PHNOM PENH (Bloomberg): Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has threatened to derail a fragile peace deal with Cambodia - signed just last month - after a land-mine explosion injured two Thai soldiers near their shared border.
The soldiers stepped on what the Thai army suspects were newly laid mines while on routine patrol Monday in Si Sa Ket province. It was the seventh such blast in four months, following a wave of explosions in July that sparked the deadliest border clashes in years.
As a result, Thailand will suspend the terms of US President Donald Trump-backed Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords, which outline disarmament measures as part of efforts to normalize ties, Anutin said. The country will also halt the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers in its custody - a move that had been set to begin Nov. 21 under the peace terms.
"Everything we have been doing until now will be stopped until there is more clarity,” Anutin told reporters on Monday. "What happened shows that the hostility hasn’t decreased as we thought it would. So we can’t proceed any further from here.”
The accords call for the removal of heavy weapons from border zones between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 and cooperation on land mine clearances. Thailand has also sought Cambodian crackdowns on cyber-scam operations there.
A spokesperson for Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The 18 Cambodian soldiers had been detained since late July following an initial ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia facilitated by the US and Malaysia, which currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Anutin has asked the foreign affairs and defense ministries to lodge complaints with an observer team consisting of military officials from Southeast Asian nations, according to a Thai government statement.
The prime minister is scheduled to fly to Si Sa Ket on Tuesday to visit the injured soldiers and chair a meeting on Thailand’s position on the peace deal.
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