Thai soldiers occupying O’Kbal 50

Wednesday, January 13, 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Koh Santepheap newspaper reported that, up until 5PM on 12 January, about 50 black-clad Thai soldiers came to occupy O’Kbal 50 zone, located on top of Phnom Dangrek Mountain. These soldiers did not pull out yet, but a decision was ade to pull out both troops that are confronting each other through a distance of 50 to 500 meters separating them now. This incident took place after Thai black-clad soldiers moved in and settled in this zone at 4PM on 11 January. A Cambodian army official based in Choam Sa-ngam gate, indicated that, when they came to set up camp, the Thai soldiers numbered 20 only. Then two Cambodian border relation officials went to negotiate with them at 9:30 PM on 11 January. The Thai commander promised to pull back in the morning of 12 January and they asked to rest there for a night. However, unlike what they promised, in the morning of 12 January, 30 additional troops were added. The same Cambodian army official source indicated that the O’Kbal 50 zone is a camp for Cambodian troops, it is placed under the responsibility of the Trapaing Prasat army district, under the command of the Oddar Meanchey army cooperation zone and this structure was put in place during last year’s armed clashes with Thailand.

Thai's Incursion Into Cambodia Soil

19 November 2008
Op-Ed by Vanak
On the web at http://BlogByKhmer.blogspot.com

The current standoff between my Cambodia and the neigbour to the west, Thailand at our Khmer Preah Vihear temple is in no way at peace any time sooner. The Thais were mad because we erected 3 flags: UNESCO flag, World Heritage flag and Cambodian flag on top of our Preah Vihear temple. They said that we did things without consulted them first. I think this is totally absurd. The areas are clearly Cambodia soil. The Thais have to get over with it and adhere to rule of international laws and treaties that were made between our two countries.

With all the tensions between our troops and the Thai intruders, we must be vigilant as ever. Just yesterday in Khmer soil near Phnom Trob, which is about 3km from Preah Vihear Temple, a Thai soldier stepped on the landmine and was killed instantly. The Thais have no reason to come down from Phnom Dongrek into our Cambodia. The area Phnom Trob, that these Thai invaders patrolling are Cambodia soil because only in our Khmer soil that is littered with landmines when they were laid during the civil war from 1970 to the mid 1990's.



I read the news there will be a joint de-mining effort to de-mine the areas before the border is demarcated. This really bothers me a lot. I just want to shout: IT'S CAMBODIA SOIL !! CAMBODIA WILL DO THE DE-MINING ALONE. If we let the Thai de-mining with us on our land, they will lay claim to our land after the landmines are cleared. Let me repeat only Cambodia soil -- Cambodia side of the border has the landmines.

The border demarcation is TOTALLY SEPARATE from the de-mining task. It should go first before the de-mining take place. It's simple. After we know the border, if the landmines are on the Thai side, the Thai can de-mining on their side. They can do anything they please on their side. If the mines are on Cambodia side, Cambodia alone will de-mining on our side. But again, I guarantee only the side of Cambodia soil would have the landmines. To demarcate the border, Thailand and us must stick the the agreement of the maps in 1904-1907 treaties. I couldn't have said any better than our Khmer compatriot, Chan Veasna where wrote his editorial to Phnom Penh Post that "If the 1904, 1907 maps are not used, it would be a betrayal of the treaties and a tragedy, as it will set a precedent that triggers future violations of subsequent [border] treaties".

On the other hand, Thailand are continually to live in the state of denial in their confused generations. Each of their school children is teached from falsified history and indotrinated to hate Khmer (Cambodian)at early age. What gain has they profitted from this kind of mentality is yet I still don't know.

Western scholars widely published Thai culture and tradition were derived from Khmer. I think this is very true. Many Thais are continuing to deny the facts. When I come to think of it, all Thai achitectural structures were modeled after Khmer's Angkor Wat -- this include the Royal Palace in Bangkok. Thai writing are modified from Khmer. Thai "Ratcha Sap" "Rea-chea Sap" royal language is typically Khmer language. Furthermore, there's a history book written by a Thai historian implicating that the Thai royal(king) may have been a descendant of Khmer commoner from the present day province of Takeo, Cambodia. I have to read more to confirm this fact.



Taken this into account, Thai King Mongkut (reigned 1851-1868) have ordered our Angkor Wat to be disassembled stone by stone and moved to Bangkok. When the task was so massive and impossible to do it. He ordered the smaller temple Prasat Ta Prohm to be disasembled instead.

