SRP posts on VN encroachment

Monday, 25 January 2010

By Vong Sokheng
Phnom Penh Post

Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Chhoeung Sarin speaks to a reporter last week about her husband, Prom Chea, who is in a Svay Rieng jail on charges related to opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s removal of border markers.

THE opposition Sam Rainsy Party has released what it says is evidence of Vietnamese border encroachments into Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province, in an area where party president Sam Rainsy joined villagers in uprooting temporary border posts in October.
The evidence, which was posted on the SRP’s Web site on Sunday and is to be presented by Sam Rainsy in a radio broadcast at 6pm tonight, suggests Vietnam border markers 184, 185, 186 and 187 are located inside Cambodian territory, according to French- and American-drawn maps.

In a statement released on Saturday, the SRP says Sam Rainsy has been assisted by historians and geographers from several countries in a bid to prove the border markers sit well within Cambodia’s legal borders. The SRP president is to be tried in absentia along with two local villagers at Svay Rieng provincial court on Wednesday in connection with his removal of the posts.

“We want the Cambodian people to realise the bad faith and incompetence of the current Cambodian government ruled by the Cambodian People’s Party, and we are seeking justice for the villagers currently being detained at Svay Rieng provincial prison in relation to the uprooting of the border-demarcation posts along with opposition leader Sam Rainsy,” said SRP spokesman Yim Sovann.

Cheam Yeap, a senior CPP lawmaker, said that Sam Rainsy’s appearance on the radio show would not erase his crime, adding that he has to take responsibility for his behaviour.

“If the upcoming trial at the provincial court issues a guilty verdict, he will have to respect the law … and his political life will end in the country,” he said on Sunday.