AFTER three soldiers got injured on Wednesday (July 16) when one of them stepped on a landmine at Chong Bok, Ubon Ratchathani, with several others also previously found at this border area, experts are now checking whether these are old or new ones and if the latter is the case Thailand will protest against Cambodia, Naewna newspaper said today (July 18).
RADM Surasant Kongsiri, deputy spokesperson of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, said at Government House that both Thailand and Cambodia are signatories of the Ottawa Convention since 1999 and if the experts who are checking these landmines ascertain that they are new Thailand will not ignore the issue.
“If it is found that there has been an invasion of Thai sovereignty, we will take clear action to respond. The public is also asked to be confident that we are not indifferent to the situation that has occurred,” he said.
The soldier who stepped on the landmine lost his left leg and is being given full welfare assistance. He has also been promoted from private to sergeant.
Meanwhile Cambodian news outlet Khmer Times said the following about this issue: “Landmines are a deadly legacy of Cambodia’s past. For decades, the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), with support from international partners, has worked tirelessly to clear these hidden threats left over from our civil war. Thailand, on the other hand, has never experienced internal armed conflict that would leave such remnants buried in its soil. This fundamental distinction matters. If these mines are remnants of past conflict, they could only exist on Cambodian territory—land that bears the scars of decades of war, not Thailand’s.
“But what makes this incident even more troubling is the Thai military’s own assertion: the landmine that detonated was not a leftover—it was a newly laid Russian-made PMN-2 anti-personnel mine, made of plastic and extremely difficult to detect. Several more were later discovered nearby. This raises a simple but unavoidable question: if Thailand insists this incident happened inside its own territory, is it admitting to laying these new mines? If not, the only logical explanation is that Thai soldiers crossed into Cambodian territory—an area still being cleared of mines from past conflict—where they had no legal or moral right to operate.”
CAPTION:
Landmines found at Chong Bok, Ubon Ratchathani. Top photo: Amarin TV, insert and Front Page: Naewna
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