Thai-Cambodia Ceasefire Wobbles As Fiery New Accusations Fly

“The soldiers will continue to do their job at full steam –Thais do not worry – until the government has reached a clear agreement that there is no danger for the people, and to ensure we maintain the country's interests, in order to bring the peace we want to see,” Thailand's Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on July 27.

Cambodia's authoritarian regime could also be strengthened by the patriotism and nationalism stirred by the worst fighting in a decade between the two Buddhist-majority countries.

The fighting along Cambodia's northern border with Thailand coincides with a dangerously destabilizing breakup between the two nations' dynastic ruling families after decades of tight interlocking personal relations.

Both countries' authoritarian de facto leaders and former prime ministers, Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra and Hun Sen in Cambodia, and their families are openly warring against each other over public betrayals, lies, threats and leaked confidential audio recordings.

Thailand flew its US F-16 warplanes and Swedish jet fighters across the frontier and repeatedly bombed Cambodia during their six-day border feud. On the other side, China assists Cambodia's development projects, investments and infrastructure and offers some military training and weaponry.

During six days of aerial, artillery, mortar and drone attacks, both sides repeatedly blamed the other for firing first or causing the most death and damage.

At least 40 people, including Thai and Cambodian civilians, have been killed and 300,000 displaced since fighting escalated on July 24 along their disputed frontier.

The contested border relies on controversial century-old French colonial maps dividing jungles, cliffs and the scattered locations of revered ancient Hindu-Buddhist temple ruins. The area includes the Emerald Triangle, where military-reinforced northern Cambodia meets heavily fortified eastern Thailand and southern Laos.

After postponing their scheduled breakfast meeting on Tuesday (July 29) to quell the ceasefire's violations during the tropical morning, Thailand's 1st and 2nd Army Region commanders met their counterparts from Cambodia's Military Region 4 and 5, at two different border crossing checkpoints at lunchtime.

In a meeting in Thailand, commanders and their aides, all wearing camouflage uniforms, met face to face while seated opposite each other in a businesslike setting at a long table.

A second meeting in O'Smach, Cambodia, was described as“informal” by Cambodian officials.

A third meeting was held online with Thailand's Border Defense Command chief of Chanthaburi and Trat provinces chatting with Cambodia's Military Region 3 commander.

They all agreed to stop shooting, stop reinforcing their troops, not to sneak into each other's territory and halt all military movements along the border unless sick or injured troops need an ambulance to a hospital.

The commanders also told each other there must be no firing at civilians, and both sides should choose quick action resolution teams who could communicate and coordinate directly with troops along the 500 miles of their curved border.

Thailand repatriated the remains of a dozen Cambodian soldiers on Monday (July 28) at a temporarily opened border crossing.

Arrangements need to be made to return additional dead and injured soldiers, and social media's vicious“meme wars” between Thai and Cambodian propaganda artists, satirists, and activists must not cause misunderstandings, they said.

The commanders agreed to wait until August 4, when a Thailand-Cambodia Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meeting is scheduled to review the ceasefire and any violations.

Both sides have accused the other of“war crimes” and breaking the Geneva Conventions, pointing at Thailand's use of US-built F-16 warplanes and Swedish Gripen jets to bomb Cambodia, and for Cambodia's firing deadly, unguided rockets into civilian areas, hitting at least one hospital and a fuel station.

On July 24, Senate President Hun Sen reportedly told Thailand not to“boast of your superior military power, or think of invading,” because Cambodia was“fully prepared for combat.”“You will face the most severe retaliation,” Hun Sen said.“We won't just resist, we will strike back.”

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Hun Sen's 47-year-old son, wrote online:“The sooner the fighting stops, the sooner the affected people, especially the displaced, can return to their homes and resume their livelihoods.

“At a time when the nation and our people are facing hardship, I may look a little older because of the gray hairs. Even if I look older and feel a little less strong than I did 10 years ago, my determination to face these challenges remains unwavering.

“Let's wait until the army and people are safe, and the country has returned to peace – then it won't be too late to dye my hair,” the Cambodian prime minister said, according to Agence Kampuchea Presse.

Bangkok insists all discussions about their disputed border remain between Thailand and Cambodia and confined to the JBC, with no outsiders or external powers deciding the issue.

Cambodia, however, demands the bloodstained case be settled once and for all at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which has ruled twice in Cambodia's favor, awarding it the coveted clifftop Preah Vihear temple ruins, which are one of several crumbling stone architectural wonders in harm's way because of rocket attacks.

Troubling, unverified media has appeared online, including a video supposedly showing a group of shouting Thai men beating a Cambodian man in an urban street, while a separate photograph showed men circling a hapless-looking person who was described as a Thai spy captured inside Cambodia.

During July, landmines injured several Thai troops who were described by Thai officials as walking on the accepted Thai side of the border.

The Phnom Penh Post, however, said in an editorial:“The Thai military's recent allegations – especially those made by Lt. Gen. Boonsin Phadkhang of the 2nd Army Region that Cambodia deliberately laid new landmines resulting in injuries to Thai soldiers – are not only unfounded but recklessly irresponsible.

“No credible investigation has been made public, no transparent evidence has been presented,” the paper said. Bangkok said the landmines were new, Russian-made and recently secretly planted by Phnom Penh.

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Thailand hosts the US Pentagon's biggest international military exercise in Asia, Cobra Gold, each year. China plays a broader role in Cambodia, funding huge investments, offering some training to Cambodia's military, and developing the country's infrastructure, including ports and shipping canals.

That includes the strategic Ream Naval Base, which China is dredging and developing to allow its massive warships to make port calls in the Gulf of Thailand, giving it a potential valuable southern flank in the South China Sea. The US military previously was involved in developing the base's facilities, but was expelled in favor of China.

Thailand's 360,000 active-duty army, air force and navy are three times larger than Cambodia's much weaker military forces. Bangkok's military is backed largely by the US and other foreign training and weaponry, including in the sky, where Thai pilots easily dominate due to Cambodia's lack of an effective warfighting air force.

In addition to Thailand's US F-16 warplanes, older F-5s, Cobra attack helicopters and Black Hawk transport choppers, Bangkok also wields about a dozen Swedish Gripen fighter jets.

Thailand's weapons and equipment also come from Israel, Russia and elsewhere, including 60 Chinese VT-4 tanks, which augment dozens of older US tanks. Thailand mobilized the Chinese tanks in border areas during the recent clashes, according to news reports.

Thailand's 600 artillery pieces far outnumber and outgun Cambodia's much weaker artillery strength, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Cambodia depends on about 200 Chinese and Soviet tanks and a few dozen Chinese and Soviet helicopters.

However, at the height of the hostilities on July 27, Thailand's Second Army Region warned Cambodia was withdrawing troops from front-line positions in preparation for firing China-made, truck-fired PHL-03 missiles, which have a range of 130 kilometers.

The Thai military claimed the weapon's range would have allowed Cambodia to hit multiple provinces outside of affected border areas, including Maha Sarakham, Roi Et and Nakorn Ratchasima, which, if launched, would have marked a dangerous escalation of the conflict.

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based American foreign correspondent reporting from Asia since 1978, and winner of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondents' Award. Excerpts from his two new nonfiction books,“Rituals. Killers. Wars. & Sex. - Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka & New York” and“Apocalyptic Tribes, Smugglers & Freaks” are available here .

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