At least five dead in Thai-Cambodian border fighting (1st Lead)

Feb 5, 2011
DPA

Bangkok/Phnom Penh - Cambodia sent a letter to the UN Security Council Saturday as fighting with Thai troops flared up for a second-straight day on its northern border near an 11th-century Hindu temple.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong's letter warned that the situation was 'explosive' and protested what he called Thailand's 'flagrant aggression.'

Both sides have blamed the other for the fighting, which erupted Friday and resumed briefly early Saturday in the disputed border area. At least five people have been killed.

Thai military spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnert said one Thai soldier was killed Saturday and four were wounded.

Fighting broke out at 6:15 am (2315 GMT Friday) near Preah Vihear temple on the border between Thailand's Si Sa Ket province and Cambodia's Preah Vihear province.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan, speaking from the temple site, claimed 13 Thai soldiers had died in fighting over the two days along with two Cambodian troops and a Cambodian civilian.

'This morning, Thais carried out six dead soldiers on the east side of the ladder at Preah Vihear and seven on the west side,' Phay Siphan said, adding that the situation had calmed but was tense.

The Thai army said only one of its soldiers had died and 15 others were wounded. Sansern said a Thai villager also died Friday, and several homes were damaged on the Thai side.

Sansern said Friday's clash, which lasted less than an hour, began when Cambodian troops fired several rocket-propelled grenades into a Thai army camp near the border.

He said Thai troops returned fire with assault rifles.

'We are acting according to military regulations,' Sansern said. 'We cannot just stand still when the Cambodians open fire on us.'

Cambodia said the fighting was caused by Thai shelling.

Sansern said 2nd Army region commander Lieutenant Colonel Tawatchai Samutsakorn, who is in charge of Thai troops in the sensitive border area, rushed to the scene of Friday's clash and was meeting with Cambodian officers to try to prevent further clashes.

Phay Siphan said bullets and shrapnel from artillery shells fired by the Thai military had caused 'some damage' to Preah Vihear.

Called Phra Viharn in Thai, the temple perched on a cliff on the border has been disputed by the two countries for several decades.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the site to Cambodia but did not rule on a nearby plot of land, also claimed by both countries. In July 2008, the temple was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites.

The border has never been clearly demarcated.

Thai nationalist groups have revived the issue, putting pressure on the government to take a tougher stand against Cambodian forces, whom they accuse of border incursions.

The fighting followed pledges by both nations' foreign ministers earlier on Friday to work to avoid conflict.