Thailand returns 2 wounded soldiers to Cambodia but continues to hold 18 of their comrades
The rest of a 20-member group of Cambodian soldiers captured on Tuesday in one of the disputed pockets of land over which the two sides were fighting remain in Thai hands, and Cambodian officials are demanding their release. The two countries have given differing accounts of the circumstances of the capture.
Cambodian officials say their soldiers approached the Thai position with friendly intentions to offer post-fighting greetings, while Thai officials said the Cambodians appeared to have hostile intent and entered what Thailand considers its territory, so were taken prisoner. Cambodian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Maly Socheata confirmed that the two wounded soldiers had been handed over at a border checkpoint between Thailand's Surin province and Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province, and urged the Thai side to promptly repatriate the remaining personnel in accordance with "international humanitarian law.'
Thailand says it has been following international legal procedures and was holding the remaining 18 soldiers until it could investigate their actions. A statement issued Friday by Thailand's 2nd Army Region identified the two repatriated Cambodian soldiers as a sergeant with a broken arm and a gash on his hip, and a second lieutenant who appeared to be suffering from battle fatigue and needed care from his family. It said both men had taken an oath not to engage in further hostilities against Thailand.
Neither man nor the others in Thai custody have been made available for interviews by neutral third parties. The Cambodian Human Rights Committee, which is a government agency, released a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights claiming that the two soldiers had been tortured and denied medical care. The letter, which offered no evidence to back up its claims, demanded among other measures an "impartial investigation by the United Nations or relevant international bodies' into its allegations.
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