In addition to the prepared text which is available only in Khmer, Samdech Hun Sen made the following comments on the future establishment of the boarding house for female students from poor families in the provinces, the establishment and functioning of the Supreme National Border Council of Cambodia, the opposition leader’s return and the establishment of the tribunal for the trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders.
… Please let me take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the efforts made in the past years in providing assistance to students from poor families who have resided in the Institute. I have told the Senior Minister and Minister for Education, Youth and Sports HE Kol Pheng and Minister Ung Kuntha Phavy of Women’s Affairs something in relation to the student’s boarding house. It has been my intention for many years to set up a boarding house for female students, and I remember talking about that possibility here. I am glad that this idea will be realized in the near future. As for our male students, I would urge them not to request for such a facility yet as we have facilities in the Buddhist pagodas where such offer of residence are still available. It is because female students cannot reside in the pagoda that we have to address the disparity by providing such a facility for female students.
… What we are talking here is the provision of residence for female students in poor families coming from provinces. I hope that the boarding house would be ready for the school year 2006-07 and we hope that from such an establishment in place, more female students in the countryside would be attracted to continue their studies. It is important that we have to work out a procedure as HE Kol Pheng already has his own plan that every student admitted to the boarding house would have to sign a contract outlining that she would not illegally occupies the facility after their completion of the study. It is my conviction to affirm that to set up a facility as such is not an un-accomplishable task but to sustain its operation and existence is indeed a heavy duty.
… As of now the Institute for example enjoys the assistance from HE Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng or from me personally. What would be happening when such assistance dry out. We have a good experience vis-à-vis the restoration and operation of the Institute of Technology under the assistance of the former Soviet Union, who was also its founder from before the war time. The assistance from the former Soviet Union also dried out due to its collapse later. It was in that circumstance that we had the obligation to do anything possible to keep the Institute open, while negotiation with France was conducted for the continuation of the teaching in the Institute. As the French Speaking Countries has had interruption in its provision of assistance, the Cambodia’s Institute is again in trouble. Judging by all I have mentioned, I wish that the Director of the Institute ponders further on how to sustain the operation of the Institute.
… Aside from providing the future boarding house for female students and sustaining the Institute’s operation, I wish to restate my position as was given in my previous comments relating to the opposition Party’s membership in the Supreme National Border Council of Cambodia (SNBCC). After my announcement that the opposition Party has been invited to join in the establishment of the SNBCC, two sidetracked interpretations have arisen — 1) Samdech Hun Sen appealed to the opposition leader to return to Cambodia and 2) the opposition leader would return only when there is a written assurance from Hun Sen. I wish to give my clarification once and for all that I never call for the return of the opposition leader. As he (Sam Rainsy) left the country himself, he should be able to judge whether to return at his own free will. With regard to the letter of assurance, I wish to stress that such a letter will never be issued for him. He has a case to deal with in the court and if the court issue an arrest warrant, the Government will act according to the Court’s rule. Let me stress again that he ran out of the country on his own, he should decide on whether to return or not to return in his own right.
… All I did was to conform to the CPP and Funcinpec Agreement, an article of which stipulates the establishment of the Supreme National Border Council of Cambodia as Samdech Krom Preah (Norodom Ranaridh) and I have discussed in the past and it is our common understanding that the time has come. I wrote a letter to HM the King Norodom Sihamuni for the appointment of HM’s representative, and to the Senate, the National Assembly, the Cambodian People’s Party, Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party for their appointments of representatives to the SNBCC. I addressed my letter to Sam Rainsy because he is the president of the Sam Rainsy Party.
… I wish that irrational comments should be stopped as the opposition leader can return whenever he likes. It was remarkable that one day before the stripping off the immunity, the opposition leader declared that he would not leave the country at all. But he did not keep his word at all when he fled hastily into the US Embassy and was driven in the US Embassy vehicle to the Airport. I have told the US Ambassador later that if the Royal Government was to arrest him, he would not be able to flee like that despite his protection from the US Embassy’s vehicle. He would not be arrested while he was in the US Embassy, in the US Embassy’s vehicle, but when he stepped into the plane. But there was no arrest warrant, unlike another person (Cheam Channy) who had the arrest warrant from the court while taking refuge in the US Embassy.
… Concerning the border issue, I feel relieved now that we will have the SNBCC who would then look into problems relating to border areas. They are free to go wherever they may deem necessary to observe on the spot claims of border mystification. In his message on the web, Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, former King of Cambodia, stated clearly that HM would go by oxcart, elephant, or boat to see our border from one stone to another and I am glad to give my support to this decision. The CPP and I have been under constant attacks on this issue. We have been rebuked of shrinking the border inside since 1979 within half to a kilometer a day. Such a claim is insane and Cambodia would have no land left as of now because of the claimed encroachment. It is good that now we have live witness to go through all this and we would love to hear from them their recommendations.
… My strategy in this matter is “to exercise no pursuit, while winning, and to escape, while losing.” What I mean is that I would not accept to receive any land that is not Cambodia’s and I would want only the Cambodian territory that is stipulated in the Constitution. In this regard, even though I would win the battle, I would not track anyone down or to accept land that does not belong to Cambodia. If I were to fail, I would not run away. This I mean if the map shows that a particular spot belongs to Cambodia, I would not accept any request to withdraw or to move it back. It is absurd to put the blame on the CPP and Hun Sen because of the land that was lost long before his birth. I am sure that our neighboring countries will coordinate with us on the basis of what has been recognized internationally in between 1963 and 1969.
… Another matter of interest is that we will set up the tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge’s leaders and I wish to state that no one want to see them stand trial than we do. In the Paris Peace conference I have stated repeatedly, and I am sure I have the recorded tape, that the best place for the Khmer Rouge’s leader Pol Pot is not in the Supreme National Council (SNC) but in the court of justice. But because the Khmer Rouge was then a strong faction, no one listened to me. They have rejected my proposition to include a sentence “preventing the return of the genocide” in the Agreement while telling us to say it in a soft version “preventing the return of the past action.”
… When I invited the Khmer Rouge’s leaders – Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary to my house I wanted to send out three messages – 1) to the Khmer Rouge soldiers that they should stop the fighting because their leaders were all with me; 2) to the people of Cambodia that we will observe peace and no more war, and 3) to the international community, especially investors and tourists that Cambodia is entering a period of peace – I have been criticized strongly for doing that. On the contrary, they ignore the red carpet they rolled out for the Khmer Rouge leaders holding diplomatic visas in their country. In 1991, In New York, Khieu Samphan and Son Sen sat next to me in the Security Council. Why could not I have a dinner with the three above? Was not it just a diplomatic trick like the Cambodian saying that goes “I would not capture the buffalo in the water, but I would do when it is dead?”
… Recalling this trial of the Khmer Rouge’s leaders, it was the CPP and I who had initiated the trial in 1979 and no one recognized the verdict because the Khmer Rouge was strong. Some of them helped the Khmer Rouge to fight Cambodia. If the verdict was recognized in those days, we would have brought about great development to the country since the past 26 years.
EndItem.
