Cambodian troops told to shoot Thai ‘trespassers’

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

(Post in CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered his troops Monday to shoot any trespassers in a simmering border dispute with Thailand and angrily blasted the neighbouring nation’s territorial claims.

His remarks came a little over a week after Thai protesters rallied at the disputed border area near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, the site of clashes that have killed seven soldiers since tensions flared last year. “If they enter again, they will be shot,” Hun Sen told officials who applauded as he publicly ordered troops along the border to fire against civilian or military “invader enemies” who illegally enter Cambodia. “Troops, police and all armed forces must adhere to the order... for invaders, shields are not used but bullets are used,” Hun Sen said in the speech at the opening ceremony for Cambodia’s new Ministry of Tourism building.

Hun Sen also lambasted Thailand’s claim to the disputed 4.6 square kilometres of land around Preah Vihear, saying he may raise it at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting next month. “This is a unilateral claim with the ambition of occupying Cambodian territory... If the Thai prime minister put the (unilaterally-drawn) map in front of me, I would tear it,” Hun Sen told the audience. “Cambodia does not want war, but Cambodia deserves the right to destroy enemies in its territory,” he said, adding that he would take the issue to the UN Security Council in the case of any aggressive action by Thailand.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status. Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand. Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gunbattle near the temple area in April leaving three people dead. The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia. afp