SRP issues claims supporting Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy

19 April 2010
By Ly Meng Huor
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Click here to read the SRP's statement

Tomorrow, 20 April 2010, the defense lawyer of opposition leader Sam Rainsy will meet with the Phnom Penh municipal court judge to provide clarifications for his client, he will also raise the innocence of the opposition leader. The court accused Sam Rainsy of falsifying public documents, of using fake letters and of disinformation regarding the Cambodia-Vietnam border. In a 4-point clarification letter that the SRP distributed on 18 April, the SRP indicated that the accusations leveled against Sam Rainsy are groundless.

A statement issued by the SRP on 18 April raised the issue of the accusations made by the court against Sam Rainsy on 4 points regarding the issue of maps and the planting of border stakes between Cambodia and Vietnam at Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province. The statement provides clarifications for each of these 4 points.

The SRP secretariat noted that Sam Rainsy does not bear any mistake in publishing map documents in which the opposition leader claimed that the planting of border posts between Cambodia and Thailand in Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province, truly encroached on rice fields belonging to Cambodian farmers between 510 and 720 meters. This claim is based on a study performed for Sam Rainsy by a foreign cartography professor based on coordinates shown on the 1:100,000 scale map from the French colonial period, this is the same map that the government used to plant border posts.

The claim made on the 4 points above will be shown to the judge by Sam Rainsy’s lawyer tomorrow morning. Sam Rainsy, who was sentenced for uprooting border stakes between Cambodia and Vietnam in Svay Rieng province on 25 October 2009, will not be present in court.

Chuong Chou-ngy, Sam Rainsy’s defense lawyer, asked the judge to form a group of joint committee to survey the location of the border posts between Cambodia and Vietnam in order to find the truth on the accusation leveled against Sam Rainsy that he is publishing fake maps.

Chuong Chou-ngy explained that such joint committee would be led by the investigating judge, and it would also include representative of the party who brought up the lawsuit (the government), the government lawyer, as well representative of the accused (Sam Rainsy), the defense lawyer of the accused and the government border committee. This committee would review and survey the location of border posts 184, 185, 186 and 187.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy claimed that all these border posts are encroaching into rice fields belonging to Cambodian farmers. However, the government rejected this claim. Furthermore, in a letter sent to the judge last week, Chuong Chou-ngy asked that the plaintiff, i.e. the government, to provide the correct coordinates and proofs to this case also.

Oeung Sieng, the investigating judge for the Phnom Penh municipal court who is involved in Sam Rainsy’s case, did not reply to the above request made Sam Rainsy’s defense lawyer. The judge did not provide much comment, except to say that the case against Sam Rainsy is still under investigation.

Tith Sothea, mouthpiece of the Press and Quick Reactiion Unit (PQRU) of the Council of Ministers rejected that request made Sam Rainsy’s lawyer, and he said that the opposition cannot pressure the government in order to hide the mistake made by Sam Rainsy. Furthermore, Tith Sothea claimed that the border delimitation was done by the government according the law and the technique, and that it used the maps that Cambodia stored at the UN.