PM visits tense border area, inspects survival shelters

PRIME MINISTER Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her entourage visited the tense Thai-Cambodian border at Kap Choeng district, Surin province, to inspect building survival shelters after a border clash on May 28 led to one Cambodian soldier being killed, Naewna newspaper said today (June 11).

She is believed to be the first leader from both sides to visit the border area and was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister/Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Deputy Prime Minister/Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.

Upon arrival she questioned villagers how long they had been building these shelters.

They told her they started yesterday and intended to complete the work today because she was coming.

“Thank you. I’m rooting for you, don’t forget to eat, otherwise you won’t have any energy, you could faint while working,” she said.

In inspecting these shelters, she asked Surin Governor Chamnan Chuenta whether square or round shelters were sturdier and tires also used.

He replied that these are temporary shelters because the two sides did not exchange gunfire for very long. The square ones are government variety while round ones were donated.

Usually, tires are not used on the frontline because they are flammable, but villagers used whatever they could find, and tires were not among them.

“We asked for donations, and we took whatever came first, donated material arrived, and the villagers built the shelters themselves,” he said,

Paetongtarn then asked the governor why he didn’t ask a ministry for supplies, particularly the Interior Ministry, as these shelters would probably have to be well built.

The governor replied that there are standard shelters in the border province and as they drove past the village there is one from 2011 that was built with government budget.

After that, the Prime Minister met villagers and took friendly photos together.

CAPTION:

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra at the Surin border area. Photos: Naewna