Three Thai soldiers injured by landmine near Cambodia amid fragile ceasefire
The soldiers were doing a security sweep to lay barbed wire in the Don Ao-Krissana border area in Si Sa Ket province. The incident comes two days after both countries met in Kuala Lumpur for talks hailed as “constructive and positive”.
BANGKOK: Three Thai soldiers were injured on Saturday (Aug 9) in a landmine explosion near the kingdom’s border with Cambodia, two days after both countries met in Kuala Lumpur for talks hailed as “constructive and positive”.
The explosion severed a soldier’s left ankle. Another soldier injured his arm and back, while the third sustained a concussion and ruptured eardrum, according to the Thai Second Army Region’s Operations Centre, as reported by Thai news outlets.
The men from Infantry Company 111 were doing a security sweep to lay barbed wire in the Don Ao-Krissana border area in Si Sa Ket province when one of them triggered the landmine at about 10am.
They were taken to a local hospital.
Thailand’s Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said he had received a report on the blast.
He said the incident occurred in an area being cleared to create a passage as part of security measures to prevent illegal crossings, news outlet Bangkok Post reported.
Details of the incident are being documented and will be sent to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be raised under the Ottawa Convention – an international agreement that bans anti-personnel landmines – highlighting the continued presence of landmines in the area, Phumtham said.
The issue of mine clearance will be discussed at the upcoming Regional Border Committee meeting, he said.
Cambodia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to news agency Reuters’ request for comment.
Earlier on Saturday, Maly Socheata, Cambodia’s spokesperson for its National Defence Ministry, had said the situation along the frontline in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces remained calm and stable up until 6am, news site Khmer Times reported.
Saturday’s incident is the third time in a few weeks that Thai soldiers have been injured by mines while patrolling along the border. Two previous similar incidents led to the downgrading of diplomatic relations and triggered five days of violent clashes.
The Southeast Asian neighbours were engaged in deadly border clashes from Jul 24 to 28, in the worst fighting between the two in more than a decade.
The exchanges of artillery fire and jet fighter sorties claimed at least 43 lives and left over 300,000 people displaced on both sides.
A fragile ceasefire has been holding since Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Thursday to allow observers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to inspect disputed border areas to ensure hostilities do not resume.
Both countries also agreed to comply with international humanitarian law in treating each other’s captured soldiers, and to facilitate the “dignified and timely return” of deceased individuals.
Bangkok accused Cambodia of planting landmines on the Thai side of the disputed border that injured soldiers on July 16 and July 23. Phnom Penh denied it had placed any new mines and said the soldiers had veered off agreed routes and triggered old landmines left from its decades of war.
