Rong Chhun’s group visited border post 131 without incident

09 Jan 2011
Cambodia Express News
Translated from Khmer by Ach Phkay

The Cambodia Watchdog Council (CWC), led by Mr. Rong Chhun, reached its destination at border post no. 131(1) in Meun Chey village, Krobao commune, Komchay Mea district, Prey Veng province, at 10AM on 09 January.

Border post 131(1) is facing the opposite border post no. 131(2) located inside Vietnam. The Mean Chey River separates the two border posts. The cops did not set any obstacle to this visit, and quite to the contrary, the border post led the group to the locations where Mr. Rong Chhun’s group wanted to see.

A group of about 19 CWC members left to Prey Veng province on Sunday morning to visit border posts with Vietnam, to verify that there was no loss of Cambodian territories.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The border post no. 125

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

MP: Vietnam encroached into Cambodia by almost 1 km near Heng Samrin’s house

14 Dec 2010
By Pech Bandol
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

A group of opposition MPs from the SRP party traveled to Kampong Cham province this morning to check on the border safety. However, when they arrived in Thlock Trach and Anlong Chey villages, located in Kak commune, Ponhea Krek distict, Kampong Cham province, where Heng Samrin owns a house there, they found out that the planting of border posts had encroached almost 1 km into Cambodia and only the land in Heng Samrin’s house is carved to remain inside Cambodia.

SRP MP Cheam Channy told other MPs that he came to check border post 125 in Anlong Chey village after the local villagers claimed that this border post encroached on their lands. Following the visit to Ponhea Krek, the SRP MPs led by Mr. Son Chhay continued on to border post 109 located in Thmor Da commune, Memot district as well. This border post which Mr. Rong Chhun of the Cambodian Watchdog Council visited on 05 December, is also encroached into Cambodian territories by almost 200-meter.

The finding of the almost 1-km encroachment by Vietnam in Pohnea Krek corroborates with the comment made by opposition leader Sam Rainsy who said that Heng Samrin told him that the border post is planted next to the stair in his house.

Evolution of the Cambodia-Vietnam border situation - A Compendium in French and Khmer by Sakou Samoth

Cher(e)s ami(e)s,

Vous trouverez en pièce jointe de 63 pages:

Evolution de la situation de frontières Cambodge-Viêtnam dans les 12 derniers mois.

Cordialement,
SAKOU Samoth
------------
Dear Friends,

Please find attached a 63-page document regarding:

Evolution of the Cambodia-Vietnam border situation during the past 12 months.

Best regards,
SAKOU Samoth

Click here to read the compendium (8MB, PDF)
Cliquez ici pour life le document (8MB, PDF)

SRP's report on irregular border posts in Ponhea Krek and Memot districts, Kampong Cham province

Click on the letter in Khmer to zoom in

SRP's report on Vietnamese border encroachment in Memot and Ponhea Krek districts, Kampong Cham province

Click on the article in Khmer to zoom in

Ponhea Krek villagers: The planting of border posts leads to the loss of Khmer territories to the benefit of Vietnam

Ponhea Krek villagers claimed that the planting of border posts led to the loss of Khmer territories to Vietnam (Photo: RFI)

29 June 2010
By Im Navin Radio France Internationale Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Click here to listen to the report in Khmer (MP3)

The Cambodia-Viet border committee planted a number of border posts in the Ponhea Krek district region, Kampong Cham province. However, a number of villagers are claiming that these border post planting led to the loss of their rice fields and homes to the benefit of Vietnam. This is what happened to Anlong Chrey village, the area where border post no. 125 is currently being planted.

Trouble in The East

Former monarch Sihanouk and his family on their private visit to Hanoi (Photo: Vietnam News)

"This, there will be one day and we will turn into Champa No. 2!
Cambodia will be Champa No. 2!
All your children, yes you all, [will live under] Champa No. 2!
... But now, I am freeing myself up!" - Ponhea Krek villager who lost his lands to Vietnamese encroachment

Friday, June 25, 2010
Op-Ed by MP

SO much for fraternity and territorial integrity, heh?

If one could tame tigers and turn them into pillows to rest on, warned Khmer forefathers, then one could consider having the Vietnamese as one’s friends!

Where is Cambodia now, after all the recent turmoil and grief?

The violation of Cambodian sovereignty by way of the Ho Chi Minh Trail across the eastern provinces with Sihanouk's connivance was a crucial factor in the coup against him. Lon Nol and his associates have been universally blamed for plunging the nation into the abyss, but the most tragic error surely must rest with those individuals who thought (and evidently still believe) they had the tiger tamed enough to gamble the nation and its survival on their conviction.

So Hanoi won the war against US imperialism and 'liberated' the Khmer people from the clutches of Pol Pot and his radicalism. But where was this radicalism fermented in the first instance if not through the collective psyche of a people who have for centuries been at the receiving end of humiliation and oppression at the hands of foreign yoke and traitors in their midst?

