China donates office supplies to Cambodia for 2012's ASEAN host

Cambodian secretary of state for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Long Visalo (R, front) and the Ambassador of China to Cambodia Pan Guangxue (L, front) shake hands after signing an exchange of notes on China's donation of office supplies and equipment worth 2.7 million yuan (about 423,000 U.S. dollars) to Cambodia for hosting ASEAN summit in 2012 at Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Xinhua/ Sovannara)

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The government of China on Friday agreed to provide office supplies and equipment worth 2.7 million yuan (about 423,000 U.S. dollars) to Cambodia for hosting ASEAN summit in 2012.

The grant was signed between Cambodian Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Long Visalo and the Ambassador of China to Cambodia Pan Guangxue at the Ministry.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, Long Visalo said the donation would include projectors, projectors' screens, fax machines, computers, photocopiers, printers, scanners, and other office stationeries.

Cambodia lectures Lao officials on temple dispute with Thailand

Wed, 06 Jan 2010
DPA

Vientiane - Cambodia's deputy foreign minister visited Laos to provide a background briefing on Preah Vihear, an 11th-century Hindu temple on the Thai-Cambodian border that has sparked a nasty diplomatic spat between the two countries, news reports said Wednesday. Long Visalo on Tuesday gave a lecture to more than 200 Lao Foreign Ministry officials on the history of Preah Vihear and the border dispute it has created between Laos' southern neighbours, the government-run Vientiane Times reported.

The ongoing diplomatic rift between the two countries has raised serious questions about the cohesiveness of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Cambodia, Thailand and Laos are members.

Cambodia has attempted to involve ASEAN in resolving the border dispute, but Thailand has refused, arguing that it is an issue that should be settled bilaterally.

Long Visalo noted that the International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear was under the sovereignty of Cambodia and in July 2008 UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage Site.

Thailand objected to the UNESCO listing on the grounds that a plot of land adjoining the temple is still subject to a border dispute.

A diplomatic spat over the listing escalated into a tense standoff last year between the two countries' armies near Preah Vihear, which left several soldiers on both sides dead.

Senior Cambodian official reacted to news of Thai encroachments

Radio Free Asia
By Zakariya
4th March, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization

A senior official of Cambodian Foreign Ministry dismissed Radio Free Asia's report that Thai soldiers had moved border markers deep inside Khmer territories.

Mr. Long Visalo (pictured), Secretary of State of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that he does not believe that Thailand had moved border markers deeper inside Khmer territories in Battambang province as reported by RFA.

He said: "The French colonial authority had planted 73 border markers. In mid 2003 we and Thailand had planted the border markers in the areas and Thailand fully agreed with the new border markers that we planted. I don't believe that there is a movement of border markers because our technical teams from both countries went to examine the locations together. Secondly, we both used the 1:200,000 scale maps drawn by the Franco-Siamese Mixed Border Commission in 1907-1908. And the 2000's Memorandum of Understanding stressed that we need to use maps drawn by the Franco-Siamese Mixed Border Commission to solve the border disputes. But when they (the Cambodian army) use the 1961 maps, I cannot be responsible for that (for any loss of our territories)."

On 1st March, 2009, the commander of division 817, Mr. Srey Sokhorn, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that Thai soldiers had moved border markers deeper inside Khmer territories from between 40-150 metres at various points at Phnom Preuk in Battambang province, according to the 1961 maps.

Asked whether Thai soldiers had really moved the border markers deep inside Khmer territories or not, Mr. Long Visalo said: "I cannot comment because I don't know anything about it. But if our border soldiers saw that the Thais had moved the border markers deep inside our territories, they should report to the Ministry of Interior or Border Committee. But they didn't report, they only talk, how do I know anything?"

According to Mr. Srey Sokhorn, Thai soldiers had moved the border markers deep inside Khmer territories from 40-150 metres and they have built a paved road cutting through Khmer territories at Phnom Preuk in Battambang province, opposite of Thailand's Sakeo province.

Vietnam, Cambodia agree to accelerate border marker planting

(Photo: DayLife.com)

26/02/2009
VietNamNet/VNA (Hanoi)

VietNamNet Bridge – The eighth session of the Vietnam-Cambodia joint technical subcommittee for land border demarcation and marker planting was held in Phnom Penh from Feb. 23-25.

The Vietnamese delegation was headed by Nguyen Hong Thao, Deputy Head of the Foreign Ministry’s National Border Committee and member of the Vietnam-Cambodia joint border committee, whilst the Cambodian delegation was led by Long Visalo, Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Head of the Joint Technical Committee for Land Border Demarcation and Marker Planting.

Based on the results of the border demarcation and marker planting activities undertaken by Vietnam and Cambodia as well as the current situation in each country, the two sides agreed to propose adjustments to the master plan governing the matter for the 2009-2012 period.

They also discussed preparations for the third session of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Border Demarcation and Marker Planting.

Duch And Long Visalo: Are They Credible Witnesses?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Editorial by Khmerization
On the web at http://khmerization.blogspot.com

"Long Visalo’s claims of being a prisoner was incorrect. He was certainly not the victim of the Khmer Rouge, but an accomplish to the Khmer Rouge crimes at best, and a perpetrator and an architect of the Khmer Rouge crimes at worst."

