UN urges restraint in deadly Thai-Cambodia clashes

Monday, February 07, 2011
By Suy Se
AFP

Cambodian and Thai troops clashed on Monday for a fourth straight day as the UN chief called for "maximum restraint" in a border dispute that has claimed seven lives and displaced thousands.

The latest hostilities, which lasted for less than an hour, followed heavy fighting on Sunday after the collapse of a ceasefire agreed a day earlier in the wake of the worst clashes between the two neighbours in years.

Four days of violence have left five dead and 45 injured on the Cambodian side, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters, but declined to provide more details. Thailand has reported two deaths, including one civilian.

Phnom Penh said Thai artillery fire had damaged the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple at the centre of the stand-off and accused Thailand of wanting to occupy a disputed 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) surrounding area.

In New York, Ban Ki-moon's office said the UN chief was "deeply concerned" about the stand-off.

"The secretary-general appeals to both sides to put in place an effective arrangement for cessation of hostilities and to exercise maximum restraint," it said, in a call echoed by China and Singapore.

Hun Sen has called on the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting about what he described as "Thailand's aggression", warning that regional stability was at risk.

The outspoken strongman asked for UN troops to be sent to the area to create a "buffer zone" and said he would welcome help from allies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to resolve the dispute.

Both sides have accused each other of starting the fighting.

Marty Natalegawa, foreign minister of Indonesia -- the current ASEAN chair -- held talks with Hor Namhong in Phnom Penh Monday and said he hoped the situation could be "resolved peacefully through dialogue and negotiations".

"I'm not pessimistic," Marty told reporters after the meeting, adding that he would also visit Bangkok, which has dismissed intervention by the regional bloc as "unnecessary".

Sombo Manara, a history professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, said long-standing disagreement over the countries' border was behind the dispute.

"I don't think that the conflict will end without intervention from a third party and clear demarcation (of the border) between the two countries," he said.

The violence has displaced thousands of people on both sides of the frontier.

"There was serious gunfire last night with shells dropping just behind my home," said Cambodian villager Tim Nga as he and his family arrived at a tent camp erected some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Preah Vihear temple area.

In Thailand's eastern province Si Sa Ket, about 15,000 people spent the night at 38 temporary shelters and 23 schools near the border were told to close temporarily, according to provincial governor Somsak Suwansujarit.

It is unclear exactly what triggered the latest violence, but diplomatic frictions have grown since late December when seven Thais, including one lawmaker, were arrested by Cambodia near the border for illegal entry.

Two of them were sentenced to lengthy jail terms for spying, in a case that has caused outrage among nationalist Thais, who have held protests in Bangkok calling for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign.

Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008. Thailand and Cambodia have each accused the other of starting the ongoing clashes.

"Thailand does not invade any country. We protect our sovereignty," Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters.

"The army has reaffirmed that retaliation was conducted carefully and avoided the temple," he said.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear itself belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand.