REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PHNOM PENH -- Cambodian security forces on Tuesday morning dispersed about a hundred of Khmer Krom monks and supporters who staged a protest against Vietnam after a Vietnamese diplomat said the former Kampuchea Krom provinces belonged to Vietnam long before France's official transfer of the land in 1949.

Trung Van Thong, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, told local media last month that "France did not cut a territory of Khmer Kampuchea Krom and give it to Vietnam, but Kampuchea Krom (in the southern part of Vietnam) had been a Vietnamese territory for a very long time, and the news of ( Cambodia) losing the territory has no basis or evidence."

Protesters tried to gather in front of the Vietnamese Embassy on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, but security forces, armed with batons, chased them away.

"Our protest is to demand apology from Trung Van Thong for his slandered remarks," Mao Pises, president of the Federation of Cambodian Intellectuals and Students, which organized the protest, told reporters at the event.

"This is just the start if the Vietnamese Embassy spokesman does not publicly apologize for his slandered remarks within three months, we will organize a bigger protest in the future," he said.

He said about four protesters were slightly injured during the dispersal.

Trung Van Thong said Tuesday that he has no plans to apologize for his remarks.

"I have nothing to apologize for my remarks because Vietnam's southern part belongs to Vietnam," he said. "Protesters are violating Cambodian and international laws."

Cambodian authorities said the dispersal was made to maintain social security and public order since the group staged protests illegally.

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