National Assembly Members Ask Prime Minister to Respond to IPU on Sam Rainsy’s Case

October 17, 2011

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MEMBERS ASK PRIME MINISTER

TO RESPOND TO IPU ON SAM RAINSY’S CASE

A group of opposition National Assembly members wrote today to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking him to respond to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the case of opposition leader Sam Rainsy.

In 2009, siding with Cambodian farmers protesting the loss of their rice fields because of border encroachment, Sam Rainsy pulled out a few wooden poles considered by the authorities as the “tentative border post” # 185. He was subsequently sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison for that “crime.”

In its Resolution adopted on April 20, 2011 the IPU - “Affirms that, given the official recognition, including by the Prime Minister, that there is no such thing as a legal border post # 185 and the absence of any official map as the border demarcation is still under way, Mr. Sam Rainsy cannot possibly have committed a crime by pulling out wooden posts, which were illegally driven in, nor is the accusation of divulging false information a tenable one,” and - “Considers, therefore, that it is becoming even more urgent to review Mr. Sam Rainsy’s case and to rehabilitate him, and calls on the authorities, including Parliament, to take action to this end without delay so as to enable Mr. Sam Rainsy to resume his rightful place as a member of the National Assembly and to stand as a candidate in the next parliamentary elections.”

See full text of the IPU Resolution at http://tinyurl.com/3u7wvhv

In a November 8, 2010 letter responding to Parliamentarians through National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote notably, “In the area surrounding the tentative post # 185, in particular posts # 184 to 187 along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam, the joint technical group from the two countries is continuing its study on the actual ground in order to search for material evidence necessary for the determination of the real location of those border posts. Because the joint technical group from the two countries has not planted border post # 185 yet, the border demarcation work, which is the work of the joint technical group after the planting of that post, has not started either." See Hun Sen’s full letter in Khmer at http://tinyurl.com/3gy5mkk

Five questions were sent today to Prime Minister Hun Sen:

1. As of today, what is the status of the “study on the actual ground in order to search for material evidence necessary for the determination of the real location” of border posts # 184 to 187? What progress has been made over the past 12 months?
2. Has the joint technical group from Cambodia and Vietnam already planted the border post # 185?
3. Has the border demarcation work in the concerned area already started?
4. What is the present legal status of the location of the tentative border post # 185 that H.E. Sam Rainsy, with the population in Svay Rieng province’s Chantrea district, pulled out on October 25, 2009?
5. What is the reaction of the Royal Cambodian Government to the April 20, 2011 IPU Resolution on “Case No. CMBD/01 – Sam Rainsy – Cambodia” as attached herewith?

See SRP Parliamentarians’ original letter in Khmer to Prime Minister Hun Sen at http://tinyurl.com/3bbnsqh

According to Article 96 of the Constitution, the Government must respond in writing to any written question from any National Assembly member within seven days.

SRP Members of Parliament