By Stephen Kurczy
Asia Times Online (Hong Kong)
PREAH VIHEAR and PHNOM PENH - Comrade Neak Vong spent nearly two decades fighting against the Cambodian government. Now, he and other former Khmer Rouge soldiers are fighting on behalf of their former adversary in what some fear could escalate into a full-blown war with neighboring Thailand over claims to ancient temples and their surrounding territories.
Along the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting broke out on October 15 between Thai and Cambodian troops, loyalties have blurred as longtime enemies fight for the same cause. Ten years after a nearly two-decade civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government ended, military generals from both sides have picked up their weapons in a standoff with Thailand.
Currently the secretary general of staff for the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Neak Vong fled with the Khmer Rouge to Cambodia's northwest when Vietnamese forces pushed the genocidal Maoist regime into the border jungles in 1979. For the next 17 years, the cadre sparred with Thai troops to the north and Cambodian troops to the south while he guarded several ancient temples and their surrounding land.
In 1996, he laid down his arms as Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two, Ieng Sary, led the first wave of defections to the government. Ieng Sary today is in detention facing war crimes at the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh. Neak Vong, however, is back on the frontline, called on by the Cambodian government to help maintain sovereignty over one of the three disputed temples on the Thai-Cambodia border.
He now leads 550 Cambodian troops at Ta Moan temple, 200 kilometers west of Preah Vihear temple where fighting erupted Wednesday and left two Cambodian soldiers dead. "I'm used to fighting with Thailand along the border," Neak Vong recently quipped.
The current military standoff at Preah Vihear temple began in mid-July days after Cambodia successfully listed it as a United Nations World Heritage Site. Hundreds of Thai demonstrators had amassed nearby to protest what they considered an attempt to steal Thai land and, in response, Cambodia chain-locked the Thai's entrance gate and stationed a number of soldiers at the temple. Within weeks, Thailand locked Cambodia out of Ta Moan temple and stationed a number of solders there. Both scenes quickly devolved into military standoffs.
Fighting for Cambodia aligns Neak Vong with the man he fought against during the Khmer Rouge's guerilla war, Som Bopharoat, one of the Cambodian military commanders now leading operations to defend Preah Vihear temple for Cambodia. Som Bopharoat's headquarters sit at the highest point of the 800-meter-long temple structure.
A meter from his camouflage green tent, a sheer cliff drops 575 meters to the sparsely inhabited Cambodian plains. In a recent interview outside his tent, Som Bopharoat recalled fighting Neak Vong and the renegade Khmer Rouge in the 1990s. Both sides would eavesdrop on the other's radio communications, he said, sometimes breaking into a frequency to curse and threaten the other.
"I heard the enemy's voice through the radio," he recalled. "After they defected to the government, I saw the voice and said 'You used to fight against me'!" Som Bopharoat doesn't know if he ever heard Neak Vong's voice, but he knows of him and he smiled at the irony of former enemies now fighting alongside one another.
It's all part of what Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said is a "win-win policy in dealing with the cadres of the former DK [Democratic Republic of Kampuchea]". When Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea defected to the government in December 1998, Prime Minister Hun Sen said they should be welcomed "with bouquets of flowers, not with prisons and handcuffs".
He told the press then: "If a wound does not hurt, you should not poke at it with a stick to make it bleed. If we put those two men in prison, will this benefit society or lead to civil war?" While Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are now both in pre-trial detention, along with Ieng Sary, Hun Sen's comments in retrospect speak more towards lower-level Khmer Rouge-defectors like Neak Vong.
National reconciliation is more important than punishing all former Homer Rouge members, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in a recent e-mail with this correspondent, and, at the same time, the Khmer Rouge troops "are very familiar with the areas".
Marginal advantage
Experts question if that will help the Cambodian forces against Thailand's better-equipped and United States-trained forces. Bertil Lintner, a regional security expert based in Thailand, said Preah Vihear temple's cliff-top location isn't suitable for the type of guerrilla warfare with which the Khmer Rouge is acquainted.
"There is nowhere to go, nowhere to retreat for the Cambodian forces except by helicopter - or an extremely steep and vulnerable climb down the cliff. The [Khmer Rouge] fought a guerrilla war in the jungles of the Cambodian lowlands, not on top of the Preah Vihear cliff," he said in an e-mail message. What is more, he added, most of the Khmer Rouge forces have since retired from battle.
Nevertheless, the fact that ex-Khmer Rouge guerillas like Neak Vong are members of the Cambodian forces has opened the military to a measure of criticism: not only are the former Khmer Rouge fighters familiar with Cambodia's remote northwestern areas, they're also familiar with the laying of anti-personnel mines of the type that severely injured two Thai soldiers earlier this month.
During their civil war, both the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian government are estimated to have laid tens of thousands of mines around Preah Vihear temple. Thai officials have claimed - including in a presentation to foreign diplomats on Thursday - that Cambodian troops recently planted the Russian-built mines on Thai soil, representing a violation of Thai sovereignty.
Virachai Plasai, the director of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused Cambodia on Friday of violating the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning landmines. "This is a grave threat for the international community as a whole," he said.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry has issued several statements saying its soldiers did not plant the mines, and Khem Sophoan, director-general of the Cambodia Mine Action Center, said the area where the two Thai troops lost their legs had never been de-mined.
"These are old mines, laid during the war between the government and the Khmer Rouge," he said by telephone Friday. "After Cambodia signed the Ottawa Convention, we destroyed all of our supplies and did not lay new mines. We only clear mines." Those conflicting accounts, if not resolved, could ignite more hostilities, security experts say.
From Cambodia's base camp below Ta Moan temple, Neak Vong said he thinks it makes sense for former Khmer Rouge cadres to lead the mission against Thailand. "I know this area and I am not afraid of Thailand," he said from his jungle headquarters, giving an insight into his military tactics. He said he sent 100 Cambodian troops on August 5 trekking up a rocky ledge through a thick, wet jungle in the steep ascent to Ta Moan temple. Familiar with the terrain, they were able to surround a 20-person Thai camp stationed inside what he claimed to be Cambodian territory.
"After we circled them, they withdrew," recalled one of Neak Vong's troops. Twenty Cambodian military remain stationed there. Wearing Converse sneakers and flip-flops, they patrol the camp with B40 rocket launchers and AK-47 rifles.
Som Bopharoat and Neak Vong both claim to know the lay of the land and how to hold their positions. Both also said that, unlike when Khmer Rouge fighters patrolled the area, diplomatic negotiations are probably the best course of action. But as accusations fly between both countries about landmines, land boundaries and who fired first on Wednesday, a truce for now seems elusive.
It might yet be a long standoff at both Ta Moan and Preah Vihear temples, the two military leaders said. With thunderclouds rolling in over the hillside and lighting striking down in the distance, the rainy season has taken its toll on his troops, said Neak Vong before this week's skirmish. Nonetheless, he's prepared to live in the jungle for a while.
"We're used to having a difficult time,'' the former Khmer Rouge fighter said.
Stephen Kurczy is a Cambodia-based journalist.
Along the Thai-Cambodia border, where fighting broke out on October 15 between Thai and Cambodian troops, loyalties have blurred as longtime enemies fight for the same cause. Ten years after a nearly two-decade civil war between the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian government ended, military generals from both sides have picked up their weapons in a standoff with Thailand.
Currently the secretary general of staff for the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Neak Vong fled with the Khmer Rouge to Cambodia's northwest when Vietnamese forces pushed the genocidal Maoist regime into the border jungles in 1979. For the next 17 years, the cadre sparred with Thai troops to the north and Cambodian troops to the south while he guarded several ancient temples and their surrounding land.
In 1996, he laid down his arms as Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two, Ieng Sary, led the first wave of defections to the government. Ieng Sary today is in detention facing war crimes at the United Nations-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh. Neak Vong, however, is back on the frontline, called on by the Cambodian government to help maintain sovereignty over one of the three disputed temples on the Thai-Cambodia border.
He now leads 550 Cambodian troops at Ta Moan temple, 200 kilometers west of Preah Vihear temple where fighting erupted Wednesday and left two Cambodian soldiers dead. "I'm used to fighting with Thailand along the border," Neak Vong recently quipped.
The current military standoff at Preah Vihear temple began in mid-July days after Cambodia successfully listed it as a United Nations World Heritage Site. Hundreds of Thai demonstrators had amassed nearby to protest what they considered an attempt to steal Thai land and, in response, Cambodia chain-locked the Thai's entrance gate and stationed a number of soldiers at the temple. Within weeks, Thailand locked Cambodia out of Ta Moan temple and stationed a number of solders there. Both scenes quickly devolved into military standoffs.
