Hun Sen’s Response to Questions from Opposition Members of Parliament Related to The Border Issue with Vietnam

November 13, 2010

HUN SEN’S RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS

FROM OPPOSITION MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

RELATED TO THE BORDER ISSUE WITH VIETNAM

Official documents with questions and answers in Khmer available at

Here is a non-official translation of the most significant extracts from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s letter to National Assembly President Heng Samrin dated November 8, 2010:

« I want to respond to all those questions [from SRP Members of Parliament] as follows:

Question # 1: Is there dissemination of false information in the letter that the three Samdechs [Chea Sim, Heng Samrin, Hun Sen] sent to H.M. King-Father Norodom Sihanouk on November 16, 2009, saying, “Until now, there is not a single Cambodian farmer who has lost his/her rice field since the joint technical committee is only doing the work of planting border posts without getting involved in the work of [border] demarcation yet and the two parties have not forbidden or stopped farmers from both sides from cultivating their lands”?

Response: Until today the situation on the actual ground in the area of tentative post # 185 [uprooted by Sam Rainsy on October 25, 2009], in particular posts # 184 to 187 [along the] border between Cambodia an Vietnam, has not changed since the joint technical group from the two countries is continuing their study on the actual ground in order to search for material evidence necessary for the determination of the real location of those border posts.

Because the joint technical group from the two countries has not planted any border post # 185 yet, the border demarcation work -- which is the work of the joint technical group to be done after the planting of that post -- has not started yet either. For the above reason, Cambodian farmers as well as Vietnamese farmers in that area have not been prevented by the local authorities from the two countries from continuing to cultivate their lands and also there is not a single farmer who has lost his/her land.

Therefore, this question actually contains a baseless accusation and is in fact a calumny to serve a strategy to attack the royal government; it is an attempt to make political gains that creates tensions between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Question # 2: Isn’t [the above assertion by the three Samdechs] dissemination of false information after Mr. Prum Chea and Ms. Meas Srey from Samraong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province, were sentenced by the tribunal to one year imprisonment because they dared come out to defend their rice fields […]?

Response: […] On January 27, 2010, Mr. Prum Chea and Ms. Meas Srey were punished by the tribunal on the basis of article 52 of the [UNTAC] criminal law relative to “the intentional damage (to tentative border post # 185 between Cambodia and Vietnam) caused at Koh Kban Kandal village, Samraong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province on October 25, 2009.” […]

Question # 3: Aren’t the two above-mentioned farmers witnesses or living evidence of the loss of [Cambodian] rice fields because of the ongoing planting of border posts?

Response: Based on [my] answer to question # 2, these two farmers are not “witnesses or living evidence of the loss of [Cambodian] rice fields because of the ongoing planting of border posts” as claimed by Members of Parliament from the Sam Rainsy Party.

In the past, I and the two Samdechs [Chea Sim and Hun Sen] have already told H.M. King-Father Norodom Sihanouk in [our] November 16, 2009 letter, “this planting of border posts and border demarcation is being done in accordance with the fundamental map that the head of state [then Prince Norodom Sihanouk] deposited at the United Nations in 1964. In spite of the advanced technologies we are using, border delimitation [results] based on the map and on the occupation [by the local populations] on the actual ground do not exactly coincide, which results in the border line going astray in some places into areas occupied by the other side, which creates problems for which the border committee from the two countries must find a compromise.

The royal government has clear principles in the search for solutions for all problems that could arise once the national border committee has completed its work consisting in the planting of border demarcation posts. »