Rong Chhun's CWC plans to visit border posts in Prey Veng province early January

Rong Chhun visiting border post 108 in Kampong Cham (Photo: CWC)

Monday, 27 December 2010
By Khmerization
Source: RFA

Mr. Rong Chhun, head of Cambodian Watchdog Council, has told RFA on Sunday that he will lead a delegation to visit border post Nos. 130 and 131 in Kamchay Mear district in Prey Veng province in the first week of January 2011 after he received complaints from local villagers that the border posts had been planted hundreds of metres deep inside Cambodian territory.

He said if his delegation found that those border posts were planted inside Cambodian territory as alleged by villagers, he will compile a report and submit it to the government, the parliament and the king for a moratorium of demarcations in the area, waiting for the dispute to be resolved first. "We have seen there are irregularities in most of the border posts between Cambodia and Vietnam. In the 200 border posts that have been planted already, most of them had encroached on Cambodian territory. This is what we have to resolve face to face", he said.

Mr. Rong Chhun was jailed for 96 days in 2005 for criticising and opposing the ratification of the 1985 Suplemental Treaty with Vietnam. He had visited many border posts, including post Nos. 108 and 109 in Kampong Cham and also post No. 207 in Takeo where he found them to be planted at least 200 metres deep inside Cambodian territory.

Mr. Var Kimhong, chairman of Cambodian Border Commission, said the border demarcation works will keep going regardless of the claims by border critics and local villagers. He said the demarcations affected both Cambodian and Vietnamese territory. "We are going to stop border demarcations because we are afraid that they are going to encroach on other people's lands? Let me ask: to demarcate the borders, if it does not encroach on our lands, it will unavoidably encroach on their (Vietnamese) lands. Their lands have been affected as well and why they allowed it? But why can't we allow it. Let me ask: Are those lands the exclusive ownerships (of the villagers)? The lands along the borders are not allowed to be owned by anyone and when we plant the border posts it will inevitably affect on everyone's land. Mr. Rong Chhun's actions and the actions of other groups in their oppositions to the border demarcations, which will be completed by 2012, will not be successful, it is unacceptable to us", he said.

Opposition parties, border critics and the civil society as well as local villagers claimed that many border posts in many provinces such as in Kampong Cham, Takeo, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng etc. were often panted inside Cambodian territory.