Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen yesterday issued an ultimatum to Thailand to lift border crossing restrictions or his country would ban all Thai fruit and vegetable imports in the latest round of the border spat between the two countries.
One Cambodian soldier was killed on May 28, as troops exchanged fire in a disputed area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet.
The Thai and Cambodian armies both said they acted in self-defense.
Photo: AP
Thailand has tightened border controls with Cambodia in recent days, while Cambodia on Friday ordered troops to stay on “full alert,” banned Thai dramas from TV and cinemas, closed a popular border checkpoint and cut Internet bandwidth from Thailand.
In an address to the nation, Hun Sen — father of current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet — threatened to ban all fruit and vegetables from Thailand unless Bangkok lifted all border crossing restrictions within 24 hours.
“If the Thai side does not open border crossings to normalcy today, tomorrow we will implement throughout the border banning the imports of fruit and vegetables to Cambodia,” Hun Sen said.
He said Hun Manet had already told his Thai counterpart about the measures.
Cambodia on Sunday formally asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to help resolve the border dispute in four areas — the site of last month’s clash and three ancient temples.
Hun Sen said his country had to go to the ICJ because Cambodia wanted “peace” as the two countries would never reach an agreement in the four areas.
Cambodia has repeatedly asked Thailand to jointly bring the case to the ICJ.
“Only a thief is afraid of a court,” Hun Sen said.
He said Cambodia would not back off and would respect the ICJ’s ruling.
Hun Sen also called on tens of thousands of Cambodian migrants working in Thailand to return home, saying they would face increasing discrimination as the border spat drags on.
“We must come back home, and it is the suitable time. The border dispute will not end easily, so insults happen at times, and this time is more serious,” he added.
The row dates back to the drawing of the countries’ 800km frontier in the early 20th century during the French occupation of Indochina.
Cambodia has previously sought help from the ICJ in a territorial dispute over a border temple.
In 1962, the court ruled then the disputed Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia and in 2013, the ICJ awarded an area next to the temple to Cambodia, too. Thailand said it did not accept the court’s jurisdiction.
Violence sparked by the dispute has led to 28 deaths in the region since 2008.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
RSS