Vietnam Building in No-man’s Land

[geovalin]

Provincial officials in Rattanakiri rejected a request by the Vietnamese government to allow them to construct buildings and a border checkpoint in O’Yadav district after a meeting between both sides in Banlung City on Tuesday. Despite Cambodia denying Vietnam permission to build in the area and sending letters to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry asking for construction to be stopped, soldiers from across the border have continued to dig ponds and build structures in the area. The land, near the border post in Pok Nhai commune across from Vietnam’s Gai Lai province, was designated as no-man’s land until defined borders had been created in a January 17, 1995, agreement between the two countries.
 

But for more than a year now, residents, police and provincial government officials have reported non-stop construction by Vietnamese soldiers. 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 O Koma area near a border protection office in 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.
 

Only last week 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.   Mr. Sam Oeun said yesterday that during the meeting in Banlung, Vietnamese officials justified their actions by claiming that the land where the soldiers were seen digging and building was technically in Vietnam, ignoring the agreement to demarcate the area first before constructing anything.

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28709/vietnam-building-in-no-man---s-land/

[Srikcir]

Cambodia just needs to pretend that the Vietnamese constructions are chinese and everything will be okay.