CDC - SPEECH OF H.E. S0K AN

Kingdom of Cambodia


Office of the Council of Ministers	Nation Religion King

SPEECH OF H.E. S0K AN SENIOR MINISTER IN CHARGE
OF THE OFFICE OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE DEMOBILIZATION
OF ARMED FORCES AT THE 6TH CONSULTATIVE GROUP
MEETING ON THE PROGRESS OF MILITARY REFORM AND
DEMOBILIZATION
PHNOM PENH, 20-21 JUNE, 2002

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Council for the Demobilization of Armed Forces (CDAF) and in the names of H.E. Senior Minister TEA BANH and H.R.H. Prince Sisowat Sirirath, Co-Chairman of the Council for Reform of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, I have the honor to make a presentation on the progress made so far in the areas of RCAF reform including demobilization since the RCAF reform and restructuring process is mainly dependent on a substantial reduction in current manpower level as mentioned in the Defence White Paper which was prepared with the technical and financial support and assistance from the Government of Australia that “ .. it is important that demobilization is undertaken in a way that is sensitive to the needs of the nation, the interests of individual soldier, and the future strength of the RCAF”.

This is true because this point is the fundamental spirit imbued with a high sense of responsibility that really guides our work so far to prepare the policy and strategy of this highly sensitive program and implement the plan of action to downsize the military personnel. It is also the basis that not only cements the regular consultation, but also requires a close cooperation between the Council for the Demobilization of Armed Forces and the Council for RCAF Reform up to now and the future as well, specially between myself and H.E. Senior Minister Tea Banh, H.R.H. Prince Sisowat Sirirath and H.E. Commander-in-Chief Ke Kim Yan.

Reforming and restructuring the RCAF which compose of former four warring factions are not an easy task and do need time, money plus a clear-cut political will and firm determination. More importantly, on the one hand, we have to move very carefully from one step to another to make sure that this reform will not affect the newly gained peace, stability, security and national reconciliation of the country, and on the other hand our speed of reform also subjects to the financial and material availability, in other words our will could not bypass the available means. However, I am proud to inform our distinguished partners that so far we have made good progress and achieved remarkable result in our military reform work.

Firstly, the reduction-in-force is well underway although some problems of technical and democratic nature still pull our legs to move faster according to the plan agreed with our partners. So far, more than 40,000 names have been cut from the military payroll including 15,551 irregular cases found during the 1999 registration, the transfer of more than 7000 spouses of dead soldiers from the Ministry of National Defense to the Ministry of Women and Veterans’ Affairs, the elimination of more than 2,000 cases through administrative measures, and the combined Pilot and first full-scale demobilization of 16,500 soldiers.

The Government still intends to complete the demobilization of second group of another 15,000 soldiers by the end of this current year provided that the already funding commitment by all donors and particularly the World Bank are released and made available as well as the delivery of reintegration assistance packages to the 15,000 soldiers discharged last year is completed. As we are all aware that the CVAP is a project that consists of four components namely, the registration, discharge, reinsertion and reintegration. I reiterate this point in order to stress that demobilization process must go through these four consecutive steps with a special focus on the fourth one because the last step is the most important one to help the veterans and their family members in the transitional mainstream to the civilian community, in other words we have to move very carefully from one demobilization phase to another.

Nowadays, our veterans are facing great difficulties in their daily livelihood while waiting for the reintegration packages which consists of social and economic asset to help them firmly establish their own life and that of his or her family in the civilian community. In this sense, may I take this opportunity to reassure our partners, specially the World Bank representing here by H.E. Ian Porter, World Bank Country Director, that the CDAF has been and will continue to fully abide by the rules of the game, that is to say not only we vigorously adhere to the principle of full participation, but also we strictly respect our partners’ policies, procedures and guidelines during the whole lifetime of this project implementation.

Likewise, I am firmly convinced that our partners will undoubtedly reciprocate, that is to say once all the rules of the game are met, there should not be a delay in releasing your grants/credit or your consent otherwise the project could not be implemented smoothly, efficiently and timely as we all agreed with each other after many years of our active preparation and tense debate to design this project with this form of structure and substance.

In the same vein, since the World Bank has appointed a new task manager for this demobilization project, I strongly hope that there will be a smooth continuity in the implementation of this project that all of us, the Government and the Donor Working Group on Demobilization have spent a lot of time and intelligence in order to come up with such an agreed project of this form of structure and substance. I raise this point with a view to bring your special attention to one important fact that it has already been more than eight months that 15,000 soldiers and their families have been discharged from the army. Therefore, any further delay to provide them with the four options of reintegration assistance packages could eventually create social problems with negative and unpredictable consequences due to their prolonged difficulties.

