RFA Fakes News Turned Down

Phnom Penh August 29, 2023 --

The government has turned down a misleading report by Radio Free Asia (RFA) Khmer that Cambodia lost a canal into Vietnam's territory. With deep dismay, the Permanent Secretariat of the National Authority for Border Affairs has recently issued the rejection after the RFA Khmer website published an article entitled 'People Regret That a Canal Constructed by the Khmer Rouge Was Lost to Vietnam after Border Demarcation.' The report does not reflect reality, is baseless, lacks understanding, and has the ill intention to mislead the public domestically and internationally, said the statement.

It explained that the canal that RFA referred to is called 'Prek Kampong Snay,' and the 1:100,000 Bonne map scale of Indo-China's Geographical Team drew Cambodia's border along the canal's bank on Cambodia's side. Nevertheless, the Cambodia National Authority for Border Affairs has negotiated hard with the Vietnamese side, and it was agreed that the border between the two is along the middle of the canal. Based on legal principle and international practice, the peoples along the canal are fully entitled to use the water, travel in it, and fish in it. The statement from the National Authority for Border Affairs called on the public not to believe and not to disseminate the fake news, but to share widely the authority's clarification.