Thailand has recalled its ambassador to Cambodia and will expel Cambodia’s envoy to the country, following a landmine explosion yesterday that injured five Thai soldiers, one of them seriously, along the disputed border between the two countries.
The announcement was made by the ruling Pheu Thai party said in a social media post, and then by Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who said in a government statement that the Thai Foreign Ministry had lodged a formal protest with Cambodia, claiming that the landmines found in the area were freshly laid.
In the statement, Phumtham confirmed that the government was expelling the Cambodian ambassador, Hun Saroeun, while recalling the Thai envoy from Phnom Penh, the Bangkok Post reported.
“By recalling the Thai Ambassador from Cambodia and sending the Cambodian Ambassador back to Cambodia, we will consider the level of relations further,” Phumtham, who is also serving as acting prime minister, said in the statement.
The incident also prompted the Thai government to order the closure of all border crossings in northeastern Thailand, and to enact its “Chakrapong Phuwanart” emergency plan, which was last put into operation in 2011 during the conflict over Preah Vihear temple.
According to the Royal Thai Army, the landmine incident occurred while soldiers were on patrol on an undemarcated stretch of the border between Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province and Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province, not far from the triborder junction with Laos. As the Bangkok Post reported, the incident resulted in injuries to five soldiers, one of whom lost his right leg after stepping on the mine. The other four “experienced chest tightness and tinnitus from the blast concussion.”
The incident followed another landmine-related incident along the same stretch of the border on July 16, in which three other Thai soldiers were wounded after one stepped on a landmine and lost a foot.
Earlier this week, the Thai army said it had found that 10 freshly laid Russian-made PMN-2 type landmines, which are not used by Thailand, in areas close to where the July 16 explosion took place. In a statement, the Thai Foreign Ministry condemned the use of anti-personnel mines “in the strongest terms,” describing it as “a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Thailand and an outright breach of principles that are fundamental to international law.”
Cambodia has denied laying any new landmines along the border, arguing that many unexploded mines and other ordnance remain from the country’s long civil war, which ended only in 1998. More than 65,000 people have been injured or killed by landmines in Cambodia since 1979, according to the HALO Trust, 18,800 of whom were killed.
Maly Socheata, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of National Defense, yesterday denied that Cambodia had laid any new mines and accused the Thai soldiers of straying from patrol routes that were agreed under an MoU signed in 2000.
“It is deeply regrettable that Thailand not only fails to take responsibility for its aggressive actions but also accuses Cambodia of violating international law, while Cambodia itself is an unjust victim of Thailand’s violations,” she said, as per the Phnom Penh Post. In response to Thailand’s diplomatic downgrade, Phnom Penh has also downgraded its relations with Bangkok to the level of second charge d’affaires, and ordered “all other Cambodian diplomatic staff” at the Bangkok embassy to return home.
The Cambodian government made a similar denial following the July 16 explosion, describing the Thai accusations as “baseless” and adding that it was fully committed to the Ottawa Convention, an international agreement banning antipersonnel landmines. Both Cambodia and Thailand are signatories of the treaty.
The landmine incidents further intensified the border dispute that has simmered since an armed clash between Thai and Cambodian soldiers on May 18, which left one Cambodian soldier dead. Since then, relations have fallen to their lowest point since the dispute over Preah Vihear temple in 2008-2011. Most land border crossings have since been closed; Cambodia has blocked imports of Thai fuel, fruit, and vegetables, and cut internet and phone connections with Thailand, while Thai police have begun investigating a prominent Cambodian tycoon with alleged links to large-scale online scamming operations.
The new dispute has also had domestic political ructions within Thailand, after the leak of a phone call between Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen, last month. The leak led the Constitutional Court to suspend Paetongtarn from office pending an investigation into her conduct during the call, in which she accused the head of the Second Army Region of being aligned with her political opponents.
The downgrade in relations between Bangkok and Phnom Penh suggests that the border dispute has now gained a momentum that is beyond the possibility of either side to arrest in the short term. While there is still some scope for avoiding war, the crisis now seems more serious and protracted than it appeared two months ago.