Thai-Cambodia border fighting moves into third day

Apr 24, 2011
DPA

Bangkok/Phnom Penh - Border clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops resumed Sunday, after two days of fighting killed 10 soldiers, injured three dozen and forced thousands of civilians to evacuate their villages on both sides.

Thai and Cambodian troops have been exchanging rifle and artillery fire since Friday on their common border near the disputed temples of Ta Kwai and Ta Muean, with both sides blaming the other for instigating the fighting.

'Cambodian troops mobilized in to the Ta Muen area Sunday morning, but our soldiers succeeded in repulsing them,' Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thingphakdi said.

On the Cambodian side, Oun Mony, a senior officer based in Oddar Meanchey province, told German Press Agency dpa that the shooting continued into the afternoon.

'So far there are no reports of casualties,' he said.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said six Cambodian soldiers were killed in fighting and 13 injured during the previous two days. Thailand reported four of its soldiers killed in the clashes and 24 injured.

The heavy artillery fire has forced about 40,000 Thai villagers to flee their homes in Surin province, 360 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, and caused a similar exodus on the Cambodian side of the border.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was troubled by the recent flare-up after two months of calm between the two neighbours, adding that the dispute could not be solved militarily.

Both the UN and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which Cambodia and Thailand belong, have called on the two governments to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

ASEAN has taken the reins in mediating negotiations, but discussions held this month in Indonesia, which now holds the rotating chairmanship of the bloc, failed to resolve the situation.

Phay Siphan said Sunday that Phnom Penh was committed to a ceasefire, but said Indonesia's involvement would be necessary.

'The Thai military are using this strategy (of fighting) to put pressure on for bilateral talks - and that is a different approach (to having ASEAN mediate),' he said.

Thailand, however, maintains that only Cambodia stands to gain from the fresh fighting.

'It serves no purpose for us to escalate the border fighting, whereas Cambodia is always trying to internationalize this issue,' said Thai official, who asks to remain anonymous.

Thailand also denied Cambodia's claim that the government and military disagreed on how to solve the border spat.

'We have always been on the same page,' said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya on Saturday reiterated Thailand's willingness to allow Indonesian observers to be posted along the border on the condition that they stay out of the controversial Preah Vihear temple, which sparked the border dispute three years ago.

Thailand has blamed UNESCO for escalating the tensions along the border with its decision to list the 11th-century Hindu temple as a world heritage site in July 2008, despite Thai claims that a 4.6-square-kilometre area near the temple is still the subject of a border demarcation dispute.

Thailand and Cambodia share a 798-kilometre border, defined by 73 border demarcation pillars established a century ago, half of which are missing or disputed.

Thailand claims Cambodia is instigating the border clashes in order to get international intervention in what they insist is a bilateral border dispute that happens to include a handful of ancient Hindu temples such as Preah Vihear, Ta Muen and Ta Kwai, which are of Cambodian origin but are not necessarily in modern-day Cambodia.

Both countries claim a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land near the Preah Vihear temple, which has been included under Cambodia's management plan for UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.

Ta Kwai, or Buffalo Eye, temple - the focus of the latest clash - is another Hindu complex that is about 900 years old.