12 Dead After Four-Day Thai-Cambodian Border Fight

12 Dead After Four-Day Thai-Cambodian Border Fight

By Richard S. Ehrlich

Bangkok, April 26 - Thailand and Cambodia fortified their border positions yesterday after four days of artillery and mortar battles killed seven Cambodian soldiers and five Thai troops, while both sides tried to dominate nearby ancient Hindu temple ruins which are potentially lucrative tourist sites.

No deaths were reported during Monday's clashes. Thai troops with scant medical equipment used stretchers and open pickup trucks to transport some injured soldiers from border fights to hospitalization during the weekend. Thailand moved tanks and armored personnel carriers along the mountainous jungle frontier about 360 miles northeast of Bangkok.

Cambodia installed more multiple-rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry to bolster its side. "Cambodia used unmanned aerial vehicles to photograph Thai military locations, and Thailand also used similar aircraft to do the same on Cambodian soil" during recent days, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday without elaborating.

Cambodia said on Monday that shelling and rifle fire by Thai forces during the weekend damaged the crumbling stone ruins of two small 1,000-year-old Hindu temples, Ta Krabey and Ta Moan. The extent of the damage was unclear. The ruins are in a disputed border area where most of the four straight days of clashes occurred.

Both Buddhist-majority countries again used artillery, mortars and rifles on Monday night near Ta Krabey, according to Thai and Cambodian military spokesmen.

"The Cambodian acts of aggression left Thailand with no choice but to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity by using proportionate means with necessity, under international law, and strictly directed at only military targets," the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

About 20,000 villagers on each side of the frontier have fled to makeshift shelters, while camouflaged Thai and Cambodian troops continue to patrol the jungle. Washington has good relations with both countries' armed forces, but the border dispute has plagued Bangkok and Phnom Penh for decades.

The clashes were not expected to immediately escalate into full-scale war between Thailand and Cambodia, but the fighting has shut cross-border trade and caused jitters in both Southeast Asian capitals.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have called on both countries to arrange a cease-fire, but the Thai military said it was fighting to stop Cambodia's attempt to seize the Ta Krabey and Ta Moan temple ruins.

Cambodia wants to expand upon its 1962 success when the International Court of Justice in the Hague awarded Cambodia ownership over larger stone temple ruins at Preah Vihear, about 125 miles to the east, the Thai army said.

"There must not be Cambodian soldiers around Preah Vihear, other temples, and communities," Thai Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Monday.

"Cambodia would have seized the area, as they did in the areas near Preah Vihear temple," Thai army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Sunday. "So letting problems occur today is better than seeing it turn chronic in the future," he said, explaining why Thai forces were defending the two smaller temples and nearby disputed territory.

Both sides repeatedly blamed the other for being the aggressor and firing first. In February, four days of fighting near Preah Vihear killed a total of 10 soldiers on both sides before hostilities quieted.

Cambodia wants to internationalize the problem and called on the U.N. and Indonesia to mediate. Thailand prefers to keep the feud as a bilateral issue. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, in his role as current chair of ASEAN, postponed his scheduled trips on Monday to Cambodia and Thailand after Bangkok tried to limit Indonesia's efforts to send military observers to the disputed border where recent fighting occurred.

During the weekend, Cambodia said Thai forces fired 75 mm and 105 mm shells "loaded with poison gas," but no evidence was provided and Bangkok denied the allegation. In February, Bangkok denied using cluster bombs but later reluctantly admitted to firing several cluster-loaded bombs at Cambodia.

Thailand is a non-NATO military ally of America, and is bigger, wealthier, and better armed than Cambodia, but Cambodian soldiers are considered tougher fighters on the ground, honed by decades of internal guerrilla warfare.

Cambodia's military leaders include Hun Manet, who received his diploma in 1999 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Two-star Lt. Gen. Hun Manet is deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces infantry, and director of the Defense Ministry's U.S.-backed counter-terrorism department. He is the eldest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen who was a Khmer Rouge guerrilla regiment commander under Pol Pot when they successfully fought against American troops, and U.S.-backed Cambodian General Lon Nol's regime, in the early 1970s during the Pentagon's regional Vietnam War.

Thailand is perceived as jealous of Cambodia's plan to bring tourists to the scenic stone ruins of Preah Vihear's cliff-top, 11th century, Hindu temple on the disputed border. Preah Vihear was part of a network of ancient temple sites linked to Cambodia's nearby slave-built Angkor Wat complex.

In 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) endorsed Cambodia's bid to grant the temple World Heritage status. That could turn Preah Vihear into a money-making tourist attraction for Cambodia, especially when the Cambodians modernize a path up their steep cliff as an alternative entrance to the temple, which currently has its main access across flatter disputed territory.

The fresh clashes meanwhile coincide with fears expressed by Thailand's media and opposition politicians that Bangkok's coup-minded military is preparing a putsch to install a puppet regime because the generals fear a possible return of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand's U.S.-trained military ousted Mr. Thaksin in a bloodless 2006 coup.

Mr. Thaksin has based himself mostly in Dubai to avoid a two-year jail sentence for corruption during his five-year elected administration which included three victories in nationwide polls. One year ago, tens of thousands of Mr. Thaksin's Red Shirt supporters staged a nine-week insurrection in Bangkok by barricading streets in the heart of the capital, while demanding immediate elections to bring back Mr. Thaksin.

After devastating urban battles, the Red Shirts were crushed by the army, resulting in 91 deaths, most of them civilians. Prime Minister Abhisit, who took office in December 2008, has enjoyed strong military support while allowing the generals to arrange costly and controversial large-scale weapons purchases, including a dozen Swedish Gripen warplanes, six used German submarines, Ukrainian armored personnel carriers, and other weaponry.

Mr. Abhisit said he hopes to stage nationwide elections in June or July. The polls could result in another anti-Thaksin coalition government, or military intervention to block Mr. Thaksin's possible return.

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism. His web page is http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com

(Copyright 2011 Richard S Ehrlich)

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