2015-07-28 rfa
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Rom Sarorn speaks to RFA in Battambang province's Banan district, July 28, 2015.
RFA
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“I said if Vietnam wanted to take our land, it could have done so in 1979 when we were living under Hanoi’s control,”
Phon Sophaon
School of Vice: Is this another one of those skewed logic of the CPP's rank and file or just its typical brain-washed, indoctrinated automated response to the question? An act of invasion is already, by any definition, a taking-over of another country's or nation-state's territory and constitutes a violation of its political independence and sovereignty. This was one reason why the country's UN seat was withheld from the Vietnamese-created Phnom Penh regime up until the political settlement and UN supervised election in the 1990s after over a decade of armed resistance and countless lives sacrificed.
The physical border markers and their alleged violations of Cambodia's territory today and, since that invasion in 1979, give us only a glimpse of the overall scale and magnitude of that event's legacy and gains in the invaders' favour and at incalculable expense to Cambodia and her people. One has only to open one's eyes and look around oneself to see the manifestations and effects of this odious legacy.
And why are many areas on the Cambodia side of the already planted boundary markers off-limit to Cambodian people only?
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An activist with Cambodia’s opposition party on Tuesday accused a former senior official with the country’s intelligence organization of making death threats against him, causing him to fear for his life, and has called on local authorities and civil society groups to investigate the incident.
Rom Sarorn, an activist with the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Battambang province’s Banan district, said he was attacked by the former deputy commander of Division 52 in charge of Cambodia’s intelligence agency, Phon Sophaon, on July 26 as the two discussed politics at a local café.
According to Rom Sarorn, the two men had been arguing over the purpose behind CNRP President Sam Rainsy’s ongoing trip to Paris, when Phon Sophaon began beating him, injuring his eye.
“He accused me in the coffee shop of betrayal and ingratitude, and then he started to beat me up and slammed me to the ground,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service, adding that the attack had been “politically motivated.”
“I don’t know what would have happened to me if nobody came to my aid.”
Sam Rainsy is traveling in Paris to build support for Cambodia’s democratic ambitions, and has drawn criticism for leaving the country last week on the same day that 11 CNRP activists were sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years for taking part in a July 2014 protest that turned violent.
Rom Sarorn claimed Phon Sophaon also “threatened to kill me,” and said he is now living in fear, urging provincial authorities and civil society groups to “take immediate action” against the former deputy commander.
Allegations denied
Phon Sophaon—also known as Lorn—acknowledged to RFA that he and Rom Sarorn had a political disagreement, but said it was related to an ongoing territorial dispute with Vietnam along the country’s shared border with Cambodia.