Cambodia's ex-king stakes out final battle on borders Mon May 16,10:17 PM ET
Cambodia's new border council headed by former king Norodom Sihanouk looks headed for nowhere, analysts said, but gives the ailing king-father one last battle for his country.
At age 82 and six months after his abdication, Sihanouk has taken on a final battle to settle an issue close to his heart: marking borders and defending the territorial integrity of Cambodia, which claims it has lost ground to its more powerful and populous neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.
Sihanouk accuses Vietnam of encroaching on Cambodian soil, and cites "unjust treaties" signed under pressure in 1982, 1983, and 1985 which gave up land to its neighbor during the occupation by Vietnamese forces who had ousted the Khmer Rouge.
The border feuds tap into an often virulent anti-Vietnamese sentiment in Cambodia, fueled by resentment of Vietnam's expansion over the centuries.
But the border issue is a real problem, experts said.
The border left from colonial times is vague in areas and doesn't match the maps. Stone markers have disappeared or never existed, flags marking the boundary have moved, and trees that lined the frontier have been cut down.
The more than 1,100-kilometer (680-mile) border with Vietnam has crept over by 10 kilometers (six miles) in places, leaving Cambodian villages inside Vietnam, which has caused conflicts, analysts said.
"The encroachments are also very serious on the Thai side," one analyst said.
"Former king Sihanouk wants to resolve all this before dying," said one source close to the palace.
Sihanouk suffers from cancer which has recently spread. He was hospitalized Monday in Beijing for chemotherapy, but remains a revered figure who has been at the fore of Cambodia's political life for decades.
"The council is the last chance for the ex-king to help his country. He wants to do something before his death," his official biographer Julio Jeldres said.
But the seven-member advisory council, known formally as the Supreme National Council on Border Issues, held its first meeting May 11 in Beijing and already looks headed for a dead end, analysts said.
Sihanouk complained on the day of the first meeting that the council was effectively powerless, with a purely advisory role to government. By decree, the council must also reach unanimous decisions.
Its second meeting is not expected for months.
"It's a joke," said Lao Mong Hai of the Center for Social Development.
"Norodom Sihanouk had maybe hoped he would have great powers, but the decrees deflated that balloon, and he was disappointed."
"He can't do anything. It's a waste of time and energy," he said.
A long-time Cambodia observer concurred: "This is a council with no purpose." "They will never agree unanimously. And (Prime Minister) Hun Sen has the Vietnamese behind him." The royalist FUNCINPEC and the Sam Rainsy Party, both represented on the council, have tried to win more powers for Sihanouk, but Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party hasn't gone along. "Vietnam created Hun Sen and his government," Lao Mong Hai said, explaining that it was hard to imagine the premier pushing Vietnam to re-examine borders set in treaties in the 1980s. At the same time, Hun Sen could not refuse to create the council amid pressure from the former king to tackle the emotive border issue. "The prime minister was stuck, he had no choice. The borders are a vital issue for Cambodians, everyone agrees -- even his supporters," said Kek Galabru, head of the rights group Licadho. "Everyone supports the king-father and counts on him," she added. "They won't accept people taking their land." "If Norodom Sihanouk cannot fix this problem, no one can," she said. A Western diplomat agreed: "But no one knows how far the Vietnamese or the Thais are ready to go (to accept changes)." Cambodia's neighbors have been silent on the new council, but some of the border markers have moved three kilometers into Vietnam, one analyst said.
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