Thailand works to repatriate thousands stranded at Cambodia border crossing

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand is working out how to repatriate up to 6,000 citizens unable to return home through a major border crossing in Cambodia closed as fighting along the contested border extended into a second week, authorities said on Tuesday, December 16.

The militaries of the Southeast Asian neighbors are clashing at several locations on their 817-km (508 mile) land border, both have said, with no signs of abatement, despite international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire.

Cambodia’s closure of its checkpoint in the city of Poipet has prevented the return of thousands of Thai workers gathered there amid fighting that has displaced more than half a million people and killed nearly 40 on both sides since last Monday, December 15.

Hun Sen, Cambodia’s influential former leader, has said the closure aimed to protect civilians from what he called indiscriminate firing by Thai forces in the area.

But checkpoints were open in areas free of fighting and air travel was unrestricted, he added.

In Bangkok on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said Thais in Poipet could seek help to arrange air travel home from the consulate in the city of Siem Reap, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex.

It urged others still in Cambodia to contact officials if they needed to leave.

Efforts to end the fighting have included calls from US President Donald Trump, who also brokered a halt to a five-day conflict in July by using trade negotiations as leverage.

“The army said there has been continuous fighting across the border line. The situation is still in flux,” said Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman of the Thai defense ministry, with fighting reported in eight border provinces.

Cambodia’s forces would “continue to stand strong, brave and steadfast in their fight against the aggressor,” its defense ministry said.

There was no international pressure for a ceasefire, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists in response to a question.

“No one is pressuring us. Who is pressuring whom? I don’t know,” he said, but did not answer a query whether Trump was using the threat of tariff measures to pressure Thailand to stop the conflict.

Thailand is now preparing plans to cut off shipments of fuel into Cambodia, defense ministry spokesman Surasant said.

It is tasking maritime enforcement authorities with controlling Thai-registered vessels that might be delivering gasoline and even weapons to support Cambodia’s armed forces, as an issue of “primary concern” for the Thai public, he added.

The neighbors have long disputed sections of the frontier, but the scale and intensity of the latest clashes, stretching from forested inland areas near the Laos border to coastal provinces, are unprecedented in recent history.

Each side blames the other for starting the fighting.

Malaysia will host a special meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers next week as the regional bloc tries to reestablish the ceasefire. – Rappler.com