Fighting for Cambodia aligns Neak Vong with the man he fought against during the Khmer Rouge's guerilla war, Som Bopharoat, one of the Cambodian military commanders now leading operations to defend Preah Vihear temple for Cambodia. Som Bopharoat's headquarters sit at the highest point of the 800-meter-long temple structure.
A meter from his camouflage green tent, a sheer cliff drops 575 meters to the sparsely inhabited Cambodian plains. In a recent interview outside his tent, Som Bopharoat recalled fighting Neak Vong and the renegade Khmer Rouge in the 1990s. Both sides would eavesdrop on the other's radio communications, he said, sometimes breaking into a frequency to curse and threaten the other.
"I heard the enemy's voice through the radio," he recalled. "After they defected to the government, I saw the voice and said 'You used to fight against me'!" Som Bopharoat doesn't know if he ever heard Neak Vong's voice, but he knows of him and he smiled at the irony of former enemies now fighting alongside one another.
It's all part of what Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said is a "win-win policy in dealing with the cadres of the former DK [Democratic Republic of Kampuchea]". When Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea defected to the government in December 1998, Prime Minister Hun Sen said they should be welcomed "with bouquets of flowers, not with prisons and handcuffs".
He told the press then: "If a wound does not hurt, you should not poke at it with a stick to make it bleed. If we put those two men in prison, will this benefit society or lead to civil war?" While Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea are now both in pre-trial detention, along with Ieng Sary, Hun Sen's comments in retrospect speak more towards lower-level Khmer Rouge-defectors like Neak Vong.
National reconciliation is more important than punishing all former Homer Rouge members, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in a recent e-mail with this correspondent, and, at the same time, the Khmer Rouge troops "are very familiar with the areas".
Marginal advantage
Experts question if that will help the Cambodian forces against Thailand's better-equipped and United States-trained forces. Bertil Lintner, a regional security expert based in Thailand, said Preah Vihear temple's cliff-top location isn't suitable for the type of guerrilla warfare with which the Khmer Rouge is acquainted.
"There is nowhere to go, nowhere to retreat for the Cambodian forces except by helicopter - or an extremely steep and vulnerable climb down the cliff. The [Khmer Rouge] fought a guerrilla war in the jungles of the Cambodian lowlands, not on top of the Preah Vihear cliff," he said in an e-mail message. What is more, he added, most of the Khmer Rouge forces have since retired from battle.
Nevertheless, the fact that ex-Khmer Rouge guerillas like Neak Vong are members of the Cambodian forces has opened the military to a measure of criticism: not only are the former Khmer Rouge fighters familiar with Cambodia's remote northwestern areas, they're also familiar with the laying of anti-personnel mines of the type that severely injured two Thai soldiers earlier this month.
During their civil war, both the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian government are estimated to have laid tens of thousands of mines around Preah Vihear temple. Thai officials have claimed - including in a presentation to foreign diplomats on Thursday - that Cambodian troops recently planted the Russian-built mines on Thai soil, representing a violation of Thai sovereignty.
Virachai Plasai, the director of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused Cambodia on Friday of violating the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning landmines. "This is a grave threat for the international community as a whole," he said.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry has issued several statements saying its soldiers did not plant the mines, and Khem Sophoan, director-general of the Cambodia Mine Action Center, said the area where the two Thai troops lost their legs had never been de-mined.
"These are old mines, laid during the war between the government and the Khmer Rouge," he said by telephone Friday. "After Cambodia signed the Ottawa Convention, we destroyed all of our supplies and did not lay new mines. We only clear mines." Those conflicting accounts, if not resolved, could ignite more hostilities, security experts say.
From Cambodia's base camp below Ta Moan temple, Neak Vong said he thinks it makes sense for former Khmer Rouge cadres to lead the mission against Thailand. "I know this area and I am not afraid of Thailand," he said from his jungle headquarters, giving an insight into his military tactics. He said he sent 100 Cambodian troops on August 5 trekking up a rocky ledge through a thick, wet jungle in the steep ascent to Ta Moan temple. Familiar with the terrain, they were able to surround a 20-person Thai camp stationed inside what he claimed to be Cambodian territory.
