Other Border Markers Surreptitiously Removed

4 January 2010

OTHER BORDER MARKERS SURREPTITIOUSLY REMOVED

We have just learnt from local authorities and villagers in Svay Rieng province that several wooden poles supposed to be temporary border markers similar to the ones opposition leader Sam Rainsy removed on 25 October 2009 in Samraong commune, have been surreptitiously removed by the Vietnamese authorities assisted by Cambodian officials.

Sam Rainsy pulled out six wooden poles at border marker #185. But subsequently, similar wooden poles at nearby border markers #184, #186 and #187 have also been removed by the authorities themselves. At marker #184 even the concrete foundations under the wooden poles have been dug out, put onto a tractor and taken back to Vietnam.

As Sam Rainsy has exposed, the poles he pulled out were planted on Cambodian farmers’ rice fields that are private properties with the farmers holding legal land titles to justify ownership of their land. Therefore, since the wooden poles were planted on their private properties without their consent, the farmers were entitled to remove them (the poles) or to ask somebody else to do it for them, which Sam Rainsy did at marker #185.

Now realizing they are on weak legal ground in the prosecution of Sam Rainsy and the concerned farmers, the authorities have surreptitiously resorted to do the same thing as Sam Rainsy did, i.e. removing illegally imposed border markers, which is leading to a judicial imbroglio illustrating the political nature of the charges levied against Sam Rainsy.