sVar Kim Hong: Border planting could encroach into Cambodia by 15 km and into Vietnam by 15 km (sic!)

sVar Kim Hong

During a press conference to announce the bidding for the printing of border maps between Cambodia and Vietnam – the delimitation of which is not even completed yet – Var Kim Hong told reporters that that the planting of border posts at certain locations encroaches into Cambodian territories, and in some other locations, they encroach into Vietnam, these encroachments could be as much as 15 km. Var Kim Hong, the chairman of the government border committee, did not indicate why these encroachments take place, he only said that this is a technical issue.

In the morning of 01 December 2010, Var Kim Hong said that the planting of border posts delimiting Cambodia and Vietnam is only 61% complete, i.e. about 200 of the 370 posts have been installed. The bidding price for the printing of border maps between the two countries ranges between $1.5 million and $4.5 million.

According to Var Kim Hong, there are 5 foreign companies – French, Japanese, Korean and American – that are participating in the bidding. However, the border committee from the two countries, the Vietnamese member of which is Nguyen Mong Hao, did not decide which company to select yet. Var Kim Hong said that he wants to see the printing of the new maps to take place soon, i.e. no longer than 2 weeks from now. He said that there is no complication because the planting of border posts is done according to plan already agreed upon, and that it will be completed in 2012.

It is not known for sure whether the newly printed border maps will be deposited at the UN to replace the old border maps which was deposited by the Sihanouk regime in 1964 or not. According to Var Kim Hong, the planting of border posts was performed by the Khmer-Yuon border commission, along the 1,270-km-long border extending from Ratanakiri down to Kampot province, along the Gulf of Siam.

Nevertheless, this morning, the Cambodian public, as well as civil society organizations have expressed their surprise and concern to learn that the encroachment into Cambodian territories could be as deep as 15 km.

They are also wondering why when the encroachments are made into the Yuon territory, there is no information about them. This shows that Cambodia could lose up to 15 km of territory to Vietnam from this border post planting.