Blitz Bureau
THE Thailand-Cambodia border, where fighting has raged since last week, is now calm following a ceasefire, acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said.
Phumtham and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, met in Malaysia on July 28 and agreed to halt their deadliest conflict in more than a decade following five days of intense fighting that displaced over 300,000 people and killed at least 38 people, mostly civilians.
The Thai army said in a statement there had been attacks by Cambodian troops in at least five locations, violating the ceasefire that had come into effect from midnight, and Thailand’s military had retaliated proportionately. Phumtham played down the clashes, and said he had spoken with Cambodia’s Defence Minister ahead of the talks between military commanders. Maly Socheata, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Defence Ministry, said in a briefing that there had been no continued fighting along the border.
The peace talks came after a sustained push by Malaysian Premier Anwar Ibrahim and U.S. President Donald Trump, with the latter warning Thai and Cambodian leaders that trade negotiations would not progress if fighting continued. The Southeast Asian neighbours have wrangled for decades over their disputed frontier and have been in conflict since the killing of a Cambodian soldier in a skirmish late in May, which led to a troop buildup on both sides and a full-blown diplomatic crisis.
Despite the ceasefire announcement, the Thai authorities have warned people who have evacuated from border areas not to return home until further notice, and the news has been met with a mix of hope and some scepticism among affected communities. Last week, the two countries recalled their ambassadors, downgrading diplomatic relations. Clashes erupted along the border, with the two sides trading rocket and artillery fire, and airstrikes.
