sa’ang district, Kandal province – They are carrying shovels, pickaxes and hoes—not guns. The 29 Vietnamese soldiers now camped at Wat Preak Ampul along the Tonle Bassac aren’t here to begin a new round of fighting on Cambodian soil.
Instead, they have come only to sift through 30-year-old gravesites in search of the remains of fallen comrades.
Wearing dark blue uniforms with patches displaying the Vietnamese flag and a picture of a white dove—recognized as a symbol of peace worldwide—the team of soldiers from An Giang province have been digging at various sites in Koh Thom and Sa’ang districts since Sunday.
So far, they have found the remains of 18 Vietnamese communist soldiers who fought here in the early 1970s against Lon Nol forces and South Vietnamese soldiers, according to RCAF Lieutenant Colonel Chen Narou, the commander of a half-dozen armed Cambodian troops and policemen who are providing security for the Vietnamese search team.
The appearance of Vietnamese military men earlier this week frightened residents who assumed the worst when the young men appeared in uniform, speaking a language most Cambodians cannot understand. Many villagers who clearly remember the Vietnamese presence here from 1979 to 1989 believed another invasion was underway.
“We were surprised,” said Tum Huon, a 33-year-old who owns a store near Wat Preak Ampul. “But it has been no problem. Now we really believe they came here to find the skeletons.”
An agreement signed by Cambodia and Vietnam in May 2001 made possible the politically sensitive searches, which are funded entirely by the Vietnamese government and scheduled to last through 2005. Anticipating the reappearance of Vietnamese soldiers would spark friction, Cambodian authorities have insisted the search teams not carry firearms and do not exceed 70 people.
But that hasn’t satisfied one unhappy middle-aged woman. “I don’t want to see them here,” she said. “They have not done anything bad to us, but the local people are still afraid.”
Vietnamese authorities have estimated that as many as 22,000 Vietnamese soldiers died in action in Cambodia. About 9,000 of those died in areas along the Vietnam border.
While Cambodian and Vietnamese soldiers said there have been no incidents with local villagers, the rumors of 300 armed Vietnamese soldiers in the area prompted Chen Narou and Vietnamese commanding officer Huyat Tri to agree to interviews on Thursday.
“This is not a secret operation. We are doing this openly,” said Vietnamese search team member Tran Chanh Nghia. “Those who are living have to think about the previous generation, which sacrificed themselves for our benefit.”
Dressed in civilian clothing, Chen Narou and Huyat Tri insisted the Vietnamese not be referred to as soldiers, even though they are members of the military stationed in An Giang province.
The team—one of 11 looking for remains throughout Cambodia—first came to Sa’ang district in early January to search for 15 days here and in nearby Koh Thom district. They were asked to leave by the Cambodian government before campaigning began for the commune council elections. They will take another break when Khmer New Year festivities get underway in April.
At mid-morning Thursday, two Vietnamese search team members played cards with uniformed Cambodian soldiers. Other Vietnamese stirred a large pot of food while Cambodian children shouted and swam along the riverbank.
At a nearby school, eight Vietnamese soldiers spent the morning digging and gently overturning the soil. Local villagers who witnessed or took part in an April 1970 battle have said that two or three Vietnamese soldiers are buried near the school.
Huyat Tri was a young Vietnamese officer in 1970 when Vietnamese communist troops and Cambodian “liberation” soldiers held Sa’ang town and surrounding communes for several days in the first month after a coup d’etat in Phnom Penh replaced then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk with the Lon Nol regime.
Huyat Tri continued to fight alongside his Cambodian allies in southern Cambodia until 1973. He returned in the 1980s to serve as military commander in Takeo province.
“I know this region quite well,” he said Thursday.
Nonetheless, he and his team members have had to depend on information provided by residents like Pek Chhang Hort.
Earlier this week, Huyat Tri met with Pek Chhang Hort at his village home in Koh Thom district. The two fought side-by-side in the 1970 battle.
Pek Chhang Hort remembers his anger when Lon Nol soldiers burned down a villager’s home. And he remembers hearing a radio appeal from Prince Sihanouk to join forces with the Vietnamese communist troops.
At first, he had trouble remembering Huyat Tri. “I wondered why this Viet Cong knew my name and my house,” Pek Chhang Hort said. “It has been many years.”
Pek Chhang Hort showed the search team an area along the riverbank that served as a trench in 1970. Several Vietnamese soldiers are buried there, he said.
Five groups of skeletal remains have been cleaned, tagged and laid out at Wat Preak Ampul. Nearby were the tattered blue tarps and hammocks that were used in the burial of the dead Vietnamese soldiers.
This unique burial wraps are one way the search teams know the remains are Vietnamese, said Huyat Tri. Sometimes there are personal belongings buried with the men. But most of the time, it is very difficult to know exactly the nationality of the remains, he said.
The remains will be repatriated at a formal ceremony later this year. They will eventually be used in a memorial dedicated to Vietnamese soldiers who fought and died in Cambodia and Laos.
That memorial will not include the remains of Vietnamese troops who fought for the US-allied government of South Vietnam.
“They fought our own nation, so we don’t need to bring them back,” said Huyat Tri.
