Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived Sunday in Phnom Penh to sign an agreement allowing for the recovery of Vietnamese soldiers killed and buried in Cambodia.
The visit will pave the way for the “accounting, exhumation and repatriation of remains of the Vietnamese army volunteers killed in action during the Cambodian war to their homeland,” according to a letter from the Vietnamese embassy.
Cambodian government agencies will be helping the Vietnamese in the recovery operation, the letter stated. The agreement also outlined specifics of the future search, recovery and repatriation operation and said the Vietnamese government will pay all expenses of recovering the soldiers’ remains.
Thousands of Vietnamese soldiers were killed in Cambodia during the US war in Indochina, while fighting the Khmer Rouge regime and during Vietnam’s 10-year occupation of Cambodia. There is no estimate of how many Vietnamese soldiers may be buried in Cambodia.
Though the US has made several trips to Cambodia searching for servicemen killed in the area, this will be Vietnam’s first recovery mission in Cambodia.
Nguyen Tan Dung is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, National Assembly President Prince Ranariddh, Senate President Chea Sim and Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng over the next three days to discuss details of the agreement.
The agreement facilitates the entry and exit of Vietnamese staff and vehicles into Cambodia for searching, uncovering and moving the soldiers’ remains to their homeland. Their entries and exits will be in accordance with the Agreement on Visa Exemption between the two countries signed on May 30, 1979.
Once implemented, the agreement will be valid for five years.
Officials said they will also sign deals on scientific and technical cooperation in agriculture and fisheries, as well as health.
“This visit of Nguyen Tan Dung is the first time he visits Cambodia,” said Meas Sarim, advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng. “It is an important visit for cooperation between both neighboring countries.”
Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ousted the brutal Khmer Rouge in 1979, propping up a regime consisting mostly of Cambodians who defected from the Khmer Rouge. During this time, Cambodia’s name was changed to the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, and Vietnamese forces occupied the country until 1989 when Vietnamese troops withdrew.
But despite the Cambodian people’s liberation from the brutal Khmer Rouge, many still resent the Vietnamese. Visits by Vietnamese officials have sometimes sparked street protests, though no protests occurred at the airport on Sunday.
Some anti-Vietnamese student groups said they were planning protests for today and Tuesday over alleged border encroachments. Officials at the airport Sunday said the two sides would not be discussing border issues
After the signing of the agreement on soldier recovery, Nguyen Tan Dung is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Vietnamese stupa opposite Wat Botum, before leaving for Siem Reap on Tuesday. After a one-day visit to the Angkor temple complex, he will return to Vietnam.
“There’s peace, friendship and cooperation between the two countries right now,” said Tran Ngoc Que, Senior Colonel of the Military, Naval and Air Attache at Vietnam’s embassy in Phnom Penh. “The agreement we are signing is about cooperation. You should use peacetime to strengthen ties between countries. That’s normal.”
(Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse)
