Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday hit back at opposition critics of his efforts to seek French expert help in modernising old colonial maps of Cambodia’s border with Vietnam, rejecting their claims that such an effort would require a constitutional amendment.

The Constitution stipulates that only the 1/100,000-scale Bonne-projection map created by the French can be used for demarcation, with Hun Sen denying that converting that map to a 1/50,000-scale UTM map for ease of use would be unconstitutional.

“Article 2 of the Constitution will not be amended, because we will still use the 1/100,000 map. The duplication or extension of the map to 1/50,000 is a technical issue to facilitate the measurement and border post planting only,” Hun Sen said in comments published by the pro-CPP Fresh News.

“In the suspicious or doubtful cases, or for different interpretations, we will refer back to 1/100,000 map as the foundation. Therefore, the Constitution’s stipulations about the map are not affected.”

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said this week he, too, did not believe the Constitution needed to be changed to use French-made UTM maps, though some in his party have disagreed.