Vietnam and Cambodia to settle refugees
Vietnam and Cambodia to settle refugees
HANOI (Reuter): 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 hardline communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
At least 5,000 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 communique issued on Sunday night 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 communique said.
Vietnamese nationals would be "treated like other foreign nationals" in Cambodia, it added without elaboration.
Kiet's Phnom Penh talks were the highest-level contact between Vietnam and the new Cambodian government formed under King Norodom Sihanouk after elections last May.
On the border issue, the communique 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 its western neighbor Thailand have encroached on its territory over several decades.
On the use of the waters of the Mekong river, which both share, the communique said Vietnam and Cambodia agreed to hold further talks with other countries involved within the framework of the UN-sponsored Mekong Committee.
They wanted to seek "an appropriate formula in settling 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 communique said.