Are the Khmer people easily given to paranoia or do they have legitimate causes for their anxiety and concerns as regards their dominant, scheming neighbours to the East? What has Hanoi done to remove the causes of those negative emotions that the Khmer people have towards its empirical repression of their nation and its persistent disregard for their dignity, beside removing one murderous regime and replacing it with a not so murderous one?

At present, Khmer people everywhere may not share the same universal experience of a people completely submerged as the ancient nation of Champa had once done, but for those Khmer folk living along the border whose lands and livelihoods have been robbed by the Vietnamese and their compliant Cambodian authorities, there is only utter pain and anguish of not being able to live and die on their ancestral soil.

Some of us accustomed to urban environments may find it difficult to imagine the emotional attachment rural people have towards their farms or villages - every tree, lake, stream, wat and prasat is embedded in their very soul and consciousness constituting in their inextricable total a self-contained universe from which separation does but refutes their existence as a community and denies them as living humans.

One elderly villager's warning about his country facing the grave risk of following Champa's example comes as an echo of an imprisoned heart that clearly discerns truth and danger through its bitter experience of realities. Clearly, this gentleman is not a politician, an actor, an orator of great speeches, and appears oblivious of the potential punishment that his outspoken protestations may bring upon himself vis-à-vis the local authority. Such is the courage of someone who has lost all that was dear to him and his community; for this gentleman and his immediate world Champa is no projectable scenario or realisable nightmare, but a fait accompli.

Other villages, towns and districts will come to terms with his message when their turn arrives. For now though the King and his entourage on their private visit to the land of our fraternal neighbours on public expense offer the nation far better diversion on state controlled TV channels than does any visit to dreary border markers in the country’s rural backwaters.

Enjoy the weekend!

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Khmer Farmer from Ponhea Krek

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

This, there will be one day and we will turn into Champa No. 2!
Cambodia will be Champa No. 2!
All your children, yes you all, [will live under] Champa No. 2!
... But now, I am freeing myself up!

SRP MPs visit the border

sVar Kim Hong lying?
sVar Kim Hong claimed that, ever since he went to school, he never see border coordinates publicly listed, well for the record, the 1985 treaty concluded by sVar Kim Hong's bosses - Heng Xamrin and Hun Xen - clearly lists coordinates of the borderline between Cambodia and Vietnam. Click on the excerpt above to zoom in. The full treaty can be found at http://www.pressocm.gov.kh/border/11.php

SRP MPs visit border post no. 125 located in Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham province (Photo: Vannara, RFI)

23 June 2010
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

In the end, 3 SRP MPs reached the Cambodian-Viet border in Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham province in the morning of Wednesday 23 June. The 3 SRP MPs from Kampong Cham, who were accompanied by reporters, reached border post no. 125 and 128 which were already completed. Without talking about the border posts per se, MP Mao Monyvann indicated that he just received information from local villagers saying that border posts 126 and 127 which have already been surveyed lead to the loss of lands within 3 Cambodian villages.

3 SRP MPs: Mao Monyvann, Cheam Channy and Mrs. Thak Lany, along with a group of reporters reached the Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham province, and they also visited border post no. 125 and 128. Furthermore, information provided to the SRP MPs by local villagers indicated that problems are occurring with the planting of border stakes for post no. 126 and 127. Mao Monyvann claimed that some villagers told him that there was a group of officials who came to survey the location for border post no. 126 and 127, and if, in the future, the authorities from the two countries will plant the final border posts at the surveyed locations, then Cambodian territories will be lost in 3 villages: Preah Sre village, Anlong Chrey village, and Thlok Trach village, all located within the Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham province.

Mao Monyvann indicated that: (1) SRP MPs asked the government border committee [headed by sVar Kim Hong] to publicly announce the list of coordinates for border post no. 126 and 127, so that they can be compared with the map to see whether they are located correctly or not; (2) SRP MPs from Kampong Cham will send a letter to Heng Samrin, president of the National Assembly, to tell him about the local villagers’ concerns, and to ask his authorization to allow all 18 MPs from Kampong Cham province from all political parties to visit the local villags by themselves.

Regarding these issues, sVar Kim Hong, senior minister in charge of border, explained that, first of all, regarding the SRP MPs’ request to announce the list coordinates for border posts in Ponhea Krek, ever since he started school, he never saw such a list in his life [KI-Media note: sVar Kim Hong is lying, please see a list of border points publicly listed in the 1985 treaty concluded between the Heng Xamrin puppet regime and their Viet masters]. Secondly, regarding the survey of border post 126 and 127, sVar Kim Hong, the alleged border expert, indicated that for these two locations, there is no agreement made with Vietnam yet, and that experts from both countries are still discussing about them.

According to reporters who traveled to the spot, as well as according to SRP MPs themselves, the authority did not harass the visitors during their trip to the border with Vietnam in Kampong Cham province.

