Cambodia Asks U.N. to Act Amid Clashes With Thailand

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Cambodian soldiers prepared on Sunday to go to the Preah Vihear temple, which has been the focus of periodic clashes and tensions since 2008.

By SETH MYDANS
Published: February 6, 2011
New York Times

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Deepening a bitter border dispute, fighting erupted for a fourth day on Monday between Thai and Cambodian forces near a disputed 11th-century Hindu temple, and a Thailand military spokesman said the time for negotiations had passed.

The renewed fighting came a day after Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia asked the United Nations Security Council to convene an urgent meeting to stop what he called Thai aggression around the temple, which the Cambodians said had been damaged by cross-border shelling. Witnesses reported shelling near the temple on Monday.

The Thai military spokesman, Col. Sansern Keowkamnderd, said that there would be “no more talks” and that Thai troops would engage in “tit-for-tat” fighting with Cambodian troops, according to the Web site of The Nation newspaper in Bangkok.

The temple is claimed by both nations and has been the focus of tension and periodic military clashes since 2008.

Each side accused the other of starting the latest fighting, which has left at least two people dead and an unspecified number wounded. No deaths were immediately reported on Monday.

“Cambodians always open fire first,” Colonel Sansern said. “We will cease fire when the Cambodians stop firing at us.”

It was not clear how seriously the temple, Preah Vihear, had been damaged. A Unesco World Heritage site, the temple was slightly damaged by shelling in the last serious clash a year ago.

“A wing of our Preah Vihear temple has collapsed as a direct result of the Thai artillery bombardment,” a Cambodian military commander was quoted as saying in a statement by the Quick Reaction Unit of the Cambodian Council of Ministers.

The statement also quoted the unidentified commander as saying the Thai side had used “gas shells” as it fired 130-millimeter rounds at Cambodian soldiers, but it did not elaborate.

The dispute involves conflicting century-old maps and a ruling in 1962 by the International Court of Justice awarding the temple to Cambodia. New tensions were set off in July 2008 when Unesco named the temple a World Heritage site and placed it inside Cambodia.

Tensions along the border have become entwined in Thailand’s political disputes, with the faction known as the yellow shirts accusing the government of failing to defend Thai sovereignty.

The issue has become a rallying cry in recent weeks for the yellow shirts, who have begun a sit-in near the prime minister’s office.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand said the government wanted a peaceful resolution, but would defend national borders. “If our sovereignty is violated, we have to protect it ultimately,” he said.

Anger was stoked last week when a Cambodian court sentenced two Thai nationalists to prison terms of six and eight years on a charge of trespassing and spying in the border region.

Passions had already been aroused in Thailand this year after the Cambodian side erected a plaque near the temple that read, in English: “Here! is the place where Thai troops invaded Cambodian territory on July 15, 2008, and withdrew at 10:30 A.M. on Dec. 1, 2010.”

Responding to Thai demands, the Cambodians removed the plaque, but replaced it with another that read: “Here! is Cambodia.”

Following more Thai complaints, that plaque was also removed and photographs of the shattered red and yellow tablet were displayed in the Thai press.