Cambodia, Vietnam to demarcate contentious border
PHNOM PENH - Cambodia and Vietnam will begin demarcating their contentious border in September in a bid to end a decades-old territorial dispute left over from French colonial times.
The two nations will set up 350 poles along the border stretching 1,270 kilometers (787 miles), said Var Kim Hong, chairman of Cambodia's border committee. They have agreed to finish the demarcation before the end of 2008.
"It is not an easy process to complete. But we will be happy if we finish this on time because the territorial problem will be solved," said Var Kim Hong.
Cambodia and Vietnam inked a controversial deal in October resolving six of seven border disputes with Vietnam and called for marking the border by December 2008.
Opponents of the deal complain it cedes too much land to Vietnam, but Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has flatly denied their arguments and launched a crackdown on his critics.
Nearly a dozen government critics, including human rights leader Kem Sokha, were either jailed or faced punishment under criminal defamation laws that rights groups and diplomats said were being used by Hun Sen to silence dissent.
But they were released on bail earlier this year and later Hun Sen asked courts to drop all defamation charges against them.
Border feuds tap into an often virulent anti-Vietnamese sentiment in Cambodia, fuelled by resentment of Vietnam's expansion over the centuries.
Their border left over from French colonial times remains vague as stone markers and boundary flags have disappeared, while trees lining it have been cut down.
Agence France Presse - June 3, 2006.
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