Cambodia’s foreign minister said Thailand’s military remains stationed in civilian areas across the border, where some sites have been sealed off with barbed wire and shipping containers, threatening the fragile truce between the two countries that fought twice last year.
Up to 4,000 Cambodian families are unable to return to homes along the disputed frontier because of the Thai incursions, Prak Sokhonn told Reuters, despite a December agreement that halted weeks of fierce border clashes.
“The Thai military is still occupying territories well inside Cambodia,” he said on Tuesday in a rare interview from Phnom Penh, the capital, listing at least four border locations as incursion sites.
In response to questions from Reuters, Thai military and government officials referred to a January 12 statement by Thailand’s foreign ministry that dismissed Cambodia’s accusations as “baseless”.
With fighter jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and artillery barrages, the two neighbours battled for 20 days in December, following a July round of clashes that ended after calls by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Boundary Talks
The December fighting killed 101 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides, in the latest flare-up of a century-old dispute between the countries that has occasionally exploded into conflict.
In recent weeks, Cambodia has asked Thailand for a meeting of the Joint Boundary Commission, a two-way effort to demarcate the border, but Bangkok has not confirmed its participation, according to Prak Sokhonn.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said it was finalising internal procedures for the talks, which would happen after a new government takes office following a February 8 election.
Besides an understanding not to beef up troops on both sides of the border, the December 27 truce also agreed on the return of displaced civilians.
Chinese Efforts
Although Trump was instrumental in halting the July clashes and then oversaw the signing of a wider ceasefire deal in October, his calls proved unsuccessful in immediately ending the second bout of fighting.
Besides efforts by Trump and Malaysian premier Anwar Ibrahim, Prak Sokhonn also outlined China’s involvement in the latest truce, such as key visits by a special envoy to Bangkok and Phnom Penh in late December.
Two days after the latest ceasefire, the top diplomats of China, Thailand and Cambodia met in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, where the combatants agreed to rebuild mutual trust.
(With inputs from Reuters)
