The Vietnamese delegation included Minister of National Defense Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang; leaders of the Ministry of National Defense, the General Department of Politics and the General Staff; representatives from the Binh Phuoc provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee. Cambodian Deputy PM and Minister of National Defense General Tea Banh, Cambodian Ambassador to Vietnam Chay Navuth and Cambodian Defense Attaché to Vietnam Colonel Rem Kann attended the event.
    |
 |
|
Vietnamese and Cambodian delegates at the event |
Forty four years ago, on June 20, Hun Sen, the then lieutenant colonel of Region 21 in eastern Cambodia, and his comrades decided to cross the border to Vietnam to seek help from the country to overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime and regain peace for his homeland.
Thanks to the Vietnamese Party’s, State’s and people’s assistance, they set up the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (now the Solidarity Front for the Development of Cambodian Motherland) and defeated the genocidal regime on January 7, 1979, saving millions of Cambodians from the genocidal disaster.
The Vietnamese and Cambodian governments decided to construct the complex in Binh Phuoc province to help the people of the two countries, especially young Cambodians, learn more about Cambodian PM Hun Sen’s journey to salvage Cambodia from the genocidal Pol Pot regime and the impartial support of the Vietnamese Party, State and people for the Cambodians in their struggle for national salvation.
The complex includes a commemorative stele at relic site X16, where Hun Sen and his comrades met the Vietnamese militia force and people and hid weapons, and an exhibition hall with photos and items briefing the PM’s journey to seek ways to salvage his country from the genocidal Pol Pot regime.
Speaking at the event, Chairwoman of the Binh Phuoc provincial People’s Committee Tran Tue Hien emphasized that this historical complex will help the Cambodian people learn more about their former generations’ journey to national salvation as well as the Vietnamese Party’s, State’s and people’s assistance for the country. It is expected to contribute to strengthening the solidarity, friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between the two countries, including between Binh Phuoc and neighboring Cambodian provinces.
Hien asked the People’s Committee of Loc Ninh district to take care of the project and create favorable conditions for the people of the two countries to tour the complex.
|
|
 |
|
Delegates cutting ribbons to inaugurate the project |
The provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism should develop tours as well as activities to popularize the relic, while the provincial Department of Foreign Affairs should hold people-to-people exchanges for the people of the two countries, she added.
At the event, Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, General Tea Banh and delegates cut ribbons to inaugurate the project.
Translated by Tran Hoai