PM orders preservation of colonial border posts
Phnom Penh Post | 22 September 2016
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday
issued a directive instructing Cambodia’s Border Affairs Committee and relevant
authorities to “take care of” border posts that had been planted during the
French colonial period in the 1870s, in a bid to preserve the Kingdom’s
historical legacy and educate the next generation.
“The border committee
needs to maintain the old border posts [planted in the 1870s] although they are
very old,” the directive reads. “The posts . . . under the control of Vietnam, the
committee has to negotiate to bring back to Cambodia.”
The posts that
still stand should be maintained to allow future generations to see the
progress Cambodia has made in negotiating its territory with its neighbours, it
adds.
The government, however, remains highly sensitive
to allegations, long espoused by the opposition, that it has ceded territory to
Vietnam – allegations for which two opposition parliamentarians are currently jailed.
Senior Minister Var
Kimhong, head of the border committee, said yesterday that officials “will take
measures to protect” the remaining posts, and will put in museums those that
have toppled over the years.
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