CLV speed up border demarcation

By Ky Soklim
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
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While the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand has not been resolved yet, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV or Indochinese Federation) are speeding up their border demarcation.

Cambodia and Vietnam are openly declaring one more time that they will complete their land border demarcation before the end of 2012. This is the common agreement declared by foreign ministers from both countries yesterday, during the signing of notes from the joint Cambodia-Viet committee.

Var Kim Hong, the government official in charge of border affairs who was also present during yesterday’s meeting, said on Saturday 05 December that, the planting of border posts is not an easy task, however, both countries have agreed to complete the installation of border posts before the end 2012.

Cambodia and Vietnam share 1,270 km of common border. Up to now, 140 out of 314 border posts have been planted.

Regarding the land border with Vietnam, at the end of October, opposition leader Sam Rainsy and a number of villagers uprooted stakes for a border post in Svay Rieng province because they charge that these posts were planted on top of rice fields belonging to Cambodian farmers. Following this uprooting case, the Cambodian National Assembly lifted Sam Rainsy’s immunity last week to make way for the court to investigate this uprooting case.

Regarding the border with Laos, the PMs from both countries agreed two weeks ago, during the Lao PM’s visit to Cambodia, that both countries will complete 100% of its border delimitation prior to concluding a border agreement between themselves. Cambodia and Thailand have already agreed to plant 88% of their border posts, i.e. only 12% remains to be completed.

Var Kim Hong said that the common border between Laos and Cambodia is 540-km long, and up to now, the two countries have planted 124 border posts out of a total of 145.

While CLV are speeding up the border delimitation process, the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand is still unresolved. Cambodia and Thailand share 805-km of common border. Seventy three of the border posts were installed during the French protectorate over Cambodia, however, as of now, only 40 of these border posts can be found.