Having now received for five years numerous villagers’ personal complaints of land being absorbed into Vietnam, Cambodia’s opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) has been determined to carry out fact-finding missions on government alleged plantation of temporary demarcations for Vietnam on Cambodia’s territory, within the context of the 2005 recently-applied treaty. This is the case in the Takeo (Takev) Province notably, where the SRP was leading a fact finding mission last week [June 14, 2010].
The Cambodian authorities had rejected the SRP’s demand with the National Assembly President, Heng Samrin, forbidding this visit earlier in the week. However, as SRP spokesman Yim Sovann declared on 2 June this year, ‘We are the lawmakers, so we have the obligation […and] we have the right to monitor government action’. Mr Sovann had also added that this visit was to be done peacefully, solely to visit the border.
Thus, on 3 June, as planned, 22 SRP lawmakers, accompanied by local and international journalists, gathered at the party’s headquarters early in the morning. Leaving with a dozen cars, the group slowly gained in size, as more SRP members joined it along the way, finally reaching over 100 people.
Read the entire article here.
Mu Sochua: MP & Human Rights Advocate 