PM Defends Himself by Disseminating Documentaries on Border Issue

AKP: Phnom Penh October 25, 2005

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen has declared that he had to defend himself against slanderous allegation against his government on territory issue.
Addressing the ceremony to confer Degrees to graduates in Phnom Penh Monday, the Prime Minister said
documentaries currently aired on several television stations were necessary for him to defend himself against critics who had repeatedly accused him of ceding Cambodian territory to Vietnam.
"I have no other choice," Samdech Hun Sen said , claiming that the unnamed critic had "pushed Hun Sen to wall"
Since last Friday, stations including TVK, TV9, Apsara and Bayon have given extensive coverage to a decade's worth of documents from the 1970s related to the border issue. TV newscasters read the documents word for word, alongside transcripts of the texts.
Recalling the atomic bombing in Japan by US forces during World War II, Samdech Hun Sen said an offensive is sometimes the best form of self-defense.
He also said he would continue to broadcast a controversial song from Lon Nol's Khmer Republic that accuses retired King Norodom Sihanouk of ceding land to Vietnam.
TVK Director-General Kem Gunawath has told the Cambodia Daily that he defended his programming decisions aand suggested that anyone could call his phone number if they objected. (ends)