Tin Sokhavuth
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| Government officials unveil the map used to demarcate the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, following complaints from the opposition CNRP that the ruling CPP is shortchanging the Kingdom by using a map that favors Vietman. KT Photo: Fabien Mouret |
KHMER TIMES (Phnom Penh) – Negotiators from Cambodia and Vietnam were scheduled to meet today for talks over disputes along their 1,228 km mutual border. But after a rocky weekend – with Hanoi’s state media criticizing Cambodia and a new Cambodian group confronting Vietnamese police at the border – the bi-national border talks were suspended.
A three-day meeting of the Cambodia Vietnam Joint Border Committee was to start in Siem Reap today. But now it is delayed for “technical reasons,” according to a high-ranking source in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Committee Members in the Dark
The cancellation was so last minute that two committee members were in the dark until a Khmer Times reporter called them Sunday. Committee member Kuy Pesey said she had been told that the meeting was switched from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.
She said the Cambodia side had put on the agenda the key disputes that arose over the past month. These include alleged encroachments on Cambodian soil in Ratanakkiri, Kampot and Svay Rieng provinces.
Testing Wills in the Parrot’s Beak
Tensions boiled over June 28 when activists, including members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, clashed with Vietnamese villagers in a disputed area in Svay Rieng province’s Kampong Rou district. This area is in an eastern Cambodian salient, known as the Parrot’s Beak during the Vietnam War.
Although several people were injured in this confrontation, Pen Bun Theun, the president of a local children’s rights NGO, led a group of kids to the same area on Saturday.
He was briefly detained by Vietnamese authorities near border post 240 in Kampong Rou district, according to Khmer-language media. Rights group Licadho helped obtain his release. There were no reports of detentions of children.
Vietnam’s State News Attacks “Extremists”
Vietnam’s state news agency has been largely silent over Cambodian complaints of Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory.
But, last week, it reported on the June 28 clash, saying it occurred inside Vietnam’s Long An province. Vietnam News Agency said the clash was provoked by Cambodian extremists, including members of the CNRP, who entered Vietnamese territory illegally.
“Vietnamese forces and locals stopped the group and told them about their ‘wrong action,’ but some extremists attacked them, injuring seven [Vietnamese],” VNA said.
Late last week, Cambodia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that Cambodia and Vietnam had agreed to set up a bilateral committee to get to the bottom of what happened on June 28.
CNRP Mood Swings
Earlier last month, the Cambodia National Rescue Party had praised the government here for the swift and stern language it used in diplomatic notes to Vietnam. These notes pointed out instances of alleged encroachment and rebuked Vietnam for failing to honor bilateral treaties and agreements.
But, after the June 28 clash, the CNRP returned to its traditional stance, suggesting the ruling Cambodian People’s Party was shortchanging the Kingdom in talks with Vietnam.
On Saturday, CNRP president Sam Rainsy said he called for French cartographers to help demarcate the border. He also called for a stop to further border demarcations.
France, the former colonial power in the region, mapped the boundaries of Cambodia at the time of independence, in 1953.
Mr. Rainsy, Cambodia’s top opposition leader, repeated his longstanding position that a 2005 bilateral treaty used to guide the demarcation process should be cancelled.
Hong Sokhour, president of the CNRP’s border committee, told Khmer Times that this treaty should be cancelled unilaterally.
When asked to comment on who in France is being called in to help demarcate the border, Mr. Sokhour – who is also a senator – said his committee had emailed French geographers, cartographers and GPS technicians. He declined to name them or say how many had been contacted.
He said the government should have no objections to his committee’s advice because it is not legally binding.
“If we can prove that Cambodian land has been lost to Vietnam, then the government must retrieve this land,” said the opposition senator.
“When Mr. Rainsy tore out a border demarcation post in 2005, the government could force him into exile,” Mr. Sokhour said, recalling a famous incident here. “But it could not do so now, because the opposition is stronger and the government has to listen to it.”
He also called for scrapping the 2005 treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam, saying it favors Vietnam. The opposition is prepared to challenge in court, arguing that the 2005 treaty violates the Constitution and the Paris Peace Accords, he said.
“Childish” Opponents
In response, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan chided the opposition as “childish.” He referred specifically to a meeting Thursday when the government unveiled a map it uses for demarcating the border.
This display followed CNRP accusations that the map favors Vietnam. Mr. Rainsy also offered his set of maps.
“We invited opposition lawmakers. We treated them with the respect due to them as lawmakers, but they acted like children,” said Mr. Siphan. He said one CNRP lawmaker stepped on the map, showing disrespect to Cambodia’s territorial integrity as well as the King.
More than 80 percent of the border has been demarcated and the government is bringing issues about alleged Vietnamese encroachment to the attention of authorities in Vietnam, Mr. Siphan told Khmer Times.
“It has to be a bilateral process,” he said, adding that rising anger on both the Cambodian and Vietnamese sides hinders the negotiating the process.
Vietnamese Own Land in Cambodia
Kem Ley, founder of the Khmer for Khmer political movement, said the opposition wants to prolong the border dispute so that it will be an issue in the 2018 general election.
“It is for the right reason,” Mr. Ley said, explaining that he believed the opposition is guided by patriotism and a desire to protect the country and its people.
Political analyst Ou Virak disagreed.
“I do not believe the opposition is doing that,” he said.
Mr. Virak called for a new joint committee to be formed between the CNRP and the CPP to resolve border issues.
He agreed with the CNRP that the 2005 treaty should be scrapped, saying it gives land ownership to ethnic Vietnamese villagers who have lived on Cambodian land since the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
The treaty allows those demarcating the border to consider factors besides colonial-era maps – such as who lives on the land now – when deciding where exactly the border line should go. Border committee members say the process is not as simple as the opposition suggests.
Mr. Virak warned that Cambodia could lose a lot of land to Vietnam because ethnic Vietnamese farmers in disputed areas tend to own larger plots than Cambodian farmers.
Preah Vihear Temple as a Template
Mr. Ley said the CPP should manage the border dispute with Vietnam the same way it handled the dispute with Thailand over the Preah Vihear temple.
It succeeded in this case by calling on the International Court of Justice to intervene, and by skillfully negotiating bilaterally with Thailand.
“All border problems have to be solved bilaterally, not unilaterally,” Mr. Ley said.
The CPP won a landslide in the 2008 election as tension mounted over the ancient temple on Cambodia’s northern border. This allowed the party to gain the nationalist vote, Mr. Ley said.
In the 2013 election, the opposition bounced back, taking 55 of 123 seats. This followed a campaign where it whipped up anti-Vietnamese feelings.
In response, the government has conducted a crackdown on illegal aliens, deporting more than 1,200 Vietnamese back to their country so far this year. Cambodians have cheered these deportations.
Even the country’s usually vocal human rights organizations have acquiesced.
(Additional reporting by Vincent MacIsaac)
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