by James Goyder

For the second time this year the ongoing tension on the Cambodian border has escalated into outright war. In both instances each side has alternated between casting aspersions and artillery.

It is predictably unclear exactly what the catalyst was for the most recent renewal of outright hostilities. Like two schoolboys, separated by the adult figure that is the international community, both sides are adamant that the other started it.

Cambodian Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan claimed, “We did not start this fight. We cannot accept this act. It is not what Cambodia wants, and it affects our Ta Krabey temple. They are trying to take advantage by fighting and encroaching on Cambodia. They have breached the principles of our agreement.”

Meanwhile the Thai Foreign Ministry declared that, ”Thailand protests in the strongest terms against the unprovoked armed attacks of Cambodia on both the Thai military and civilians. Thailand has exercised its right of self-defence on the basis of necessity, proportionality and strictly directed at military targets from where the attacks were launched by Cambodian troops.”

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had his own theory offering a placatory suggestion that the close proximity of the two opposing armies  might have been a decisive factor, ”Whenever you have troops stationed near one another, there is always a likelihood of a clash breaking out,” he said but his refusal to play to the blame game appears to have done little to defuse the situation.

There is anecdotal evidence of Cambodian artillery landing in Jan Hom with local reports suggesting that two civilians might have been killed. However this is little more than hearsay at present and it is difficult to gauge the extent of the Cambodian assault, all we know at this stage is that at least four Thai soldiers have lost their lives with around five times as many wounded.

The response of the Thai army was audible from the early hours of Saturday morning. The howitzers were in regular action from 6:30am until 11:30am sending hundreds of missiles into Cambodian territory. I was stationed at a school in the Naeng Mut region, one of two locations from which the Thai ordnance was being launched, and you can see some dramatic photos of the artillery in action here.

It is possible to clearly identify the ammunition which was being used as I took close up shots of both the missiles themselves and the marked containers which they arrived in. As you will see from the photos neither chemicals nor cluster bombs were deployed from this particular location contrary to Cambodian claims today that, “They (Thai troops) have not only fired poisonous smoke on our troops, but they have also used cluster bombs to attack on Cambodian troops and surrounding villages.”

These comments came from Suos Sothea, deputy commander of the artillery unit, who was supposedly speaking directly ‘from the battle field’.  If chemicals and cluster bombs were used by Thailand I certainly didn’t see them and the soldiers were making no effort to disguise their munitions, in fact there was a large crowd of locals gathered round who were making themselves useful by unloading individual shells (see pics).

It is interesting to note that Sothea also said, ”There were no rumbles of gunfire explosions at 10:25 am, but we don’t know if the fighting ended or not, it depends on the Thai side,” which is a surprising comment given that the sound of artillery was audible from miles around until about 11:25am.

Inaccuracies such as this are not exclusive to the Cambodian side. According to a Bangkok Post article, ‘Army Region 2 commander Lt Gen Thawatchai Samutsakorn insisted that Thai troops had not made any artillery fire into Cambodia territory as was reported by the media.’

If these remarks were actually made it would be stretching the credulity of the claims emanating from Thailand to absolute breaking point. However he supposedly went on to say that, ‘Thai soldiers had to returned (sic) fire because Cambodian troops fired first,’ which leads me to believe that a little something has been lost in the Bangkok Post’s translation and that Samutsakorn was actually claiming that the Thai troops did not fire until fired upon, rather than denying that they had fired at all.

According to the official figures there are at least 16138 refugees currently in shelters on the Thai side of the border with further evacuations expected to take place on Sunday. With this morning’s fighting still fresh in the memory people are reluctant to return to their homes and thousands are sleeping under makeshift shelters outside municipal buildings. People who have lived in the area all their lives can recall feeling the vibrations of explosions from Cambodia during the days of the Khmer Rouge but this latest outbreak of violence has caught everyone by surprise.

After a morning of flexing its military muscle the Thai army is preparing for the prospect of another onslaught. I witnessed a large quantity of  M-11 missiles (see photos) being unloaded after the last shot of the day had been fired. Perhaps orders to fire were expected and never came but eyewitnesses reported seeing two even bigger guns being moved into position at around 3pm and it is clear that Thailand is ready to renew hostilities if necessary.

In the Panom Dong Rak area residents face an anxious wait to see if the dawn will bring a fresh bout of fighting while soldiers on both sides of the border are in a state of high alert. Cambodia has called upon impartial international observers to resolve the border dispute but, in the absence of a strict school teacher to adjudicate, the two countries continue to squabble like school children and lives are being lost in the process.