Escalating tensions: Residents evacuating after airstrikes in Siem Reap amid Cambodia-Thailand border clashes. — Agence Kampuchea Presse/AFP
Phnom Penh accused Bangkok of striking deep inside its territory, bombing areas less than a two-hour drive from the country’s main tourist draw, the centuries-old Angkor temples, in a reignited border conflict.
Dozens of people were killed in five days of fighting in July before a truce was brokered and then broken within months, part of a long-standing conflict rooted in the colonial-era demarcation of the countries’ 800km frontier.
Renewed fighting between the South-East Asian neighbours this month has killed at least 28 people, including soldiers and civilians, and displaced around 800,000, officials said.
Each side has blamed the other for instigating the fighting, claiming self-defence and trading accusations of attacks on civilians.
Cambodia, which is outgunned and outspent by Thailand’s military, said Thai forces had expanded their attack “deep into” Cambodian territory yesterday morning.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said in a statement that a Thai fighter jet had bombed “near a displaced civilians camp in the area of Srei Snam district, Siem Reap province”.
Information minister Neth Pheaktra said it was the first time during the renewed clashes that Thailand’s military had bombed areas of Siem Reap province, the home of the Angkor temple complex and its top tourist attraction, the Unesco heritage site Angkor Wat.
Neth Pheaktra said Thai F-16s had penetrated more than 70km into Cambodian territory.
The country relies heavily on its tourism sector, which, as in many nations, is still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic years.
Foreign tourist arrivals to Cambodia last year topped 6.7 million, the highest annual total on record, tourism ministry data showed.
But arrivals from July to September this year were down by about a third compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Monthly ticket sales to the Angkor archaeological park were down at least 17% year-on-year from June to November, according to data from operator Angkor Enterprise.
US President Donald Trump, who intervened in the conflict earlier this year, said last week the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire beginning last Saturday night.
But fighting raged over the weekend and into yesterday, and Bangkok denied Trump’s claim of a truce.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul posted on Facebook on Sunday that his government would keep up the fight.
Military officials on both sides said clashes and strikes along the border were ongoing yesterday.
Meanwhile, Thailand is set to hold parliamentary elections on Feb 8, according to multiple local media reports yesterday, including public broadcaster Thai PBS, broadcaster PPTV and digital outlet Prachathai.
The reported poll date comes after Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul last week received royal assent for the dissolution of parliament, meaning that polls must be held 45 to 60 days.
The election commission is currently holding a meeting to discuss the date, said an official from the poll body, declining to confirm the reports.
The earlier-than-expected election comes after Anutin last week fell out with the opposition People’s Party, the largest grouping in parliament, and moved to dissolve the house amid a raging border conflict with neighbouring Cambodia.
Anutin had won the support of the People’s Party for his premiership bid in September in return for starting a process to amend the constitution and then dissolve the house at the end of January. — AFP/Reuters
