The president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, Casey Barnet, has urged international observers to review reports from 2010 to 2014, which documented the deaths of more than 40 Cambodian civilians during clashes along the Cambodia-Thailand border. He said such records are essential to understand who was the aggressor in the conflict.
Writing on his Facebook account on August 17, Casey Barnet said that if observers remain uncertain about responsibility for the border conflict today, they should examine the cases of Cambodian civilians killed by Thai soldiers more than a decade ago.
He said that between 2010 and 2014, when Prayuth Chan-ocha was Thailand’s army commander and later prime minister, at least 42 Cambodian civilians were killed along the border by Thai soldiers.
Casey Barnet also pointed to Prayuth Chan-ocha’s leadership role in cracking down on Thailand’s Red Shirt pro democracy protesters in 2010, an operation in which at least 90 demonstrators were killed. He said that after the protest crackdown, Prayuth oversaw the Thai military as it carried out extrajudicial killings of Cambodians along the border, which he described as part of a nationalist strategy that preceded his rise to power in a coup in 2014.
According to Casey Barnet, Prayuth Chan-ocha is now advising the Thai king on issues related to the Cambodia border, suggesting that Prayuth may discount the deaths of the 42 Cambodian civilians that were not reported during his time as army commander more than 10 years ago.
Reports from that period detail multiple incidents. In December 2010, two Cambodian civilians were killed. In October 2011, eight more were shot dead by Thai soldiers. In February 2012, another two were killed, followed in April by two separate shootings in which one and then three Cambodians were killed. In December that year, two more deaths were reported.
In 2013, Thai soldiers shot dead three Cambodians in April, one in September, and three more in November. In March and April 2014, a further 15 Cambodians were killed, followed by one in September and another in December of that year.
The issue has resurfaced in recent weeks after Boonsin Padklang, commander of Thailand’s Second Army Region, told an event at Kasetsart University in Bangkok on August 14 that the Thai king regularly expresses concern about the Cambodia-Thailand border situation. He said the monarch asked him daily about conditions facing soldiers stationed there, and that he reported back each day.
Analysts note this was the first time the Second Army Region commander publicly indicated that the Thai monarchy stands behind the military’s actions on the Cambodian border. They say it suggests the current territorial conflict with Cambodia is being directed under the authority of the king.
