KANTHARAROM, Thailand: As Cambodia and Thailand traded deadly strikes, fleeing civilians on both sides described their cross-border neighbours as “siblings” and “friends”, swapping calls for peace against the backdrop of artillery barrages.
The death toll from three days of fighting has risen to 33, the majority civilians, after a long-running border dispute sharply escalated into combat waged with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops.
“Relations used to be good, we were like siblings,” said 56-year-old Sai Boonrod, one of hundreds of Thais sheltering at a temple in the town of Kanthararom after evacuating her border village home.
“But now things may have changed,” she told AFP. “I just want the fighting to end so we can go back to being like siblings again.”
Over the Cambodian border, 150km from Sai’s temporary home, a similar scene plays out: hundreds of evacuees huddled in makeshift tents on a temple site, surrounded by emergency food rations and their hastily packed clothes.
“We are neighbours, we want to be friends,” one 50-year-old told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity at the temple shelter in Phumi Bak Thkav.
“But they are attacking us. We are fleeing homes because of them.”
Tensions have long flared over the countries’ shared 800 km border, peppered with ancient temple sites claimed by both nations.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-cambodia-residents-fleeing-neighbours-call-peace-5260511
