7 Mar 2013
Bangkok Post
The Thai army has sent a letter of protest to Cambodia over the landmine explosion that seriously injured three Thai rangers inside Thai territory in Surin province on Tuesday.
The 2nd Army's Suranaree Task Force on Thursday submitted the protest letter to the Cambodian army via the Thai-Cambodian Township Border Committee (TBC).
“We believe the landmine was recently planted. It was not a leftover mine," army deputy spokesman Winthai Suwaree said.
“This is an automatic procedure for such an incident, to write a protest letter and notify Cambodia,” he said.
An inspection of the area after the explosion revealed another 11 Vietnamese TMN1 landmines, which are commonly used by the Cambodian military, an army source said. They were spread out in an oval shape, linked in sets of three. Fortunately only one of them had exploded.
Thailand has accused Cambodia of violating the Ottawa landmine ban treaty, which both countries signed, following Tuesday’s blast. The treaty bans signatory states from using and stockpiling landmines.
The three wounded men were part of a 16-member ranger patrol near Ta Kwai Temple in Phanom Dong Rak district. The explosion blew off one man's right foot, and the two others sustained shrapnel wounds.
The rangers took the usual route up to a cliff that provides them with a clear view of Cambodian troops. The Cambodian military did not want Thai troops to reach that location, so had buried mines around the area, an army source said on Wednesday.
The unit usually patrolled the route regularly, but had ceased patrols for a short time. They had resumed patrols on Tuesday.
The source said the landmines seemed to have been planted recently. The area had already been cleared of all old landmines after the fighting around Ta Muen Thom and Ta Kwai Hindu temples in early 2011 when the Thai-Cambodian border dispute flared into violence.
Another army souirce said a joint survey in the demilitarised zone around the Preah Vihear temple to pave the way for the clearing of landmines has not yet started. The Thai-Cambodian Joint Working Group (JWG) has to first sign an agreement on landmine clearance.
5 comments:
That will teach you some lessons of trespassing!
Thai bullshit soldiers stepped on their own planted landmines and blamed Cambodians. It's in their nature to steal everything from Cambodia, including territory, culture, language and all other resources.
Agree with you,that is true! Plans landmines to kill khmers but forgotten where they were planned blames khmers.The blames games goes on.....The thieves never admitted that its their false!!!!
thai is a dog alway blame the other for what they didn't do just like monkey after it eat owner food and put some left over over the mouth the owner see that Kill the goat the monkey get away what are FUCkING.
That's what happen when one intrude on other territories.
It could of been preventable if you stay put in your f**king land.
That'll teach you......dumb ass.
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