Tanks and APCs for Cambodia Arrive in Sihanoukville Port

[Reashot Xigwin]

About 100 tanks and 40 eight- and six-wheel APC arrived in Sihanoukville port (photo : KIMedia)

Scores of tanks and armoured personnel carriers arrived at the port in Sihanoukville yesterday, marking one of the biggest shipments of military vehicles in recent history.

A source in Preah Sihanouk province who asked not to be named told the Post that the ship in question arrived yesterday morning, with “some 100 tanks and about 40 eight- and six-wheel amoured personnel carriers,” he said.

Last night, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port director Lou Kim Chhun confirmed the shipment, but declined to comment on numbers or countries of origin, saying: “For the details I think you can ask customs officials.”

In September 2010, in the middle of a border dispute with Thailand, Cambodia purchased 94 tanks from an Eastern European country widely thought to be Ukraine. The same year, China donated some 250 vehicles to the Cambodian military.

Defense officials could be reached for comment.
Tanks and APCs arrive in Sihanoukville port | National news

From China?

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

Government Mum on Tanks' Origins

Tanks are unloaded from a ship at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012.

Questions have been raised about the origins of the tanks. Photograph supplied
The origin of a shipment of about 100 tanks and 40 armoured personnel carriers that arrived at Sihanoukville port on Tuesday remains unknown, despite the Minister of Defence confirming the government purchased the vehicles to strengthen its military.

Photos obtained by the Post yesterday confirm the arrival of the tanks in what was one of the largest incoming shipments of military vehicles in the Kingdom’s recent history.

Minister of Defence General Tea Banh told Voice of America on Tuesday night that the government had bought the equipment, but he did not say from where or from whom.

“The importing of [the tanks and APCs as well as other military materials] is to strengthen military capacity and to upgrade and then train in new military hardware.”

Attempts to contact Banh and his spokesman, Chhun Socheat, yesterday were unsuccessful.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said he had no knowledge of the shipment and was therefore in no position to comment.

A source told the Post on Tuesday that “some 100 tanks and about 40 eight- and six-wheel armoured personnel carriers” had arrived at the Sihanoukville port that morning.

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port director Lou Kim Chhun later confirmed the shipment’s arrival, but provided no further details.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that he had not heard about the shipment and was surprised when told of its size.

Cambodia, he said, needed military equipment to protect itself in a basic sense, but it was in the country’s best interests to look at other strategies to solve existing disputes or conflict.

“Of course there are some border encroachment issues on the eastern side [of the country] and the dispute at Preah Vihear, but I don’t think the tensions require military action,” Sovann said. “We can’t solve problems by war. We have to use international code, as we are a small country and economy.”

Sovann said details of military purchases should be made public, and future transactions should be conducted with transparency through the parliament.

“There’s no reason to keep it a secret,” he said.

Government mum on tanks

 

[Battle of Bach Dang River]

A big deal, but has been done quite secretly!

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

Tanks and APCs Apparently Come from Ukraine
11 November 2012

Tank talk at a time of mourning

Defence Minister Tea Banh confirmed yesterday at an event at the Ministry of Defence marking today’s 59th anniversary of Cambodia’s independence from France that last month’s shipment of tanks and armoured personnel carriers had come from Ukraine.

“I think 100 to 200 tanks is not that many,” he said to reporters, noting that, nonetheless, “We have full capacity for military operations to protect our territorial sovereignty.

“But for this year’s celebration, we were sad and full of sorrow, grieving the passing of our King Father, Norodom Sihanouk.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen told 1,000 graduates at the National Institute of Education that today’s ceremony would honour the King Father’s memory.

“It is Independence Day, and also a commemoration day,” the premier said.

But Information Minister Khieu Kanharith could not confirm whether King Sihamoni would lay a wreath and light a torch inside the Independence Monument as he usually does.

Tank talk at a time of mourning | National news

Whoops false alarm