By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Cambodia’s government began Thursday the process of comparing its own trove of maps against those submitted to the United Nations in 1964 in the wake of allegations that demarcation of the border with Vietnam is incorrect in places.
Mereani Keleti Vakasisikakala, acting president of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library, arrived in Phnom Penh late Tuesday, armed with 18 of the original maps.
She handed them over to Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong at the opulent Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Thursday morning.
Her arrival comes after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote to UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon last month, requesting a loan of the maps to “end the incitement of extreme nationalism and ill-intention to cause confusion within national and international public opinions in order to make political gains by some quarters in Cambodia.”
Members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) have made repeated claims that the border has not been properly demarcated, and that the Vietnamese have been unlawfully encroaching upon Cambodia’s sovereign soil.
In a speech at the handover ceremony Thursday, Keleti Vakasisikakala was keen to stress that the loan of the maps was an “exceptional” case, and for a limited period.
She added that it in no way implied “any official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations of the boundaries… shown on them.”
Making his own official remarks, Namhong thanked the UN for the loan and said the originals — which are to the same scale of 1/100,000 as the government’s own 26 maps — would enable people to “become aware of the trustworthiness of demarcation of the border with Vietnam.”
Var Kimhong, chair of the joint Cambodia/Vietnam border committee that was established to investigate the alleged irregularities, presented the originals alongside the loaned UN maps.
Traces made of the government maps were then placed over the UN maps, and to the naked eye, appeared to correspond exactly.
“It’s a daunting task, but we have to be scrupulous,” Kimhong told guests and media.
The process will also include additional comparative methods, such as digitally superimposing one on top of the other, as well as matching up coordinates using a GIS system.
Ou Chanrith, a spokesperson for the CNRP, told reporters that it was too early to make any definitive conclusions about the exactness of the comparisons.
The ceremony comes just days after Hong Sok Hour, a senator for the Sam Rainsy Party — whose founder is now the leader of the CNRP — was arrested and jailed on allegations of treason for allegedly posting a fake border treaty online.
