PRIME Minister Hun Sen is currently playing a “dangerous game” with the Cambodian nation by understating the threat posed by Vietnamese territorial encroachments, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said.

In a self-styled “message to the Cambodian people” released on Thursday, the Sam Rainsy Party president said the government is playing up the threat posed by Thailand but ignoring problems on its eastern border.

Sam Rainsy said the potential loss of 5 square kilometres of land in disputes with Thailand was dwarfed by the loss of “thousands” of square kilometres to Vietnamese incursions.

“This is an ongoing painful process that Mr Hun Sen does not want us to look at,” he said.

The message came just days after the National Assembly stripped Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary immunity over an October 25 incident in which he helped uproot six wooden posts marking the border with Vietnam in Svay Rieng province.

Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers, dismissed the allegations, saying Sam Rainsy was speaking from emotion rather than fact.

“To the east, we do not have any problems,” he said.