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Surin, Thailand – tens of thousands of people have sought refuge as border Fight between Thailand and Cambodia Having entered his third day on Saturday, strengthening the fears of a prolonged conflict with the total number of deaths reaching 32.
The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on fire Friday evening in New York, while Malaysia, which presides over the regional block of 10 countries which includes the two countries, called in the end of hostilities and proposed to publicize.
The council did not publish a declaration, but a council diplomat said that the 15 members called on the parties to descend, to show restraint and to resolve the dispute peacefully. The Council also urged the Regional Bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations known as Anase, to help resolve the border fights, said the diplomat, speaking under the cover of anonymity because the meeting was private.
Cambodia UN Ambassador Chhea Keo told journalists that his country, who called for emergency meetings, “asked for immediate, unconditionally, and we also call the peaceful solution to the dispute.”
He responded to the accusations that Cambodia attacked Thailand by asking how a small country without air force could attack a much larger country with an army three times its size, stressing: “We do not do that.”
Call for restraint
Keo said the Security Council has asked the two parties to exercise “maximum deduction and a diplomatic solution”, which Cambodia is also asking for.
Asked what he is waiting for, the ambassador said: “Let’s see how the appeal can be heard by all members there.”
The UN Thailand ambassador left the meeting without stopping to talk to journalists.
On Friday, the Thai Health Ministry said that more than 58,000 villages in temporary shelters in four border provinces affected, while the Cambodian authorities said that more than 23,000 people had evacuated areas near the border.
The last escape in a long -standing border dispute between the two countries killed at least 19 people in Thailand – mainly civilians – while Cambodia said on Saturday that 12 more people had killed on its side, carrying its toll at 13.
The acting Prime Minister of Thailand, Phumtham Wechayachai, said on Friday that Cambodia could be guilty of war crimes due to the death of civilians and damage to a hospital. He said that Thailand had exerted the “greatest restraint and patience in the face of the provocations and aggression” of Cambodia.
Tensions on a disputed border area broke out in fighting after an explosion of land mines along the wounded border five Thai soldiers on Wednesday.
The clashes burst
The Thai army reported clashes early Friday in several areas along the border, including near the old temple of your Muen Thom claimed by both sides. Journalists from the Associated Press near the border could hear early morning artillery noises.
The Thai army said the Cambodian forces had used Russian and Russian manufacturing rocket launchers, which described what Thai officials have described as “an appropriate support fire” in return.
Thailand said six of its soldiers and 13 civilians were killed while 29 soldiers and 30 civilians were injured.
Early on Saturday, Cambodian general Maly Scheata, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, told journalists that seven civilians and five additional soldiers died of two days of fighting. Previously, he reported a death – a man who was killed when the pagoda in which he hid was struck by Thai rockets.
The Cambodian Ministry of Education said that on Friday two Thai rockets had struck a school complex in Oddar Meanchey but made no injury. He said all the schools in the province have been closed.
The Thai army denied having targeted civil sites in Cambodia and accused Cambodia of using “human shields” by positioning their weapons near residential areas.
Thousands of villages flee
While the fighting intensified, the villagers on both sides were caught in the cross fires, leading a lot to flee.
About 600 people took refuge in a gymnasium in a University of Surin, Thailand, about 80 kilometers from the border. The evacuates were seated in groups, on carpets and blankets, and in queue for food and drinks.
The SOOKSAI seamstress pornpan was accompanied by four cats in two fabric carriers. She said that she was doing laundry at home near your Muen Thom Temple when the bombings began on Thursday.
“I just heard, Boom, Boom. We have already prepared the cages, the clothes and everything, so we ran and brought our things to the car. I was afraid, frightened, ”she recalls.
Rattana Meeking, another evacue, said that she had also experienced the 2011 clashes between the two countries, but described this push as worse.
“Children, the elderly, were unexpectedly struck,” she said. “I never imagined that it would be so violent.”
At the hospital near Phanom Dong Rak, periodic explosions were heard on Friday, and a military truck arrived with three injured Thai soldiers, including one who had both legs cut. Thursday’s bombings broke the windows in one of the hospital buildings and damaged its roof.
In the neighboring province of Sisaket, more villagers have taken their personal effects and left houses in a flow of cars, trucks and motorcycles after receiving an evacuation prescription on Friday.
On the other side of the border in Cambodia, the villages on the outskirts of the province of Oddar Meanchey were largely deserted. The houses stood locked, while chickens and dogs wandered outside.
Some villagers earned holes earlier to create underground makeshift bunkers, covering them with wood, tarpaulin and zinc leaves to protect themselves from bombings. Families with children have been seen packing their personal effects on homemade tractors to evacuate, although some men refused to leave.
A distant Buddhist temple surrounded by rice fields welcomed several hundred evacuated villagers. Women landed in hammocks, some shepherds, while children were running. Fortune plastic tents were installed under the trees.
Veng Chin, 74, begged the two governments to negotiate a regulation “so that I can return home and work on the farm”.
