The return of the (abdicated) king

The return of the (abdicated) king

King Sihanouk has sent an 'open letter' to the parliaments and governments of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, calling on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia

When King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicated in October 2004, the political elite in Phnom Penh promptly celebrated and felt that at last they were going to be able to continue their activities without the old monarch bothering them through his daily postings on his website condemning the corruption of the elite, the lack of good governance, illegal logging and the dire poverty in which most ordinary Cambodians live.

They hastily passed legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming King Sihanouk ''The King-Father of Independence and National Reconciliation'' together with a budget to enjoy his retirement.

But they were in for a surprise.The king-father had already planned a retirement which includes making sure that Cambodia's borders remain as they were back in 1969, respected and recognised as they were by most countries, including the United States, with the exception of Thailand, Laos and the then Republic of South Vietnam.

The king-father, who has been in Beijing since January this year treating a recurrent stomach cancer, has long been concerned by bilateral border agreements signed by the former People's Republic of Kampuchea with Vietnam, when that country's army occupied Cambodia after overthrowing the Pol Pot regime.

He has said that he will never recognise those agreements which are contrary to formal promises made to him by the Vietnamese leadership to respect Cambodia's territorial integrity after the re-unification of South and North Vietnam.

The former monarch says Thailand profited from a treaty it signed with Vietnam in August 1997, delimiting the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, while Cambodia lost some 30,000 square kilometres of its maritime territory.

He also alleges that Thailand took over border areas that were controlled by the Cambodian resistance during Vietnam's occupation of the country.Laos is alleged by King Sihanouk to have taken parcels of land belonging to Cambodia in the border province of Stung-Treng, preventing the renovation of an old road built during the French Protectorate, which China has agreed to finance.An ancient Khmer prediction suggested in olden days that the Khmers would have to choose one day between being eaten by the tigers or swallowed by crocodiles.

Following the signing of the Paris Agreements of 1991, many believed that the agreements would end any territorial problems as they were signed by all of Cambodia's neighbours and also because the then State of Cambodia engaged itself to revoke any treaties that were incompatible with Cambodia's sovereignty.

On March 31, six months after his abdication, King Sihanouk began what amounts to a new royal crusade to preserve Cambodia's territorial integrity.

He issued an ''open letter'' to the parliaments and governments of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the DPR of Laos, that called on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who maintains close relations with Vietnam, is reported to have been furious with the king's open letter, as he does not wish the special relationship with Vietnam to be disturbed by border issues.

However, following the advice of calmer voices in his cabinet, he hastily decided to follow up one of King Sihanouk's recent suggestions: the establishment of a non-partisan body to tackle the thorny issue of Cambodia's borders.On May 9, 2005, King Norodom Sihamoni signed a decree establishing the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs, which brings together one representative each of the king, the chairmen of the Senate and National Assembly and of the three political parties sitting in the Cambodian National Assembly.

King Sihanouk's strategy forced the government to tackle an issue that the government did not want to touch. He had successfully used the same tactics to get the succession issue resolved last year, when he suddenly abdicated, leaving the government with no alternative but to hastily pass legislation setting up the Council of the Crown and get a new monarch elected.

But the newly and grandly named Supreme National Council of Border Affairs is a tiger without teeth. Indeed, the royal decree signed by King Sihanouk's son, King Sihamoni, but drafted solely by senior government officials without the participation of the royal palace, does not give the council any real power to solve the border issue but only to research and assess questions pertaining to the land and sea borders of Cambodia, to advise the government, as well as to pay on-spot visits to border areas where incidents may have occurred.

The council is not empowered to negotiate with foreign countries when problems arise in the border areas.King Sihanouk had planned the activities of the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs with gusto and haste, calling for a meeting of the council the afternoon after his scheduled return to Cambodia, on May 8, immediately after a press conference, the first he would have given in at least five years.

But fate threw his arrangements into chaos. On May 1, Chinese doctors informed the king that the cancer treatment he had been following in Beijing was not working and that it was necessary for the retired monarch to follow a course of chemotherapy. Disappointed but undeterred, the king called a meeting of the Border Council in Beijing. This took place on May 11 and 12 in the Chinese capital but as its deliberations are supposed to remain confidential, not much was known of what transpired at the Beijing meeting.

This was until it was leaked to the press that during the meeting, Princess Norodom Vacheahra, vice president of the border council representing the chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly and half-sister of the king-father, proposed the amendment of the royal decree establishing the council in order to give more power to the council and its president.

Critics of the way the border council was created say that it should have been established by legislation passed by parliament and proclaimed by the king in order to have a legal competence properly recognised and not just by a royal decree. The decree gives the border council president no executive power but holds King Norodom Sihanouk responsible for the country's border disputes.

Since the first meeting of the border council and following an appeal by King Sihanouk, volunteers, students and other concerned citizens have been paying visits to the border areas and reporting back to the king-father on their findings.The former monarch has posted them on his website in Khmer but without the names of the authors in order to protect their identity.

Phnom Penh newspapers have reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen, angered by Princess Vacheahra's draft amendment of the role of the border council, has asked Prince Norodom Ranariddh, chairman of the National Assembly, to replace her with someone who would follow the instructions of the ruling parties and speak the same language at meetings of the council.

It is not known when the next meeting of the border council will take place, and much depends on King Sihanouk's health.