CAMBODIA-VIETNAM/BORDER Cambodia opposition party leads visit to scene of Vietnam border row

Record ID: 146634

  • Title: CAMBODIA-VIETNAM/BORDER Cambodia opposition party leads visit to scene of Vietnam border row
  • Date: 19th July 2015
  • Summary: SVAY RIENG PROVINCE, CAMBODIA (JULY 19, 2015) (REUTERS) BORDER POLICEMEN STANDING GUARD TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM CROSSING BORDER POLICEMEN WATCHING SVAY RIENG PROVINCIAL POLICEMEN STANDING TO BLOCK PEOPLE FROM CROSSING THE BORDER LINE VIETNAM BORDER AREA, AS SEEN FROM CAMBODIA (JULY 19, 2015) (REUTERS) VIETNAMESE PEOPLE AND HOMES SVAY RIENG PROVINCE, CAMBODIA (JULY 19, 2015)
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4DGR0WSN53HKWSMFGZK7Q5JNL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Lawmakers from Cambodia's opposition party led around 2,000 people on Sunday (July 19) to a Vietnam border site that was the scene of recent clashes.
    Members of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) are known for protesting against close ties between Phnom Penh and Hanoi, and have organised protests along the 1,270 km (about 789 miles) border in the past. The border is not fully demarcated and has caused confusion in the past.
    Lawmaker Um Sam An said Vietnam had been flouting a border agreement.
    "We are to see the road construction by the Vietnamese side in the white area, an area in which neither side has built anything yet, according to an agreement in 1995 which stated that none of the sides can build road, military camp, dig the dam and road. What we are seeing now is that they are building the road in that white area. Although, they stop building a couple of days ago, the construction equipment are there," he said.
    CNRP lawmaker Real Camerin and roughly 250 activists had illegally entered Vietnamese territory through a shared border last month, the foreign ministry in Hanoi said. Several people from both sides were injured in the confrontation.
    On Sunday, pro-government supporters armed with sticks joined regional policemen to ensure no one crossed the border.
    A Vietnam border team led by the Deputy Foreign Minister and the Minister in charge of the border issue Ho Xuan Son held a three-day meeting with Cambodian counterparts on Tuesday (July 7) in Phnom Penh but failed to resolve much of the differences.
    Both sides agreed to investigate reports of the recent clashes.
    Among those caught up in the conflict are Soeung Hum, who said her father's grave lies on the disputed area.
    "I feel like we lost the our land, I lost the land of my father's grave. I appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen, the international, the world organisations and the United Nations to help me because I lost my father's grave land. They keep pushing me to unearth my father's grave and make new grave in another place, they even pay me but I say I will not move his grave out of that area, I would rather let them destroy my father's grave because that is his land," she said.
    Cambodia shares a 1,270 km border with Vietnam in the east and southeast.
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