A Change of Guard

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Monday 25 April 2011

Twelve dead in Thai-Cambodian border fighting


Thai soldiers transport an injured comrade during fighting with Cambodian troops at the Thai-Cambodia border in Surin province April 24, 2011. Fighting erupted on Sunday for a third day between Thai and Cambodian troops, with gunfire and explosions heard on both sides of the disputed border, Reuters witnesses said. The clashes, which have killed 11 people on both sides since Friday, started at 0950 a.m. (0250 GMT) with the sound of sustained artillery explosions. REUTERS/Stringer

From: AFP
April 25, 2011

THREE days of heavy fighting between Thailand and Cambodia on their disputed border have left 12 people dead, with another soldier killed on each side, officials said.

Seven Cambodian and five Thai troops have died in exchanges of artillery shells and small arms fire on their jungle frontier.

A Thai army ranger was killed late yesterday, said a Thai military spokesman in the border area, Colonel Prawit Hookaew.

One more Cambodian soldier was also killed late on Sunday, Cambodian field commander Suos Sothea told AFP.

"One of our soldiers was shot dead by a Thai sniper last night... during a patrol," he said.

He added that another Cambodian soldier had been missing since Friday. "We have not yet located him."

Thai and Cambodian soldiers were locked in a tense standoff at the border on Monday but fighting appeared to have abated after three days of cross-border shelling that began on Friday.

It is the first serious outbreak of hostilities since February when 10 people were killed in clashes near the 900-year-old disputed temple Preah Vihear, prompting the UN Security Council to call for a lasting ceasefire.

The latest fighting has been taking place near a different groups of temples about 150 kilometres (90 miles) away.

The two neighbours have fought a series of deadly gunbattles in recent years in the jungle near ancient temples along the border, which has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines.
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Cambodia says Thai shells damaged ancient temples in border clashes that have killed 12

By: Sopheng Cheang, The Associated Press
Posted: 04/24/2011

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia on Monday accused Thailand of damaging two ancient temples during three days of border clashes between the Southeast Asian neighbours that have left at least 12 soldiers dead.

There was no immediate comment from Thai authorities, and the extent of the damage was unclear Monday as a precarious calm held in the disputed border region housing the nearly 1,000-year-old stone temples of Ta Moan and Ta Krabey from the Khmer empire.

The current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, was in "intense" talks with both sides to secure an end to the conflict, according to Hamzah Thayeb, a senior official at Indonesia's foreign ministry who oversees Asia-Pacific affairs.

Natalegawa was due in Cambodia on Monday, but Thayeb said the trip was postponed because Indonesia was still negotiating terms on sending in military observers — a move that Thailand has so far vehemently rejected.

The dispute between Cambodia and Thailand involves 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 was given U.N. World Heritage status over Thailand's objections.

The current round of clashes is the first reported since February, when eight soldiers and civilians were killed near the Preah Vihear temple, which suffered minor damage from exploding artillery and mortar shells that knocked small chucks out of a few of its walls. The latest fighting is about 100 miles (160 kilometres) west of Preah Vihear.

After easing earlier in the day, fighting resumed late Sunday night, both sides said.

Thai Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Cambodian troops opened fire, killing a Thai soldier. Chea Samrach, a Cambodian soldier on the front line, said Thai snipers killed one Cambodian soldier and wounded two others. Ten soldiers died in the first two days of the clashes.

Cambodia's Defence Ministry said Thai forces fired 1,000 artillery and mortar shells Sunday, damaging the two temples. Some shells landed about 12 miles (20 kilometres) inside Cambodian territory, forcing 17,000 people to flee and destroying one school and a dozen homes, and setting ablaze some farming fields, the ministry said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a cease-fire, but the prospects for peace appear shaky, with the two sides disagreeing on what triggered the fighting and differing on how to negotiate the conflicting territorial claims underlying the crisis.

Indonesia's efforts to mediate have been stymied so far by Thailand's reluctance to allow Indonesian military observers in the area of dispute. Thailand insists the problem should be solved through bilateral talks with Cambodia, but Cambodia wants third-party mediation.

The fighting comes as Thailand's military raises its profile in domestic politics ahead of general elections expected by early July. The army previously effectively vetoed a plan to station Indonesian observers to monitor the border situation.

___

Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Breakingnews >
Border clash continues for 4th day
Field reports said the clash took place at about 10am around Ta Muen Thom temple near Ban Nong Khan Na in tambon Ta Miang of Surin's Phanom Dong Rak district.
BKP report

Anonymous said...

Thai soldiers had abused many cambodian refugees, i'm proud of my cambodian troops teaching Thai some lesson..