Long An Province has nearly 133km of land border with two Cambodian provinces of Svay Veng and Prey Veng. The border area of the province includes 20 communes of 6 districts and towns with over 29 thousand households, nearly 110 thousand people of different races and religions. Over the past few years, thanks to the attention of the Party and the State, the socio-economic situations of the province in general and of the border area in particular have seen positive changes. People’s living standards have been increasingly improved; political system has been consolidated; and defence and security have been strengthened, etc. However, there still remain hardships in the border area. Though being upgraded, its socio-economic infrastructure has yet to meet the requirements of development, especially in rainy season. The poverty rate in the border area remains high in comparison with the overall level of the province. The operational quality and effectiveness of the political system are somewhat limited. Taking use of the situation, disruptive forces strengthen their sabotage, such as: illegal religious propagation; inciting free movement of migration and land disputes, etc. Crimes, especially criminal crimes, drug trafficking, smuggling, illegal border crossing, etc. are on the rise and tend to be complicated.

Join patrol between Long An border guards and Cambodian counterparts

Facing the situation, the provincial Border Guard has actively advised the Provincial Party Committee, People’s Council and People’s Committee to direct and implement all aspects of border work in a comprehensive and thorough manner. In particular, attention has been paid to the movement of all people participating in the protection of national territorial sovereignty, border security in accordance with the Directive No. 01/CT-TTg dated 09/01/2015 of the Prime Minister on “Launching the movement of all people’s participating in the protection of national territorial sovereignty and border security in the new situation”, contributing to firmly protecting national sovereignty, social safety and order in the border area; building the border of peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual development, creating favourable conditions for the province socio-economic development.

First, strengthening propagation for border people to make them fully aware of the significance and necessity to protect the border sovereignty and security; instructing collectives, households and individuals to register for implementing the movement of all people participating in the national territorial sovereignty and border security with 5 basic contents of the “All People’s Border Day”. The content of propagation is comprehensive and focused on the area specifications, the Party and State’s viewpoint and guidelines on socio-economic development associated with defence and security consolidation in border area; our standpoint, guideline, measures for dealing and settling issues relating to border sovereignty and security; the Law on National Border; border demarcation; local regulations; rights and responsibilities of people for the task of controlling, protecting border sovereignty and security; disruptive forces’ plots and schemes of sabotage in border area, etc.

Second, sticking to the grassroots and serving as a solid ground for border people and authorities. Implementing the guideline of “Post is home, border is the home country, ethnic minorities are siblings” and “listen to people, talk to make people understand, and work to make people believe”, with their persistent presence in the border areas as living landmarks, their arduous fight against the Covid-19 pandemic along the border line and against the crimes, cadres and soldiers of the Provincial Border Guards have truly become a bright example for people province-wide in the protection of national territorial sovereignty and border security. Implementing the Plan No. 138/KH-BCH of the Provincial Border Guard, the Border Guard posts have deployed 179 cadres and party members to supervise 756 households in 20 border communes. Implementing the Decision No. 1293-QĐ/TU of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Border Guard Party Committee has directed its affiliates to deploy 88 party members to participate in the party cells of border villages. Thereby, cadres and soldiers of the Provincial Border Guard have opportunely informed the situation of national border security as well as grasped people’s thinking and wishes for advising the local party committees and authorities’ plans for building political systems and socio-economic development. The Provincial Border Guard has coordinated with other functional forces to conduct patrol and grasp the areas of operation, plots and schemes of hostile forces as well as the internal and external situations for successfully dealing with the incidents on the border areas. With the propagation of the Provincial Border Guard, a lot of people of all strata have actively participated in the prevention and countering against the criminals infringing national security, social safety and order, violating Regulations for border areas, illegal migration, smuggling, trade fraud, etc. Through their detection and information provided, the Provincial Border Guard has countered effectively against several crimes, and neutralised some crime syndicates infringing national security, drug trafficking, smuggling, etc.

Third, regularly assisting the border districts, towns and communes to consolidate and build the self-defence forces for building the strong border areas. The Provincial Border Guard has coordinated with the Provincial Military and Public Security forces to maintain and implement the model of “Border alarming bell” on 20 border communes. Implementing the Directive No. 20/CT-UBND of the Provincial People’s Committee on organising twinning activities between people living along the two sides of the border line, the Provincial Border Guard has coordinated with functional bodies of the Province in advising the localities to build good relationships with the authorities and people on the other side of the border basing on the spirit of friendship, cooperation, and mutual development. Annually, on the occasion of political events, holidays and Tet of our friends, the Provincial Border Guard together with local authorities conduct visit and present gifts, provide free health check and medicine, organise cultural activities, contributing to building the border of peace, friendship and solidarity.

Fourth, actively helping localities in socio-economic development, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, improving living standards of people in the border areas. The Party Committee and Commandant of the Provincial Border Guard have directed the border posts to survey and choose the suitable models for economic, cultural and social development and talked people to follow. Grasping the situation, the border guards along the borderline of Long An Province have strived to implement and multiply several models for economic and cultural development with high effectiveness. Besides assisting people in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, the Provincial Border Guard also provided medical checks and treatment for local people; effectively implemented the programs of “Border Guards join hands in building new style rural areas”, “Accompanying with border women”, “rice bank”, etc. Not only doing their best to assist people, the Provincial Border Guard also mobilised entrepreneurs, philanthropists to donate for border areas, etc. Stationing in the complicated area in political security, social safety and order, the Provincial Border Guard has actively grasped, analysed, anticipated and evaluated accurately the situation and regularly stuck to the grassroots to settle the cases relating to racial and religious issues, land dispute, etc., contributing to maintaining peace in the border areas.

Senior Colonel DOAN VAN AN, Political Commissar of the Provincial Border Guard