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Thai, Cambodian troops exchange border gunfire
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-15 18:44 PREAH VIHEAR - Thai and Cambodian troops fought an hour-long battle with small arms and rockets on a disputed stretch of border on Wednesday, prompting Bangkok to urge its citizens to leave its neighbour.
Both sides accused each other of firing first in the clash, the most serious incident in four months of tension in the vicinity of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, a stunning set of Hindu ruins sitting on an escarpment on the border. A Reuters photographer on the Cambodian lines said one rocket flew over his head from the direction of Thailand, forcing him to scurry for cover. Two Cambodian soldiers were wounded in the exchange of fire, which appeared to last for at least an hour, a Defence Ministry official said. Cambodian forces had also surrounded at least a dozen Thai soldiers, he added without giving more details. There was no immediate word on Thai casualties. The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, a ruling that has rankled in Thailand ever since. However, it failed to determine the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub next to the ruins. The issue over this small parcel of land became highly politicised again in Thailand in July when protesters trying to overthrow the government adopted it as one of their causes. Thai Foreign Minister Sompong Amornvivat urged Thai nationals in Cambodia to leave at once, mindful of the 2003 torching of the Thai embassy and Thai businesses in Phnom Penh by a nationalist mob incensed by a row over Angkor Wat, another ancient temple. |
