Tuesday, December 15, 2009
To Frank Radosevich at The Cambodia Daily.
Now everybody can see who lied and who said the truth about border encroachments and Cambodian farmers subsequently losing their rice fields.
In their November 16 letter to His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk, the three CPP top leaders Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Hun Sen and Samdech Heng Samrin wrote, "Up to now, not a single Cambodian farmer [living near the border with Vietnam] has lost their rice field [because of alleged border encroachments by the Vietnamese authorities]."
The December 14 visit by a SRP parliamentary delegation accompanied by many independent observers to the Svay Rieng border area exposed further evidence of countless Cambodian farmers having lost their rice fields because of real border encroachments. The evidence is irrefutable in that it is not made up of maps, GPS or other technical devices that can be tampered with. It is made up of testimonies from living persons on the spot, the very farmers who have been losing their rice fields because of continuous border encroachments.
Therefore, I committed no crime on October 25 when I pulled out purportedly tentative but actually false border markers illegally planted in the middle of Cambodian farmers' rice fields in Svay Rieng province's Samraong commune.
Regarding the accusation the Svay Rieng Provincial Court has made against me that I have destroyed "public" property, there was actually no public property involved because I only dealt with objects that were on a private property and I did it at the request of the property's legal owner who was present with me on her rice field.
Even if we suppose that public property was involved, I just pulled out six commercially worthless wooden poles. But what about those in government who destroyed millions of hectares of Cambodia's invaluable forest?
See Global Witnesss reports "Country for Sale"
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/546/en/cambodias_family_trees
and "Cambodia's Family Trees"
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/713/en/country_for_sale
Sincerely,
Sam Rainsy
Now everybody can see who lied and who said the truth about border encroachments and Cambodian farmers subsequently losing their rice fields.
In their November 16 letter to His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk, the three CPP top leaders Samdech Chea Sim, Samdech Hun Sen and Samdech Heng Samrin wrote, "Up to now, not a single Cambodian farmer [living near the border with Vietnam] has lost their rice field [because of alleged border encroachments by the Vietnamese authorities]."
The December 14 visit by a SRP parliamentary delegation accompanied by many independent observers to the Svay Rieng border area exposed further evidence of countless Cambodian farmers having lost their rice fields because of real border encroachments. The evidence is irrefutable in that it is not made up of maps, GPS or other technical devices that can be tampered with. It is made up of testimonies from living persons on the spot, the very farmers who have been losing their rice fields because of continuous border encroachments.
Therefore, I committed no crime on October 25 when I pulled out purportedly tentative but actually false border markers illegally planted in the middle of Cambodian farmers' rice fields in Svay Rieng province's Samraong commune.
Regarding the accusation the Svay Rieng Provincial Court has made against me that I have destroyed "public" property, there was actually no public property involved because I only dealt with objects that were on a private property and I did it at the request of the property's legal owner who was present with me on her rice field.
Even if we suppose that public property was involved, I just pulled out six commercially worthless wooden poles. But what about those in government who destroyed millions of hectares of Cambodia's invaluable forest?
See Global Witnesss reports "Country for Sale"
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/546/en/cambodias_family_trees
and "Cambodia's Family Trees"
http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/713/en/country_for_sale
Sincerely,
Sam Rainsy
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