Thailand and Cambodia exchanged heavy artillery fire for a second day on Friday as their worst fighting in over a decade intensified and spread to new areas, despite international calls for a ceasefire.
At least 16 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the escalating border battle.
Both sides have blamed each other for starting the conflict and on Friday ratcheted up the rhetoric, with Thailand accusing Cambodia of deliberately targeting civilians and Cambodia alleging Thailand was using cluster munitions, a controversial and widely condemned ordnance.
Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said Cambodia had launched attacks on multiple fronts and Thailand was defending its territory.
“The current situation involves acts of intrusion and aggression that are causing harm to the people’s lives. The situation has intensified and could escalate into a state of war. At present, it’s a confrontation involving heavy weapons,” he told reporters.
Fighting re-erupted before dawn, with clashes reported in 12 locations, up from six on Thursday, according to Thailand’s military, which accused Cambodia of using artillery and Russian-made BM-21 rocket systems to target areas that included schools and hospitals.
“These barbaric acts have senselessly claimed lives and inflicted injuries upon numerous innocent civilians,” the Thai military said in a statement. It described Cambodia’s bombardment as “appalling attacks”, putting the blame squarely on the Phnom Penh government, which it said was being led by Hun Sen, the influential former Premier of nearly four decades and father of current Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.
“The deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime, and those responsible must be brought to justice,” the Thai military added.
Loud explosions
The fighting started early on Thursday, quickly escalating from small arms fire to heavy shelling in multiple areas 210 km apart along a frontier where sovereignty has been disputed for more than a century.
The trigger was Thailand’s recalling of its ambassador to Phnom Penh and expulsion of Cambodia’s envoy on Wednesday, in response to a second Thai soldier losing a limb to a landmine that Bangkok alleged had been laid recently by rival troops. Cambodia has dismissed that as baseless.
Cambodia’s defence ministry and its government’s landmine authority condemned what they said was Thailand’s use of a large amount of cluster munitions, calling it a violation of international law.
The foreign ministry of Thailand, which is not among the more than 100 signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters journalists in Thailand’s Surin province saw a Thai military convoy that included about a dozen trucks, armoured vehicles and tanks cut across provincial roads ringed by paddy fields as it moved towards the border. Intermittent bursts of explosions could be heard amid a heavy presence of armed troops.
‘No mediation’
Thailand favours bilateral negotiation rather than third-party mediation to resolve the military conflict, two Thai officials said on Friday.
The US, China and Malaysia, which is the current chair of the Asean, have offered to facilitate dialogue but Bangkok is seeking a bilateral solution to the conflict, Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said.