Bangkok – Temperatures collapsed on the Thai Cargodian border on Wednesday while travelers left for limbo by closing international level crossing points in the middle of a bilateral territorial dispute required to be authorized to return to their country of origin.
Tuesday, thousands of Cambodians working in or traveling to Thailand could not bring back to Cambodia before Thailand closed the seven border control points. Some said they didn’t even know the closures.
Under pressure from blocked travelers, the authorities briefly reopened the border leaves, such as Klong Luek in the province of SA Kaeo in Thailand and Chong Chom in the province of Surin, to outgoing travelers on Wednesday evening. Kaeo police have deployed some 160 anti-riot police to maintain peace, according to the media.
But as the night fell on Wednesday, hundreds of Cambodians remained unable to cross the district of Aranyaprathet, in the province of his Kaeo, in Poipet in Cambodia.
Angry against the delay, a woman shouted: “So, who prevents us from going through-the Thai or Khmer side? Tell us the truth. Why can’t we get home? We just want to go home!”
Although the Thai measures announced on Monday still authorize travel by students, Cambodian authorities would not open the border door of Chong Chom in Surin province to schoolchildren returning from Cambodia.
Some 500 trucks were also blocked on Tuesday on the road to his Kaeo in Piped, according to Surawuth Wongsamran, member of the member of the Provincial Chamber of Commerce of his Kaeo. He criticized the soldiers to rush to seal the border without notice.
Thai regional military commandments, which took effective border control, had ordered the closure of all international passages on Monday with Cambodia. This blocked vehicles, pedestrian traffic and trade – including fuel trucks. The only exceptions concern humanitarian cases, such as medical emergencies and for students.
This is the culmination of a tit-form-tat, including a Cambodian ban on imports from Thai products, after an exchange of shooting on May 28 where Thai forces shot a Cambodian soldier on a little disputed territory along the 800 kilometers (500 miles).
The relations crisis was aggravated last week when Cambodia disclosed a private telephone conversation between Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and the former Cambodian leader Hun Sen., the call was intended to help calm tensions, but ended up aggravating things.
In Bangkok, the anti-shinawatra movements announced that the plans for a mass rally for Saturday at the city’s victory monument while Paetongtarn undergoes internal political pressure for his manipulation of the border crisis and his call with Hun Sen, the father of the Cambodia Prime Minister.
While Thailand and Cambodia have not exchanged fire since the 10 -minute shock on May 28, the two parties are preparing their soldiers in case hostilities broke out.
The Thai army said on Tuesday that more Cambodian troops moved to the front line, and the Thai army blocked public access to the border areas, including where the two parties exchanged artillery fires in 2011 near the Preah Vihear temple.
“We will not shoot the first time, but if we were killed at the start, we will say a single word … We are ready,” the journalists the lieutenant-general Boonsin Padklang, commander of the second region of Thailand.
Hun Sen, meanwhile, published on Facebook on Wednesday evening a martial video of the Cambodian forces in action taking place on a patriotic song: “Banish the Invaders of Khmer Land”.
Edited by Mat Pennington.