SISAKET, Thailand/PHNOM PENH (TimesofIDN) – Cambodia and Thailand each accused the other of launching artillery attacks across contested border areas on Sunday morning, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the leaders of both nations had agreed to pursue a ceasefire.
Cambodia expressed full support for Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire, while Thailand, while appreciative of the U.S. president, stated that talks could not begin as long as Cambodia was targeting its civilians, a claim Phnom Penh has denied.
“Our condition is that we do not want a third country but are thankful for his (Trump’s) concern,” Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters before heading to visit border areas, as reported by Reuters.
“We’ve proposed a bilateral between our foreign ministers to conclude the conditions for a ceasefire and drawing back troops and long-range weapons.”
Cambodia claimed that Thailand initiated hostilities on Sunday morning and that Thai forces were mobilizing along the border. Thailand, in turn, said it was responding to attacks from Cambodia.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet wrote on Facebook, “I made it clear to Honourable President Donald Trump that Cambodia agreed with the proposal for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between the two armed forces,” noting he had also endorsed Malaysia’s earlier ceasefire proposal.
Four days after the worst fighting in over a decade erupted between the two Southeast Asian neighbors, the death toll exceeded 30, including 13 civilians in Thailand and eight in Cambodia.
Authorities reported that more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in both countries. Cambodia’s Defense Ministry stated that Thailand shelled and launched ground assaults on Sunday morning at multiple points along the border, with heavy artillery targeting historic temple complexes.
“For me, I think it is great if Thailand agreed to stop fighting so both countries can live with peace,” Sreung Nita, a university student in Phnom Penh, told Reuters.
The Thai army reported that Cambodian forces fired shots into several areas, including near civilian homes, early on Sunday and were mobilizing long-range rocket launchers. The governor of Surin told Reuters that artillery shells had been fired into the province.
“The soldiers will continue to do their job at full steam so 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,” Phumtham said.
In Thailand’s Sisaket province, Reuters reporters heard shelling throughout Sunday, though it was unclear which side of the border it originated from.
“If there is a ceasefire, things will be better,” said Thavorn Toosawan, a Sisaket resident, to Reuters. “It’s great that America is insisting on the ceasefire because it would bring peace.”
Tensions have escalated since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in late May during a brief skirmish. Troops on both sides of the border were reinforced amid a diplomatic crisis that pushed Thailand’s fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse.
Thailand and Cambodia have disputed undemarcated points along their 817-km land border for decades, with ownership of the ancient Hindu temples Ta Moan Thom and the 11th-century Preah Vihear at the heart of the conflicts.
Preah Vihear was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962, but tensions flared in 2008 when Cambodia sought to list it as a UNESCO World Heritage site, leading to skirmishes over several years that resulted in at least a dozen deaths.
