3 days ago
Thailand Claims Another Soldier Injured by Landmine Along Cambodian Border
Accusing Cambodia of laying fresh mines, the Thai military said that 'we may be compelled to exercise our right to self-defense under international law.'
TwoSoviet-made PMN-2 antipersonnel landmines, similar to the mines that the Royal Thai Army claims to have unearthed along its border with Cambodia.
Another Thai soldier was injured by a landmine near the Cambodian border yesterday, Thailand's army said, the second such incident to have taken place since the two nations agreed to a ceasefire.
In a statement, Royal Thai Army (RTA) spokesperson Maj. Gen. Winthai Suvaree said that the explosion happened at around 9:10 a.m. on a regular patrol route around 1 kilometer from Ta Moan Thom temple in Surin province. The soldier who stepped on the mine suffered severe wounds to his ankle and is currently being treated at the hospital. He accused Cambodia once again of laying fresh landmines and of committing 'a direct attack on Thai forces in Thai territory,' the Bangkok Post reported.
'This incident is evident proof that Cambodia violates the ceasefire agreement and international humanitarian laws, especially the Ottawa Treaty which bans the use and installation of all kinds of anti-personnel landmines,' Winthai said.
The claim comes after the RTA claimed that three Thai soldiers were injured by a landmine on August 9, while on a similar patrol on the border between Thailand's Sisaket province and Cambodia's Preah Vihear province. One soldier lost a foot and the other two were injured in the explosion, it said. Thailand says that it has uncovered Russian-made PMN-2 anti-personnel mines in the vicinity of several of the recent explosions, which are not used by the RTA and show signs of being freshly laid.
These incidents follow a meeting of the bilateral General Border Committee on August 7, when the two sides agreed to a 13-point plan to maintain the ceasefire that brought the fighting to an end on July 28. Among these were mutual pledges to freeze border troop movements and patrols, not to reinforce their positions along the border, and 'not to undertake provocative actions that may escalate tensions.'
The explosions now threaten to rekindle last month's five-day conflict, which killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 on both sides of the border. Similar landmine explosions on July 16 and July 23 prompted Bangkok to recall its ambassador from Phnom Penh, and precipitated the initial outbreak of hostilities between the two nations on July 24.
In response to Cambodia's alleged laying of fresh mines, Winthai said that the Thai army might be forced again to take more forceful steps to defend its soldiers. 'If pressure continues to mount, we may be compelled to exercise our right to self-defense under international law, in order to address the losses suffered by Thai military personnel as a result of Cambodia's violations of the ceasefire agreement and Thailand's sovereignty,' he said.
As with the past accusations, Cambodia's government yesterday dismissed Thailand's accusation that it had laid new mines. 'Cambodia maintains its firm stance that it has not and will not use or plant any new landmine,' Defense Ministry spokesperson Maly Socheata said in a regular press briefing. She also repeated the fact that many border areas are still seeded with explosives from Cambodia's decades of civil war, claiming that this was the source of the explosion.
Meanwhile, Cambodia continues to accuse Thailand of its own violations of the ceasefire. In a letter dated August 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally notified the United Nations Security Council of a string of alleged Thai violations. It claims that since the end of hostilities on July 28, Thai military units 'have repeatedly crossed into Cambodian territory, illegally laid barbed wire, and built roads at multiple points along the border,' in the Khmer Times' paraphrase.
Regarding the landmine issue, there are two separate questions in dispute: First, whether Cambodia has laid fresh landmines along the border; and second, whether it has done so since the ceasefire. On at least the first count, Thailand should be able to make a convincing case to the outside world.
The RTA says that it recovered three PMN-2 mines from the area adjacent to yesterday's explosion, which it said were in 'new condition' and not remnants from past conflicts. PMN-2 mines, which were manufactured in the Soviet Union from the 1970s until the 1990s, were among the most 'commonly found' mines laid during the country's civil war, Phnom Penh said in its submission to the United Nations in 2000, after it joined the Ottawa Convention.
Since then, Cambodia claims that it has destroyed all of its stockpiles of anti-personnel mines in line with the treaty. However, Article 3 of the Ottawa Convention permits nations to retain a small number of mines 'for the development of and training in mine detection, mine clearance, or mine destruction techniques.'As of 2020, Cambodia 'reported having 3,730 anti-personnel mines and other types retained for these permitted purposes,' according to the Convention's website. Cambodia's own most recent Article 7 submission clarifies that this includes the PMN-2 model.
Thailand claims that it destroyed all of its stockpiles under the Ottawa Convention in 2003. It also reported that it destroyed the small number of antipersonnel mines that it held for research and training purposes in 2019.
