Khmer Intelligence News - 21 March 2010

KHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS

21 March 2010

Secret oil deal between Hun Sen and Thaksin Shinawatra (2)

In early 2006 Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra concluded a secret oil deal to personally share “under the table” a portion of royalties to be paid by oil exploitation companies. Those companies had been exploring very promising offshore oil and gas deposits in the Gulf of Thailand, including in the overlapping zones claimed by both Cambodia and Thailand.

For revenue stemming from these overlapping zones, a tentative agreement has been reached whereby:

• Revenue from zones closest to Cambodia’s shores will be shared as follows: 70 percent to Cambodia; 30 percent to Thailand.
• Revenue from zones closest to Thailand’s shores: 70 percent to Thailand; 30 percent to Cambodia.

However, the two prime ministers mutually agreed to mislead their respective public opinions by accepting to “recognize” that some of the zones closest to Cambodia be instead considered as closest to Thailand, and vice versa.

Therefore, in the case of Cambodia, instead of receiving 70 percent, the country would receive only 30 percent of the royalties paid by the concerned oil companies, the remaining 40 percent would be split fifty-fifty between Hun Sen and Thaksin, meaning twenty percent each for the two leaders on a personal base.

The same sharing scheme would apply to the overlapping zones closest to Thailand, with Thaksin and Hun Sen also secretly receiving 20 percent each of the royalties.

Interrelation between secret oil agreement and Preah Vihear Temple issue (2)

In order to ensure a smooth implementation of the above-exposed secret oil agreement, Thaksin promised Hun Sen to let the Cambodian government deal, as it pleases, with the Preah Vihear Temple, including registering the Temple as a World Heritage site with UNESCO.

However, Thailand’s new governments following Thaksin’s fall from power in late 2006, decided they were not bound by the secret and personal deal between Thaksin and Hun Sen. Border incidents started in 2008 when Hun Sen tried to exacerbate Khmer nationalistic fervor a few weeks before the July general elections in Cambodia, prompting Thailand’s authorities to react by also asserting their own nationalistic stance.

Cambodian citizenship to protect and reassure “ex-foreign” investors (2)

Because Cambodia’s law does not allow foreigners to own land in our country, the Hun Sen government has granted Cambodian citizenship to countless investors (from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan but also some European countries) who are willing to invest large amounts of money to buy land and engage in “development projects.” Among the most prominent “ex-foreign” investors is Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra from Thailand who was given Khmer citizenship in March 2009. Mr. Thaksin has reportedly bought large chunks of land in Cambodia’s maritime Koh Kong province bordering Thailand for economic, financial and possibly other reasons.

Army generals amass fortune from standoff with Thailand (2)

The ongoing military tension on the border between Cambodia and Thailand brings about a windfall for Army generals close to Prime Minister Hun Sen. Tens of millions of dollars have been collected every month by the corrupt military brass from systemic diversion of financial support officially intended for “soldiers fighting on the frontline to defend the Motherland.” The Generals are also collecting ghost soldiers’ salaries (about one third of the whole Army staff) while selling on the market food and equipment earmarked for the Army. Last but not least, illegal logging (deforestation) has resumed on a large scale since 2008 thanks to the security reasons invoked to justify the secrecy surrounding any military initiative and movement.

New evidence of border encroachment by Vietnam to be made public next week (2)

Cambodia is reportedly victim of border encroachment by her more powerful neighbours. Regarding recent incidents in the Eastern province of Svay Rieng bordering Vietnam, Sam Rainsy earlier this week announced a “good news” to King-Father Norodom Sihanouk who presided over the now-defunct Supreme National Council on Border Affairs. In his letter to the Retired King, the opposition leader said “top leading experts” he consulted in Europe, confirmed “the validity of what we all know and of what I recently denounced, namely the displacing of the border posts by Vietnam to the detriment of Cambodia.” Details of the technical reports by French and Swiss map experts are expected to be made public next week

Read Sam Rainsy’s original letter in French http://tinyurl.com/ydtv57l with translation in Khmer http://tinyurl.com/ybuvbym and in English http://tinyurl.com/yl6674u.

Towards a confrontation between Ieng Sary and Hor Namhong at the ECCC? (2)

Lawyers defending Ieng Sary at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) want Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong, who was chairman of a prisoners’ committee at the Boeng Trabek re-education camp under the Pol Pot regime, to be confronted with their client Ieng Sary who was Foreign Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from April 1975 to January 1979.

Ieng Sary was Hor Nam Hong’s boss. The pair went together to Lima in August 1975 when Hor Nam Hong was ambassador to Cuba before he was recalled to Phnom Penh in December 1975 (see Justin Corfield and Laura Summers’ “Historical Dictionary of Cambodia” published in the USA in 2003). At Boeng Trabek, Foreign Minister Ieng Sary continued to frequently communicate with his protégé Hor Nam Hong whom he “rehabilitated” in 1978. According to the defence at the ECCC, Hor Nam Hong “was privy to the operation of Ieng Sary’s Foreign Ministry in Phnom Penh and the treatment of intellectuals at the Boeng Trabek prison camp, where Mr Namhong was also a prisoner” (The Cambodia Daily, 17 March 2010).

The defence’s request follows Co-Investigating Judge Marcel Lemonde’s decision in October 2009 to summon Hor Nam Hong to testify before the ECCC. Hor Nam Hong refuses to appear before the Judge.

Hor Nam Hong will face opposition leader Sam Rainsy before a French court in Paris on 25 March 2010 following a defamation lawsuit filed by the former against the latter. Read Sam Rainsy’s open letter to Hor Nam Hong in French at http://tinyurl.com/yhcan48

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