the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, Msah Lah, a courageous Deputy Minister who was suspicious about border encroachments by Vietnam, requested national press agency SPK to print aerial photos of the Svay Rieng border post plantings. There is also a telling report by Sao Samuth, Chairman of the Svay Rieng Border Subcommittee. Subsequently, Sao Samuth was reportedly murdered in 1987 by the Vietnamese for being patriotic on the boundary affairs. See CPP secret documents at http://tinyurl.com/yhh68fh

- In 1999, under the current Kingdom of Cambodia, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) Commander-in-Chief General Ke Kim Yan wrote a report to Prime Minister Hun Sen indicating that Vietnam had been surreptitiously and illegally annexing stretches of Cambodia's territories including in Svay Rieng province. The report details several cases where Vietnamese civilians protected by armed soldiers or militiamen grabbed land belonging to Cambodian farmers and moved border markers well inside Cambodian territory. Read the full report at http://tinyurl.com/yjypg2s

Cambodia is committing suicide as a nation because of her inadequate handling of border affairs: Norodom Sihanouk (1)

In a 16 March 2005 statement King-Father Norodom Sihanouk condemned the continuous border encroachment by the Vietnamese authorities. He mentioned the case of Svay Rieng province where opposition leader Sam Rainsy uprooted last October a so-called border post to defend Cambodian farmers who were victims of land grab associated with border encroachment. The King-Father specified that Vietnam had recently created "new borders" to her benefit. In conclusion, he accused the Vietnamese-subservient Hun Sen government of pushing Cambodia to commit suicide as a nation because of its weak stance on the border issue.

Full text of the royal statement in French with unofficial translation in Khmer at http://tinyurl.com/yk99v3d

Both Cambodian and Vietnamese authorities recognize their “mistake” on border post location (2)

On 27 January the Svay Rieng provincial court sentenced opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two Cambodian farmers to jail term for uprooting on 25 October 2009 a border post (#185) in Koh Kban Kandal village, in Samraong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province. However, following the strong evidence presented by the Sam Rainsy Party at http://tinyurl.com/yeaoxyf with further explanation at http://tinyurl.com/yk5zbtt, both the Cambodian and Vietnamese authorities are now obliged to recognize that the so-called border post uprooted by Sam Rainsy had been planted at the wrong place. Actually, it was planted well inside Cambodia’s territory, at a distance of nearly 300 meters from the legal/official border with Vietnam.

Therefore, that so-called border post (#185) was not a real and legal one, meaning Sam Rainsy and the two farmers have committed no crime. Realizing their “mistake,” Vietnamese border officials on 16 November removed nearby “border” posts (#184, 186 and 187) and took them back to Vietnam, leading the Sam Rainsy Party to claim a “political and moral victory for Cambodia.” Read the SRP statement at http://tinyurl.com/ye2o6w2

Profile of the two farmers currently in jail (1)

Who are the two Cambodian farmers who, alongside Sam Rainsy, were sentenced on 27 January by the Svay Rieng provincial court to one year in prison? They are Meas Srey, female, 38, and Prum Chea, male, 41. They have been living with their families, for generations, in Samraong commune bordering Vietnam. They are victims of land grab associated with border encroachment. Actually, their only crime was their courage to publicly denounce injustice while standing next to Sam Rainsy on Meas Srey’s rice field on 25 October.

Meas Srey and Prum Chea were actually spokespersons for several dozens farmer families in Samraong commune alone who have lost, or are in the process of losing, their rice fields to Vietnam because “border” posts have been moved deeper and deeper into Cambodian territory.

Please listen to the two victims by clicking at http://tinyurl.com/yfmakb5

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