Thet Sambath The Phnom Penh Post
Oddar Meanchey Province
In Trapaing Prasat district, men young and old say ongoing tensions on the Thai border have persuaded them to enlist for service in the military
DRIVEN by ongoing hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand over disputed border lands, a growing number of Cambodian men are putting their lives on hold and enlisting for military service .
Loth Sokhean, a 19-year-old student from Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province, quit his studies to join Brigade 43 - a military unit mostly made up of former Khmer Rouge fighters - shortly after the standoff near Preah Vihear temple began in July.
He is currently stationed at Phnom Trop, about two or three kilometres from the temple, where the simmering tensions exploded in a hail of gunfire between troops from the two sides last week.
"I joined the RCAF voluntarily, not by force," he told the Post. "I was angry when Thai soldiers invaded our temple."
"I carried my father's gun when I was a small child, and I have experience hiding from shelling in the battlefield with my father during the 1990s," he said.
Other men - not all of them young - have felt compelled by the border tensions to become soldiers.
Nun Rom, 39, lives with his wife and three children near Dangrek mountain, which demarcates Cambodia's border with Thailand.
"I was accepted as a soldier after submitting my application," he said. "I was told I would receive my identification card from the Ministry of Defence this month."
Nun Rom said he was happy to be back in uniform and that he wanted to defend his country against any further incursion by Thai soldiers.
He added that some 280 men have joined the military from his home district of Trapaing Prasat.
Chheng Phea, 43, comes from the same village as Nun Rom and volunteered for service at about the same time.
"I joined because I saw Thai soldiers confiscating Cambodian land. If I didn't become a soldier, how could I prevent this encroachment?" he said.
Chhim Sereyrath, the 24-year-old son of a former Khmer Rouge cadre, told the Post he is ready to serve the Kingdom as a soldier if he is needed.
"If the government needs me, I will do it, and I know my friends and many others feel the same way," he said.
Chin Touch, 53, served as a Khmer Rouge medical officer from 1971 to 1980. She told the Post her sons would be prepared to volunteer in the event of a war with Thailand.
"I have three sons. They will serve if the government needs them," she said. "If there is war, I will tell them to be soldiers."
RCAF officials told the Post they have recruited new soldiers in Trapaing Prasat and Anlong Veng districts, as well as in several other provinces.
But Nuon Nov, deputy commander of Military Region 4, said he was not aware of recruitment efforts along the Thai-Cambodian border.
DRIVEN by ongoing hostilities between Cambodia and Thailand over disputed border lands, a growing number of Cambodian men are putting their lives on hold and enlisting for military service .
Loth Sokhean, a 19-year-old student from Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province, quit his studies to join Brigade 43 - a military unit mostly made up of former Khmer Rouge fighters - shortly after the standoff near Preah Vihear temple began in July.
He is currently stationed at Phnom Trop, about two or three kilometres from the temple, where the simmering tensions exploded in a hail of gunfire between troops from the two sides last week.
"I joined the RCAF voluntarily, not by force," he told the Post. "I was angry when Thai soldiers invaded our temple."
"I carried my father's gun when I was a small child, and I have experience hiding from shelling in the battlefield with my father during the 1990s," he said.
Other men - not all of them young - have felt compelled by the border tensions to become soldiers.
Nun Rom, 39, lives with his wife and three children near Dangrek mountain, which demarcates Cambodia's border with Thailand.
I JOINED BECAUSE I SAW THAI SOLDIERS CONFISCATING CAMBODIAN LAND.He served in the army from 1980 to 2003 and appealed to military commanders to allow him to return.
"I was accepted as a soldier after submitting my application," he said. "I was told I would receive my identification card from the Ministry of Defence this month."
Nun Rom said he was happy to be back in uniform and that he wanted to defend his country against any further incursion by Thai soldiers.
He added that some 280 men have joined the military from his home district of Trapaing Prasat.
Chheng Phea, 43, comes from the same village as Nun Rom and volunteered for service at about the same time.
"I joined because I saw Thai soldiers confiscating Cambodian land. If I didn't become a soldier, how could I prevent this encroachment?" he said.
