Cambodia demands return of 18 soldiers
PHNOM PENH—Cambodia is demanding that Thailand release 18 of its soldiers captured last week during the recent fighting over the two country’s competing border claims.
Following a ceasefire that ended five days of combat, Thailand on Friday returned two other soldiers who were wounded in the fighting.
Meanwhile, accusations and bickering over whether either side had targeted civilians and breached the laws of war erupted amid sharp nationalist feuding on social media.
The soldiers were all from a 20-member group of Cambodian soldiers captured on Tuesday in one of the disputed pockets of land.
Phnom Penh and Bangkok have given differing accounts of the circumstances of the capture.
Cambodian officials say their soldiers approached the Thai position with friendly intentions to offer post-fighting greetings, while Thai officials said the Cambodians appeared to have hostile intent and entered what Thailand considers its territory, so were taken prisoner.
Cambodian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maly Socheata confirmed that the two wounded soldiers had been handed over at a border checkpoint between Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province, and urged the Thai side to promptly repatriate the remaining personnel in accordance with “international humanitarian law.”
Under investigation
Thailand says it has been following international legal procedures and was holding the remaining 18 soldiers until it could investigate their actions.
A statement issued Friday by Thailand’s 2nd Army Region identified the two repatriated Cambodian soldiers as a sergeant with a broken arm and a gash on his hip, and a second lieutenant who appeared to be suffering from battle fatigue and needed care from his family. It said both men had taken an oath not to engage in further hostilities against Thailand.
Neither man has been made available for interviews by neutral third parties.
There were other peaceful activities on Friday on both sides of the border as both countries staged tours of the former battle areas for foreign diplomats and other observers, highlighting damage allegedly caused by the other side. The two countries continue to accuse each other of having violated the laws of war with attacks on civilians and the illegal use of weapons.
More than three dozen people, civilian and soldiers, were killed in the fighting, which in addition to infantry battles included artillery duels and the firing of truck-mounted rockets by Cambodia, to which Thailand responded with airstrikes. More than 260,000 people in total were displaced from their homes.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, military representatives of both sides are supposed to meet next week to iron out details to avoid further clashes. However, the talks are not supposed to cover the competing territorial claims that are at the heart of decadeslong tension between the two countries.
Partisans of both sides are also waging a war of words online, with Thailand accusing Cambodia of also carrying out malicious hacking. Both countries’ professional journalism societies have accused each other of spreading false information and other propaganda.
