Visit to Cam-Viet Borders Blocked

On December 14, 2009 about 20 Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers, accompanied by some 100 local villagers from Chantrea and Romdual district paid their visit at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, but they were banned and blocked on the street by police and authorities there.

The blockage was done by joint forces provincial police and Border Defense police about 20-30. They used military trucks to park in the middle of the street to block the delegation and people’s access to Ang Rumdegn Pagoda.

When trying to stop the visitors, one of the police officers told to the crowd that they had order from provincial authority not to allow them to pass into the area at all.

The push and pull between the two parties lead to tension. Even though, those policemen used shields, shocking sticks, wood and trucks across the road, local villagers were still able to break the fence so that they could reach Ang Rumdegn Pagoda about 300 meters away.

Based on the research visit, Mr. Son Chai, a Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker said that the poles were not done transparently because local villagers and other stakeholders were not allowed to participate in.

Whereas Mr. Yem Sovann, another lawmaker, who also paid his visit at the border, asserted that the demarcation conducted by the joint border committee really encroached local rice field as well as Khmer territory. He also requested the government and the Assembly; especially the specialized institution to take immediate action to re-measure or re-check on the border markers. He raised he had just seen four points of the poles, but they already caused trouble to local villagers. Then what if there were more poles. How many more villagers would be affected?

According to commune councilors and local residents there, the former border area between Cambodia and Vietnam stayed about 2 kilometer from the new one.

A farmer whose rice field was asserted to be encroached by the new demarcation, Mrs. Meas Srey, 38, a widowed with two children said that she would lose one hectare of her rice field, if the poles were considered to be border point. She also mentioned that some other villagers would lose several hectares, but they did not dare to protest against the measurement.

Mr. Va Kim Hong, Secretary General of State and the president of Joint Border Committee criticized and considered what those Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers had mentioned as the predictors. He added that those who were skillful of the matter were not so sure, how about those who only visited the area once awhile and just listened to villagers. He said that if they used those poles as border markers, they must affect local rice field; and if they [local residents] did not want to have their rice field affected, they should farm in the sky.

It has been seen that local and national authorities are not responsible for their duty. This act violates freedom of access to information, freedom of movement and local right to life as mentioned in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Cambodian Constitution.