Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Vietnamese to search for MIAs

Vietnamese to search for MIAs

Vietnamese to search for MIAs

An agreement struck between Vietnam and Cambodia will see a return of Vietnamese

troops to Cambodian soil by the end of 2001 in search of the remains of Vietnamese

MIAs.

Cambodian General Pol Saroeun and Vietnamese Lt. General Nguyen Van Rinh signed an

Action Plan to effect the agreement in Hanoi on May 22.

The Action Plan (AP) is designed to implement an agreement signed between the two

governments in August 2000 which goes by the unwieldy title of "Agreement Between

Committee of the SRV government and Committee of the KOC on Accounting, Exhumation

and Repatriation of the Remains of the Vietnamese Volunteer Soldiers Who Lost Their

Life During Wartime in Cambodia."

Untold thousands of Vietnamese troops are believed to have been killed in action

in Cambodia battling a combination of Cambodian, South Vietnamese, American and later

Khmer Rouge forces from the late 1960s until the end of the Vietnamese occupation

of the country in 1989.

The AP scales down the most controversial aspect of the original plan which allowed

for Vietnamese troops conducting MIA search missions in the Kingdom to be armed.

Point four of the original 10-point agreement spelled out the Vietnamese team's right

to carry "individual weapons for self defense to guarantee their safety."

However Vietnamese Embassy Attaché Chu Dong Loc said that Vietnamese soldiers

would not be armed on Cambodian territory and that the Cambodian military would be

responsible for ensuring their safety.

The agreement provides for the supply of armed escorts by the Cambodian government

for traveling in "dangerous and remote areas."

Dong Loc, who described the operation as an extension of MIA searches underway in

Vietnam for many years, said that a firm date hasn't been set for the start of Cambodian

operations. However the AP provides for a 2001 - December 2005 time frame for MIA

searches.

"We've been searching for Vietnamese soldiers missing in action in the French

war and in the war against the US," Dong Loc said. "Millions of Vietnamese

soldiers have been sacrificed and it's a very difficult operation because it covers

such a large area of forest and mountains."

According to Dong Loc, the size and duration of regional conflicts involving Vietnam

made it impossible to estimate the number of Vietnamese troops whose remains may

be in Cambodia.

"It's very difficult to know the exact number of Vietnamese soldiers who've

died in Cambodia because it's been such a long period of conflict," he said.

Dong Loc said the agreement was a significant achievement to cement bilateral ties

between Vietnam and Cambodia.

"We regard this as a humanitarian issue and it's very important [because] all

the relatives of the soldiers who were killed in the war want the remains to be repatriated

[and] want the remains to be in their village and near their house," he said.

While Dong Loc said that a search area was yet to be delineated, the original draft

would see the Vietnamese MIA search operations in 13 provinces as well as Phnom Penh.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Ministry orders all schools, public and private, to close for SEA Games

    From April 20 to May 18, all public and private educational institutions will be closed to maintain order and support Cambodia's hosting of the 32nd SEA Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games, said a directive from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Cambodia will host the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to