Clashes on Thai-Cambodian border

Thai-Cambodian Border Clash Fighting erupted on Sunday for a third day between Thai and Cambodian troops, with gunfire and explosions heard on both sides of the disputed border,

Reuters witnesses said.
The clashes, which have killed 11 people on both sides since Friday, started at 9.50 am (6.50am UAE time) with the sound of sustained artillery explosions. Villagers were loading pick-up trucks with family and pets and fleeing.
Large stretches of the Thai-Cambodian border are poorly demarcated and could be disputed by one or both sides.
The reasons behind the latest clashes are not clear with the neighbours exchanging blame, but the border and relations with Cambodia have become a divisive issue in Thailand\'s fractious domestic politics.
There were no immediate reports of any new casualties in the latest flare-up of the worst border fighting in nearly two decades.
As well as the 11 soldiers from both sides killed in the first two days, 43 were wounded in the clashes around the Ta Moan and Ta Krabey temples, about 150 km west of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple which saw a deadly four-day standoff in February.

Thousands displaced
Thousands of people evacuated from the villages were sheltering in camps on either side of the porous border where villagers from both countries, many of the whom share the same ethnic makeup, mingle and trade each day.
Three Cambodian soldiers and one Thai soldier were killed on Saturday in a pre-dawn clash west of Ta Krabey that lasted about five hours, a day after four Thai and three Cambodian soldiers died in battle.
Cambodia\'s Defence Ministry earlier condemned Thailand for launching attacks aimed at taking control of the two temples and accused its army of firing 75 and 105 mm shells \"loaded with poisonous gas\".
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said the charges were \"groundless\" and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council accusing Cambodia of committing \"unlawful and indiscriminate attacks\" by firing heavy weapons near civilians and a hospital.
Sovereignty over the ancient, stone-walled Hindu temples - Preah Vihear, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey - and the jungle of the Dangrek Mountains surrounding them has been in dispute since the withdrawal of the French from Cambodia in the 1950s.
Ta Moan and Ta Krabey, perched on a 10-metre escarpment about 12 km apart in landmine-riddled terrain, were built in the 12th century when the Cambodia\'s Khmer empire stretched across parts of Thailand.
 
Demarcation dispute
Thailand says the two temples are situated in its Surin province according to a 1947 map. Cambodia rejects that and says they are in its Oddar Meanchey province. Before Friday, they jointly patrolled the area largely without incident.
The United Nations urged a ceasefire following February 4-7 clashes and part of a deal, brokered at a meeting of the Association for South East Asian Nations (Asean) in Jakarta has yet to be put in place.
Both sides agreed on February 22 to allow unarmed military observers from Indonesia to be posted along their border, but Thailand wants the issue to be resolved bilaterally by a joint commission which has yet to properly demarcate the area, despite a 10-year study.
In the Thai village of Ban Kuak Klang, 30km from the scene of the fighting, thousands of people sheltered in school classrooms or under tarpaulin sheets after fleeing when loud explosions rang out across their villages.
\"We don\'t know what happened, we don\'t know why it happened but we\'re all scared,\" said Wanchai Chaensit, 48, a rubber farmer who fled his home 3 km from the clashes.
The two countries have been locked in a standoff since July 2008, when Preah Vihear was granted Unesco World Heritage status, which Thailand opposed on the grounds that the land around the temple had never been demarcated.
An international court awarded the temple to Cambodia 49 years ago but both countries lay claim to a 4.6 sq km patch of land around it.

Indonesia, the current chair of Asean, which plans to have a European Union-style community by 2015, has called for an immediate ceasefire.
Some analysts say some hawkish Thai generals allied with ultra-nationalists could be trying to create a pretext to stage a coup to prevent elections expected by July from taking place.
Some commentators say Cambodia\'s government could be trying to stir nationalist fervour and score points at home by starting a conflict to show its army is capable of standing up to its historic rival.

From :Gulf News