Chhim Sereyrath, the 24-year-old son of a former Khmer Rouge cadre, told the Post he is ready to serve the Kingdom as a soldier if he is needed.
"If the government needs me, I will do it, and I know my friends and many others feel the same way," he said.
Chin Touch, 53, served as a Khmer Rouge medical officer from 1971 to 1980. She told the Post her sons would be prepared to volunteer in the event of a war with Thailand.
"I have three sons. They will serve if the government needs them," she said. "If there is war, I will tell them to be soldiers."
RCAF officials told the Post they have recruited new soldiers in Trapaing Prasat and Anlong Veng districts, as well as in several other provinces.
But Nuon Nov, deputy commander of Military Region 4, said he was not aware of recruitment efforts along the Thai-Cambodian border.
27 comments:
I'm tick and piss. Where is the rich's people kids?
Don't they have any national pride, patrioticism and conscience of being Khmer.
Only the poor at the frontline?
Why??????
HUN SEN should make madatory for all those whose are in the age of being a soldiers to be enlisted to defense our country.
Khmer PP,
If war breaks out, let's see if the Westpoint education was in fact a good investment for the Hun clan...
Where are HUN's kids, HENG's kids, CHEA's kids, HOR kids, HOK's kid, KE KIM YAN's kid, SOK's kids, SAR's kids etc.,
They all needed to be enlisted for the war also!!!
Khmer USA,
How about all you oversea brave fella out there come and enlist as well? "Don't u have any national pride, patriotism, or conscience of being Khmer?"
We all have to reunite and fight the Siam, right? We need as much help as we can.
Yep, Westpoint is a very prestigious military school so i'm very proud that PM Hun Sen's son graduated from there. Or any Khmer for that matter!
This is not oversea US war, this is Khmers war.
Calm down,no war but a test from Bhumobol to see if Thai people will continue to honor monarchy after his death.
He is scared becuase his son has been targeted a few times for assasination already.
Siam has several fronts:
-HIV/AIDS epidemic,
-Rampant social inequality
-Secession is reviving in the south,ethnic wars
-Thaksin can form an exile government to reclaim his legitimacy,possibly Republic
-US is not thrill with Bangkok now,
-Lao Issaan is egging against Thai rule,
Bhumibol may be the last longest ruled monarch for Thailand.After that no more Kapik king.
of course, cambodia has to look out for our own national interest as well. god bless cambodia.
DOES IT SOUND LIKE EARLY 1970, WHERE WERE MANY YOUNG MEN, LIKE ME NOW IN AGE OF EARLY 60, JOINED LON NOL ARMY TO FIGHT VIET CONG AND NORTH VIENAMESE TROOPS,
TWO YEARS LATER THOSE PEOPLE, INCL ME, HAD BEEN SO MUCH REGRET. IMPULSIVE WITHOUT SUSTAINABLE UPLIFT WAS SHORT LIVE. CORRUPTION IN LON NOL ARMY MADE THEIR MORALS AND MOTIVATION AT ROCK BUTTOM.
I WISH I'M WRONG THIS TIME TO SAY THAT AND I HOPE PEOPLE WHO JOIN THE ARMY TO DEFEND CAMBODIA MOTHER'S HOMELAND ARE RIGHT AND HAPPILY FOREVER. I WISH THEM FOR THE BEST. BECAUSE THEY ARE THE BEST. THEY LOVE THE COUNTRY AND THEY ARE FROM POOR AND ORDINARY FAMILIES.
MAY BUDDHA AND PREDECESSOR WARRIORS/ FOREFATHERS/ANCESTORS' SPIRITS BLESS THEM.
I am pissed. Where is the oversea big mouth?
11:21pm!
Yep! we will join you but we also have something else in mind too.We will replace a fake democracy cqwvynp.
1:44AM
The oversea ppl not rape your viet mother ,but actually you know for sure that your mom and the others Viet women like that easy job=whore them selves so We paid her for that job okay ,why1:44AM so piss at us?
Get the live!
10:40pm!
Those kids are already outside of the country .They are not worth a shit.Most of them are so fucking spoil.
Without Khmer oversea, Cambodia would be like this at all. It probably still under commie.
