The following is a transcript of a message from Samdech Techo Hun Sen, President of the Cambodian People’s Party and President of the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia, clarifying the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam – Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) while the opposition is causing incitement to distort the truth to cause misunderstanding over the Royal Government’s efforts:
[1] To all the children and grandchildren in this (social media) group (of “United for the Nation”). I have been listening to you for a long time. Incited by those in foreign countries, you have been making efforts (to cause trouble). In it, we heard the voice of Hay Vanna (who spoke) from abroad to mobilize you (to act) towards overthrowing the Royal Government through a shortcut, which is not a democratic process. You want to compare Cambodia to Bangladesh. You may be confused about the situation in Cambodia and the situation in Bangladesh. You have to think carefully. If you make a mistake, you could be in danger. That (the fate of Cambodia would be similar to that of Bangladesh) would not be happening […]
That a few of you would do disastrous things to destroy (existing) peace of millions of others is not your choice. You have to think carefully before you travel (to join) a demonstration or a mass demonstration or one that would lead to the overthrow, which is the red line. The constitution stipulates the freedom of expression. We accept your concern regarding the loss of land/territory. We (take) your concern about independence and national sovereignty, but you have to look at the situation to see if what the opposition figures in foreign country incited you to do is what it is about.
[2] On the other hand, you have picked the CLV-DTA case as a reason (of your protest). On this point, I should emphasize that the CLV-DTA cooperation came to existence 25 years ago, and I am sure that some of the people in this group were not even born yet. Has this CLV-DTA done any destruction to you? Please think. When our country was very poor, traveling from Ratanakkiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng to Kratie, to Kampong Cham and to Phnom Penh had taken a lot of time. At present, with the socio-economic development in place, people there have benefited from good roads, electricity, water supply. In some areas, where the water supply system has not yet reached, people have access to other sources of clean water. The development of this triangle area is neither cutting our land and giving it to any foreign countries nor to place it as a shareholder.
[3] Please understand clearly between the words “collective development and cooperation”. You misunderstand the (CLV-DTA to be) a collective development. We do not do (thing like that). The Royal Government has no right to share the Cambodian land with any country and we have no intention of cutting off part of Cambodia, part of Laos, part of Vietnam (to put together as) an autonomous region or country. Cambodia is under the rule of Cambodians. Vietnam is ruled by Vietnamese and Laos is ruled by Laotians. That being said, we have cooperation there to accelerate development.
A development is possible requires cooperation (with neighboring countries). The cooperation (with neighboring countries) is not just the Triangle Area, but along the borders with Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, as we are neighboring countries to one another. Let me give you an example regarding connectivity efforts. If there were no cooperation among neighboring countries, how do we connect the transportation to each other? We need to trade. Please think. From Ratanakkiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng and (Kratie) if we transport (goods) down to Phnom Penh or to the port of Sihanoukville for export, (it would be a long way.) How could you make profit?
[4] Doing business is about profit. (From the Development Triangle Area,) we can ship through to the sea in Vietnam and export to Europe, America, Japan and other countries. At this point, you can understand what we are trying to do in term in terms of economy and poverty reduction. Against all odds, do you think we should leave that place (undeveloped)? More so, the development in that area is no longer a separate effort among Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Japan has become the cooperation first partner. People in Japan may ask the Japanese government how much money Japan has spent on projects in Cambodia’s northeastern region, in Vietnam and in Laos. Japan does not help the three countries (as one entity) but only to interconnect the region. We buy electricity from Vietnam and from Laos to supply to consumption in the area before our national grid can send electricity from Phnom Penh (in the past) 25 years. Therefore, you should have a better understanding of this issue rather than accusing the government having cut the land, (and/or) will lose the land at a later stage […]
[5] Some of the brothers (and sisters) proposed that Cambodia be removed from the CLV-DTA. I want to ask you that what we have put in place is for our development, why do we have to throw it away? Where can we move this piece of land to? Can we move these four provinces elsewhere? It is not possible. We must develop our territory. We must make investment and therefore find development partners. On the Vietnamese side, and the Laotian side, they also find their partners to make their development investments. What we need to do is to cooperate in trade, investment, tourism, transportation, connectivity and electricity supply.
