Cambodian, Thai troops exchange gunfire again [on Saturday morning]

595 Cambodian families had been evacuated from the border areas.

People's Daily Online

April 23, 2011

Cambodian and Thai troops exchanged gunfire again Saturday morning at 6: 15 a.m. over the border disputed area at the Ta Mon Thom temple in Oddar Meanchey province, a military commander on Saturday.

"It (the fighting) starts again," said Neak Vong, deputy commander of Brigade 42 at the Ta Mon Thom temple, told Xinhua by telephone on Saturday, while commanding tank unit to fight and the rumbles of explosions on the background were heard through the telephone.

A brigadier general Thul Sovan, deputy commander of Cambodian Military Division 3, stationed at the frontline near the Preah Vihear temple, told Xinhua by telephone that the renewed fighting Saturday morning began at around 6:15 a.m.

"It's just begun and only small and light guns are being used in the fighting," he said.

This is the second consecutive day of military clashes between Cambodian and Thai troops over the border disputed areas after Friday's clashes claimed at least 6 lives of both sides' troops and injured over a dozen, forced thousands of both sides' locals to flee home.

The military clash recurs just more than two months after the deadly clash on Feb. 4-7 at the border disputed area next to the Preah Vihear temple, the World Heritage Site.

The border between Thailand and Cambodia has never been completely demarcated and the issue of the Preah Vihear temple has been an age-old dispute.

Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008. Just a week after the enlistment, Cambodia and Thailand have had a border conflict due to Thai claim of the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub next to the temple, triggering a military build-up along the border, and periodic clashes between Cambodian and Thai soldiers have resulted in the deaths of troops on both sides.

Source: Xinhua
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Fighting resumes along Thailand-Cambodia border a day after at least 6 soldiers are killed

By Sopheng Cheang,
The Associated Press
The Canadian Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A border clash between troops from Cambodia and Thailand resumed Saturday, a day after at least six soldiers were killed and thousands of civilians were forced to evacuate the battle zone.

The fighting springs from decades-old competing claims over small swaths of land along the border, with nationalistic politics fueling tensions. Clashes have erupted several times since 2008, when Cambodia's 11th century Preah Vihear temple on the border was given U.N. World Heritage status over Thai objections.

Friday's fighting was the first reported since four days of fighting in February, when eight soldiers and civilians were killed near the Preah Vihear temple, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) east of the new flare-up.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said fighting resumed at about 6 a.m. Saturday at the same three locations where troops from both countries battled for several hours the previous day with artillery and small arms.

Wachira Kitphan, an official in Thailand's Phanom Dong Rak district, said both sides engaged in an artillery duel until about 8 a.m. Saturday.

Cambodian officials said that in addition to skirmishes Friday near the ancient temples of Ta Krabey and Ta Moan and a third point, artillery fell on villages and other areas as far as 13 miles (21 kilometres) inside its territory.

Each side blamed the other for the resumption of fighting.

Thai army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Siriya Khuangsirikul said three Thai soldiers were killed Friday and 13 were wounded, one critically. Cambodian defence spokesman Lt. Gen. Chhum Socheat said three Cambodian soldiers were killed and six wounded.

No reports of casualties from Saturday's clash were immediately available.

Cambodia's Bayon TV, which has close links to the government, showed footage Friday night of damaged houses and civilians being evacuated by farm vehicles to schools and Buddhist pagodas 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the front lines.

A statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Thailand said the country had "exercised its inherent right of self-defence on the basis of necessity, proportionality and strictly directed at military targets from where the attacks were launched by Cambodian troops."

Indonesia, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, called Friday for an immediate cease-fire and further efforts to resolve the border dispute. Fighting stopped by early Friday afternoon, but no cease-fire was reached, Cambodian officials said.

Tensions between the neighbours have been exacerbated in recent months in part by pressure from influential Thai nationalist groups that have protested in Bangkok, urging the government to take back disputed border territory. Hardcore nationalists insist a 1962 World Court ruling awarding the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia was unfair.

The flare-up comes as the Thai military raises its profile in domestic politics ahead of a general election expected to be held by early July. The army had previously effectively vetoed an agreed-on plan to station Indonesian observers to monitor the border situation, flexing its muscles in the foreign policy field.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong sent a note to the president of the U.N. Security Council accusing Thailand of refusing to accept the Indonesian monitors so it could carry out "this deliberate act of aggression."

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called for a meeting of one of the bilateral committees the two countries have set up to discuss border issues.

Reiterating Thailand's stance on its dispute with Cambodia, Abhisit said it was not necessary for ASEAN or other multinational bodies to take up the matter, because then "it will be harder to solve."

Cambodia insists bilateral talks are unproductive and that a third party's participation would be useful.

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Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok contributed to this report.