Clashes Resume on Thai-Cambodia Border

FEBRUARY 6, 2011, 8:00 A.M. ET
ASIA NEWS

Khem Sovannara/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Cambodian soldiers preparing Sunday to go to Preah Vihear temple, near the disputed territory

BANGKOK—Fighting resumed along the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia late Sunday, shattering a shaky cease-fire barely a day after it was struck.

Sovannara/Xinhua/Zuma Press Villagers being evacuated Saturday from the border area

The fiercest border clashes in years erupted Friday and Saturday between troops stationed along the frontier. Sporadic artillery fire left at least five people dead—one civilian and one soldier from Thailand and one civilian and two soldiers from Cambodia.

Soldiers deployed on the Cambodian side of the disputed border said fighting had resumed late Sunday. A Cambodian soldier, Lt. Pen Song, said troops exchanged artillery and mortar fire along the Phnom Troap mountain range, about three kilometers from the historic Preah Vihear temple, a United Nations World Heritage Site that belongs to Cambodia under a 1962 World Court ruling disputed by many Thais.

A Thai official in the border area, Nakorn Siripanyanant, confirmed that clashes had resumed Sunday evening and said some villagers who had returned to their homes were again evacuated. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The renewed fighting started just hours after commanders stationed on both sides of the border met Sunday afternoon and said they would continue to respect a Saturday cease-fire and pledged not to deploy more troops to the area.

Both sides have blamed each other for the fighting, which also caused minor damage to the landmark temple.

Earlier Sunday, Thailand’s prime minister called for a peaceful solution to the border dispute but warned Thai soldiers will defend national sovereignty if attacked.

“ I insist that the dispute on the border issues must be solved through nonviolent means,” Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajvia said in his weekly Sunday morning address to the nation. “ Thailand never thought of invading anyone, but if our sovereignty is violated, we have to protect it ultimately.”

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said at least 3,000 people have fled their homes since the fighting erupted on Friday, while Cambodian authorities said about 1,000 families were evacuated on their side.

Tensions between the Southeast Asian nations have risen in recent days because of demonstrations in the Thai capital, Bangkok, demanding that the government oust Cambodians from land near the Preah Vihear temple. Thai nationalists claim the land is actually part of Thailand.

The Thai demonstrators call themselves the People’s Alliance for Democracy, the same group that in 2008 occupied the Thai prime minister’s offices and Bangkok’s two airports in a bid to force out two previous governments. They called Saturday night for Mr. Abhisit and his cabinet to step down, saying they had failed to safeguard the country’s sovereignty. Several thousand attended the protest, a much smaller turnout than antigovernment rallies in the past.

The rally by the PAD—also known as the Yellow Shirts—has raised tensions in a country still recovering from political violence last year in which about 90 people died. Those protests were launched by a rival antigovernment group, known as the Red Shirts.

While a full-blown war is unlikely, nationalist passions are inflamed in both countries with no clear way to settle the longstanding territorial dispute surrounding the temple, built during a time when Cambodia’s Khmer empire ruled over much of Thailand.