This is the reason that the Royal Government had to figure out how to bring (development to the area). The past 25 years has been a time that shows our brothers and sisters clearly the evolving living condition of the people from traveling for days, as some said once arrived they do not bother to return because the road is too difficult, to now (people can) go in the morning and return in the evening. This is possible because of the various and better connectivities. We built national road 76 from Snuol district (of Kratie) to Mondulkiri province, which is connecting to the Vietnamese border, and to Ratanakkiri province, and to the Vietnamese border there, and down to Stung Treng province along national road 78. On the national road 7, we built this bridge across the Sekong River a connectivity to the border with Laos.
We built another bridge across the Mekong River with the national road No. 9 connecting Stung Treng to Preah Vihear, and from there getting to Kampong Thom and Siem Reap quickly. That is the benefit of development that the Royal Government has striven (to provide to our nation) in its investments. The government is working to find development partners, not just Japan, but the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and a number of countries involved. We have a number of college branches in those provinces to provide higher education to reduce the difficulty for students in the area to go all the way to study in Phnom Penh or other provinces.
[6] Human resource development is also interdependent. Today, Cambodian students go to study in Vietnam, and some Cambodian students are also studying in the provinces where Vietnam has higher potential than us in science, technology, as well as learning (subjects available) at a higher level to serve development and their family. We also sent students to Laos, while Laos sent some students to Phnom Penh to study […] We give high priority to the Northeast area to send students to Laos.
[7] I understand that you are concerned about the territory because the history shows that we have lost a lot of territory for instance Kampuchea Krom. We acknowledge that the loss incurred from coerced cutting away by the French (colony). This is not the act o any one king of ours to cut land and give it to anyone. We are under their rule. I was not even born yet when Cochinchina as well as Koh Tral were missing. Norodom Sihanouk, the patriotic father of the Khmer nation, did not reclaim it, and he recognized the unaltered borders left by the French colony on both land and sea. Having said that, what (the Royal Government) has been doing is protecting these territories. While you are raising the issue on the Vietnamese side, you seem to have never claimed some of the territory that is still in Thai territory. Do you know how much we lost to Thailand? In addition, historically, there have been some land given as gifts by the former King to the Lao side.
[8] We acknowledge your concerns about the loss of territory due to historical factors, but you can question why the government has been accused of allegedly ceding the four provinces to Vietnam? After making all empty claims, they go further to add that if the it does not happen now, it will in 20 or 30 years or 100 years. Why have they made up and raised this issue? This imaginary assertion is clearly a tactic (designed and set out) to create a bloodbath as you (allow yourself to believe what they said and) cross the red line.
They may question and give answer that if today you, your family, are not in trouble, but in 10 or 20 years, your family, men will be killed by lightning, electric shocks and cars crush or woman will become a widow or a prostitute, and so on. Well, they dare not talk about the present. They only raise concerns about the future (because nobody can see it yet). If we are worried about the future, as a matter of fact, we must work together to protect the territory by deploying people and building the necessary infrastructure so that people can move in to live at the border area. I am sure you can understand that. I will explain a little bit more about what some of you are proposing to build fences (along the borders).
[9] Beloved brothers (and sisters, regarding the request) to build this fence, have you ever thought about how we go about building it? (Do we put up) fences only in these four provinces or with the Vietnamese border, or is it going to be a fence across the whole border with Thailand and the border with Laos? In this world, apart from the Berlin Wall, apart from some of the fences that divide North and South Korea, and some of the fences that formed between the United States and Mexico, within the framework of the United Nations, which countries have built such fences in the framework of cooperation with neighboring countries?
This is not a choice you should make. If you are talking about (erecting) the border with Vietnam, I would like you to give your opinion that when we build (the fence at) the border with Vietnam, would we also have to build a fence on the Mekong River, the Bassac River and other canals that flow from Cambodia to Vietnam and/or from Vietnam to Cambodia? At downstream, water flows from Cambodia to Vietnam, but at the upstream (of the Mekong), water flows from Vietnam to Cambodia, and charges in to the Sre Pok and Sesan rivers. So, does this fence have to close both the river, the dam and the water flow? This is an issue that you need to consider carefully.
