Thailand and Cambodia halt fierce border battle with second ceasefire | USAEMALL.com

CIVILIANS TO RETURN, DEMARCATION EFFORTS UNAFFECTED

Tensions between the two neighbours came to a head in July, when they clashed for five days along some parts of the frontier, leaving at least 48 people dead and 300,000 displaced before Trump intervened to bring about a truce.

That ceasefire broke down in early December with each side accusing the other of moves that led to clashes.

Anwar, currently the ASEAN chair, and Trump had been unable to stitch together another ceasefire, as fighting spread from forested regions near Laos to the ‌coastal provinces on the Gulf of Thailand.

The renewed ceasefire came after a special meeting on Monday of ASEAN foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur, followed by three days of talks between the warring sides at a border checkpoint, where the two defence ministers met on Saturday.

They agreed on the return of people displaced from affected border areas, while underlining that neither side would use any force against civilians.

Thailand will also return 18 Cambodian soldiers in its custody since the July clashes if the ceasefire is fully maintained for 72 hours, according to the agreement.

Saturday’s pact, however, will not impact any border demarcation activities under way between both countries, leaving the task of resolving disputed areas along the frontier to existing bilateral mechanisms.

“War and clashes don’t make the two countries or the two people happy,” Thailand’s Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornjaidee told reporters. “I want to stress that the ‌Thai people and the Cambodian people are not in ‌conflict with each other.”