AFP – Thai forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas during a stand-off with Cambodian protesters along their disputed border on 17 September, Bangkok’s military said, a move that Phnom Penh stated injured more than 20 people.
The neighbors agreed a truce in late July following five days of clashes that killed at least 43 people on both sides — the latest eruption of a long-standing dispute over contested border temples on their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.
Since then, both sides have traded accusations of ceasefire violations.
Army personnel were laying barbed wire on the border in Sa Kaeo when around 200 Cambodians gathered to protest, the Thai military said in a statement.
“It became necessary to use tear gas and rubber bullets to control the situation, and make the crowd pull back from the area,” it said, adding the Cambodians had thrown rocks and other items at Thai personnel.
“Cambodians violated Thai soil and Cambodian authorities did not stop them, it was a provocation which is a violation of the ceasefire,” the military said in another statement.
The incident marks the first use of rubber bullets or tear gas by Thai forces on the border since July’s ceasefire.
Cambodia’s information minister Neth Pheaktra said local authorities reported 23 Cambodians, including a soldier and a Buddhist monk, had been injured.
The stand-off took place on Cambodian territory in Banteay Meanchey province, he added in a message released to the media.
“This is a breach of the ceasefire by the Thai side,” he said.
Images released by the Thai army showed lines of police equipped with riot shields.
Video clips shared online showed Cambodian villagers armed with long sticks facing off with Thai authorities.
One of the clips showed a Cambodian Buddhist monk and other men trying to remove barbed wire when uniformed Thai personnel fired tear gas.
AFP was not able to immediately verify the footage.
July’s violence represented the deadliest military clashes between the neighbors in decades, with 300,000 people forced to flee their homes along the border.
