As the first talks between the parties since the most recent outbreak of violence come to an end, Thailand and Cambodia have reported new fighting in their ongoing border conflict.
According to Thai media reports, Thai forces responded to Cambodian BM-21 rocket attacks with artillery, tank fire, and drones in clashes in the border provinces Sisaket and Surin.
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Prior to Thai forces firing on more than 19 Cambodian military targets, one Thai soldier was hurt in Sisaket province’s Pha Mo I Daeng–Huai Ta Maria region, according to the Thai army.
A civilian residential area was hit with four bombs as a result of Thai forces’ air attacks on Banan district in the northwestern border province of Battambang, according to Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense.
A video of the Cambodian government’s ministry of education claiming to show scenes of panic at a provincial school, where students fled as the air raid was carried out, was also released.
Further, according to the Khmer Times, the ministry claimed that Thai shelling in Banteay Meanchey province had injured two civilians.
Conversations begin.
The most recent fighting occurred just before a defense officials’ meeting at the border crossing between the nations, Ban Pakkad and Pailin, on Wednesday.
According to official counts, the talks are the first between the parties since more than 40 new clashes broke out on December 7 that left about a million people dead and displaced.
Following a regional push to put an end to the fighting, the two parties agreed on Monday to hold the talks within the framework of a current bilateral border committee, the Cambodia-Thailand General Border Committee.
Assed Baig, a reporter from Phnom Penh, in the capital of Cambodia, reported that the meeting was taking place, with ASEAN nations acting as observers, but no significant developments were anticipated.
It’s crucial to be clear about what this meeting is and isn’t. He claimed that the conflict is between military and political figures, not politicians.
A ceasefire can not be agreed upon or signed in this forum.
He claimed that the discussions would primarily be about “stabilizing the situation, clarifying incidents between the parties, and maintaining those lines of communication open.”
According to him, any agreement on a ceasefire would need to be reached with Bangkok and Phnom Penh’s political leaders, and that is where outside pressure comes in.
Both China and the US had been speaking to each other to demand a resolution of the conflict.
He continued, “both sides are still locked in the blame game,” adding that this was true.
Following the collapse of a truce brokered by the United States and Malaysia that put an end to five days of fighting in July, Thailand and Cambodia have been fighting each other daily along their 817 km (508-mile) land border.
The conflict is brought on by a territorial dispute over the border’s 800 km (500 km) boundary’s colonial-era demarcation and a remnant of the border’s ancient temple ruins.
Both sides have disputed the legitimacy of the renewed fighting by blaming one another for self-defense, making similar claims about attacks on civilians.
Thailand accused of destroying a Hindu statue
A Cambodian official has also criticized Thailand for destroying a Hindu statue in a disputed border region, condemning the destruction of religiously significant things.
The statue of Vishnu, which was constructed in 2014, was destroyed on Monday by Thai forces, according to Kim Chanpanha, a government spokesman in the border province of Preah Vihear.
We condemn the destruction of ancient statues and temples that Buddhist and Hindu devotees revere.
On social media, videos of the statue’s demolition were popular.
The Thai military has not commented on the incident, but it did retract Cambodia’s claim that it was using cluster bombs to harm civilians in a statement.
According to the statement, cluster munitions were dual-purpose artillery shells fired at military targets, in accordance with the definitions of “military necessity” and “proportionality.”
Because neither Thailand nor Cambodia were parties to the agreement, the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which forbids signatories from using such weapons, was not applicable.
Source: Aljazeera
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