Premier’s letter proves border point: Rainsy

Meas Sokchea
Monday, 19 December 2011
The Phnom Penh Post

A LETTER from Prime Minister Hun Sen has sparked a fresh accusation from opposition party leader Sam Rainsy (pictured) that the Royal Government convicted him without any basis on charges relating to his uprooting of border posts in Svay Rieng in 2009.

In a letter sent to Sam Rainsy Party members on Friday, the France-based, self-exiled leader said he had received a letter from the prime minister on December 2, via National Assembly President Heng Samrin, that admitted there were no definitive border posts along the Cambodia/Vietnam border.

“So far, the joint Cambodia-Vietnam border commission has not yet reached agreement on the position of border posts 184 to 187,” Hun Sen’s letter read. “The two parties are continuing to negotiate defining the position of these markers and others over which agreement will be needed in the future.”

Sam Rainsy was sentenced to jail for 2 years after being found guilty by Svary Rieng Provincial Court in 2009 of destroying border post number 185 along the Kingdom’s border with Vietnam.

In last Friday’s missive, Sam Rainsy stated that Hun Sen’s letter amounted to an admission that any destruction or removal of border post number 185 was not a crime because the border post was not an official one.

“So Sam Rainsy did not touch the frontier –which does not exist officially – and his conviction has no basis,” Sam Rainsy’s letter read.

Var Kimhong, senior minister in charge of border affairs, yesterday said that Sam Rainsy’s allegation was just political gamesmanship.

“What Samdech Techo [Hun Sen] wrote is most correct – it is the stance of the joint border commission that has been working on marking the border,” Var Kimhong said. “The Royal government has patience explaining again and again. [Sam Rainsy] understands, but he pretends not to.”