More than half a million people in Cambodia have been displaced from their homes by two weeks of deadly border clashes with neighboring Thailand, the Cambodian Ministry of Interior said yesterday.
The renewed fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbors this month, including with tanks, drones and artillery, has killed at least 22 people in Thailand and 19 in Cambodia, according to officials.
The conflict stems from a territorial dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km border and a smattering of ancient temple ruins situated on the frontier.
Photo: AF
“At present, more than half a million Cambodian people, including women and children, are suffering severe hardship due to forced displacement from their homes and schools to escape artillery shells, rockets, and aerial bombardments carried out by Thailand’s F-16 aircraft,” the ministry said in a statement, giving the total number of people evacuated as 518,611.
About 400,000 people have been displaced in Thailand due to the reignited border conflict, Bangkok has said.
Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fresh fighting and traded accusations of attacks on civilians, after five days of clashes in July killed dozens.
The US, China and Malaysia brokered a truce to end that round of fighting, but the ceasefire was short-lived.
In October, US President Donald Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed in Kuala Lumpur to prolong their truce.
However, Thailand suspended the agreement the following month, after Thai soldiers were wounded by landmines while on patrol at the border.
Bangkok has accused Cambodia of laying fresh mines, an allegation denied by Phnom Penh.
Trump, who has placed the conflict between Cambodia and Thailand on a list of wars he said he solved, this month claimed the two countries had agreed to a new ceasefire.
Bangkok denied any truce had been agreed, and fighting has continued daily since a border skirmish on Dec. 7 sparked the latest clashes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said that Washington was hoping Cambodia and Thailand would reach a new ceasefire by today or tomorrow.
Foreign ministers of ASEAN nations, including Cambodia and Thailand, are set to meet in Kuala Lumpur today for talks aimed at finding a diplomatic solution.
China sent its special envoy for Asian affairs to Cambodia and Thailand last week, with Beijing aiming to “rebuild peace.”
The Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said in a statement on Saturday that the Chinese envoy, Deng Xijun (鄧錫軍), met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh the day before, urging a truce.
Cambodia, which is outgunned and outspent by Bangkok’s military, yesterday said that Thai forces had continued to attack since dawn, with fighting occurring on the border near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. A patch of contested land next to the UNESCO-listed heritage site was the site of military clashes in 2008, and sporadic violence for several years after led to the deaths of two dozen people.
A UN court ruling in Phnom Penh’s favor in 2013 settled the matter for more than a decade, but this year’s crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.
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