Khmer Intelligence News - 09 April 2010

KHMER INTELLIGENCE NEWS

09 April 2010

Cambodia recovers a strip of her territory in Svay Rieng province (2)

A recent border incident -- uprooting of “temporary border posts” by opposition parliamentarians and protesting villagers in Svay Rieng province in October 2009 -- and the subsequent investigation involving international independent experts into the controversial border demarcation process over the last few years, have resulted in Cambodia’s recovering a 10-kilometer-long, 500-meter-wide strip of her territory. However, for face-saving reasons, government border authorities are reluctant to recognize the new situation and are tentatively giving inconsistent explanations to the fact that “temporary border posts” # 184, 185, 186 and 187 have been moved back toward the East by 570 m, 516 m, 720 m and 510 m respectively. See related documents at http://tinyurl.com/yyoqa2n

China behind improvement in relations between Cambodia and Thailand (2)

Two reliable diplomatic sources have indicated that China recently put strong pressure on the Cambodian government to stop stirring up trouble in Thailand by openly interfering in the neighbouring country’s internal affairs. China wants to preserve peace and stability in South-East Asia and wants to prevent Vietnam from gaining more influence in the region. Vietnam is believed to be behind Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s aggressive behaviour aimed at weakening Thailand. This was already the case in the violent anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh in January 2003.

Hun Sen expects oil revenue from Chevron to help finance CPP election campaign in 2012 (2)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said earlier this week he would terminate his country's contract with Chevron if the US energy giant does not begin oil production from offshore fields by late 2012. This warning is just a way to tell Chevron to be ready to help finance the ruling CPP campaign for the 2013 general elections in Cambodia.

CPP behind merger of “royalist” parties (2)

The ruling CPP is currently pushing Funcinpec and the Nationalist Party (formally Norodom Ranariddh Party) to merge at the latest in 2012. The CPP needs a better-looking coalition partner under the form of a single and united “royalist” party. But in fact, the partner will keep having no power whatsoever, its only role being a pure endorsement of the former communist party in a more credible manner. The so-called royalist movement has been going down the drain not because of its internal divisions based on personal interests as reflected in party names, but because of its general and mercantile subservience to the CPP.

A Cambodian fake witness before the French Court (2)

At a court hearing in Paris on 25 March 2010, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong, who is engaged in a defamation lawsuit against opposition leader Sam Rainsy, surprisingly came with Prince Sisowath Chittara as a “witness”. Prince Sisowath Chittara told the French Judges that, during the Khmer Rouge era, he was incarcerated in a “death camp” in Cambodia. He “explained” to the Judges how such a camp functioned and how the Khmer Rouge chose a leader among the camp prisoners. The “witness” did all this with the aim of “proving the innocence” of Mr. Hor Nam Hong who, between 1977 and 1979, left his mark in the Boeng Trabek re-education camp. However, a 1986 book by Retired King Norodom Sihanouk titled “Prisoner of the Khmer Rouge,” proves that Prince Sisowath Chittara blatantly lied to the French Justice. See related evidence in French with translation in English at http://tinyurl.com/y9q6mnx

Hor Nam Hong might be the first top government official to appear before the ECCC (2)

Hoping to win the above-mentioned defamation lawsuit in France, Mr. Hor Nam Hong might finally accept to appear as a witness before the ECCC (the international tribunal in Cambodia) in order to show the French Judges in Paris his good will and consistency. He would then have to answer some questions such as:

- Why not help international justice – the only one that is independent and credible in Cambodia – to lift somewhat the cryptic assessment made by [most authoritative expert] Father François Ponchaud on you: “The role of Hor Nam Hong at Boeng Trabek is not clear”? (http://www.eurasie.net/webzine/spip.php?article824)

- Why not give the Tribunal convincing evidence to answer the question that [well-known French reporter] François Deron openly asked about your role at the Boeng Trabek prison camp when he talked about the need to “sort out between the Kapos and the real prisoners, between the cowards and the victims”? (The Khmer Rouge Trial – Thirty years of investigation into the Cambodian genocide, Gallimard, 2009).

- Why not discuss calmly with the judge the accusations made against you by your former co-prisoner Keo Bunthouk who said that, through your denunciations to the Khmer Rouge, you "sent children and adults [from the Boeng Trabek community] to the Tuol Sleng torture prison (...), and no one came back" ? (The Cambodia Daily, 13-14 January 2001, "Senate Continues Spirited Debate on KR Bill").

See list of possible questions to Mr. Hor Nam Hong in French and English at http://tinyurl.com/yk7wr2u

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