[10] The fact that you have to think even more carefully, do you have to go to war with your neighbors forever, giving no regard to the security of the people as a whole, and the people along the border? Each country has a need to exchange goods. These days, trade between Cambodia and Vietnam has reached more than 10 billion US dollars, whereas in the past, it was unbalanced, with Cambodia importing more from Vietnam than exporting from Cambodia to Vietnam. Now, gradually, we have increased export to Vietnam to a similar volume or even slightly more than Vietnam exports to Cambodia because Cambodia exports about 700,000 tons cashew nuts to Vietnam. We have the raw materials. We do not have enough processing facilities. We have some self-processing, but not enough. Vietnam and India are the largest exporters of cashew nuts in the world, but both Vietnam and India buy raw materials from Africa for processing and distribution in international markets.
Up until now, Cambodia is the number one country with the largest harvest of cashew nuts, more than one million tons even than the Ivory Coast and some other countries. Of this more than one million tons, we exported to Vietnam, and Vietnam published an article mentioning that imported cashew nuts for processing and export of Vietnam accounted for more than 55% of cashew nuts. You know that the market is important to promote cultivation among our people. If there is no market, what do people grow for? […]
The Cambodians cannot consume more than one million tons of cashews. We need to find a market. This does not refer only to distant markets. The markets closeby like we can do it with Vietnam, with Thailand, with Laos, which has brought about a trade benefits of about US$ 20 billion – with Thailand about US$ 10 billion, with Vietnam about US$ 10 billion and with Laos hundreds of millions of US dollars, which is the purchase of electricity from Laos. It has increased the volume of trade between Cambodia and Laos.
[11] It is not as simple as you think. Cambodia is an independent country. I heard you say in this group that “Cambodia is under Vietnamese control”. You seem to have underestimated not only me personally or the government as a whole, but also your own family living in the country. Some people can go all the way to insult their own race for having married with a Vietnamese husband, a Vietnamese wife, etc., about which I think there should be a restriction. We do not suppress freedom of expression, but you have to express it with reality, which is better than a slander. Some alleged that Vietnam had entered Cambodia freely. You need to know that each country enforces its own laws (regarding immigrations).
[12] When we go to the other country, we need to ask for permission. They come to our country, they have to ask for permission. There are (facilitation) mechanisms within the ASEAN framework that do not require a visa before arrival, but without a passport, no one can ask for a visa. All of these points require individual control. You are worried that the land concessions that Cambodia has given to Vietnam for investment would be filled with Vietnamese workers living for decades and would never return. This, as some concluded, would eventually lead to having more Vietnamese than Cambodians in the four provinces. I would say that is a wrong understanding. This is an unjust slander. Do you dare to swear your life because of your wrong words? It is not possible. It is absolutely impossible. Please remember that the Cambodians will always be Cambodians, the Vietnamese will always be the Vietnamese, Laotians will always be the Laotians, and Thais will always ne the Thais. There would not be confusion.
The fact that we have now joined ASEAN, we do not place our land within the ASEAN framework. We cooperate with ASEAN countries and we have economic, trade and investment cooperation not only with ASEAN. We dare to have a comprehensive economic partnership, including ASEAN 10 plus Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and China, and ready to accept India, after India had not been able to enter in the past. There is a lot of cooperation in the world, not just among Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia did it before us. There is also a quadruple cooperation among the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. There are also areas of joint ventures with Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
[13] Please note that in addition to the recent initiatives and successful implementation between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, I also discussed with the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the Lao side my plan to develop a Cambodia-Laos-Thailand triangle area (CLT-DTA), for which Cambodia would assign the province of Preah Vihear as a counterpart. We thought of setting up a golf course on the border among the three countries – where there would be nine holes on the Cambodian side, nine holes of the Thai side, and another nine holes on the Laotian side – a total of 27 holes. Due to a series of coups in Thailand, (we) could not implement this project. (However, this should indicate to you that) we want peaceful cooperation with neighboring countries to bring about economic, trade, and tourism development in the region to reduce poverty.
[14] Some of the people said in a simple way that Cambodia would be able to build a fence. From above, I just talked about the technique of building a fence. I want to know your technique to build it? […] Do we build this fence to cover both the Mekong River, the Bassac River, and the canals that flow from Vietnam to Cambodia and from Cambodia to Vietnam, or only on land or only in four provinces? People can jump over the fence. People can secretly cross over and/or bring it down by blowing up or by digging down. We have to build thousands of kilometers – if we are taking into consideration the border fence between Cambodia and Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and Cambodia and Thailand, altogether. If we are to build the fence with all three countries, we would be placing Cambodia alone (in the box). This is what it looks like from your opinion.
