Viet troops banned opposition MP from visiting border [from inside Cambodia] (Updated)

Viet troops prevented a group of SRP MPs from visiting the location for a border post in Memot district, Kampong Cham province, on 14 Dec 2010 (Photo: Uon Chhin, RFA)

14 Dec 2010
By Uon Chhin
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On 14 Dec 2010, Vietnamese border troops banned a group of about 18 opposition SRP MPs and other party officials – right inside Cambodian territories – from visiting the location where stakes are installed for a border post delimiting Cambodia and Vietnam in Memot district, Kampong Cham province.

The ban took place between the border inspection post in Daun Roath and border post 103 located in Daun Roath village, Roung commune, Memot district, and the scuffle lasted about 30 minutes.

SRP MP Son Chhay indicated that the ban by the Viets show that Vietnam encroached on Cambodian territories because its troops came to prevent Cambodian MPs and officials right inside Cambodian territories.

Son Chhay added: “If the Viet side has secret for them to prevent our delegation from taking a look just at these border stakes, then it creates even more suspicions as to whether what the secret is for them to ban us from seeing these stakes?”

Nevertheless, Hun Neng [Hun Xen’s brother], the Kampong Cham provincial governor, claimed that the Viet issued this ban because the SRP MPs entered the Viet territories and these MPs and officials do not know the geography of this area.

Prior to going to look at border post 103 in Roung commune, the SRP MPs and officials visited border post 108 and 109 located in Dar commune, Memot district. There, MP Son Chhay declared that 14 Cambodian villages in Memot district were lost from the border post planting based on the map used by the Memot district authority and direct interviews with local officials and villagers.

Mrs. Yem Muon, a villager from Dar commune, indicated that she lost 1.5 hectare of her land: “Now that I lost my land, I don’t know what land [to earn my living], I lost everything brothers and sisters! This is the second time already. Last year they already took 8-hectare of my land, now they came and took my [leftover] land for the second time, I lost everything, what land can I use to earn a living?”

Mrs. Som Phy who lives in Daun Roath village, Roung commune, indicated that she lost about 1.5-hectare of her land and that, right now, Viet villagers are cultivating on her land: “The rice field you can see there, the one next to that forest, that’s my rice field, yes! The Yuons took everything, this is the land I have left right now, this is it! This is the rice field I’ve got now! Next to the pagoda fence. This I tell you, nephews and nieces, this is all I have left!”

From France, Mr. Sean Pengse, President of the Cambodia’s Border Committee (CBC), said that the Cambodian government should not ignore the lost of rice fields by local farmers due to these border post plantings. He added: “The villagers are complaining that the Yuons encroached inside Cambodia, this is true from what I know, it’s not just 2-3 hectares at all. In some areas, such as Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri, the Yuons encroached close to 15-km inside our territories.”

Mr. Sean Pengse added that, to preserve Cambodia’s territorial integrity, he asks the Cambodian government to respect the Paris Peace Accords (PPA) on Cambodia, as well as the Cambodian Constitution. Furthermore, the PPA stipulates that all treaties that affect Cambodia’s territorial integrity must be annulled.