via CAAI
Feb 8, 2011
PREAH VIHEAR (Cambodia) - CAMBODIAN and Thai troops held their fire on Tuesday as the UN Security Council said it was willing to meet to discuss four days of deadly border clashes near a disputed 11th-century temple.
No new fighting has broken out since brief skirmishes early on Monday, but a Cambodian military commander stationed near the temple said the situation remained 'tense'.
'We are still on alert,' said the source, who did not wish to be named. The unrest, which first broke out on Friday, has left five Cambodians and two Thais dead, including at least one civilian on each side.
Phnom Penh says that Thai artillery fire had damaged the Preah Vihear temple at the centre of the standoff. Thousands of families on both sides of the frontier have been displaced by the violence.
Many have been forced to seek shelter in camps, schools and pagodas in villages farther away from the border as they wait for hostilities to end.
Both Thailand and Cambodia have written to the UN Security Council twice about the border unrest, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of seeking to use 'internationalisation' of the conflict. -- AFP
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