Fuzzy on the Sketchy Borders

12/01/10
Op-Ed by Justin Sok

Var Kim Hong shaking hand with Nguyen Tan Dung, the Viet PM

On December 01, 2010, His Excellency Var Kim Hong held a press conference to inform and update the nation the border issues between Cambodia and Vietnam. His Excellency discussed about the bidding for the printing of border maps between Cambodia and Vietnam, estimated to cost between $1.5 to $4.5 million. Cambodia and Vietnam would like to use companies from the U.S.A., France, Japan, and Korea to assist in drawing the new map.

The public is appreciative and thankful for having shed light on the border issues. However, there are some important political issues that need to be clarified. Although the public has come to understand that the work is a joint venture between Cambodia and Vietnam, we are less interested in the Vietnamese government has to say. It is in our national interest to know which company (French, Japanese, Korean, and American) His Excellency and your committee will choose for drawing the new map. We would like to know why Vietnam had encroached 15 kilometers into Cambodian territory. If the printing of border maps between Cambodia and Vietnam was finalized, and had revealed that Cambodia had actually gained ground, would it be more logical to agree that the money we had spent was worth it with this new map to replace the old map of 1964? Why would we spend the money if we knew about the Vietnamese encroachment and to replace the new map with the old map, which former King Norodom Sihanouk and His Royal Administration had done excellent work on to put Cambodia on the map on at the UN in 1964?

This border issue is very critical to our national security. It should take as much time as we would possibly need, to meticulously accomplish the work properly. It requires a collaborative effort and collection of scholars and experts on the field to magnify the precise points and lines before it can be finalized. In addition, there are many Khmer intellectuals, inside and abroad, whose expertise is on political and border issues. The public encourages His Excellency Var Kim Hong to look for to them for assistance.

Furthermore, I would like to assert my arguments based on the important political and legal cases, which have also been implicated with the movement of border posts and encroachment into Cambodian territory by Vietnam. On October 25, 2009, MP Sam Rainsy was invited by our Cambodian farmers to Chantrea District, Svay Rieng Province to witness the illegal movement of border posts that were covertly planted inside our Cambodian territory. MP Sam Rainsy and our Khmer farmers made a formal request to the government to intervene and to defend our homeland, but it was denied. MP Sam Rainsy led the Khmer farmers and took the matters into their own hands and went ahead and uprooted illegal movement border posts. Despite all the legal evidence and documentations that MP Sam Rainsy had produced and presented to the government, the two innocent Khmer farmers were convicted and sent to serve a 12-month sentence in jail, and MP Sam Rainsy was convicted of having “instigated, disturbed the peace, and destroyed public property,” and he was sentenced to jail in absentia for 13 years. At your press conference, His Excellency Var Kim Hong, with your own “confession,” stated, “The planting of border posts at certain locations had encroached into Cambodian territories. These encroachments could be as much and deep as 15 kilometers into Cambodia.” Evidently, the cases against the two Khmer farmers and MP Sam Rainsy had never had any legal merits. The public would like to file a motion to request that His Excellency Var Kim Hong, the court, and the government to expunge criminal charges against our two Khmer farmers and drop all charges against MP Sam Rainsy. Since the border issues that they had raised were rightfully in question, and since our two Khmer farmers were wrongly convicted and had already served their 12-month sentence, the public would also like to request that the government should offer redress and/or restitution damages to them. As for the case against MP Sam Rainsy, the public would like the government to reconsider the decision made, and to honor and restore his immunity and rightfully allow MP Sam Rainsy to return back to Cambodia to resume his bipartisan work and serve his countrymen.

Thank you for your immediate attention.

Justin C. Sok