Defense-Technology News: Cambodia

Monday, April 25, 2011

DTN News - THAILAND DEFENSE NEWS: Thailand And Cambodia Resume Fighting Along Border

DTN News - THAILAND DEFENSE NEWS: Thailand And Cambodia Resume Fighting Along Border

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 25, 2011: Thai and Cambodian forces have clashed for a fourth day along their disputed border, despite calls by the UN for a ceasefire.

Field commanders on both sides said artillery, mortars and rifle fire were exchanged at nightfall on Monday around Cambodia's Ta Krabey temple.

Twelve soldiers have been killed and 36,000 people displaced in the recent clashes.

Both sides blame each other for the latest fighting, which began on Friday.

Thousands of civilians have fled the border area, seeking refuge from the three days of fighting [Reuters]

The death toll from three days of heavy fighting between Thai and Cambodian troops over a disputed border area has climbed to 12.

Officials on Monday said one soldier had been killed on each side following an exchange of fire in the jungle frontier late on Sunday.

Cambodia also accused Thailand of damaging two ancient temples during the latest clashes, while Thailand accused the Cambodian army of firing artillery shells that did not make it across the border.

Fighting appeared to have resumed on Monday afternoon with several shells fired, following a brief lull in the violence after days of cross-border shelling.

Thailand's foreign minister called for one-on-one talks with Cambodia, a renewed push that came after the cancellation of talks with a top regional envoy.

Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa had been scheduled to hold talks in Thailand and Cambodia on Monday but his trip was cancelled, government officials from both countries said.

Natalegawa had brokered a UN-backed peace deal in February that would have posted unarmed military observers from Indonesia along the border, but the Thai military has said they are not welcome and the deal has yet to be put in place.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a Thai government spokesman, said Natalegawa's visit was cancelled because Thailand and Cambodia had not yet settled on terms for the Indonesian observers.

Cambodia has asked for outside mediation to help end the standoff, but Thailand has resisted third-party intervention. However, Kasit Piromya, the Thai foreign minister, declined on Monday to rule them out when speaking to reporters at an evacuation camp.

"It's not something we are opposed to. This is a sensitive issue," he said in a briefing about 30km from the scene of recent fighting.

Ceasefire shattered Both countries have blamed each other for sparking the violence, which is the first serious outbreak of fighting since February, when 10 people were killed in clashes near the 900-year-old Hindu temple Preah Vihear.

Seven Cambodian and five Thai troops have been killed and thousands of civilians have fled the area since the latest clashes began on Friday.

Cambodian soldiers stand guard near by the Cambodia-Thailand border in Oddar Meanchey province on April 25, 2011.

Five Thai soldiers and seven Cambodian soldiers have died in the latest clashes

About 20,000 civilians have sought refuge in 16 camps on the Thai side of the border while about 17,000 have been evacuated from Cambodian villages. Some, like 47-year-old Suwech Yodsri, stayed behind to guard their properties, despite the danger of violence.

"I'm scared to be here but I have to be here to protect our village from looting," he told the AFP news agency from the Thai village of Nong Kanna in Surin Province, about five kilometres from the border. "I believe political conflicts are to blame. Innocent people are just being used as a political tool," he added.

Calls for restraint

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has called on the neighbours to "exercise maximum restraint" and has urged them to resolve the issue through "serious dialogue" rather than military means.

He also urged the two neighbours to take immediate measures for an effective and verifiable ceasefire. Indonesia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc, has called for an immediate end to the violence. Vietnam urged "maximum restraint". Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear -- the most celebrated example of ancient Khmer architecture outside Cambodia's Angkor -- was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008. The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6 square km surrounding area.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith - DTN News

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
Contact: dtnnews@ymail.com

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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

DTN News - ASIAN NEWS: Southeast Asian Ministers Discuss Ways To End Conflict Between Thailand And Cambodia

DTN News - ASIAN NEWS: Southeast Asian Ministers Discuss Ways To End Conflict Between Thailand And Cambodia

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Niniek Karmini (CP)

(NSI News Source Info) JAKARTA, Indonesia - February 22, 2011: Foreign ministers from Southeast Asia held emergency talks Tuesday on how to end a deadly standoff between Cambodia and Thailand near a disputed 11th century temple.

Each country has accused the other of starting the conflict — which has left at least eight people dead and displaced thousands — and disagree on how it should be settled.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier demanded a cease-fire — an idea Thailand flatly rejected — but appeared to back off Tuesday saying he'd settle for the deployment of military observers to the remote, mountainous area.

While heading into talks with the two countries and the eight other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the only thing off the table was more fighting.

"We are meant to resolve our problems through negotiations," he told reporters. "We are waging peace. That's what we are doing, not waging war .... so that no more guns and artilleries make a sound in our region."

The conflict that erupted earlier this month — resulting in exchanges of small arms, mortars and artillery fire — is rooted in a decades-old border dispute near the Preah Vihear temple that has fueled nationalist passions on both sides.

The monument, which was built between the 9th and 11th centuries and sits atop a 1,722-foot (525-meter) cliff, was awarded to Cambodia by the World Court in 1962, but sovereignty over adjacent areas has never been clearly resolved.

Skirmishes have erupted several times since 2008, when Preah Vihear was awarded U.N. World Heritage status, but soldiers and locals say none has been as violent as the latest clash.

The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Monday and gave strong backing to the efforts of ASEAN — which usually refrains from interfering in the internal affairs of member states — to help end the dispute.

Natalegawa indicated the regional grouping was ready to step in and stand firm.

"I would like to make it absolutely clear that ... the option of conflict, the option of use of force, is not meant to be on the table," he said.

In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, Hun Sen told university graduates he was ready to back off calls for a cease-fire, which would require a perhaps lengthy approval by the Thai parliament, if Bangkok agreed to the deployment of military observers.

"Signing a cease-fire is not necessary, but the arrival of observers ... is what's most important," he said, adding monitors would be welcome to all areas inside the Cambodian border, from the front lines to military camps and ammunition warehouses.

"They can inspect wherever and whenever they want."

While Hun Sen's has sought to shift the debate to an international stage, his Thai counterpart, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has pressed hard for a bilateral solution so it was not immediately clear what sway the Southeast Asian ministers might have.

___

Associated Press reporter Sopheng Cheang contributed to this report from Phnom Penh.

*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News