I can see here, the descendant of the Thai King was a renegade from Khmer that's why he was so obsessed of everything Khmer's that he wanted to reestablish his identity by wanted to move Angkor Wat to Bangkok. Wanted to move Angkor Wat to Bangkok ? This truly was insane. I know the Thais cannot accept their king is a descendant of Khmer commoner from Takeo province. So my advice to them is to be open minded. That's all I can say.


Please continue to read below research on how Thai and Khmer languages derived from. The materials were published by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in America.

Vanak.
Phnom Penh


http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=80&menu=004
[Thai] HISTORY
The Thai, who originated in China, migrated into the Indochina peninsula before the current era. Initially dominated by the Mon and then later, beginning in the tenth century, by the Khmer,

the Thai gained their own independence in the mid-thirteenth century. Shortly thereafter, the first script--known as the Sukhotai and distinct from that used by the Khmer--was developed for Thai.

The script now in use is a more or less modified variant of this and other intervening scripts used during the reign of other monarchs.

ORTHOGRAPHY
Thai uses a script that is basically alphabetic in nature with some elements of a syllabic system. In origin it derives from an Indic script which was adapted first by the Khmer and then the Thai.

There is a fairly good approximation between the scriptand pronunciation.

LINGUISTIC SKETCH
Thai has borrowed heavily from Mon and Khmer.


http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=75&menu=004
[Khmer]HISTORY
The history of the language is distinguished into several periods: Old Khmer (the seventh to eighth century), Angkor period (the ninth to fifteenth century), Middle Khmer (the sixteenth to eighteenth century), and Modern Khmer. The language is attested from the earliest periods by numerous inscriptions, and then during the Middle Khmer period by extensive writings on palm leaf manuscripts, including the Khmer version of the Ramayana, a well-known Hindu epic about Rama.

During the Angkor period, Khmer influenced the surrounding languages, especially the unrelated languages of Lao and Thai, and they borrowed heavily from Khmer.

REFERENCES
Campbell, G. L. 1991. Compendium of the World's Languages, Vol. 1 -2. London and New York: Routledge.

Diffloth, G. 1992. "Khmer." In W. Bright, ed. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. 2:271-275. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grimes, B. F., ed. 1992. Ethnologue, Languages of the World. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Linguistic Society of America. 1992. Directory of Programs in Linguistics in the United States and Canada. Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America.

Ruhlen, M. 1987. A Guide to the World's Languages, Vol. 1: Classification. London: Edward Arnold.

Smyth, D. A. 1994. "Cambodia: Language Situation." In R. E. Asher, ed. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 2:440. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

_____. 1994. "Cambodian." In R. E. Asher, ed. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 2:440-441. Oxford: Pergamon Press

Cambodia claims new Thai incursion

Thailand and Cambodia both claim land around the Preah Vihear temple [EPA]
A Cambodian commander said troops on both sides were on high alert [EPA]

Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Al Jazeera

Cambodian officials say more Thai troops have crossed into their territory, raising tensions over in a disputed border region close to an historic temple.

The number of Thai troops swelled to about 200 on Wednesday, Seng Vuthy, a Cambodian border guard unit commander, said on the second day of alleged incursions.

"Both the Cambodian and Thai forces have their hands on their guns at all times," he said.

On Tuesday Cambodia's information minister said that some 170 troops and Thai civilians had crossed into Cambodian territory.

But Thai officials have denied any incursion, saying the troops have been deployed on its territory to protect their country's sovereignty and control Thai activists.

Major-General Kanok Netakawesana, a Thai army field commander in the region, said on Tuesday that his troops were on Thai soil close to the disputed area.

"We are not violating the territory of Cambodia. We have every right to deploy troops here to protect our sovereignty," he said, but declined to give the number of soldiers deployed.

A Thai foreign ministry spokesman, also denied any incursion, saying the relationship between the two countries remained normal.

The ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday that the troops were ensuring that any protests by Thai activists were being done "in an orderly manner".

The confrontation comes after the United Nations' culture body Unesco declared the 1,000 year-old Preah Vihear temple a World Heritage site last week.

The temple, which shares the Hindu-influenced style of the more famous Angkor complex in northwestern Cambodia, has been at the centre of a long-standing border row between the neighbours.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded Preah Vihear and the land it occupies to Cambodia, a decision that still rankles many Thais.

