Thailand will send an envoy to Cambodia next Monday and the Cambodia border will be re-opened on Saturday, the first concrete steps taken to patch diplomatic relations since rioters torched the Thai Embassy and several Thai-owned businesses in Phnom Penh last week.
Officials in Bangkok said the border was to open Thursday morning. However, Banteay Meanchey Governor Thach Khorn said Thai checkpoint guards informed him they would not reopen until Saturday.
Hundreds of Cambodians gathered in Poipet Thursday morning in anticipation of the border opening, but were turned back after several hours of waiting, residents in the town reported.
Reopening the border was branded a humanitarian gesture by Bangkok, which said the Thais were facilitating Cambodians crossing the frontier to buy foodstuffs and consumer goods on condition they return the same day.
Thai nationals, many of whom travel to Cambodia to gamble in casinos located near the border, are still barred from entering Cambodia.
“Cambodians have been starving, having a hard time finding food and necessity items. We will reopen border trade on February 8 at 6 am for humanitarian reasons,” Thai government spokesman Yongyut Tiyapairat said, according to Reuters.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the Thai parliament on Thursday that Kosit Chatpiboon—a minister-counselor at the Thai Embassy before it was sacked last week—will return to Phnom Penh as Bangkok’s charge d’affaires.
The charge d’affaires will lead a team of diplomats comprising embassy staff who fled Cambodia when the mob embarked on the night of anti-Thai destruction, Agence France-Presse reported.
A French colonial-era building on Norodom Boulevard, which previously housed the Japanese Embassy, will be the location of the new Thai mission, Thaksin said.
Crack Thai commandos are expected to return with the Thai delegation to ensure their safety, while Prime Minister Hun Sen has also offered a detachment of his own personal bodyguards.
Co-Defense Minister Tea Banh said outside the National Assembly on Thursday that the Thai delegation would arrive in a matter of days and that Cambodian government forces would ensure their security.
Tea Banh made no mention of a Thai security presence.
As the government continues its investigation into the cause of the anti-Thai riots, an eyewitness account of the embassy attack has been posted on the Japanese Embassy Web site by Ambassador Gotaro Ogawa. The attack was observed by Ogawa from the roof of his embassy—situated adjacent to the Thai Embassy—and where Thai diplomats fled for their lives after their compound was overrun by rioters.
“I could even feel the heat of the flames burning the buildings and automobiles. Watching the rampant acts of barbarism within the embassy, my disappointment deepened further at the sight of tardy intervention of the security forces,” the ambassador wrote.
“This terrible incident, I am afraid, will cause tremendous negative consequences for Cambodia’s international relations, domestic politics, foreign assistance, tourism, investment and above all Cambodia’s image in the international community,” he said.
Ogawa went on to say that the incident was the first time that he and his wife had “felt a deep sense of disappointment about Cambodia.”
However, the ambassador said he was later consoled when many Cambodians expressed their disapproval of the attack.
“My dear Cambodians, please try to reflect upon this dreadful incident. Please try to remedy the situation by taking appropriate measures internationally and domestically. Please do not let the image of impunity prevail in Cambodia,” Ogawa wrote.
Some 58 people have been arrested in connection with the mob violence, including motorcycle taxi driver Roth Tha, 19, who was apprehended on Wednesday after police identified him from video-taped footage salvaged from the Thai Embassy’s closed-circuit security cameras.
The suspect was charged with destroying public property and taking part in illegal demonstrations,” said Phan Vannak, a Municipal Police officer close to the investigation.
(Additional reporting by Lor Chandara and Saing Soenthrith)