The Hor Namhong-Sam Rainsy’s legal dogfight has entered a critical phase - gathering evidences and assembling witnesses.

The opposing camps are actively working hard to gather evidences to boost their legal chance. And one side has claimed to have assembled and lined up a troop of witnesses. While both sides seem to be so sure that they have enough evidences to prove their respective case, it is not sure if what they have got have any legal weight commensurate with international standard to prove such a defamation case.

On the one hand, the Sam Rainsy camp seemed to have enough documented evidences to back up his accusations against Hor Namhong. He can still find victims and survivors of the Boeng Trabek Prison who can testify for him. But to convince and to persuade them to come forward and testify against Hor Namhong would be an uphill task, considering that Cambodia and the Cambodian courts are at Hor Namhong‘s disposal.

On the other hand, the Hor Namhong camp has declared that they have solicited the supports of two (not) high profile witnesses: Duch and Long Visalo. Many written accounts seemed to suggest that these two were both perpetrators of heinous crimes, not victims of those crimes as they had claimed. So many people would be of the view that the testimonies of these two witnesses, due to their associations with the Khmer Rouge crimes in the past, lack credibility.

Let’s look at the history and profile of these two individuals. First, let’s examine Duch’s past. Duch was a director of one of the most notorious extermination centres in the world, where in excess of 16,000 prisoners were brutally tortured, then executed. He is currently being detained awaiting trial on crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. In any sense, a criminal who was accused of the same crimes that he will be called to testify against would not be a credible witness. He is being detained and guarded by the Cambodian police, and therefore he is at the mercy of the Cambodian authority and so would say anything to get a good deal for his upcoming sentence. As such, in an independent judiciary, his testimony would be tainted and inadmissible as evidences.

It is rather interesting for another witness, Long Visalo, to re-emerge at this critical time of truth-searching for the Khmer rouge crimes. He will not be a credible witness either because he was part of the crimes that he is called to defend. One does not need to look any further than Visalo’s own admission to prove that he was the perpetrator of the Khmer Rouge brutalities, and not the victim of those crimes. With such admission as “I was assigned to prepare a re-education camp in Boeng Trabek” proved that Long Visalo was not a prisoner of Boeng Trabek, but in fact an administrator of this re-education centre. To re-phrase Visalo's own words, he was the one who set up the Boeng Trabek Prison. Visalo went on to say that “I undertook several political sessions with Angkar’s leading cadre when I lived in Phnom Penh between 1976-1979”. These admissions proved that he was a leading Khmer Rouge cadre, who was actively participating in the Khmer Rouge day-to-day’s affairs such as administering the Boeng Trabek Prison and training and indoctrinating Khmer Rouge cadres.

It must be noted that only leading Khmer Rouge cadres were ever allowed to take part in a political sessions with ‘Angkar’s leading cadre” because the Khmer Rouge regime was a very secretive organisation. No one from outside, let a lone a prisoner like Long Visalo, would be allowed to take part in those very secretive political sessions.

Long Visalo’s shady pasts have been revealed by many Western historians and experts of the Khmer Rouge regime. In many books written by experts of the Khmer Rouge regime, it was claimed that, during the Khmer Rouge regime, Long Visalo worked at the Foreign Ministry and held a position equivalent to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He worked along side Ieng Sary and was very close to him. As an official of the Foreign Ministry, Visalo’s day-to-day job was to train Khmer Rouge cadres in foreign affairs and international relations at either the Institut Technique Khmer-Sovietique or at the former University of Phnom Penh.

Long Visalo’s claims of being a prisoner was incorrect. He was certainly not the victim of the Khmer Rouge, but an accomplish to the Khmer Rouge crimes at best, and a perpetrator and an architect of the Khmer Rouge crimes at worst.

So, are Duch and Long Visalo credible witnesses in the Hor Namhong’s defamation case against Sam Rainsy? The answer is a resounding "no"!

Long Visalo to defend Hor Namhong, his boss

Long Visalaud during the interview (Photo: Narith, Koh Santepheap)

Long Visalo to act as defense witness for Hor Namhong in Sam Rainsy’s accusation case

Monday, May 12, 2008
Koh Santepheap
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

"A committee chief (such as the one occupied by Hor Namhong) must put into application the plans issued by the (alleged Khmer Rouge) Boeng Trabek center chief" - Job description of the Boeng Trabek committee chief as provided by Long Visalo

Phnom Penh – In the afternoon of Friday 09 May 2008, Long Visalo, the state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, gave a brief interview to reporters at his ministry regarding the Boeng Trabek education center or re-education center under the genocidal Pol Pot regime.

In response to several questions asked by reporters, Long Visalo declared that during the KR regime, he was a prisoner of the Boeng Trabek education center which was divided into 3 centers: B-30, B-31, and B-32, and these centers were reserved for people who returned from overseas. B-30 was reserved for students and intellectuals, B-32 for diplomats and their families, and B-31 was filled by the KR with people who did a good job, at the beginning, people there were ordered to listen to radio station, teach foreign language to KR youths, type or create various documents, and hard labor was also performed.

