Three Country “Development Triangle” Raises Fears of Viet Dominance
Cambodian authorities crack down on protesters
The Cambodia–Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area lies in one of the poorest and least-developed areas in Asia, much of it in the mountainous area through which the notorious Ho Chi Minh Trail, a honeycomb of routes, snaked south under continuous bombing and antipersonnel mining for two decades during the Vietnam War. The triangle development has been hanging fire since 1999 when the leaders of the three countries initiated a cooperation initiative and later formalized it in 2004.
A full two decades later it is running into heavy weather in Cambodia from environmentalists, human rights, and other activists who charge that foreign interests, particularly Vietnamese ones, are reaping the benefits. Following the first arrests of three activists in July, a newly energized Cambodian diaspora of thousands of members formed and began organizing public gatherings and marches to protest the agreement, with demonstrations in early August in South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Cambodian authorities have arrested nearly 100 protesters, with critics charging that land concessions are ceding land and sovereignty to Vietnam.
Exiled opposition leader Mu Sochua called the triangle a “cover for further illegal deforestation, land evictions and exploitation of natural resources for foreign gain.” That was echoed by Dy Kareth, head of the Cambodian Border Committee in France, who charged that “These development schemes are a cover for modern-day colonialism, characterized by deforestation, land eviction without relocation or compensation, exploiting Cambodia’s and Laos’s natural resources such as hydro-electric energy, timber, gold and gems in the Mondulkiri province with little revenue going to their national coffers.”…
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