Cambodia Protests Against Vietnam’s Road Construction Projects in Border Area

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Cambodia sent a diplomatic protest letter to Vietnam on Wednesday over what it considers an encroachment of its border territory, as the Cambodian border committee planned to reveal the map it is using to demarcate the borderline in response to a demand by the opposition party.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation’s letter to its counterpart in Hanoi demanded that Vietnam cease all planned road construction and infrastructure projects along the border until the two nations had completely demarcated the border.

The ministry specifically requested that Vietnam stop construction work on three roads in Svay Rieng province, adjacent to the borderlines at border pillars which have not yet been demarcated.

It also demanded that the Vietnamese provide the locations and maps of where it plans to build roads and other infrastructure projects in the area.

Also on Wednesday, Var Kim Hong, chairman of Cambodia's Border Committee, said the government would unveil the map that is being used to demarcate land border between Cambodia and Vietnam during a press conference on Thursday.

The government has not publicly disclosed the official map, which it is supposed to have filed with the United Nations, because of the sensitivity of the border issue.

The government believes the disclosure of the map will ease tensions inside the country over the border issue as well as dispel allegations by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that the government has given land to Vietnam, Var Kim Hong told RFA’s Khmer Service.

Var Kim Hong also invited the CNRP to reveal its own map, if it had one.

“If they have a better map, then please show it to us,” he said. “We won’t ban them from showing their map. [but] they shouldn’t accuse us [of giving land to Vietnam].”

CNRP lawmaker Mao Monyvann said he would compare the government’s map with the actual land border to verify its accuracy.

He said so far the government has used a 2005 supplemental treaty to demarcate the border instead of a map that late King Norodom Sihanouk had filed with the U.N.

The CNRP argues that the 2005 treaty has caused Cambodia to lose land to Vietnam.

“The treaty had an attachment of a map drawn up unilaterally by Vietnam,” Mao Monyvann said. “Vietnam made it. That is why we have the current border.”

Border issue causes altercation

The ongoing border issues between the two countries led to a physical altercation at the beginning of the week when Vietnamese villagers are said to have beat Cambodian activists who were inspecting a disputed area.

The attack occurred when monks and CNRP lawmakers led some 200 activists to examine the border in Svay Rieng province’s Kampong Ro district, where they say a road built by authorities in Vietnam’s Long An province has encroached into Cambodian territory.

Vietnamese villagers “charged the activists with sticks,” even though the activists were inspecting the area from within Cambodian territory, CNRP President Sam Rainsy said.

But Vietnam’s foreign ministry released a statement Wednesday saying that Vietnamese security officers and local residents tried to reason with the activists and stop them, but instead, they were attacked, resulting in seven injured Vietnamese.

Vietnam “strongly condemns these violent acts” which could jeopardize the good relationship between the two countries, ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in the statement.

Last month, Cambodia issued two protest letters to the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh about what it considers encroachment upon its territory in border areas.

In the first one issued on June 12, the Cambodian government accused Vietnam of digging five ponds in a sector where the official borderline between the two nations has yet to be demarcated in Ratanakiri province in northeast Cambodia.

The letter demanded that Vietnam respect the borderline and not make any changes to border markers or allow people to carry out cross-border cultivation or settlement, according to the terms of a joint communiqué the two countries had signed in January 1995.

In the second letter dated June 17, Cambodia requested that Vietnam stop building a military post on its territory in Kandal province in the country’s southeast until the two nations had completed their border demarcation of the area.

In a related if not retaliatory development, Sok Phal, deputy national police commissioner and general director of Cambodia’s Immigration Department, ordered local authorities across the country to take tougher measures against illegal immigrants, especially Vietnamese.

“We must strengthen the immigration law,” he told provincial governors and border police officers from across the country during a Wednesday meeting in Phnom Penh about cracking down on illegal immigrants.

“If foreigners who are residing in the country don’t have proper documents, we must file their cases with the courts, and we will deport them according to the law,” he said

Sok Phal also ordered local authorities to stop issuing identification cards to foreigners who do not possess proper documents.

Cambodian authorities deported at least 1,200 illegal immigrants—mostly Vietnamese—in early 2015. Last year, the government expelled 1,800 illegal immigrants.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer and Vietnamese services. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cambodia-protests-against-vietnams-road-construction-projects-in-border-area

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Cambodia, Vietnam to Hold Border Talks Next Week

Sok Khemara

July 01, 2015 6:13 PM

Cambodia and Vietnam say they will hold border talks next week, following clashes between Cambodian activists and Vietnamese border security forces.

The head of Cambodia’s border committee, Var Kim Hong, told VOA that Phnom Penh would raise a number of sensitive issues with Hanoi, including road-building, pond-digging and the construction of a military outpost by Vietnam, all of which have come under fire as alleged encroachment.

“We’re asking them to suspend these activities, because … we have not completely demarcated in any areas or any provinces,” he said. “We should not make any changes to the environment, and we have to keep the status quo.”

The Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Border Committee will start three days of meetings in Siem Reap on Monday.

At least 10 people were injured in Sunday’s clash along the border of Svay Rieng province, when Cambodian opposition officials led a delegation to investigate reported encroachment by Vietnam.

Photos and videos posted on Vietnamese and Cambodian social media showed the crowds from the two sides faced off in a tense atmosphere, with occasional fights between small groups from each side.

Var Kim Hong said next week’s meetings are not being held in response to the clashes, but the clashes will be addressed.

He added that neither side has the right to cross into non-demarcated zones.

“So they had the right to block us,” he said.

Cambodia's main opposition party has called for Phnom Penh to seek help from the International Court of Justice. But Var Kim Hong said the solutions to the border problem were being addressed bilaterally and investigated.

He also dismissed opposition calls for Cambodia to nullify border treaties with Vietnam, both from the 1980s and 2005, saying Cambodia gained much in those agreements.

This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Khmer service.

source: http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodia-vietnam-border-talks/2845799.html

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Hanoi slams ‘extremists’

Thu, 2 July 2015

Meas Sokchea and Shaun Turton

Tensions continued to rise between Cambodia and Vietnam yesterday, with both countries firing off statements over recent border disputes, including fierce comments from Hanoi blaming Cambodian “extremists” for violent clashes with Vietnamese authorities in disputed territory on Sunday.

In Vietnam’s strongest remarks yet on the recent border dramas, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh blasted Cambodians involved in the brawl, which erupted after opposition lawmakers led a 250-strong group to “inspect” the alleged encroachment of a Vietnamese-built road in Svay Rieng province’s Kampong Ro district.

Binh said the “extremist” group illegally entered Vietnam’s Long An province and instigated the attack, which, he added, contravened both countries’ laws and treaties, threatened the nations’ relationship and jeopardised the ongoing demarcation process.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national

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Putting border issue on the map

Fri, 3 July 2015

Meas Sokchea

The Cambodian government yesterday produced some of the maps it has been using to demarcate the eastern frontier, stressing that they match the constitutionally mandated map despite having been developed in Vietnam.

At a press conference at the Council of Ministers, the government’s senior official on border affairs, Var Kimhong, exhibited a few of the 26 maps used to delineate the border, over which tensions have flared in recent weeks amid claims of Vietnamese encroachment.

Kimhong told journalists and opposition lawmakers present that the maps, drawn to a 1/50,000 scale, were copied from the constitutionally mandated 1/100,000 scale maps – produced by French colonial authorities and submitted to the United Nations by late King Norodom Sihanouk in 1964.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/putting-border-issue-map