For them, every milestone, every border marker, every home of ethnic minority groups is part of the nation and is the place where their profound love is anchored.
When village is home, and people become family’s members
Stationed in the Northern border area of Cao Bang province, Dam Thuy Border Post is tasked with managing and protecting nearly 19 kilometers of the national border with high mountains, deep streams, and remote villages which are home to the Tay and Nung ethnic minority groups in Dam Thuy and Chi Vien border communes of Trung Khanh district (present Dam Thuy commune, Cao Bang province).
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Dam Thuy border guard officers and troops and local people patrol to defend the border. |
The post’s troops act as a “steel shield” to safeguard the homeland. Major Nguyen Viet Giang, Political Commissar of the post shared that border guard officers and soldiers there hardly have the concept of weekends or days off. Despite difficult patrol route and unfavorable weather conditions of muddy in the rainy season and bitterly cold in winter and hours of trekking to reach designated sites, troops do not falter and keep performing the sacred mission assigned to them.
In the stationed locality, the border guard troops have also acted as legal advisors, medical staff, and teachers and supported local people in developing socio-economy.
Thanks to their involvement, many villages that once struggled with illegal border crossings or mineral smuggling have now changed positively. Provided with agricultural techniques, legal documents, breeding cattle, many local people have enjoyed higher living standards, sustainably escaping poverty and earning tens of millions of Vietnamese dong annually.
Together with gifts for local needy people, national contributors, and reputable people, the post has adopted several children to support their study, and assisted local people in eliminating makeshift houses.
Ensuring local security and order
In Dam Thuy, each border marker is like a trusted friend that the post’s patrol team often visits despite rainstorms, freezing winters, or scorching summers. The steep trail with razor-sharp rocks from markers 836 to 838 has become familiar to local border guards. Therefore, any smallest signs such as a strange footprint, a burnt cigarette could be clues to prompt a full-scale tracking operation. Many nights they would have to lie in ambush in the forest to catch smugglers of illicit goods.
Maj. Giang said that some drug traffickers, human smugglers, cross border criminals carried deadly weapons but the border guards did not falter. For them, defending the border is not just a task but also an honor and a calling of the heart.
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Dam Thuy border guard officer learns about local situations from talks with local reputable people. |
Over the past five years, Dam Thuy Border Post has cooperated with local forces to uncover and handle dozens of drug-related and smuggling cases, contributing to the stationed areas’ peace and stability.
With its good mass mobilization work, the post has received active support from local people who have become effective and timely information providers, helping to consolidate the whole people’s national defense, people’s security posture, along with a firm whole people’s border defense disposition.
Achievements gained by Dam Thuy Border Post in border management and defense and protection of national sovereignty and border security are not measured merely in statistics, but in the trust of the people, the tangible progress in local livelihoods, and the sound of Tay and Nung ethnic children’s laughter.
Dam Thuy border guards are not only guardians of every sacred inch of land of the nation, but also torchbearers who light the flame of hope and faith among local ethnic minority people in border areas.
Source: baobienphong
Translated by Mai Huong