Fierce clashes on the Thai-Cambodia border have left 10 dead and forced thousands to flee the worst bloodshed since a UN ceasefire appeal in February, officials said Saturday. The two countries exchanged heavy weapons fire for a second straight day on their disputed jungle frontier, the scene of a series of deadly gunbattles in recent years.
Three Cambodian troops and one Thai soldier were killed Saturday, according to officials in the two countries, a day after three soldiers died on each side. Cambodia accused Thailand of using 75mm and 105mm “heavy guns loaded with poisonous gas” and said in a defence ministry statement that Thai military aircraft flew “deep into Cambodia’s airspace”. Thailand denied the claims, which could not be independently verified. A Cambodian field commander, Suos Sothea, said the gas caused some soldiers who inhaled it to feel weak but did not cause serious injury. He also accused Thailand of using cluster bombs.
Thailand recently admitted using controversial Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions during the February fighting but insisted it did not classify them as cluster munitions. Thousands of villagers been have evacuated from nearby areas on both sides since the latest violence broke out.
“Most of the people in my village have fled their homes because many Thai artillery shells landed nearby,” 29-year-old farmer Has Pov told AFP at a pagoda complex where he took refugee with his wife and two children in the Cambodian town of Samrong about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the fighting. “I’m really scared by the shelling,” he added. Villages close to the Cambodian side of the border were emptied as people fled with their belongings. An AFP photographer saw a house apparently damaged by shelling in a Cambodian village more than 10 kilometres from the area where the main fighting occurred. As usual, the two countries accused each other of starting the clashes. “All of sudden they fired at us,” Thai Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon told AFP.
