Surin, Thailand – tens of thousands of people sought refuge as the border struggle between Thailand and Cambodia entered their third day on Saturday, increasing the fears of an extended conflict with the total death that reaches 32.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting behind closed doors on Friday night in New York, while Malaysia, which chairs the regional block of 10 nations that includes both countries, requested the end of hostilities and offered to mediate.
The Council did not issue a statement, but a diplomat of the Council said that the 15 members asked the parties to dismiss, show restrictions and resolve the dispute peacefully. The Council also urged the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as Asean, to help solve border fighting, said the diplomat, speaking under condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.
The UN ambassador of Cambodia, Chhea Keo, told journalists after his country, who requested the emergency meeting, “asked immediately, unconditionally, and we also ask for the peaceful solution to the dispute.”
He responded to the accusations that Cambodia attacked Thailand asking how a small country without air force could attack a much larger country with an army three times its size, emphasizing: “We do not do that.”
Restriction calls
Keo said that the Security Council asked both parties to exercise “maximum restriction and resort to diplomatic solution”, which is what Cambodia is also asking.
When asked what awaits next, the ambassador said: “Let’s see how all members can hear the call there.”
Thailand’s UN ambassador left the meeting without stopping to talk to journalists.
The Thai Ministry of Health said Friday that more than 58,000 have fled from the villages to temporary shelters in four border provinces affected, while the Cambodian authorities said that more than 23,000 people have evacuated from the areas near the border.
The last outbreak in a long border dispute between the two countries has killed at least 19 people in Thailand, mostly civilians, while Cambodia said on Saturday that 12 people who have killed more people from their side, which gives death to 13.
Thailand’s interim prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, said Friday that Cambodia can be guilty of war crimes due to the death of civilians and damage caused to a hospital. He said that Thailand had exercised the “greater restriction and patience in the face of the provocations and aggression” of Cambodia.
The tensions about a border area in dispute exploded in fight after an explosion of land mines along the border wounded five Thai soldiers on Wednesday.
The clashes explode
The Thai army reported clashes early Friday in multiple areas along the border, even near the old Temple Matan Thom claimed on both sides. Associated Press reporters near the border could hear artillery sounds from the early hours of the morning.
The Thai army said that the Cambodian forces had used heavy artillery and Russian BM-21 rocket launches, which caused what Thai officials described as “appropriate support fire” in return.
Thailand said that six of his soldiers and 13 civilians were killed, while 29 soldiers and 30 civilians were injured.
The early morning of Saturday, the Cambodian General Mally Scheata, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, told journalists on Saturday that seven civilians and five soldiers have died of two days of struggle. He previously reported a fatality: a man who was killed when the pagoda in which he was hiding was beaten by Thai rockets.
The Ministry of Education of Cambodia said that on Friday two Thai rockets had reached a school complex in Oddar Meanchey but did not cause injuries. He said that all schools in the province have been closed.
The Thai army denied that he went to civil sites in Cambodia, and accused Cambodia of using “human shields” by placing their weapons near residential areas.
Thousands of villages flee
As the fight intensified, the villagers on both sides have been trapped in the crossfire, which leads many to flee.
Around 600 people took refuge in a gym at a university in Surin, Thailand, about 50 miles from the border. The evacuees sat in groups, in mats and blankets, and queue for food and drinks.
Castress Pornpan Sooksai was accompanied by four cats on two fabric carriers. She said she was washing the clothes at home near the temple Ta Mu They Mue Thom when the bombardment began on Thursday.
“I just listened, boom, boom. We already prepared the cages, clothes and everything, so we ran and we took our things to the car. It was scared, scared,” he recalled.
Rattana Meeying, another evacuation, said he had also lived the 2011 clashes between the two countries, but described this outbreak as worse.
“The children, older people, were beaten out of nowhere,” he said. “I never imagined it would be so violent.”
In the near Hospital Phanom Dong Rak, periodic explosions were heard on Friday, and a military truck with three wounded Thai soldiers arrived, including one that had both legs cut. Thursday’s bombardment broke windows in one of the hospital buildings and damaged his roof.
In the neighboring province of Sisket, more villagers took their belongings and left houses in a current of cars, trucks and motorcycles after they received an evacuation order on Friday.
On the other side of the border in Cambodia, the villages on the outskirts of the province of Oddar Meanchey were largely deserted. The houses were locked up, while the chickens and the dogs wandered outside.
Some villagers before duging holes to create improvised underground bunkers, covering them with wood, canvas and zinc sheets to protect themselves from the bombing. Families with children were seen packing their belongings in homemade tractors to evacuate, although some men refused to leave.
A remote Buddhist temple surrounded by rice fields accommodated several hundred evacuated villagers. The women rested in hammocks, some cradled babies, while the children ran. Improvised plastic tents were installed under the trees.
Aveng Chin, 74, begged both governments to negotiate an agreement “so that I can return to my home and work on the farm.”
