Strengthening trust, maintaining strongholds help protect border peace

Hanoi (VNA) - Hundreds of police officers have been deployed to remote and border communes nationwide in a bid to ensure security and social order, support locals to build houses, help ease poverty, and safeguard the border.

One sunny day at the end of August, we came to Huoi Luong commune in the northwestern mountainous province of Lai Chau’s Phong Tho district. Sharing a borderline with China, the commune houses 21 villages with over 7,600 people, most of them are from ethnic minority groups such as Ha Nhi, Dao and Mong.

Since regular police force was deployed to Huoi Luong, the officers have intensified communications activities to persuade residents to get rid of backward customs, develop the economy, and join hands to firmly protect the border.

Welcoming us with a brilliant smile, Colonel Doan Ta Chinh said that before working at the Huoi Luong commune Police, he was a lecturer at the People's Police Academy. According to a deployment order dated July 2021, Chinh and nearly 400 colleagues from the Ministry of Public Security were transferred to Lai Chau’s key border communes with complex security and order issues.

“Sent to the remote areas, including some ‘hotspots’ in terms of security and social order, we have always spared no effort to fulfill our missions assigned by the Party, State, and ministry,” Chinh affirmed.

According to him, during the first days working here, he faced difficulties in communicating with locals, as he was unable to speak their ethnic languages. He has so far worked diligently to learn these languages for better communications, spreading knowledge on the Party’s orientations, the State’s law and policy, the locality’s socio-economic development plans to the people.

“Under the direction of leaders of the Ministry of Public Security, Lai Chau Police, and Phong Tho district Police, officers in Huoi Luong have always actively promoted interactions and communications with local residents. Sometimes we have worked day and night alternately, with a determination to raise people's awareness and maintain security and order in the area,” said Chinh.

Their activities included installing bookcases in the commune, encouraging locals to let their children go to school, and helping them build houses.

In Lai Chau’s Muong Te border commune, which sees about 36% of its population living in poverty, a project on building houses for needy households (Project 245) have been launched.

During its implementation process, due to the local difficult terrain, the transport of materials was mainly done manually, with transporters having to walk more than 20km to reach a number of destinations. However, as a result of the efforts made by soldiers, civil servants, and youth, more than 1,000 houses were built in time, helping people stay safe in rainy season.

Sung A Lau, a resident in Cao Chai village, Muong Te’s Ta Tong commune, told the Vietnam News Agency that thanks to the project, his family now lives in a much better home. “Now we feel secure in working to improve our economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ho Thau commune’s Si Thau Chai village, a popular community-based tourist destination in Lai Chau’s Tam Duong district, has welcomed police officers coming here for socio-economic development and anti-drug activities.

Major Giang Van Hao, Chief of the Ho Thau commune Police, said: “Over the past time, we have implemented a plan to build Ho Thau into a drug-free mountainous commune. Every night, our policemen, following the mapped plan, patrol to ensure security and order.”

One of the measures by local police for the pressing issue was to advise the communal People's Committee to establish and launch a surveillance & security camera system. To date, 21 cameras have been installed at local hotspots, ensuring round-the-clock monitoring.

Since the arrival of the police officers, people in Si Thau Chai have followed their advice to abandon backward customs and no longer put they faith in bad actors in society, said Phan A Pao, a resident in the village.

“People can leave their motorbikes on the roadside all night and day without worrying about losing them. Now we have peace of mind,” Pao said cheerfully./.