Fighting between Thai and Cambodian soldiers at their contested frontier has killed at least 12, the Thai authorities claim. The conflict represents an intensification of a disagreement between the two South East Asian neighbours that stretches back over a century.
The majority of the victims were civilians from three Thai provinces, says Thailand’s army, which also indicated that various people were injured. Cambodia has not yet made public if it incurred any casualties.
There was gunfire between the two sides early on Thursday morning, and each said the other had initiated the fight. It escalated rapidly, with Thailand claiming Cambodia was firing rockets and Bangkok resorting to air strikes against Cambodian military targets.
Thailand has sealed its border with Cambodia, and Cambodia has scaled down its relationship with Thailand, accusing its military of deploying “excessive force”.
Both nations have requested their nationals in border areas to vacate the areas, and Thailand has moved 40,000 civilians to safer grounds.
“[Fighting] is quite serious. We’re in the process of evacuating,” said Sutian Phiwchan, a resident of Ban Dan district in Thailand’s Buriram province on the Cambodian border.
The Thai authorities reported that 11 civilians – an eight-year-old and a 15-year-old among them – and one military official have died in Surin, Ubon Ratchathani and Srisaket provinces.
Thailand and Cambodia have provided various accounts of events. Thailand asserts that it started when the Cambodian military used drones to spy on Thai soldiers near the border.
Cambodia reports Thai soldiers as starting the conflict when they crossed a previous agreement by advancing on a Khmer-Hindu temple near the border.
The conflict goes back over a hundred years, to when the boundaries of the two countries were established during the French occupation of Cambodia.
Things formally turned nasty in 2008, when Cambodia attempted to have an 11th-century temple in the contested region listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site – something to which Thailand responded with fiery indignation.
There have been intermittent confrontations over the years that have resulted in the deaths of soldiers and civilians on both sides. The tensions recently escalated in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed during a confrontation. This brought the bilateral relationship to its lowest level in over a decade.
Both nations have, over the last two months, imposed border restrictions on each other. Cambodia imposed a ban on imports from Thailand, such as fruits and vegetables, and also ceased importing electricity and internet services.
Thailand’s interim premier Phumtham Wechayachai has stated that its row with Cambodia is still “delicate,” and needs to be handled carefully and according to international law.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet stated his nation wishes to settle the dispute peacefully – but added that it “has no other choice” than to “respond with armed force against armed aggression”.
Heavy shooting between the two nations has receded relatively swiftly. But as it stands, the ongoing combat seems unlikely to escalate into a general war; the two nations do not yet have leaders with sufficient authority and nerve to back away from this conflict.
Hun Manet, son of an old strongman, doesn’t yet possess his power, and Hun Sen, his dad, seems willing to push this confrontation further in a bid to polish his nationalist credentials. In Thailand, there is a fragile coalition government supported by another erstwhile strongman, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin felt he was on close personal terms with Hun Sen and his family, and feels cheated by Hun Sen’s action of leaking a private telephone conversation that resulted in his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra being suspended from being the prime minister.
