Some regions encroached into Vietnam as well in border delimitation -sic!-: Cheang Am, CPP Svay Rieng provincial governor

Authority tried to prevent border visit by SRP MPs

14 Dec 2009
By Ly Meng Huor
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

As previously planned, on Monday 14 December, 21 SRP MPs went to visit Cambodian-Vietnamese border posts in Svay Rieng province. However, when the opposition MPs walked over to border post no. 185 – the one that Mr. Sam Rainsy led villagers to uproot on 25 October – 20 to 30 cops prevented them from approaching it.

A melee and pushing match between the cops and the local villagers took place on Monday afternoon when the Svay Rieng provincial police authority set up a barrage along rice fields to prevent SRP MPs and opposition activists from approaching this disputed border post. However, the incident did not cause any injury. At the end, the group of local villagers and SRP MPs succeeded in reaching the border zone at the rice field location where Mr. Sam Rainsy led a group of villagers to uproot the border stakes 2 months ago.

During the one-day trip to the Svay Rieng border, the group of 21 SRP MPs visited border post no. 152, located in Romduol district, and the border stakes for post no. 185 located in Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province. Yim Sovann, SRP MP and SRP spokesman who also traveled with the other 20 SRP MPs, indicated that the villagers all complained about the loss of their rice fields due to the planting of border posts with Vietnam. At Wat Ang Romdenh Pagoda, located about 300-meter from border post 185, the Cambodian authority also prevented the monks from building anything there as well.

The complaints made by local villagers led Mr. Sam Rainsy to lead a group of local villagers to uproot 6 border stakes out of their rice fields on 25 October. However, the Svay Rieng authority sued Sam Rainsy immediately. Regarding the complaints by local Cambodian farmers about the loss of their rice field lands, Cheang Am, the Svay Rieng provincial governor, indicated that according to the border delimitation work between Cambodia and Vietnam based on maps, there are some regions that encroached into Cambodian territories and some regions that encroached into the Vietnamese territories as well.