Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy uprooted six demarcation poles on the Cambodia-Vietnam border Sunday after leading his party's Kathen festival procession to the Ang Rumdenh pagoda in SvayRieng province’s Sam Raung commune, Chantrea district, saying that the poles were placed illegally by Vietnamese authorities.

Sam Rainsy said Monday that the poles he removed were not border markers accepted by both countries but had been erected only recently by Vietnam.

"As I was putting a money offering in a monk's bowl, people approached me and asked me for help. I asked them, 'With what do you need my help?' And they told me, '[The Vietnamese] took Khmers' land'",' Sam Rainsy said, adding that the residents' rice fields and the pagoda were located about 100 metres from the border.

Sam Rainsy said the people who lost their land told him that a few months ago, about 10 officials from Vietnam and one Cambodian came to measure their land and then set up poles on it, declaring that the area fell within the "white zone" - a buffer strip whose use is denied to people from either nation.

Sam Rainsy said that these poles were not official and that people in the area told him they had already removed similar poles earlier this year.

Svay Rieng provincial Governor Cheang Am said he did not know why Sam Rainsy uprooted the poles, which had been set up by a joint committee of Cambodians and Vietnamese, but that Sam Rainsy must be held responsible before the law.

"These poles are difficult to put up. They were plotted properly, in accordance with procedure," he said.

November 1, 2009

VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES ACCUSING AND

CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT SUING SAM RAINSY ON UNFOUNDED CHARGES

Late last month the Chantrea district (Svay Rieng province) authorities filed a criminal lawsuit at the Svay Rieng provincial court against opposition leader Sam Rainsy following the latter’s participation in a religious ceremony (Kathen) on October 25 at Ang Romdenh pagoda in Koh Kban Kandal village, Samraong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province.

Ang Romdenh pagoda is located a few hundreds meters from the border with Vietnam. Several hundreds people from Phnom Penh and Svay Rieng province attended the Kathen ceremony. There are professionally made video footages of the whole October 25 event, from the procession from Phnom Penh to the ceremony itself at the pagoda to a subsequent short walk across surrounding rice fields to a newly delineated “white zone” along the border with Vietnam.

During the Kathen ceremony at the pagoda, several local villagers spontaneously, successively, unexpectedly and vehemently complained to Sam Rainsy and other National Assembly members present on that occasion that “Vietnamese authorities have grabbed their rice fields over the last few months.”

First taken aback by such grievances during a religious ceremony and invited to go to see the problem with his own eyes by the plaintiffs, who were supported by all the villagers present at the pagoda, Sam Rainsy said he would go to try to assess the situation on the spot after the end of the religious ceremony: Buddhist monks were having their mi-day only meal and offerings brought from Phnom Penh were to be ritually made to the pagoda.

After the end of the religious ceremony, several dozens villagers led the National Assembly members to their nearby rice fields and showed them a bunch of six newly planted wooden sticks which, according to what local authorities had recently told the villagers, were part of a “new line” delineating a new “white zone” they were not allowed to do anything on from now on. Villagers told the National Assembly members how furious they were since they had been told such a thing because they had worked and lived on these/their rice fields for decades without any problem. They said this was just land grabbing. Nobody understands the alleged technicalities of, and the rationale behind, the recent planting of those sticks on the Cambodian farmers’ rice fields. Villagers accused those who had planted the sticks of violating their private properties. Some villagers said they had pulled out some of the sticks from their rice fields but had been reprimanded by the local authorities. They emotionally called on the higher-level government and any justice-loving organizations to help them.

Sam Rainsy then told the villagers he now understood their grievances and, as an elected representative of the Cambodian people, would not tolerate such injustice. He said such property-violating sticks arbitrarily planted on the villagers’ rice fields without any serious and convincing explanation, were unacceptable. He added he would like to see those sticks planted before his eyes and under his feet be symbolically removed pending an official investigation he would call for when he returns to Phnom Penh. While he was subsequently giving an interview on the phone to a Phnom Penh-based reporter from Radio Free Asia, who had just interviewed on the same phone some of the villagers present on the spot, the assistance in solidarity with the victims pulled out the six wooden sticks and threw them away on the spot. The video footages clearly show that neither Sam Rainsy nor any other National Assembly member took with them those sticks on their way back to Phnom Penh as claimed by both the Vietnamese and the Cambodian authorities who are accusing Sam Rainsy of “sabotage, destruction and theft of public property.”

SRP Cabinet

It is very clear that Dark Mien is the one who started the conflict first by violating the international law.
When will you learn to know how to respect your neighbor countries? By doing this doesn't make you look BETTER at all.
What's the worst is that the Khmers blaming us as "robbers and thieves" while we are the one who stay peaceful
and the eveidence to claim that the zone belonging to Khmers is NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!
So I'm not surprised why those Thai ladyboys recall their embassadors back to Bangcock
So let's wait and see what will happen to this man, we are not too kind like Thai ladyboys

most Vietnamese AF members look like this, ch!nky funny looking nerds talking big online

hahahahaha I expect a better reply why Khmers disrespecting our territory by illegally uprooted the border poles?
Let's get to the point! I kid you not becoz truth always hurts

if u want better replies then why don't u ask them personally and not over the internet?

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...ideoID=17455618

let me say it in vietnamese

trang ngoc lam chai banh truyen bo phuc du chao duc lam do pho phuc lai dong quang lam hue

thank God i dont look like this, its a typical look of most vietnamese AFers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfdkiAtCGss...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/user/justenis#p/u/3/NFRURVNwXOU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTBZ4TOgqno...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/user/daisiebean#p/a/u/0/mAVC5PrGFO8

Sam Rainsy plays an important role here. Hun Sen knows it and will only slap him on the wrist like he always do. Just ask Ranariddh about his recent pardon.

This really is just Hun Sen buying time to produce his own puppet and use them on Hanoi if he has to.

All I can say is don't have to much faith in propaganda. It is a Phnom Penh post after all.This article is an attack on Sam Rainsy to make him look even more degrading. This article is most likely written by someone who favors Hun Sen's party. We do it here in the states and they can do it over in Cambodia also.

That is the whole idea. Let your enemies think that you are at each other's throat, but at the end of the day, Sam Rainsy will just be told not to do it again or fined a measly amount of money.

You took that picture from the french blog site skyrock. That guy is franco/cambodgienne.
And posting pictures of dead ones like some joke is not sane at all. Something must be wrong with your noggin. Is as if you are disturbed, too bothered by what Cambodians say, can't ignore and rally up an argument. I can see your soul melt with anger and animosity. LET GO!

You're right about that. Only idiots who can't make any argument or reasoning will resort to that. They are a bunch of lowlife and an embarrassment to mankind.

Sam Rainsy is doing a splendid job.