Opposition leader Sam Rainsy (Photo: Ayuthyea, RFA)
01 November 2009By Mao Sotheany
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in KhmerThe Vietnamese government condemned opposition leader Sam Rainsy for pulling out wooden posts along the border on Sunday of last week.
The AFP reported on 31 October that, in the evening of 30 October 2009, the Viet ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on its website a condemnation of the action taken by Sam Rainsy as being “a perverse action, damaging common property, violating both countries’ laws, and bilateral treaties and agreements.”
The Viet statement criticized Sam Rainsy of slandering Vietnam by accusing the latter of planting posts and violating Cambodian territories.
On Sunday 25 October 2009, the SRP led a Kathen procession to a pagoda located in Samrong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province. Mr. Sam Rainsy and about 10 SRP MPs, as well as about 100 local villagers were present during the ceremony.
RFA could not obtain Mr. Sam Rainsy’s reaction regarding the Viet government accusation leveled against him above as Mr. Sam Rainsy is currently participating in a conference in Egypt.
RFA was able to contact SRP MP Yont Tharo and asked him to clarify this situation as he was also present in the Kathen ceremony.
Yony Tharo said: “The villagers complained to the MPs, including myself, about the planting of border posts. Vietnam planted them on their lands, in the past, the border was located away from their lands, but now it includes their lands. Some villagers lost 1.5 hectares, some more than 2 hectares, that’s what they complained. At that time, after Mr. Sam Rainsy led the Kathen procession to the pagoda and he turned over the Kathen to the monks, about 100 villagers traveled with Mr. Sam Rainsy, among these people there were also border police officers who protected the pagoda. I am not sure if these police officers at the Kathen ceremony were protecting the border or they were protecting local order, I did not know, [but] there were 7-8 of them. When we went there, we saw the villagers’ rice fields measuring about 200-meter wide … one side of the field is on the other side of the Vietnamese border just like what they told us earlier, so now they took 2-hectare of their lands, that I witnessed it. On the scene, the border post was planted right in the middle of the rice field, it’s about 1-meter-square, the center is poured in concrete, but the concrete is poured into the soil… around the concrete border footing, there were 6 wooden posts. Mr. Sam Rainsy said that he will pull out these border posts, it was his idea, and he will take responsibility for them. He was just saying it but he did not pull them out yet when the villagers started to pull them out, all 6 of them.”
Mao Sotheany: What I wanted to ask your Excellency is regarding the declaration issued by the Vietnamese ministry of Foreign Affairs that was published last Friday evening. They condemned Mr. Sam Rainsy of disrupting the relationship between the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments and such, in this case, what do you think?
Yont Tharo: To me, what the Vietnamese government raised depends on the reality, so we want to see the fact, let’s all go visit together: the border committee and the villagers. If I did not see the place, I wouldn’t know, but the villagers are witnesses, they pointed to us the rice fields they are planting crops on … it’s 200 meter, but now they took 2-3 meters wide and 100 meter long, it’s equivalent to 2 hectares of their lands. This is what I saw, there was indeed encroachment of Khmer lands, that I saw.”
Mao Sotheany: When you and Mr. Sam Rainys went to the border, along with about 100 villagers, did you confirm with the local authorities, such as the commune and district authorities, that they recognize the fact that Vietnam planted border posts inside Cambodian territories or not?
Yont Tharo: I did not ask the local authority, because we are not involved in the border demarcation, during that time we went there for the Kathen ceremony. The villagers complained, they yelled and cried about the loss of their rice fields, that was why Mr. Sam Rainsy went to see the actual situation, just like what I told you earlier. The villagers were victimized. Older villages are located far from the border, so we have difficulties asking the authority, furthermore, these are only wooden stakes, but the real post, it is still there. We saw that Cambodians are not happy about the border post being planted by encroaching on Khmer territories. The actual border post with a [concrete] footing is still in the ground, it did not disappear.
Cambodia and Vietnam started to officially plant border posts along their 1,270-km common border in September 2006. The demarcation was done to end the several decade-long border dispute between the two countries.