[15] I would also like to emphasize that the people’s defense foundation is stronger than a multi-layer concrete fence. (The people’s defense foundation) is in fact the infrastructure development effort that the Royal Government has been working on along the border. We distribute land to people and build houses for people, we set up hospitals, schools and the necessary infrastructure that people need so that they are able to live there, cultivate or do the agro-industrial farming or become handicraftsman and/or entrepreneurs, who would help in the creation of a tourist market in the region.
The people are the strongest fence in national defense. Fences can be jumped, pierced by explosives or digging, but the people living along the border (are the best border fence). We must ensure that they live there peacefully with the protection of their interests. We must not underestimate these issues. I would like to reiterate that you should be careful in your thought. You can access the documents on the website of the Ministry of Commerce to find out if there is anything about cutting land for Vietnam or about ceding natural resources of Cambodia as common property with other countries? Ther is none.
We only have agreements regarding trade, services, connectivity, socio-economic issues, and so on. Dear brothers (and sisters,) incitement from outside has been quite perfidious, but, as they are living in the country, the people should not be deceived. I urge you not to cross the red line leading (action) to overthrow as has been appealed by the outlaw rebels for the past few days. Having done so will force the government to take the necessary measures to prevent anarchy that would cause social unrest. The government has no choice. The remaining options are to protect the peace, political stability and lives of the people. We dare to do everything at any cost to ensure that the people live in peace, political stability, and continue to make efforts to rebuild the economy that is affected by external factors.
I seek that you remember and remind yourself (of the above facts). As for those active in this (social media) group, you have made yourselves recognized targets. You should not have miscalculated that the Royal Government knows nothing about you. I sat listening and and reading all of your messages. (I have noted that) messages (from users outside the countries) have been inciting those inside the country to accept a catastrophe that is difficult to salvage. This is not a threat. It is a clear statement about the interests of the nation and the people. We can not allow a few people to destroy the peace of more than 17 million people.
[16] Some people have seen what happened in Bangladesh and compared it to Cambodia. They may give it a try. If you consider yourself to be strong, you may give it a try, and those abroad could come and command the movement for this overthrow event. Other than demonstrationg, dare you do this? […] that they organize demonstrations in Korea, Japan, the United States or anywhere abroad are issue of the people living abroad. However, those inside the country would be the ones who suffer the consequences. I am not threatening you. But, government in whatever country it maybe, will take necessary actions. For example, the riots in Britain (at the moment) were suppressed by the British armed forces, or the armed police. would the Cambodian government be willing to let the situation go out of control?
Some have even threatened that it is about time for Hun Sen. I have heard this word since the 1980s as a threat from the Khmer Rouge. In the 1990s, I also heard this voice again and again […] in the last few days, I have heard this voice again. You should have visualized the resilience, the standing and the support of the people for the pitiful land with my leadership as well as that of the current government. Hun Sen has not lost his power totally. Hun Sen remains in power in the legislature as well as the CPP to be accountable for its citizens, for/with whom I have promised to protect peace, political stability and peace. The Royal Government will take all measures to maintain the peace and life of the people.
[17] I have talked a lot. I hope you all listen to me and do not delete (these clips). To avoid deleting in your group, I will transfer these clips to my Telegram account as well to avoid any fraudulent editing of my voice. I urge you who have not thought it through to reconsider.
[18] Let me add that we have to make a clear distinction between joint/collective development and cooperation. We have not put the four provinces into joint/collective development, and no one in the world has ever done that. We do it at the level of cooperation. We did not include our four provinces as common property in the DTA. Our land develops with our money. We seek foreign aid and loans to develop our land. Vietnam and Laos are doing the same on their parts. They seek financial support to develop on their lands. They go look for help and loans from other countries. Generally speaking, there is no sharing (of territory) here. That is the first point that needs to be clarified.
Each country enforces its own laws and cannot allow people to cross the border illegally. We have cooperation (agreement that people from) Laos and Vietnam are able to travel to Cambodia. We can also travel to Vietnam with mutual consent and mutual procedures, with written consent, which you can visit on the website of the Ministry of Commerce. These are what you can understand from the various points that we are going to take.