Opposition MPs to visit Cambodia-Viet border in Kampong Cham

23 June 2010
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer By Sujata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

SRP MPs plan to depart Wednesday to Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham, to visit a number of Cambodia-Viet border posts there. Government officials commented that the SRP MPs are fomenting sabotage and inciting people to oppose the government.

A group of SRP MPs will travel to Ponhea Krek district, Kampong Cham province, on Wednesday to review Cambodia-Viet border posts no. 125, 126, 127 and 128. SRP MP Mao Monivann declared that the reason the MPs undertake this visit was because they received information and complaints from local villagers in Ponhea Krek district about the loss of their lands to the benefit of Vietnam following the planting of border posts. Mao Monivann added that the trip to Kampong Cham is undertaken to meet the villagers as their representatives, in order to review the actual situation and to gather additional information on the claims made by the local villagers.

Tith Sothea, mouthpiece of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PQRU) of the Council of Ministers, reacted to the SRP trip, saying that this is a sabotage action and an incitation on the villagers to oppose the government. To Tith Sohtea, this is tantamount to reaping political gain.

Mao Monivann indicated that, after gathering clear information from the local villagers, and in the case of actual loss of territorial integrity, the SRP MPs will write a letter to Heng Xamrin, president of the National Assembly, for an official visit to the border post involved.

Without concerning that this is merely a visit of SRP MPs to local villagers, Tith Sothea warned that if there is prevention to the visit by local authorities, such prevention is just an application of the law (sic!).

It should be noted that this is the third province, after Svay Rieng and Takeo, where SRP MPs have expressed their doubt and leveled accusations that there are losses of Cambodian territories to the benefit of Vietnam through the planting of border posts delimiting the two countries.

Heng Samrin: Anlong Chrey village was the birthplace of anti-Khmer Rouge movement

Source: Deum Ampil newspaper
Reported in English by Khmerization
Originally posted at : www.khmerization.blogspot.com

At the same time as an expert witness testifying in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal that "Prime Minister Hun Sen used to be a member of the Khmer Rouge regime, Mr. Heng Samrin (pictured), another ex-Khmer Rouge leader and an ex-Head of State of the Vietnam-backed regime from 1979-1991, has revealed for the first time the origin of the anti-Khmer Rouge movement in the late 1970s, reports Deum Ampil.

Mr. Heng Samrin said 24th May that the anti-Pol Pot movement was formed in Anlong Chrey village, Kok commune in Ponhea Krek district of Kampong Cham province in 1977.

Heng Samrin said that Anlong Chrey was a village which received the most heavy destruction during the American bombings and during the anti-Khmer Rouge resistance.

He said that the "American imperialists and its lackeys" conducted the heaviest bombardments of the Ponhea Krek district, especially Anlong Chrey village. According to Heng Samrin, in 1964, 12 villagers were tragically killed by the American bombings near his home in the village of Anlong Chrey.

Beside the event of the 1964 bombings, Anlong Chrey was the historical birthplace of the "United Front for National Salvation" and a significant base of the anti-Pol Pot movement where many nationalist leaders were based. He said: "Anlong Chrey is a village where all the anit-Khmer Rouge forces gathered and planned their strategy to topple the Khmer Rouge regime. The creation of the armed movement in order to form a "national front" was supportd by the people from Anlong Chrey to as far as Snuol district. After the armed movement was formed, there was a universal declaration of the creation in Snuol district (of the United Front for National Salvation of 2nd December, 1978)."

Mr. Heng Samrin, ex-Head of State of Cambodia from 1979-1991, claimed that during the Khmer Rouge regime he was the "commander of divivion 4" based in Anlong Chrey village in the Eastern Zone where families of the key members of the Khmer Rouge, such as the families of Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife Ing Thirith, Pol Pot and his wife Khieu Ponnary and Yun Yat, wife of KR Minister of Defence Son Sen, had visited. The wife of Nop Bophann, editor of "Pracheachun" newspaper, who was shot dead (in the village?) had also visited the village.

Bird flu in Cambodia

April 13, 2007
MeatNews.com

CAMBODIA: More that 1,000 birds destroyed in new outbreak of avian influenza.

A new case of bird flu has been reported in Cambodia in which more than 1,000 birds have either died or been destroyed.

The outbreak is in Laork, Kreak, Ponhea Kreak, and has affected 1,086 backyard birds.

A total of 302 birds have died in the incident and the remainder were destroyed as part of the control measures.

The source of the outbreak is unknown, but the Cambodian veterinary authorities are maintaining surveillance on surrounding villages in case of further outbreaks, according to the World Animal Health Organization (OIE).

The authorities have also imposed movement controls inside the country and established a screening program as well as disinfecting the infected buildings.

While birds in Cambodia can be vaccinated against the disease, there is no treatment for those already infected.