HANOI -Vietnam and Cambodia have agreed to negotiate solutions to bilateral
problems and have set up committees to discuss the two key issues - a
long-running border dispute and treatment of ethnic Vietnamese residents of
Cambodia.
Tens of thousands of Vietnamese residents fled Cambodia last
year after more than 100 were killed in a series of massacres by hard-line
communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
Some 6,000 who want to return to their
homes on Cambodia's big Tonle Sap lake are reported stranded on the
Vietnam-Cambodia border, with Cambodian authorities unwilling to let them
in.
A joint communiqué issued on Sunday night April 3 after a two-day
visit to Phnom Penh by Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet said the two sides
agreed to set up a working group of experts on the issue.
It would be
settled "on the basis of respect for Cambodian national legislation and
international law and practices," the com-muniqué said.
Vietnamese
nationals would be "treated like other foreign nationals" in Cambodia, it added
without elaboration.
On the border issue, the communiqué said another
joint working group would discuss and settle border demarcation.
It would
also discuss "necessary measures aimed at maintaining security and stability in
the border areas and building a border of lasting peace and friendship between
the two countries".
Cambodia claims Vietnam and and Thailand have
encroached on its territory over several decades.
On the use of the
waters of the Mekong river, which both share, the communiqué said Vietnam and
Cambodia agreed to hold further talks with other countries involved within the
framework of the UN's Mekong Committee.
They wanted to seek "an
appropriate formula in setting all issues relation to the right to use the
Mekong river in order to meet the interests of the riverain peoples and states,
particularly those in the lower Mekong", the com-muniqué said. - Reuters
