[Vietnamization, border, Ratanakiri] Vietnam Violates Border

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Vietnam Violates Border

 Khmer Times | 10 August 2016

Provincial authorities in Ratanakiri said Vietnamese soldiers built two settlements in the O Koma area near border pole No. 30 in Pok Nhai commune in O Yadav district late last month, violating an agreement between both countries that prohibits any construction near boundary lines that have not yet been demarcated.

On January 17, 1995, Vietnam and Cambodia signed an agreement designating the area, near Vietnam’s Gai Lai province, as a no-man’s land until defined borders had been created.
 

Nhem Sam Oeun, the deputy governor and provincial spokesman, said police watching the border in O Yadav district saw Vietnamese soldiers laying concrete for the foundation and pillars of potential structures and told them to stop immediately.  
 

“We told them to cease all construction and meet with us to discuss it,” Mr. Sam Oeun said, adding that he sent a report to the Interior Ministry and the National Border Committee to resolve the issue with Vietnamese diplomats.
 

Last April, at least eight ponds, approximately four by eight meters wide and three to four meters deep, were dug by Vietnamese soldiers in the area near Pok Nhai commune. Government officials said they would handle the issue diplomatically, but many nearby residents say the Vietnamese soldiers continue to dig deeper into the ponds.
 

An ethnic Rochom Kham resident in Lom village who asked not to be named told Khmer Times he saw the structure himself and said it was built next to a pond also built by Vietnamese soldiers near the border office in the village. In the past, he said, Vietnamese soldiers were seen digging deeper into the pond.
 

“They are using the land without promising to remove this pond. They are making the foundation for a house. I would like the authorities to take action immediately in this case because we are only citizens. All we can do is stand and watch,” he said.
 

Government officials sent notices to the Vietnamese embassy at the end of July, but have yet to receive a response. Var Kim Hong, senior minister in charge of the Cambodian Border Affairs Committee, confirmed that the Vietnamese had in fact violated the agreement between the two countries.  
 

“We have prohibited any action or construction in the area because the two sides have not yet agreed on a border point. This action violated the agreement on January 17, 1995,” he said.

Chhay Thy, the Adhoc provincial coordinator in Ratanakiri, asked the Joint Border Committee to check the violations and resolve the issue because in his eyes, this kind of construction was “clearly” intended to violate the sovereignty of Cambodia.  
 

“It has been one year. Last year, they dug ponds and now they use this water without removing it and now they continue to build settlements,” he said. “We request the government take strong action. Otherwise, when they measure the border, it will become Vietnamese land.”
 

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, known for its vehement criticism of the Cambodian government’s close ties with Vietnam, have said in the past that the government must take action or use international laws to put pressure on Vietnam on the border issue.
 

Last year, much was made over attempts to demarcate the border with Vietnam. The opposition claimed the government had openly ceded land to Vietnam by using unverified border maps and in June last year, politicians and supporters went to the Vietnamese border in Svay Rieng province. That trip led to a scuffle between local Vietnamese residents and Cambodians, resulting in multiple injuries on both sides.
 

In February, after four months studying the issue, Sok Touch, the head of a research group from the Royal Academy [of the govt], said that both Cambodia and Vietnam are in violation of each other’s borderlines, but was hesitant to release his team’s exact findings to protect the government from a “headache.”
 

The research spanned 500 kilometers in four provinces, including Kampot, Kandal, Svay Rieng and Tbong Khmum provinces, and focused on the discovery of 1,000 border demarcation posts, Mr. Touch said in a press conference.
 

The findings were dismissed by the Cambodian Border Affairs Committee.
 

[T2P Media: Good cop / bad cop, a Sok Touch is very much a part of the border problem as the Border Committee, both part of the govt, which is a puppet of Vietnam.  Sok Touch seemed to be conceding, but when in reality his research cannot be verified as outside, independent groups were not permitted.]

But Mr. Touch said that among the 1,000 posts, some were abnormally planted in either Cambodian or Vietnamese territory, but declined to comment on whether either country stood to profit from the irregularities.
 

“I could not tell you how many posts. If I told you all now, there would be a big war and the government would have a headache because of this. Let’s wait [until] after the Ministry of Land Management takes pictures and registers the land and then see. The border area has no villagers living on it. If I pointed out the irregularities, some might grab the land there and it would cause an argument,” Mr. Touch said.
 

In March, National Police officials claimed that 89 percent of the demarcations had been completed after they had planted 282 border posts out of a total of 314 along the Cambodia-Vietnam border.