BANGKOK (Reuters) -The chief of Thailand’s armed forces said on Monday he was “halting all agreements” with Cambodia following a landmine blast along their border that maimed a Thai soldier, escalating tensions between the neighbours who clashed in July.
U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker a peace deal between the two Southeast Asian nations, following a five-day border conflict. Both sides signed an expanded truce in Malaysia last month in his presence.
“The Thai military is halting all agreements until Cambodia can show clear sincerity that they will not be hostile,” Thai Supreme Commander General Ukris Boontanondha was quoted as saying in social media posts by the Thai armed forces.
In a statement, Cambodia’s foreign ministry said it was “gravely concerned” over the possibility of Thailand suspending the agreement, which included the removal of heavy weapons from their border area and the release of 18 Cambodian prisoners of war held by Thailand if all measures were implemented.
Four Thai soldiers were injured when a PMN-2 landmine exploded early on Monday during a patrol in Thailand’s Sisaket province, with one losing his right foot, the Thai army said in a statement, adding that three additional mines were found near the blast site.
“Based on the available evidence, it can be concluded that the landmine was snuck in by removing barbed wire and newly planted on Thai soil,” it said.
The Cambodian foreign ministry’s statement denied the accusation that it has laid fresh mines.
Hours after the incident, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Chanvirakul told reporters that “everything has to stop until there is clarity”, referring to the agreement with Cambodia. He did not elaborate.
Landmine blasts along disputed border areas that injured Thai soldiers were among the catalysts of the July fighting, with Bangkok accusing Cambodia of laying the ordnance – a charge that Phnom Penh denies.
The mines that sparked the Thai-Cambodia clash earlier this year were likely newly laid, Reuters has reported, based on expert analysis of material shared by Thailand’s military.
Both sides blame each other for starting the five-day exchange of rockets and heavy artillery, which killed at least 48 people and temporarily displaced an estimated 300,000 in their worst fighting in recent history.
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-Um, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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