Long Visalo indicated also that the Boeng Trabek education center is a re-education center to change the classes of those people returning from overseas, and at least to lower their classes also because they cannot be considered as revolutionary. Therefore, they have to be changed to a class of the poor or the class of workers and farmers. In there, people cannot think about fathers, mothers, siblings, or relatives anymore, each person is considered an entity of the Angkar, and there is a lot of work there, such as building houses, roads that must be dug out, pulling out water hyacinth (kamphloak) to plant water bindweed (trakuon) and other vegetables, because the (KR) believe that houses, villas, roads or cars are used by the rich people, and the Angkar does not need them, they must be destroyed, and vegetables must be planted to have food to eat every day. At Boeng Trabek, people was put to work from dawn to dusk, after eating porridge (rice soup), work must be continued until late at night, then meeting would be held, and shifts were set up to stand guard until morning time.

He added that those who returned from overseas, were brought to the Boeng Trabek center. These people were classified into 2 groups: (1) members of the liberation front formed by Sihanouk in 1970, following the Lon Nol coup d’état, and nationalist students and intellectuals from overseas who were members of the front, and (2) those who were not members of the front, but these people thought that since the country is at peace, they wanted to return back to help rebuild the country, or they thought about re-uniting with their relatives whom they were separated from during the war. At the Boeng Trabek center, there were changes among the common chief, but a man by name of Savorn was the one who was the chief for the longest amount of time. In Boeng Trabek, there were 3 subdivisions, the inner center selected a committee along with a committee chief who must put into application the plans issued by the Boeng Trabek center chief, however these chiefs work like all the others and ate the same as the others.

Regarding the accusation made by Sam Rainsy to Hor Namhong, involving the Beong Trabek center, Long Visalo indicated that he saw and knew Hor Namhong as a diplomat who came from overseas just like him. All of Hor Namhong’s family members were brought to the center like everybody else. Later on, he was designated as the B-32 committee chief, after Chao Seng and Van Phiny, the former committee chiefs were taken to be killed. During that time, Hor Namhong was no different from the others in term of work labor and food to eat, and he faced hardship like others also, and (for example), he even tore the bedspread to use as a scarf in lieu of a “kroma” for wiping the face [KI-Media note: Kroma, the scarf-towel, was used a status symbol under the KR regime, it shows that the person donning it belong to the farmer/worker class, i.e. a real communist proletarian. According to Long Visalo, Hor Namhong has to come up with a makeshift kroma during that period. Sleeping on a bedspread is considered very luxurious for common prisoner]. Furthermore, he was almost taken to be killed also because the KR planned to take him out of Boeng Trabek to go to another place, and (usually) those who were taken out, they all faced death, and this, Hor Namhong did not know about.

Long Visalo claimed that Sam Rainsy’s accusation was done for political gain, and those who said this, never saw the KR, never suffered under the KR [KI-Media note: King-Father said the same thing about Hor Namhong also, and he also lived under the KR regime]. He said that when Cambodian people suffered and had no food to eat, were tortured and killed, these people (who accused Hor Namhong) were sleeping quietly in peace in France, and they did not know anything, they dreamt that this person did this, that person did that, they did not participated in the suffering with the people, but when the people are at peace, then they came back to join the people, when the people suffered, they abandoned them. “Regarding Mr. Sam Rainsy’s accusation, I (Long Visalo) agree to act as a witness for Mr. Hor Namhong, and I am not doing this because he (Hor Namhong) works at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I am one of his subordinates, but I want to show the truth of each individuals who were victims at the Boeng Trabek center during the KR regime, and also for the actual truth which I was myself a victim, or for what the other victims also said.”

Long Visalo indicated also that: “For those who survived from the KR regime, I think that it was their great luck, furthermore, those who worked hard under the Angkar and they did not talk and protest about all out hardships, they all survived until now because of the unforgettable 07 January 1979 liberation.” He indicated that he will look for 2 or 3 more witnesses (to defend Hor Namhong) who had survived the Boeng Trabek center also. The Boeng Trabek jail issue will then be revealed to the public.

Hanoi claims Hun Sen agrees to 26 more border landmark positions; Phnom Penh silent on this vital issue

Vietnam and Cambodia agree on 26 more landmark positions

December 2, 2007
VNA (Hanoi)

Vietnam and Cambodia have agreed upon 26 more positions for planting landmarks along their border, bringing the total land border markers between the two countries to around 200.

The agreement was reached at the fourth session of the Vietnam-Cambodia Land Border Joint Technical Sub-Committee, which took place in Cambodia ’s capital city of Phnom Penh from November 30 to December 2.

During the meeting, the two sides also agreed on various measures to speed up the process of demarcation and landmark planting in order to complete the work prior to the end of next year.

The Vietnamese delegation to the session was led by the National Border Committee’s Vice Chairman Nguyen Hong Thao, who is also a standing member of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Demarcation and Landmark Planting and head of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Technical Sub-committee.

The Cambodian delegation was headed by Long Visalo, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation and head of the Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Technical Sub-committee for Demarcation and Landmark Planting.