Both countries claim land around the temple, and Thai anti-government activists have revived nationalist sentiment over the issue, blaming the government for ceding Thai sovereignty by backing Cambodia's application to Unesco.

The activists and some government officials fear the temple's new status will jeopardise their country's claims to land adjacent to the site.

The Thai troop movements followed the arrest by Cambodia of three Thai citizens for crossing the border earlier on Tuesday. The three were returned to Thailand later in the day.

The dispute has already left one Thai soldier injured, when a mine went off while he was patrolling in the area.

Stretches of the Thai-Cambodian border are still strewn with land mines sown by various sides during the 1970-75 Cambodian civil war and the guerrilla conflict that followed the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

More Thai incursion into Cambodia ... Where are Hun Sen's border defense troops? Are they too busy beating up Khmer Krom monks?

Thai Soldiers Arrest Five in Cross-Border Raid, Groups Claim

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20 December 2007

Five Cambodians are being held in Thailand after a cross-border raid by Thai security forces, witnesses, local authorities and rights groups said Thursday.

Witnesses in Samrong district, Odar Meanchey province, told VOA Khmer that on Monday Thai soldiers arrested five lumber cutters in Bansaay Reak commune. Other workers escaped, witnesses said.

Thai Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

One escapee, Vinh Phal, told VOA Khmer the people of the area are poor and need to cut wood to survive.

At around lunchtime Monday, Thai soldiers raided the group of workers, arresting five, said Vinh Phal, who hid and watched.

"When they arrested the people, the five people, they told them to cut down a whole tree and told them to drag the tree along with them," he said.

They took the equipment, "everything," he said.

Hin Liep, the wife of one of the arrested men, appealed to the government to secure her husband's release.

"My children and I have a hard time," she said.

Bansaay Reak Commune Chief Hem Teda confirmed the arrests.

"After the arrest, they ordered them to cut the logs and take some pictures," said Srei Naren, a coordinator for the rights group Adhoc. "Then they took all five people, along with the logs, into Thailand. Now they've charged those Cambodian people with logging in their territory."

Thai soldiers incursion inside Cambodia’s territory in Oddar Meanchey

05 March 2007
By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A group of Cambodian local villagers and border soldiers claimed that at the Choam Sro-ngam pass, on the Dangrek mountain chain, in Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey province, a group of black-clad Thai soldiers have penetrated the border into Cambodia’s territory again.

Local villagers living along the Thai-Cambodian border line near O’Kranhoung, close to Pol Pot’s burial ground claimed that since the beginning of February and up to March, Thai soldiers made several incursions inside Cambodia and prevented the villagers from building their homes.

An anonymous Cambodian villager said: “People are very scared. Now the Thai are occupying the land the authorities sold to 300 families, the price of the land is about $100,000 in total. The Thai soldiers’ incursion started since the beginning of February and it still goes on now in March, they are doing their incursion and violating our territories for the second time since the beginning of February.”

The Cambodian-Thai border liaison vice-president based in Choam Sro-ngam pass, Commander Toch Ra, also said the black-clad Thai soldiers are usually patrolling nearby, but they made their incursion [inside Cambodia]. The commander said that he does not know what the Thai soldiers want because according to the map, the incursion area is inside Cambodia. “On the Thai side, they do not allow the building of homes there. I am certain that this is our territory, according to our map, the location is correctly ours, we do not violate into their side.”

Var Kim Hong, the president of the government border disputes resolution, said on Monday that the government is aware of the problem, and the Cambodian side and their Thai counterparts are meeting in Bangkok in February on this issue. He asked that people not to build homes in this area for now, until the border problem is clearly resolved by both sides.

Var Kim Hong said: “The government knew about this already. During the meeting in Bangkok on 27-28 February, we discuss with the Thai side already and gave them Cambodia’s standing to let them know. The Thai side insists that our villagers who built their homes near the border, to have them tear down their homes. We told them about everything already. On the 28 [of February], I went to meeting, on the 1st [of March] I returned from Bangkok, both sides visited the area, including the Ministry of Defense officials, the Cambodian office of border liaison, and also the president of the Cambodian-Thai border liaison.

Var Kim Hong said that the Thai-Cambodian sides are still discussing to resolve several border issues extending from Malai pass in Battambang province, all the way to Oddar Meanchey province.