Having a blood-and-flesh relationship with ethnics in border areas in the Central  Highlands, cadres and soldiers of the Border Guard Post of the Bờ Y International Border Gate (hereinafter the BGP) have always promoted their sense of responsibility for intensively and extensively intensifying the campaign “The entire people join hands in safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security”, contributing to maintaining political stability and public order, accelerating socio-economic development, strengthening security and national defense, and firmly safeguarding national sovereignty.

The BGP is stationed in Bờ Y commune, Ngoc Hoi district, Kon Tum province. Bờ Y commune is at the crossroads of the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia shared border, which plays a special role in building and maintaining a peaceful and friendly environment with Vietnam’s neighboring countries. Over the past years, alongside concerted efforts by its local administration and locals, Bờ Y commune has received substantial supports from ministries, agencies, sectors and socio-political organizations nationwide, which enables it to make considerable progress. Its cadres and Party members exhibit good virtue, great political zeal, profound senses of responsibility and single-minded devotion to duty. Its locals have total trust in the Party leadership and the management of the local administration, thereby single-mindedly devoting themselves to production activities and making their homeland prosperous, democratic and civilized.  However, Bờ Y commune is still faced with potential destabilizing elements. There remain limited and non-uniform awareness among locals while a segment of them still encounter economic difficulties (148 poor households and 118 near-poor households across Bờ Y commune). Letters of complaints, land disputes, illegal logging, cross-border fireworks trafficking, and unlawful religious activities have yet to be completely averted. Hostile forces have been stepping up “Peaceful evolution”, “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” while inciting divisions among local ethnics by means of increasingly cunning artifices. All of these have dramatically affected our relevant forces’ ability to safeguard territorial sovereignty and national border security, the border guard forces included.

Imbued with Uncle Ho’s teachings that “the all-people force is the greatest one; they are invincible”; “A lack of the people’s supports makes everything impossible and the other way round” as well as being cognizant of the Party’s lines, the State’s policies and laws and the higher echelons’ guidelines, the Party Committee and the Command of the BGP view the promotion of the people’s roles in safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security as a necessary measure for strengthening the Border Guard forces and the all-people border defense. To this end, multiple measures have been adopted, including the effective implementation of the campaign “The entire people join hands in safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security” (hereinafter the Campaign).

Every year, the Party Committee of the BGP include this into their resolutions and assign their members to supervise and inspect the Campaign while reviewing and amending regulations on their cooperation with the Bờ Y administration in border defense. At the same time, the BGP has closely cooperated with the local administration in popularizing for the locals the Party’s line and the State’s policies and laws on safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security as well as the goal of the Campaign. For the sake of effectiveness, the cadres and soldiers of the BGP always “stay close to” the locals and closely cooperate with officials in the Bờ Y administration in mass mobilization in both national language and ethnic minority languages, earning the locals’ great trust and affection. As a result, 100% of the cadres and Party members of the BGP, as well as local enterprises and households are fundamentally cognizant of their duties and rights to safeguard territorial sovereignty and national border security, to strictly observe regulations on national borders and  border gates, as well as to actively participate in the Campaign, thereby contributing to promoting solidarity and cooperation among the BGP, the local administration, relevant forces and the peoples of Laos and Cambodia in building the shared borders of stability, peace and development. The locals always exercise heightened vigilance and closely cooperate with border guard forces and the local administration in managing and safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security.

The BGP attaches much importance to its cooperation with the Bờ Y administration in helping local villages, hamlets and households to review and amend regulations on participating in the self-management of borderlines, border markers and public order in line with realities of the Vietnamese-Lao border and Vietnamese-Cambodian border. The BGP has advised the Bờ Y administration on the establishment of teams for the self-management of borderlines and border markers as well as teams for the self-management of public order among the locals. Members of these teams have to commit themselves to “three knowledges” and “four nos". On a scientific and practical basis, the Campaign has been concretized into “Families participate in the self-management of public order”, “households participate in safeguarding borderlines and border markers”, “women’s groups protect borderlines and border markers”, “youths’ patrol teams”, encouraging widespread participation from cadres and Party members of the BGP and the locals and achieving increased effectiveness.

So far, all borderlines and border markers in Bờ Y commune have been protected by the locals as iron shields, emphasizing the role played by the BGP in firmly safeguarding territorial sovereignty and national border security.

Col. Ha Van Trinh, Commander of the Border Guard Post of the Bờ Y International Border Gate
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