Villagers in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thma Puok district were prevented from digging a fish pond on Thursday by a dozen armed Thai soldiers who claimed the work was being done in a border “white zone” into which neither country’s citizens are allowed to enter, officials and villagers said Friday.
Nuon Luy, a 42-year-old villager who was hired to dig the fish pond for the residents of Banteay Meanrith village, said on Friday that armed Thai soldiers approached him on Thursday morning telling him that he was forbidden from working in the area.
“How can this area be a ‘white zone’ when villages have been using the land for rice farming and fish ponds for years?” Mr Luy said by telephone.
Mr Luy noted that his laborers stopped the construction when two Thai soldiers first approached them, but shortly thereafter six, and then 12 Thai soldiers, arrived telling them to leave the area altogether because: “Cambodians do not have the right to do anything in the area.”
Nem Nuon, chief of RCAF’s border soldier unit in Kork Romiet commune, confirmed Mr Luy’s recounting of the incident and said Cambodian soldiers and police had sorted out the dispute with their Thai counterparts.
“It was not a violent confrontation, but we negotiated with [the Thai soldiers] to stop entering the area,” he said, adding that in the meantime he has ordered the digging of the pond halted.
“I will report to the upper level as I strongly believe the villagers were working on Cambodian territory,” Mr Nuon added.
Despite Mr Nuon’s certainty concerning the territorial divide, he stressed that the negotiation between the two sides were peaceful.
Local villagers echoed Mr Nuon’s assertion.
“This area has been used for agricultural farming since the time of my ancestors,” said villager Neang Nay, who insisted the now-off limits border area is “100 percent located on Cambodian soil.”
“I have no idea what kind of source these Thai border soldiers are using as information to prove this land is the prohibited area of the two countries,” he added.
