Council Rules Out Halt to Demarcation

The Constitutional Council on Friday ruled out a request by opposition lawmakers to halt border demarcation with Vietnam in Svay Rieng province.

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh Friday, 09 April 2010

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy stands in front of the national assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The Constitutional Council on Friday ruled out a request by opposition lawmakers to halt border demarcation with Vietnam in Svay Rieng province, which they say allows encroachment on the land of farmers.

Fourteen members of the Sam Rainsy Party made the request Wednesday, claiming survey maps from the 1930s and 1950s show the border belongs further east.

A spokesman for the Constitutional Council said the request did not fall under its authority. Lawmakers had argued the current pursuit of border demarcation violated the nation’s constitutional right to sovereignty.

“We have difficulty believing in the authority of the Constitutional Council,” Kimsour Phirith, a lawmaker for the Sam Rainsy Party, told VOA Khmer. “In fact, in our view, the decision remains a political decision.”

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who remains in exile abroad, faces a two-year jail sentence in Cambodia for destroying border markers in Chantrea district last year, and the government has brought an additional suit against him for posting a border map on his party’s Web site the government says is false.