May 10, 2011

A LAUGHABLE KANGAROO COURT WITH ILLITERATE JUDGES
OBEYING TO A STALINIST GOVERNMENT

Today the Phnom Penh Appeal Court postponed its awaited decision related to a ten-year imprisonment sentence handed down to me on September 23, 2010 for “forgery of a public document.”

The accusation against me is related to a French-era 1:100,000 map posted on the Sam Rainsy Party website which allegedly has an “unusual” grid on it (see Map # 4 at   http://tinyurl.com/yeaoxyf ). The Hun Sen government accuses me of adding the grid to the original map, therefore “falsifying” the document. They point to the grid by using the French word "carreaux" while the technical term in both English and French is UTM graticule.

Some CPP-affiliated judges seem to be as illiterate as some Hun Sen government “experts.”

Actually, I used and published both French-made maps and US-made maps to show that they corroborate one another regarding border delimitation between Cambodia and Vietnam.

Cambodian judges and government “experts” should read this explanation by Colonel Edward G. Anderson, Jr. of Corp of Engineers, United State Army (excerpt from "Mapping in Southeast Asia", in The Military Engineers, March-April 1969, page 232):  "You would notice the Minutes mention the use of UTM (grid) on 1:100,000 French-made maps. The UTM (standard military grid) with marginal data in English was overprinted on the French maps by the US Army since outbreak of WW II. NATO, France included, adopted UTM grid after 1945."

Mr. Var Kim Hong, the head of government border “experts” did not get the point when he claimed in his accusation against me at a February 22, 2010 press conference, “The French are ignorant of UTM grid (map making).” Actually, it is Mr. Var Kim Hong and his CPP colleagues who are ignorant of elementary graph and map techniques.

Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament