Thais Plant Illegal Border Posts, Police Officer Claims

A police official yesterday claimed that more than 20 Thai nationals illegally planted five border markers in the non-demarcated “white zone” between the Thai and Cambodian border in Banteay Meanchey province on Saturday.

Provincial police chief Hun Hean said yesterday that officials had uprooted the posts, located in O’chrou district’s O’Beichoan commune, on Saturday, after contacting their Thai counterparts to inform them.

“Our officials just went through to the…area and uprooted the border markers illegally posted by the Thais in the white zone,” he said.

Mr Hean said that a number of Thai military jets had flown along the border after the Cambodian officials uprooted the border posts on Saturday. He added, however, that he did not believe Thai soldiers had been involved in placing the border markers.

“The Thais who posted the border markers in the white zone were not Thai soldiers–they were opposition people,” he said.

“We are planning to have a provincial-level meeting for the authorities of the two countries to plan strategies to ensure that stability can be achieved for the villagers living along the border,” he said.

According provincial border police commander Chhouk Ang, a separate incident occurred at the border in O’Beichoan commune on Saturday when a Thai tractor was stopped by officials who claimed it was clearing land 10 meters inside Cambodian territory.

“We contacted the Thai authorities and told them to keep good security along the border of the two countries,” Mr Ang said.

Officials from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment yesterday. Var Kimhong, chief of the Cambodian government’s border committee, said he was too busy to speak to a reporter yesterday.

(Additional reporting by Mark Worley)

 

 

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