Le
Hai Binh, spokesperson for the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, talks to
the media last year in Vietnam. On Monday Binh claimed his country has
full sovereignty of the disputed Dak Dam – Dak Huyt border region. AFP
Vietnam renews claim to Mondulkiri land
Vietnam and Cambodia are once again at loggerheads over
contested borderland after a Vietnamese official on Monday claimed to
have evidence of his country’s sovereignty over land in Mondulkiri
province’s Dak Dam commune, a position that Cambodia has contested.
In a speech in Paris last month, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that the
51-square-kilometre Dak Dam-Dak Huyt border region between Mondulkiri
and Vietnam’s Dak Nong province belonged entirely to Cambodia, stressing
that he would not give in to requests from Vietnam to share the land.
“They asked to share the land by giving us 40 per cent, while they
are going to take 60 per cent, but I said that I need to take it all,
because it is my ancestor’s land,” the premier said at the time.
But Le Hai Binh, spokesman of Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, hit
back in state media on Monday, claiming that his country has “full
sovereignty of the border area” and has the documents and authority to
seize control.
“The decision of the French governor general is law, because at that
time there was no law to identify the borders of states in Indochina
from France.
The French governor general made a decision at that time to follow the Dak Huot stream, so that is law”, he said.
“Other people have their own claim, but it doesn’t matter, because we
have a law that France, who was the boss of the three countries, made.”
Kim Hong added that the government had no plans to meet with Vietnam
about Dak Dam because it is an “old case”, and would only arrange a
meeting if new disputes emerged.
The Vietnamese have expansionism in their
ReplyDeleteblood.
The ONLY way for Cambodia to live in peace with Vietnam is for Cambodia to be as strong or
stronger than the Expansionist.
Yes, Cambodia can achieve this goal !