Disastrous "historical" visits suffered by Cambodia

CFC/CBC Newsletters 2006-03-06

STATEMENT

Disastrous "historical" visits suffered by Cambodia

The goal of the official visit in Cambodia by Phan Van Khai, the Vietnamese Prime Minister, as announced by Hanoi’s news media, is "to consolidate the relationships between the two countries, according to the motto of ‘good neighborhood, traditional friendship, integral co-operation and long lasting solidarity’." Hanoi’s announcement also recalls that this "historical" visit follows upon two others: "(that of) the Secretary-general of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nong Duc Manh in February 2005, (and that of) the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Vietnam in October 2005 when the two countries signed the endorsement for the 1985 Treaty on the delimitation of the border."

Moreover, last 8 February, by receiving a delegation of Khmer parliamentarians, Mr. Nguyen Van An, the President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, declared that he appreciated "in particular the signing in 2005 of the supplemental treaty to the illegal and unequal 1985 Treaty on the Vietnam-Cambodia borders, and he was convinced that through this event the two countries will reinforce their friendship, their co-operation and their mutual aid to get off together from the list of under-developed countries (sic)"!

The "good Vietnamese-Cambodian neighborhood" will undoubtedly experience new development based on the following problems affecting the borders between the two countries:

• The "supplementary Treaty" signed in October 2005 had a provision in which Vietnam "will help Cambodia reprint the 40 UTM map sheets" of the border zones between the two countries, and more recently, Hanoi had announced that it was ready to support alone the costs of production and installation of border markers made out of granite.

The Cambodian counterpart was quite emotional:

• Recently as well, in February 2006, the US and Khmer media made it know that along border areas with Vietnam, hundreds of Cambodian families from Ratanakiri to Kampot province, and in particular in the border provinces of Svay Rieng and Takeo, had tragically suffered from the loss of their farmlands, their work, and their properties, following the preventions, threats and forced occupations by the Vietnamese authority and Vietnamese nationals well within the borders of Cambodia, there was no reaction whatsoever from Mr. Hun Sen’s government.

• It should be recalled also that the 1979 and 1980s treaties concluded under the occupation of Vietnam on Cambodia, allowed Vietnam to annex by force lands, islands, maritime fields and a systematic colonization of Cambodia by several million of Vietnamese settlers.

• New Vietnamese colonization and annexations of the large Cambodian provinces along the North-East (Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Stung Treng) had been implemented since October 1999 with the large project of creating an "Indochinese development Triangle." According to Mr. Phan Van Khai (on November 28, 2004), "the formation of this Triangle… indicates the determination of the leaders of the three countries to carry the relationship between the three countries (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) to a new height of traditional fraternity, integral co-operation, reciprocal comprehension and confidence… (and) a close co-operation in the (Triangle) zone in order to develop at the same time the economy and the society, and to ensure the safety of each of the three countries." Obviously, Mr. Hun Sen, on July 21, 2004 in Siemreap, had agreed, purely on a personal basis, to leave Vietnam totally “in charge” of organizing and directing the whole affair.

• Other programs of bilateral and integral co-operations for the development of border areas along the South-East, in Svay Rieng and Takeo, must be rapidly implemented also under the direction of Vietnam. It is then obvious to understand the multiple causes of the precarious situation suffered by the Cambodian population living in these areas, which is provoked by the Vietnamese forces and nationals well within the Cambodian borders…The first "historical" visit to Phnom-Penh by a Vietnamese Prime Minister was that of Mr. Pham Van Dong in February 1979, for the signing of the first treaty of occupation and protectorate act by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Cambodia. The current visit by Mr. Phan Van Khai, almost 25 years later, is performed only to solemnly renew, under a different disguise, the same disastrous and suicidal treaty for Cambodia.

Paris, March 06, 2006
General-Secretary

Sean Masavang

For further information:

Cambodia's Borders Committee : http://www.cfcambodge.org
Email : secretariat@cfcambodge.org