Look at way back, when HUN SEN and Heng Samrin was in control nothing have developed at all. All they did is sending Khmer kids to the borders to fight with Resistance Forces or they gathered them for KOR-5.
Luckily Khmer oversea demand the YOUN to withdraw other wise this clown above would still be ah YOUN puppet.
Khmer PP,
Cambodia needs more land base missiles to deter any Thai aggression!
Just press the red button and the Thai can kiss their arse good bye!
3:11 AM
You are full of shit. I have nothing against Khmer overseas but Khmer overseas did no such thing. Cambodia is what it is today because of many things but Khmer overseas contribution? Nope. It's Khmer in Srok that made it happen some way some how. If Hun Sen didn't initiate the national reconciliation strategy and assimilate former Khmer Rouge population back into the rest of the country without punishment, there would still be civil war. You people like to criticize Hun Sen but you never see what he did good for the country. I don't support any party but that's the fact and if you haven't known about it before, that's fine but if you have known about it but choose to play dumb and not recognize that, you really need to reevaluate your rationale and sanity.
Why ah khmers khnong srok are so ungrateful ( ah romel kun)to us .?.Each year we send them tons of money and they still hate us.I wish ah yuon come and take over now .
Khmer oversea can help with money for the soldiers.
Where can we do that?
The rich kids are busy raping girls, and driving their cars and hitting people on the streets.
hey we don't need khmer killing khmer do we.we should be united as one by defending our country no matter what. khmer oversea have to go through alot of stuff just to get out from U.S. I wanna go back to defend my country but i can't because i'm married to a white bitch. she took my passport away.child support think i'm not coming back or pay child support. that's why i'm stuck in this shit hole. my brother went back he's in R.C.A.F IN cambodia and he's american citizen now he's getting dual citizen. so khmer should unite not fighting each others on internet. get with the program .
1:44,
Shut the fuck up! This is not the time to bitch at anyone. Instead, take this opportune times to come together and rid of your enemy. Let's seize our differences for now.
You are too busy engaging on domestic dispute, while your enemy planing a strategic attack on your soil. Ask yourself, who has the upper hand?
Support or shut up!!!
^j^
I am very proud of any West Point graduate as I am also extremely proud of that young man in this story who joined the army because he feels his Country is in danger of foreign invasion. I only wish more kids like him could also benefit from West Point quality training and education.
Whatever happened, many people blame on Hun Sen (in this forum). Maybe, you are toooooo personal. Give him a break! Khmers volunteered to fight, no one or Hun Sen forced them. You will need some, especially well-educated ones to fight diplomatically or strategically. A small country like Cambodia needs diplomatic solution than confrontation.
Now, we should cheer, wish, pray and support those brave young men and their families. Do not generilize the problem.
This blog represents the true inner thinking of all Khmer from past to present. They never love each other, and disagreement tend to resort to violence and insult. I don't know how old you all are as participants in this blog, but the bad-mouth between each of you will mean the lack of maturity of Khmer people as a whole. That's the reason for Khmer empire to shrink to what it is today.
I am Thai, and I watch you scold each other very happily. At least I know that in my country, we respect one another even if we oppose one another's policy.
In here, all I hear is bad-mouth, personal insult and no real policy suggestions.
Time to grow up. This is 21st century. I am sure Cambodia does not want to be where it is today ten years from now.
Hello brothers and sisters Khmer knong srok. As Khmer oversea, I love you all very much. It is unfortune that I am not able to live in my belove homeland. It doesn't matter where I live, I am always Khmer. Every single day I always think of you. Your sadness is my sadness, your lost is my lost. We are all the same; therefore, please accept my love for you all living in srok Khmer.
With Great Love
Khmer Oversea
Way back in the 90's Cambodia was on the way to recovery, everyone has their own opinionS to make Cambodia's economy better. One of the idea that everyone supported was FOREIGN INVESTMENT, now this idea is very bad.
It's another strategy for the fucking Viet to invade Thailand using khmer live!
Please wake up khmer and Thai.
The Viet direction to northwest..it's seem few know about this. I hope these fucking viet down to hell this time.
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