VALKRYIE
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2015
- Messages
- 669
- Reaction score
- -1
- Country
- Location
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to provide original, constitutionally mandated maps of Cambodia's disputed border with Vietnam.
6 Jul, 2015 Shaun Turton
Prime Minister Hun Sen has written to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, requesting access to the original, constitutionally mandated maps of Cambodia’s borders, following weeks of tension with Vietnam over the eastern frontier.
In a letter dated July 6, the prime minister requests to borrow the original Bonne map, scale 1/100,000, which was developed between 1933 and 1955 by French colonial authorities and deposited by late King Norodom Sihanouk with the UN in 1964.
Noting that Sihanouk’s efforts to ensure the Kingdom’s border was respected, Hun Sun tells Ban Ki-moon the government needs the maps to “verify” its ongoing demarcation process and “end the incitement of extreme nationalism” by “some quarters” in Cambodia that “may lead to catastrophe” for Cambodia, a reference to the opposition’s recent push to highlight alleged encroachment by Vietnam.
The request is made "with the intention to clearly confirm about the scrupulous and righteousness of the Royal Government of Cambodia’s determination and implementation of the delimitation and demarcation of borders between the Kingdom of Cambodia and her neighboring countries as well as with the objective to avoid and to end the incitement of extreme nationalism and ill-intention to cause confusion within national and international public opinions in order to make political gains by some quarters in Cambodia that may lead to catastrophe to the whole Cambodian national," Hun Sen writes.
He continues: “I strongly believe that for the cause of peace and stability in the region as well as with the high consideration on (sic) the well being of Cambodia and her people, who is a member of the United Nations, Your Excellency Secretary General would render cooperation with his request”.
The opposition has long accused the government of using maps developed with Vietnam in the 1980s to demarcate the border, which they say cedes Cambodian territory, instead of the French-developed ones, which are cited in Article 2 of the Kingdom's constitution.
Last week, senior official in charge of border affairs Var Kimhong presented a number of maps used for the ongoing demarcation, stating that while developed in concert with Vietnam following a 2005 border treaty, the maps matched the constitutionally mandated version, held by the UN.
Over the past month, the Cambodia National Rescue Party has fuelled a heightening of tensions over the border with Vietnam by highlighting examples of alleged Vietnamese encroachment into Ratanakkiri, Kandal and Svay Rieng provinces.
On Saturday, a Cambodian man was detained and allegedly beaten by Vietnamese authorities for leading students to inspect a disputed area in Svay Rieng’s Kampong Ro province.
On June 28, in the same area, a brawl erupted between an opposition-led group and Vietnamese authorities, prompting a fierce rebuke from Vietnam, which will form a joint committee with Cambodia to investigate the violence.
Hun Sen asks UN for help on Vietnam problem, National, Phnom Penh Post
