Prime Minister Hun Sen met yesterday with a senior official from the National League of POW/MIA Families, assuring the American group that Cambodia would cooperate in repatriation efforts for United States soldiers that were killed in the Kingdom during the Vietnam War.

Eang Sophalleth, Hun Sen’s assistant, said the Premier had called on the American government to speed up the recovery process, particularly since many Cambodians with information to offer are now reaching old age.

“[Hun Sen] has encouraged the cooperation between the US and Cambodia in finding more information at locations which have yet to be discovered,” Eang Sophalleth said.

Ann Mills-Griffiths, executive director the National League, has also met with senior officials from Laos and Vietnam in recent days.

Posting on the organisation’s Facebook page on Monday, she said she also had spoken with Defence Ministry officials and King Norodom Sihamoni. Hun Sen, she added, “has worked with the League since 1984”.

Eang Sophalleth said Mills-Griffiths sought regional cooperation between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in repatriation efforts.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a task force within the United States Department of Defence, dispatches multiple recovery teams to the Kingdom each year. Last month, two separate teams – one in Kampong Cham province and another in Kratie – were tasked with locating the remains of four American soldiers whose helicopters were shot down in the areas.

Roughly 1,700 Americans are unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, including 59 that are presumed to be in Cambodia. JPAC has located 31 soldiers in the Kingdom to date.