Tensions between Cambodia and Thailand degenerated on Friday on the eve of talks on a border dispute while Cambodia cut the Internet services, has stopped broadcasting Thai films and canceling boxing episodes involving Thai fighters.
Cambodia has also closed the crossing point at the Doung International Frontier, known as Ban Laem on the Thai side, after Thailand had reduced its operating hours. The move left dozens of Thai loading trucks blocked on the border.
The actions marked a deepening of a bilateral spray after a Cambodian soldier died during a confrontation on May 28, the last episode of a long -standing dispute on the demarcation of the 800 kilometers (500 miles).
The two parties hold conferences on Saturday in Phnom Penh at a meeting of the joint limits commission. While Cambodia will be represented by a minister, the Thai party is led by a former ambassador.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet posted on Facebook on Friday, the country disconnected the entire Internet bandwidth from Thailand, leaving companies complaining about slow speed.
The Cambodian information and culture ministries ordered television stations and cinemas to stop broadcasting Thai films and television series. The Khmer Boxing Federation has asked all the television channels and the boxing arenas to cancel all the planned matches involving Thai, male and female fighters.
Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is Hun Manet's father, posted on Facebook that closing the Doung border control point blocked exports by Thai Jacquies via Cambodia in Vietnam. He urged Thai farmers to protest against the Thai army.
“Cambodia will only reopen this door when all the border control points – unilaterally closed by the Thai army – are restored to mutual coordination as before,” wrote Hun Sen.
He also ordered all the armed forces to prepare for the 24 -hour combat in the event of assault and asked the provincial governors along the border to prepare the evacuation plans for civilians.
Thailand: Cambodia has misunderstood
On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said that Cambodia had misunderstood the situation and wrongly believes that the Thai government is planning to reduce electricity and internet services to Cambodia border areas, Khaosod English, a portal of Thai news.
She stressed that this was not the case and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the issue with Cambodian counterparts.
Thailand reiterated Thursday that it wanted to resolve the bilaterally border dispute and does not support Cambodia's intention to involve the International Court of Justice. Bangkok says that he does not recognize the compulsory court of the Hague -based court.
The border dispute, which has historical roots, arouses the nationalist feeling on both sides. Cambodia asks the United Nations Court to reign over the border demarcation in three former Khmer temples – Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch and Ta Krabei – and in an area near the place where the May 28 shootout occurred where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet.
The last time, there was a serious and bloody push in tensions on the border, it was between 2008 and 2011, on a contested temple of the 11th century in Preah Vihear. The International Court of Justice has granted sovereignty over the temple in Cambodia.
Friday, publications on social networks and media reports showed long queues of pedestrians at the main Thai-Cambodia border crossing Aranyaprathet-poiet, suggesting some of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand.
A Cambodian worker from the Central Province of Rayig in Thailand told Radio Free Asia that some workers returned to Cambodia for the sake of their safety and due to discrimination by Thai nationals on their workplaces.
But the worker, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the problem, added that most of the Cambodian workers in his region have not yet returned because they were waiting for the release of the talks on Saturday. He said that if the situation gets worse, they will return to Cambodia soon.
Translated by Poly Sam. Edited by Mat Pennington.