Thailand closes all border points with Cambodia, military official says

BANGKOK: Thai authorities on Thursday (July 24) announced the closure of all border points with Cambodia after weeks of tension over a border dispute escalated into clashes that have killed at least two civilians.

AI Brief

Thailand raised border alert to level four, fully closing checkpoints after five soldiers were injured by a landmine.
Thailand condemned the incident as a violation of sovereignty and international law, deepening tensions with Cambodia.
The clash revives century-old border conflicts, with recent violence triggering a full-blown diplomatic crisis.

Following an incident on Wednesday (July 23) where five Royal Thai Army personnel stepped on a landmine in the Chong An Ma area, Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri said that Thailand escalated the security measures along the border from level two, which only restricts the crossing borders of the people and the period of time that they can cross, to level four, “which involves the complete closure of all border checkpoints along the Thai-Cambodian border.”

“The ministry of foreign affairs condemns in the strongest terms, this act as an egregious violation of Thailand’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and the Ottowa convention,” said Maratee Nalita Andamo, deputy spokesperson at the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For more than a century, Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border, which has led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011.

Tensions were reignited in May following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief exchange of gunfire, which escalated into a full-blown diplomatic crisis and now has triggered armed clashes.