The Royal Thai Army said that as of Saturday (Aug 9) soldiers had found 824 rocket craters in areas near the Thai-Cambodian border – most of them in communities and hospitals, reports the Bangkok Post.
Explosive ordnance disposal personnel were working urgently to clear shells at the craters so that Thai evacuees could return home as safely as possible, the RTA said.
Lt Gen Boonsin Padklang, commander of the Second Army Region, said yesterday that the rockets that had been fired from Cambodia and did not explode posed threats to people. He advised people who spotted shell craters to report their findings to government officials immediately and stay away from such locations.
Meanwhile, soldiers were also facing threats from many landmines that Cambodian forces had laid in Thai territory before retreating, he said. The regional army commander ordered soldiers to use excavators and tractors to help clear landmines for their own safety.
A soldier lost his leg and two colleagues were also injured when an anti-personnel landmine exploded near the Don Aow-Kritsana area in Thailand’s Si Sa Ket province on Saturday.
The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sharply condemned Cambodia over repeated injuries to Thai soldiers caused by Cambodian landmines.
In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said the latest explosion was the third such incident involving Thai forces in less than a month.
“The Royal Thai Government condemns in the strongest terms the use of anti-personnel mines. Such actions are a clear violation of Thailand’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, breaching fundamental principles of international law, international humanitarian law, and the United Nations Charter,” the statement read.
“They also constitute a clear breach of obligations under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Convention). Thailand is lodging another formal protest and, as a State Party, will take action in accordance with the Convention.”
The ministry said the laying of new mines undermines the ceasefire agreed by both countries and urged Cambodia to stop these “gross violations” immediately. It also called for urgent cooperation on humanitarian demining along the border, as agreed by the two prime ministers.
According to the ministry, Thailand raised the issue at the Extraordinary Session of the General Border Committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 7, but Cambodia has yet to respond.
Later, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters said that the 824 Cambodian rocket craters were in four northeastern provinces, namely Buri Ram, Si Sa Ket, Surin and Ubon Ratchathani.
There were 256 craters in Buri Ram with 254 cleared, 72 craters in Si Sa Ket (all cleared), 439 craters in Surin (372 pieces of ordnance defused) and 57 craters in Ubon Ratchathani (all cleared)
Military personnel also found 18 PMN-2 anti-personnel landmines and two of them remained operational. There were also numerous rocket-propelled grenades.
“Such weapons are the silent death that hides near houses, hospitals and people’s farmland,” said Col Chatrapee Poonsri, spokeswoman for the armed forces headquarters.
Meanwhile, soldiers have laid about 16 kilometres of barbed wire to prevent scammers, drug traffickers and illegal workers from easily crossing the Thai-Cambodian border in the East.
The Royal Thai Army said yesterday that soldiers from the Burapa Task Force installed 9.8km-long barbed wire along the Phrom Hot Canal at the Thai-Cambodian border in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo on Saturday.
The barbed wire stretched between Aranyaprathet 20 (Khlong Luek Bridge) and Aranyaprathet 31 border checkpoints as the natural landscape along the 9.8km distance facilitated illegal border crossings.
Earlier soldiers had laid barbed wire along a distance of 6.3km between Aranyaprathet 08 and Aranyaprathet 20 border checkpoints.
The army said that the installed barbed wire should limit the illegal movements of some groups of people across the border. They included scammers, illegal migrants and drug smugglers who usually travelled between the two countries through natural crossings in Sa Kaeo.