Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thailand used F-16s to drop two bombs in Poipet, a casino town known for housing cybercrime operations. - The Nation/ANN
BANGKOK: Thailand’s army has recast its deadly clash with Cambodia as a battle against cybercriminals, adding a new motive for bombing runs across the border that it says are aimed at rooting out scammers.
Calling the strikes a "war against the scam army,” a military division involved in the border fight said this week it’s on the frontline against the global threat of transnational crime syndicates, which operate across neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Thailand’s new tone draws together two simmering crisis in South-East Asia, the border war between neighbours that has killed dozens and displaced half a million people and a sprawling scam ecosystem that has swindled billions of dollars primarily in so-called pig-butchering and call-centre schemes.
The framing also shows that Bangkok is seeking to align itself with both Washington and Beijing, which have pushed separately for South-East Asian nations to crack down on the scam operations.
In two statements this week, Thailand’s Second Army Area Command, in charge of fighting in four of seven border provinces, said some of the targets the Thai military has hit in Cambodia this month were scam compounds used by Cambodian troops. It had earlier focused only on military targets.
Thailand has been "cutting logistical and operational lifelines” and "dismantling transnational criminal support structures,” the command said in a statement Wednesday (Dec 17).
"The true adversary is the transnational criminal networks and power structures that sustain illegal interests through violence.”
In a separate statement Thursday, the command said Thai forces have neutralised at least six scam-related facilities - which it also refers to as casinos - including two sites that had been previously sanctioned by the US government.
US President Donald Trump has taken a keen interest in the border fight that erupted earlier this year - threatening both with trade restrictions in July to stop the fighting then overseeing a peace accord in October.
Trump said both leaders pledged to stop the fighting after he spoke with them last week. But the Thai statements this week imply the US administration has given Bangkok tacit approval to continue its strikes.
"This explains why many countries, despite calling for a ‘ceasefire,’ have taken no concrete action against Thailand, including the US, which seemed to exercise a polite caution as a supporter of peace,” the army unit said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Thailand has deployed F-16 and Gripen fighter jets to bomb buildings and bridges used by Cambodia’s military since the border conflict flared up again Dec 7.
Thailand has said those targets have included "deserted” casinos that housed drone command centers, weapon depots, or troops and snipers.
On Thursday, Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thailand used F-16s to drop two bombs in Poipet, a casino town known for housing cybercrime operations. It didn’t say if any casinos have been hit. The Thai air force said it was targeting rocket depots.
Responding to a question whether Thailand is specifically aiming to take out Cambodian casinos, Richa Suksuwanan, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Army, told a news briefing Thursday that all targets have been verified as military targets.
"The attacks were not solely focused on casinos and scammers,” he said.
"Every target identified was clearly being used as a military base, frequently including drone command centers and weapons depots.”
Since the beginning of the year, Thailand has ramped up its crackdowns on the scam networks operating out of its South-East Asian neighbours, which Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicly supported.
Separately on Thursday, China dispatched an envoy to Cambodia and Thailand to conduct mediation.
The billion-dollar cyberscam operations have been expanding across the region for years and are often run by Chinese nationals who fled in 2020 following a domestic crackdown.
The criminals have trafficked hundreds of thousands of victims from as many as 56 origin countries to work in the scam compounds, according to a United Nations report.
Last month, Thailand handed over a Chinese-born, naturalised Cambodian citizen alleged to be a casino kingpin and wanted by Beijing. In February, Thai authorities repatriated several Chinese nationals who had worked in fraud operations in Myanmar.
The Thai military’s actions to target Cambodian casinos came after a series of measures earlier this year to hurt the illicit economy. Thailand also halted exports of goods to Cambodia including fuel that it said would be used to abet transnational criminal activities and barred Thais from travelling to Poipet for work.
The measures followed similar efforts when Thailand cut off electricity, internet access and fuel supplies to some areas in Myanmar suspected to house cyber scam operations.
Thailand and Cambodia had also jointly dismantled a scam centre that housed hundreds of trafficked foreign workers in Poipet.
The Thai army also said that during the visit of China’s vice minister of public security, Liu Zhongyi, in Bangkok on Wednesday, Chinese authorities shared their view that the Cambodian government has "connections and shared interests” with some of the scam operations.
The government of Hun Manet in Phnom Penh has denied having such relationships. - Bloomberg
