By News18,Vani Mehrotra
Copyright news18
Fresh clashes erupted at the Thailand-Cambodia border on Wednesday after both sides accused each other of encroaching on the disputed boundary. Cambodia’s information minister, Neth Pheaktra, said 23 Cambodians were injured in the clashes.
He also accused Thai officials of using “tear gas, rubber bullets and noise-making devices against Cambodian civilians.”
Meanwhile, the Thai military defended its move and said its army personnel were laying barbed wire on the border in Sa Kaeo when around 200 Cambodians gathered to protest.
“It became necessary to use tear gas and rubber bullets to control the situation, and make the crowd pull back from the area,” it said, adding the Cambodians had thrown rocks and other items at Thai personnel.
“Cambodians violated Thai soil and Cambodian authorities did not stop them, it was a provocation which is a violation of the ceasefire,” news agency AFP quoted the Thai military as saying.
Pheaktra was quoted as saying that local authorities reported 23 Cambodians, including a soldier and a Buddhist monk, had been injured.
The stand-off took place on Cambodian territory in Banteay Meanchey province, he added in a message released to the media.
A widely shared video on social media showed a Cambodian picking up a tear gas grenade bare-handed and throwing it towards the Thai officers.
The clashes were reported from a disputed border area, and were being seen as the most significant escalation since both sides declared a ceasefire to end a deadly five-day conflict in July, as per Reuters.
(News18 could not independently verify the authenticity of the video).
THE THAILAND-CAMBODIA BORDER DISPUTE
While Thailand has been maintaining that the disputed frontier settlement is a part of its Ban Nong Ya Kaew village in Sa Kaeo province, Cambodia says it is a part of Prey Chan village in Bantheay Meanchey province.
Last month, the Thai authorities erected barbed wire fences in the area, and for weeks, there have been protests by civilians from both sides of the border.
Both countries have for more than a century contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which was first mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony.
Tensions over disputed areas spiralled into a border conflict in July, when the fiercest fighting between the neighbours in decades killed at least 48 people and temporarily displaced hundreds of thousands.
The fighting ended after both countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Malaysia on July 28, and the border has largely remained calm since.
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