Photo by: Heng Chivoan, Photo Supplied, Sovan Philong
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and SRP lawmakers Ho Vann and Mu Sochua have all been stripped of their immunity in legal spats with the government this year.Meas Sokchea and Sebastian Strangio
Phnom Penh Post
OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity for the second time this year during a closed National Assembly session on Monday, paving the way for his prosecution on charges related to the removal of posts marking the country’s border with Vietnam.
The Assembly’s vote was boycotted by lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party, who marched through the city holding a large map of Cambodia aloft in protest.
In a statement released after the motion, which was supported by all 87 lawmakers present, the SRP accused the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of caving to pressure from Hanoi.
“This measure has violated the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and it shows that that the Cambodian authorities have merely enforced a Vietnamese government order,” said the statement.
The Assembly’s vote paves the way for Sam Rainsy’s prosecution by Svay Rieng provincial court with regard to an October 26 incident in Svay Rieng’s Chantrea district, where he helped uproot six wooden posts that villagers say were placed illegally by Vietnamese authorities.
His action prompted a storm of protest from Hanoi, which said his “perverse” act had interfered in the two countries’ sensitive border-demarcation process.
Speaking by phone from Paris, Sam Rainsy said the lifting of his immunity was an “alarming sign”, but that his allegations of Vietnamese border incursions were based on facts about threats to Cambodia’s territorial integrity. In other border provinces – especially Kampong Cham – he said villagers have made similar complaints to him about Vietnamese encroachments.
Sam Rainsy said he did not yet know when he would return to Cambodia, but that he is scheduled to meet with the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union and the European Parliament, where he will discuss border encroachments in addition to other political and human rights issues.
“The incident in Svay Rieng is just one example of the totalitarian drift of this country,” he added.
Speaking at the Council of Ministers on Monday evening, Var Kimhong, senior minister in charge of border affairs, said the Assembly had suspended Sam Rainsy’s immunity because he destroyed border markers agreed between the two countries.
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