Keeping the land, protecting the border and landmarks

Over the past time, people in border communes and towns in the province have actively participated in protecting border line and landmarks. With their full responsibility, they become the “eyes and ears” at the border, together with all levels, sectors and functional forces to firmly protect national territorial sovereignty and border security.

There are 20 border communes and 1 border town in 5 districts including Trang Dinh, Van Lang, Cao Loc, Loc Binh and Dinh Lap in Lang Son province. The border line in the province is more than 231 km long, on which there are 474 landmarks, 12 border gates. Over the years, all levels, sectors and border guard force in the area have encouraged people in the border areas, especially those who have arable land in the border areas to keep farming and to sign commitments to protect border, landmarks and participating in activities such as patrolling to protect border and landmarks, providing information on crime prevention, smuggling, disease prevention and control…

Leaders of the Provincial Border Guard Command and the Provincial Youth Union plant bamboo trees in the border area of Xuat Le commune, Cao Loc district

Xuat Le commune, Cao Loc district has nearly 25 km of border line, people in the area always actively cooperate with the Party Committee, authorities at all levels and functional forces to firmly protect the sovereignty of the national border. Currently, the commune is effectively maintaining 6 self-managing groups to protect the border and landmarks in 6 border villages. The team members and people in the area regularly grasp the security and order status, promptly report to the functional forces if detecting irregularities occurring at the border. In 2022, groups and people have provided two valuable sources of information on illegal entry and exit, helping functional forces to detect and handle them promptly.

Mr. Loc Van Sam, Party Secretary, Head of Po Ma village, Xuat Le commune said: “The village has a self-managing group to protect the border and landmarks, its members are families with bordering farming land. During living and farming, the members of the self-managing group and the people in the village always unite to protect security and order, proactively report to the functional forces when detecting irregularities on the border. In the past year, people have discovered a wanted person illegally entering Vietnam from China and reported to the authorities for arrestment, contributing to stabilizing the situation in the area.

According to research, the province currently has 35 units and 882 families that have signed with the Border Guard force to protect and manage the border line and landmarks. Colonel Ninh Van Hop, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command, said: “Over the past time, the Provincial Border Guard Command has asked border guard stations in the area to actively advise and coordinate with Party committees and local authorities where they are stationed in implementing Directive No. 01/CT-TTg dated January 9, 2015 of the Prime Minister on the implementation of the movement “All people participate in protecting national territorial sovereignty, border security in the new situation”; effectively implementing the model of self-management of border line, landmarks and security in border villages and hamlets; well performing the management and protection of national borders with the border guard forces.”

Officers and soldiers of Po Ma Border Guard Station and people build a road to landmarks in Doi Can commune, Trang Dinh district

As a result, in 2022, the people have provided the Border Guard force with more than 1,200 sources of information, including nearly 930 valuable information sources serving border and border gate management and protection, crime, illegal entry and exit prevention and control. On the other hand, the people also actively participated in clearing the road, border patrol, branch road to landmarks, directly serving border management and protection. In the past year, nearly 1,600 militiamen and people have joined the border guard stations to patrol the border for 581 times, combined with clearing more than 50 km of border patrol roads.

Notably, in 2022, along with socialization resources, people in border villages and hamlets in the province have contributed their effort and donated land to build 67 branch roads to concrete landmarks with a total length of nearly 8.5 km, creating favorable condition for functional forces to check landmarks, patrol the border, handle border cases in a timely and effective manner.

The people’s contributions have played an important role in firmly protecting the territorial sovereignty and security of the national border, stabilizing the situation in the border area, serving the socio-economic development tasks of the province in particular and of the country in general.