"After we circled them, they withdrew," recalled one of Neak Vong's troops. Twenty Cambodian military remain stationed there. Wearing Converse sneakers and flip-flops, they patrol the camp with B40 rocket launchers and AK-47 rifles.
Som Bopharoat and Neak Vong both claim to know the lay of the land and how to hold their positions. Both also said that, unlike when Khmer Rouge fighters patrolled the area, diplomatic negotiations are probably the best course of action. But as accusations fly between both countries about landmines, land boundaries and who fired first on Wednesday, a truce for now seems elusive.
It might yet be a long standoff at both Ta Moan and Preah Vihear temples, the two military leaders said. With thunderclouds rolling in over the hillside and lighting striking down in the distance, the rainy season has taken its toll on his troops, said Neak Vong before this week's skirmish. Nonetheless, he's prepared to live in the jungle for a while.
"We're used to having a difficult time,'' the former Khmer Rouge fighter said.
Stephen Kurczy is a Cambodia-based journalist.
6 comments:
Thank you for your servicing our country. Only that we defend our homeland, otherwise, sneaky neighbor will take it all.
The Khmer Rouge movement is long gone and their leaders are on trial! So there is no need to remind Cambodian people or the world of the Khmer Rouge any longer!
The current Khmer military is a Khmer military! There is no Khmer Rouge, Khmer Kiev, Khmer Zar, and Khmer Kmao...or what have you!
Khmer is one and united against the enemy and the invader the Thai aggressor!
Come on Stephen! What is your point?
Now it is 2008 and there is no such thing as ennemies turned allies! Cambodians are Cambodians and they are together to fight the aggressors and you do know that, don't you?
There used to be civil wars in Cambodia in the 70s and 80s. As a journalist, you should be fully informed by now and realize that the cold wars of the superpowers are the main reasons for divisions among the Cambodians.
The British used to fight the Americans, the Chineses used to fight each other and so did many other races and nations, but reconciliation does eventually comes and heals the broken brotherliness.
I find your article meaningless, but quite divisive, though it is not intentional on your part.
Have you ever thought that the former KR soldiers are also truly Khmers in blood and spirit? They definitely are and it is also their sacred duties to protect the motherland, the same way you would protect yours!
They had been led astray in the past, but there is no need to remind them of that. They are fully aware of the mistakes and that is why they are back in the Khmer family and everyone in Cambodia think of them as Khmers, just like any Khmers with no grudges.
We, the Khmer people, only think of them as Khmers in our society and truly expect them to help defende the land which is also theirs!
A Concerned Khmer
Anonymous said...
Come on Stephen! What is your point?
Now it is 2008 and there is no such thing as ennemies turned allies! Cambodians are Cambodians and they are together to fight the aggressors and you do know that, don't you?
There used to be civil wars in Cambodia in the 70s and 80s. As a journalist, you should be fully informed by now and realize that the cold wars of the superpowers are the main reasons for divisions among the Cambodians.
The British used to fight the Americans, the Chineses used to fight each other and so did many other races and nations, but reconciliation does eventually come and heals the broken brotherliness.
I find your article meaningless, but quite divisive, though it is not intentional on your part.
Have you ever thought that the former KR soldiers are also truly Khmers in blood and spirit? They definitely are and it is also their sacred duties to protect the motherland, the same way you would protect yours!
They had been led astray in the past, but there is no need to remind them of that. They are fully aware of the mistakes and that is why they are back in the Khmer family and everyone in Cambodia think of them as Khmers, just like any Khmers with no grudges.
We, the Khmer people, only think of them as Khmers in our society and truly expect them to help defende the land which is also theirs!
A Concerned Khmer
After the Khmer soldiers defend the border, it own government will go back as usual to steal land from the poor. What are you fighting for beside giving this opportunity to greedy businessmen?
Extremely depressing to think about the hardship that Khmer soldiers been throught. Doesn't matter which side of the Cambodian government they serve, they are offer their lives to defend the country with their families at steak. At the end, when war is over, most of them continue to live in hardship life style and struggle to support their family. With the corrupted government cambodia has now, their salairies are not paid on a timely manner and these heros families who put their lives on the line continue to suffer.
I am sadden by this article and very proud to be khmer but unfortunately i don't have the knowledge or any sort of capacity to serve khmer and her country. I feel very usless.
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