Sleepy [border] village in spotlight

6/01/2011
Bangkok Post

Cambodia's arrest of seven Thais accused of trespassing on its territory has raised the profile of the sleepy Ban Nong Jan in Sa Kaeo.

The village in tambon Non Mak Mun of Khok Sung district, opposite O'chrov district in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, has a history of being a conflict zone since the days of the civil war in Cambodia in the 1970s.

Village elders say communities in tambon Non Mak Mun were established when villagers from the Nong Song Hong area in Cambodia arrived and settled there as it was surrounded by canals and was suitable for living and farming.

Thai authorities recognised the settlement in 1917 and it is now near demarcation posts Nos. 44, 45 and 46.

Tambon Non Mak Mun is made up of six villages: Ban Nong Jan, Ban Non Mak Mun, Ban Non Sung, Ban Kud Phue, Ban Ang Sila and Ban Silarat Pattana. It covers an area of 31.57 square kilometres. The terrain is largely flat but slopes eastward towards Cambodia.

Ban Nong Jan and Ban Non Mak Mun were battlefields during fighting between Thai and Vietnamese soldiers in the 1980s. Dozens of Thai soldiers perished in the conflict.

Camps for Cambodian refugees who fled the civil war were set up in Ban Non Mak Mun. Ban Nong Jan, which is just over two kilometres away, was used by the United Nations as a refugee camp for Cambodians who fled their country after 1979.

The camps were adjacent to the area under the control of Khmer Rouge defence chief Son Sen and former king Norodom Sihanouk. A number of refugees settled in the area after the end of the civil war and are now being blamed as the cause of the present border dispute.

Border sources say there are three or four warehouses in Ban Nong Jan used to store goods smuggled into Cambodia. There is no temporary border pass in the village.