[19] Our brothers (and sisters) have demanded the removal of the four provinces from the DTA cooperation. I have already said that there is no joint/collective development, but there is cooperation. If there is a cooperation, should we put guns on each other every day between Cambodia and Vietnam, between Cambodia and Laos? We must have good neighborly friendship and work hard to finish mounting the border posts as we have been doing, and there remains 16 percent more to do. We must develop our territory so that our people can protect their land, their property along the border. That is the real strength of our border guards.
[20] You have demanded (the construction of) a fence. I have confirmed already. How many fences are there in the world? […] if we have the money to build a fence, we should (take that money) to build good roads along the border, both the border roads and the trade route, build schools, hospitals, good houses for people living along the border. That’s more righteous. We should work to increase production and cooperation to export to Vietnam, which has a population of over 100 million, and to Laos. Even though Laos has a smaller population, it is still a market nearby to us. We produce well to export to Thailand, which has a population of about 70 million and is also one of our markets. This is how development works.
We need to turn the borderline into a border of peace, friendship, cooperation and development, rather than fighting like in the 1960s and 1970s, when people could not settle at the border. Now, our people are farming at the border and there are even tourism and casino services in the border areas. Would you like to make them run again or let them live (peacefully and develop)? Some of the people who participated in the protests abroad also have relatives living in the country and/or near the border. Would you like them to displace again, abandon their homes and land again, like the war of 1970 to 1975 and from 1975 to 1979?
[21] We must work harder to clear/destroy landmines and unexploded ordnance in the populated border areas. Some lied in daylight that there were no mines, no unexploded ordnance, in the DTA. This is a stupid thing that is hard to understand. It was James Sok who said this. Did he know that during the period of the first US bombing (in Cambodia) was at Dak Dam and later from B52 aircraft, they dropped napalm and cluster bombs. We have proceeded with caution (regarding infrastructural development in the area). For the present infrastructural projects, before we are building roads, we have to clear mines and unexploded ordnance.
Along national road 7 from the Lao border down to Kratie province, we have to clear mines along the road and the distance up to 600 meters from the road on each side. We found a lot of landmines and unexploded ordnance. During the Pol Pot era, there were many mines along the border. Not only at the border, but also in the whole Cambodian territory, we have to spend the capital to clear the remaining mines. Each road and bridge construction site has to undergo demining. To build the Neak Leung (Tsubasa) Bridge, we dived to get the UXOs out of the Mekong River before the Japanese started the construction. Even as Japan started, we still had to have divers continue to search for landmines to prevent accidental danger to the bridge construction site.
[22] Now all of you in the “United for the Nation” (social media) group, I am calling on all of you once again to please give up the idea of accepting evil incitement from those who want to overthrow (the legitimate government). The word “overthrow” outside the democratic process is tantamount to a coup. Thus, the government cannot tolerate it. We must act to protect the legitimate government born of elections. Any action that is unconstitutional needs to be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the country. You can insult me, or insult the more than 17 million people in the country, but you must not forget that your insults will become a punishment for youselves. I was not threatening. I just remind you to stop the demonstration plan and call on the armed forces to turn the gun at overthrowing the government.
Those in the “United for the Nation” (social media) group should have stopped too. If you (are to continue and) are arrested or brought to trial, you may have to accept your fate. At this time, in addition to those who have already been arrested, those who have not yet been arrested, we will exercise forgiveness if they withdraw and stop joining the “United for the Nation” group […] we have recorded their audio messages and I have them in my phone. I forwarded to another location where they cannot delete them. I am not the only one to have done so. The competent officials also did what I did. They have and identify whose voice and whose writing.
Those of you who seek to overthrow the Royal Government may note that the Royal Government has an obligation to protect its legitimacy and the people. I beseech the nieces and nephews to listen to my explanation. If you still do not have a good understanding, you can ask a question on that particular point for clarification. The important thing is, however, to check the documents. This is not the era when you had to travel to the Ministry of Commerce (to find documents). If you visit the website of the Ministry of Commerce, you can see everything there – the 11 statements of the summits and the agreements, and the aide memoires. Do not be deceived by those who seek power outside of democracy and beyond the framework of the Constitution, by which there will have unpredictable consequences.
[23] Please allow me to add to this message that I am talking to those in the telegram group called “United for the Nation”, which in the past had different names and until recently uses the current name – “United for the Nation” with an aim to overthrow the government by force, including mass violence and the armed forces that they have incited. Thanks again.
