BBC News
"Hun Sen said he saw the fighting as incidents between neighbours, not war"Cambodia's prime minister has said that he does not wish to see border clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops escalate into a more serious conflict.
Hun Sen said no Cambodian soldiers had been injured in exchanges of fire on Friday that he regarded as incidents between neighbours, not a war.
Thai authorities said at least two Thai soldiers died and seven were wounded.
The disputed area, which surrounds an ancient temple, has long been a source of tension between the two countries.
An international court awarded Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962, but a 5-sq-km (1.9-sq-mile) patch of land surrounding it remains the subject of rival territorial claims.
"There was brief fighting, but the fighting was like neighbours who live close to each other and always have disputes," Hun Sen said of Friday's violence.
"Today they have a dispute, then they soothe things and talk to each other."
Simmering tensions
The neighbours are due to hold further border talks from Sunday in the Cambodian resort town of Siem Reap.
Each side accused the other of firing first in Friday's two exchanges of rocket and gunfire, in what is seen by analysts as a significant heightening in tensions.
The fighting appeared to have started after a Thai patrol visited the site where a Thai soldier was injured after stepping on a landmine on Thursday.
Nine Thai soldiers are reported to have been injured in the exchange, three of them seriously.
Thailand and Cambodia share a border that runs for nearly 800km (500 miles), much of it heavily mined.
Soldiers from the two countries have been stationed in the area around the Preah Vihear temple since tensions increased in July last year, after it was listed by Cambodia as a World Heritage Site.
Two Cambodian soldiers were killed there in October in a gun battle. Last week, Cambodia accused Thai troops of crossing over briefly into its territory.
6 comments:
totally agree with our prime minister. still, both sides must try to sort it out! of course, if you are neighbors and hated each other for a long time, the fight will broke out, especially if there is no one to mediate or settle the dispute. same concept here! i way i see it, it will take an outside force like the international community to mediate this again because apparently talks between the neighbors failed times and again. it would take a miracle for khmer to agree with siem, especially when it comes to our lands and territory which we, khmers, had lost enough already. no more loss in this day and age! god bless cambodia.
Well,
Atleast khmer gave them some lessons! we can't just sitting around and doing nothing like DUMMY! gotta take some actions...fools!
Yep! now they realize that khmer don't take shit from them anymore! you cross the line, your ass is mine...ya know what i'm saying fools!
according to RFA, 22 siameses dead and about another 30 were wounded
http://www.rfa.org/khmer/indepth/preah_vihear_situation-04042009105319.html
Thailand has to understand that everything from the past are belong to Khmer empier, lands, Temple, thai had robs and steal so much from khmer in the past already...PREAH VIHEAR is gone!
I told you so, as I wrote earlier in my blogg that war was imminent as long as the deuce bag thai keep provoking the issues.
Post a Comment