Rong Chhun asks Hillary Clinton to push the Cambodian gov’t to respect human rights

Rong Chhun (Photo: Den Ayuthyea, RFA)

30 Oct 2010
By Den Ayuthyea
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

sVar Kim Hong, president of the government border commission, told RFA on 30 October 2010 that, prior to issuing any letter or statement involving border issues or any other border problems, civil society organizations should reflect about them carefully, otherwise, they will face the same fate as opposition leader Sam Rainsy who was sentenced to more than 10-year of jail sentence. (sic!)

Rong Chhun, the leader of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), asked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to help push the Cambodian government to respect human rights and the Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia which has not been fully applied in Cambodia yet.

The 3-page-long letter issued by CCU and sent to Mrs. Clinton on 30 October 2010, during her visit to Cambodia between 30 October and 01 November, asked her to take measures to make the Cambodian government fully respect the UN conventions, the international conventions and the Cambodian Constitution.

Rong Chhun’s letter raised the issue of constitutional violations in regards to Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as stipulated in Article 2 of the Cambodian Constitution. This article stipulates: “The territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Cambodia shall absolutely not be violated within its borders as defined in the 1/100,000 scale map made between the years 1933-1953 and internationally recognized between the years 1963-1969.” However, to the contrary of this article, in October 2005, the Cambodian government under Hun Xen’s leadership signed a border delimitation agreement with the Vietnamese government based on the 1:50,000-scale map instead, and this is contrary to the spirit of the constitution which was borne out of the spirit of the 23 October 1991 Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia. Furthermore, Hun Xen’s convention with Vietnam turned into law that was signed and approved for use by the Cambodian king on 30 November 2005.

Furthermore, along the Cambodian-Thai border at Preah Vihear temple, there are also invasions perpetrated by the Thai troops inside Cambodia’s territories for more than two years already and the Cambodian government still has not resolve this issue yet.

In addition, Rong Chhun also requested that Mrs. Clinton help push the Cambodian government to immediately put an end to its violation of the law, its culture of discrimination, its impunity, its judicial system that lacks independence, and its corruption.

Rong Chhun stressed that the current Cambodian judicial system is nothing but a tool of those in power and the rich people who use it to oppress weak farmers, opposition officials and civil society officials, etc…

Rong Chhun added: “The planting of border posts will continue and Cambodia is suffering major losses because of the violations of the constitution.

sVar Kim Hong, president of the government border commission, told RFA on 30 October 2010 that, prior to issuing any letter or statement involving border issues or any other border problems, civil society organizations should reflect about them carefully, otherwise, they will face the same fate as opposition leader Sam Rainsy who was sentenced to more than 10-year of jail sentence.

sVar Kim Hong added that in the planting of border posts between Cambodia and Vietnam, the [Cambodian] government is not dumb to allow border posts that lead to the loss of Cambodian territories (sic!). To the contrary the planting of border posts was done to preserve the land through these clear border demarcations (sic!).

sVar Kim Hong said: “Where was the loss, please explain clearly about that. Don’t just talk about it, talking is easy, all you have to do is accuse!”

An anonymous official from the US embassy in Cambodia said on 30 October that in the evening of that day, the embassy did not receive the CCU letter sent to Mrs. Clinton yet.