Belligerent pre-election

banter is only to be expected, but opposition leader Sam Rainsy has raised the

game by declaring he will redistribute the ill-gotten gains of corrupt

pro-government tycoons if his party wins July's national elections.

Cambodian People's Party-affiliated

Okhna, tycoons and businessmen beware: on May 12 Rainsy announced that he

"will give back to the nation, give back to the victims of land grabbing,

return to the state millions of hectares of land that have been illegally sold

off."

Rainsy alleges that by

maintaining close ties with the ruling CPP - in particular with Prime Minister

Hun Sen - powerful individuals have been able to acquire state land illegally

through secretive land swaps or grab land from poor farmers.

"Any new government led

by me, Sam Rainsy, will confiscate land, forests, mountains, beaches and

islands which have been sold to foreign companies by the CPP," Rainsy

said. "We will take them back for the nation and the people. We do not

recognize the contracts issued by Hun Sen's government as they have signed away

our lands to evil companies."

This policy of land redistribution

is "unsustainable" and will "bring problems for the Cambodian

people," Information Minister and CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith said on

May 20.