Secondly, allow me to brief you all about some areas of our RCAF reform progress made so far along with the ongoing discharge process. This year, the RCAF Reform Council has entered the third year of its tireless endeavor to undertake the reform and restructuring of the RCAF. Primo, the three levels of central command have been changed into two, meaning that now we have only the Ministry of National Defense and the RCAF High Command to manage and command the armed forces while the Chief of Staff did not exist any longer. Secundo, We have gradually combined the Head of Units. A case in point, before 1999, we had 19 regiments and 6 divisions but nowadays only 1 regiment and 18 divisions are left.

I wish to stress that this approach of restructuring the Head of Units is still going on through the combination of division level in each military region provided that military demobilization could move parallely. At this point, in the names of H.E. Tea Banh, H.R.H Sisowath Sirirath and H.E. Ke Kim Yan, I wish to officially inform our distinguished partners that in addition to the planned demobilization of second group of 15,000 soldiers by the end of this year, the Ministry of National Defense and the RCAF High Command also plan to downsize another 10,000 military personnel which on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I solicit your deep understanding and kindly request our distinguished partners, specially the Donor Working Group on Demobilization chaired by the World Bank to consider the possibility to provide the additional assistance to the Royal Government so that we could fulfill this new objective of reduction-in-force.

Thirdly, the Government’ s Sub-Decree No. 38 dated April 30, 1999 on control and monitoring of import, trafficking, distribution and use of weapons and explosive devices is not immune to the RCAF. The Ministry of National Defense has also reformed its weapons and explosive device management and control procedures. It has also set up a number of committee and working groups to control weapons, ammunitions, explosives and military equipment throughout the RCAF.

Likewise, the High Command of RCAF also issued its orders to reduce the quantity of weapons, ammunitions and explosives used in each unit through the computerized registration of all military devices in the RCAF and the construction of safety warehouses to stock those unused. Furthermore, through the cooperation of the Ministry of National Defense with the EU/ASAC, a number of safety warehouses has been built and renovated in the military region two and five accompanied by a number of skill training courses on management of weapons, ammunitions and explosives.

Last but not least, the Government Cabinet Meeting during its full session held few weeks ago already approved a draft law on weapons and explosives control. We strongly hope that once this law is promulgated, the Government will be in a much better position not only to control the weapons and explosives, but also to strengthen the rule of law and build a society free from violence as a whole.

Fourthly, along with the military restructuring and demobilization, a special focus has also been paid to the improved training and education which will be essential to build a more professional and effective army. Our objective is to develop a comprehensive professional training program with four levels to support our military personnel as they move through their careers.

The first level is the Training at military unit level which will instill high standards of discipline and pride in membership of a neutral RCAF. By late last year, the Government Cabinet Meeting already approved the Sub-Decree on Military Code of Conduct. The second level is to develop courses at the Junior Officer School to strengthen the leadership, command and values of all newly commissioned officers with special emphasis on discipline, command responsibilities, organizational skill, humanitarian law. The third one is the Establishment of a Command and Staff Course for middle level officers while the fourth one is the Training of Senior Officer at the Military Officer Academy now called Cambodian Military Institute which is partly assisted by the Government of Australia.

So far, a large number of our military personnel have attended the training courses at military schools and units on different subjects including the specialist areas, human rights, democracy, law, health care, etc... I wish to emphasize that so far the training process, specially for the middle level officers is currently facing with great difficulties due to our financial and material constraints.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The close cooperation and active assistance that we have enjoyed and received up to now from our friendly countries do play a very important and indispensable role in the process of reforming and restructuring our army to which we are deeply grateful. In general, this precious assistance has indeed contributed to improving the image of the RCAF and strengthening the professional skills of our military personnel so that they could respond in a more efficient way to their new tasks required by the current situation of the country where full peace and development prevail all over the Kingdom of Cambodia.

I am confident however that through the strong political will and determination of the Government led by Samdech Hun Sen to reform, restructure and demobilize the RCAF coupled with the continued implementation of good and strong partnership between the CDAF and the Donor Working Group on Demobilization as well as the ongoing active commitment and assistance provided on the part of bilateral donors to the Ministry of National Defense and the RCAF High Command, we will successfully achieve the strategic objectives respectively defined in the Government Political Platform, the RCAF Five-Year Reform Plan and Defense White Paper.