Cambodia protests Vietnam for digging 5 ponds inside its territory

Jun 12,2015

PHNOM PENH, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has protested Vietnam for digging five ponds inside northeast Cambodian territory in Ratanakiri province, according to a Cambodian Foreign Ministry's diplomatic note sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh on Friday.

The diplomatic note stated that according to the report of the Cambodian Ministry of Interior and the Cambodian Joint Border Commission, the Cambodian authorities of Ratanakiri province have discovered five ponds, sized 5 meters by 13 meters each, dug by the Vietnamese authorities in Pak Nhay commune, O Yadav district in a sector that the borderline has not been demarcated. "Based on the map Bonne 1/100,000, the ponds were dug deep inside the Cambodian territory," the diplomatic note said, adding that the ponds were located between 380 meters and 545 meters from the borderline.

In the note, Cambodia demanded Vietnam to respect the borderline of the map Bonne 1/100,000 and the point 8 of the Joint Press Communique of January 17, 1995 between the two countries.

The point stipulated that "Pending the solution for the outstanding border issues, the two sides agreed to maintain the present management, no changing or moving of border markers, and to educate and prevent their people from carrying out cross border cultivation or settlement and to cooperate in maintaining border security and order".

Cambodia shares 1,270 kilometers of border with Vietnam to the east. To date, about 80 percent of the border demarcation between the two countries has been completed.