A sign hanging from a rusty ice-green shipping container installed by Thai forces on what they say is the border with Cambodia reads: “Cambodian citizens are strictly prohibited from entering this area.”
On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand’s military showed off its gains.
Thai forces took control of several patches of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, which could amount to several square kilometers in total.
Photo: AFP
Cambodian Kim Ren said her house in Chouk Chey used to stand on what is now the Thai side of the barricade, and was bulldozed by Bangkok’s forces after a ceasefire agreement in December last year.
“The Thais reset us to zero. We don’t have any more hope,” she said.
Just to the north, where the village is known as Ban Nong Chan, Thai soldiers stood guard in front of an excavator filling a truck with debris during a military-organized media tour.
Kim Ren is among more than 1,200 families from her village and Prey Chan, another contested location, who have been staying at a temple shelter for weeks, local authorities said.
Blue tents donated by China are packed into the grounds of the pagoda 20km to the south, where residents manage as best they can with the meager goods they managed to salvage.
“Now the Thai thieves have seized everything,” Kim Ren said, referring to her land, US$30,000 worth of grocery inventory, and the US$50,000 house she built after moving to the area and buying a plot of land for US$40 in 1993.
The neighboring countries’ century-old border conflict stems from a dispute over the French colonial-era demarcation of their 800km frontier.
The dispute erupted into several rounds of clashes last year, killing dozens of people and displacing more than 1 million.
Phnom Penh said Thai forces captured several areas in border provinces and has demanded their withdrawal, while Bangkok insists it has merely reclaimed land that was part of Thailand and had been occupied by Cambodians for years.
Thai flags flapped in the breeze and barbed wire lay scattered in Klong Paeng, another border village on the Thai military trip.
Army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said Thai forces had “reclaimed” about 64 hectares in the village, adding that the operation “required careful action because people still live here.”
Thai farmer Pongsri Rapan, 60, said she lost all her belongings except a wardrobe when her house was destroyed by shelling, but told reporters: “I’m not scared because the army is around me.”
She said she had “many good Cambodian friends” and was “sorry our armies are fighting.”
Thai farmers were expected to benefit from the land newly brought under the military’s control once its allocation was finalized, a senior officer said.
Thailand welcomed Cambodian refugees to the border area after the Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979.
Some Cambodian families remained long after.
At the temple shelter, 67-year-old farmer Sok Chork said he settled in Prey Chan in 1980, when the area was landmine-infested and undeveloped.
“When it was forest, it was not theirs. But after Cambodians built concrete homes, they said it was their land,” he said.
The Thais “just robbed us of everything,” he said, adding that his home had been bulldozed.
Thai Anupong Kannongha said his house was nearly levelled by shelling, with only its charred roof and cement structure remaining.
Cambodia “did this to us,” he said. “It really hurts my feelings.”
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