Khmer Circle:
Well, we are no experts but, what maps and what technical and legal procedures have been followed in the re-drawing or re-demarcation of Cambodia's boundary with the other incessantly land-hungry neighbour to the East? Did the French really draw those Zigzag lines that invariably intrude into Cambodia? Were Mr Heng Samrin and his forefathers really born in Vietnam but have - along with 2-3 generations of families in the same village - lived there all these years in violation of Vietnam's territorial sovereignty and in blissful ignorance?! Of course, the Vietnamese themselves are gracious enough to let Heng Samrin - a man they nominally installed in 1979 as head of their puppet regime in Phnom Penh - keep his village but, reportedly ceded Cambodian land elsewhere in concession and compensation?
The Vietnamese and their puppets in Phnom Penh have also used the same trick with their claim to Dak Dam - an area well inside of Cambodia of about 40 square kilometres - as leverage to pressure Phnom Penh into ceding more territory to them while providing the world and the Khmer people with this perverse rationalisation for the plunder. In fact, this method is substantively the same as that Bangkok is now using with regard to their capture and continued illegal detention of those 18 Cambodian soldiers in blatant contravention of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 on the treatment of prisoners of war.
Transparency and verification by independent third parties are still the best solution to removing any doubt or suspicion as to whether a regime or government is actually not 'exchanging/sacrificing territorial sovereignty for 'peace''.
^^^
—
Senior Cambodian officials have rejected accusations that the
government ceded territory to Thailand, calling the claims a
misunderstanding of border affairs and mapping procedures.
Ith
Sotha, permanent secretary of state at the Border Affairs Secretariat,
said allegations of “giving up land in exchange for peace” ignore the
technical and legal foundations of Cambodia’s border work.
He
stressed that demarcation is conducted through bilateral negotiations
and based on legally recognized documents dating back to the French
colonial era.
Sotha said
temporary markers along parts of the frontier indicate where permanent
posts, first installed between 1919 and 1920 by the Indochina–Siam
Border Demarcation Commission, will be reinstated.
He
cited the 1904 and 1907 Franco-Siam Treaties, the 1907 Protocol, and
related maps as the legal basis for the present-day boundary.
Secretary
of State Lay Sieng Li also dismissed claims that Border Marker 43 had
been moved inside Cambodian territory, saying technicians uncovered the
original post using 1919 records.
Government
spokesman Pen Bona accused exiled opposition figures of spreading
misinformation, while analyst Yang Peou said the issue is highly
technical and cannot be resolved through political activism or
unverified maps.
The Border
Affairs Secretariat urged public confidence in the government and the
joint boundary commission, reaffirming their commitment to safeguarding
sovereignty and territorial integrity.
---------------
By: Minea Son
©KPT English
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