BANGKOK: Thailand accused Cambodia of violating a 10-day-old truce on Tuesday, saying cross-border mortar fire wounded a soldier, while Phnom Penh said a "pile of garbage" exploded, injuring two of its own troops. Bangkok's foreign ministry said Thai forces "did not retaliate", opting instead to contact the Cambodian side to verify what happened, adding that Phnom Penh "claimed it was an accident". The Thai ministry also urged Cambodia to "prevent such incidents from recurring" and issue an apology, according to a statement.
A decades-old border dispute between the Southeast Asian nations erupted into military clashes several times last year, with fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing around one million on both sides. The two countries agreed to a fragile truce on December 27, ending three weeks of clashes.
Cambodia "violated the ceasefire" on Tuesday morning, the Thai army said in a statement, accusing Cambodian forces of firing mortar rounds into Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani province. One Thai soldier was hospitalised due to non-life-threatening shrapnel wounds to his right arm, the army said. The Thai army said in a separate statement that the Cambodian side had contacted a Thai military unit and claimed "there was no intention to fire into Thai territory". "The incident was caused by an operational error by Cambodian personnel," it added.
Thailand's military also said it warned Cambodian forces that if a similar incident occurred, Thai forces may need to retaliate. Cambodia's defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata said two Cambodian soldiers were injured, one severely, on Tuesday morning when "an explosion occurred from a pile of garbage".
The incident happened while Cambodian forces were performing "organisation and orderliness" duties in Cambodia's Preah Vihear province, which sits opposite Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani, she said in a statement. The two injured soldiers were hospitalised. Maly Socheata did not mention the strike alleged by Thailand, but said both nations' border coordination teams had consulted on the incident involving the Cambodian soldiers and addressed the matter. The explosion occurred in a frontier region known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet, she said. In May, a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight with Thai troops in the area, reigniting the border conflict.
Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his government had lodged a protest with Phnom Penh, stating "the truce was violated".
"At the military-to-military level, we have been told the incident was an accident, but we are seeking clarification on how responsibility will be taken," Anutin told reporters in Bangkok. He added that Thailand had the "capability to respond" to Cambodia, which is vastly outgunned by its neighbour.
The nations' long-standing conflict stems from a dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border, where both sides claim territory and centuries-old temple ruins. Under the December truce, Cambodia and Thailand pledged to cease fire, freeze troop movements and cooperate on demining efforts along their border. The United States, China and Malaysia had brokered a truce to end the fighting between Cambodia and Thailand in July, but that ceasefire was short-lived.
On Saturday, one week after the December truce went into effect, Cambodia called on Thailand to pull out its forces from several border areas Phnom Penh claims as its own. Cambodia's defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Phnom Penh had proposed a bilateral border committee meeting with Thai counterparts to be held in Cambodia's Siem Reap province this month. Bangkok has said previously that meetings to discuss border surveying and demarcation may need to be held by Thailand's next government, following elections scheduled for February 8. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
