Thai still has not paid for the compensation for the damages to Preah Vihear Market

It's been a year since Thai troops destroyed a Cambodian Market located near the staircase of the Preah Vihear temple during a deadly armed clash on 3rd April 2009, yet Thailand hasn't agreed to a Cambodian request for compensation, reports Free Press Magazine.

On 3rd April, Thai troops deliberately launched many rockets directly aimed at Phsar Krom Market and destroyed 264 market stalls as well as many homes around it. A few weeks later, the Cambodian government lodged a $2 million compensation claim with the government of Thailand, but one year on the victims have yet to receive any compensation from the Thai government.

Mr. Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, told reporters recently that the Cambodian government will continue to pursue the compensation claims from Thailand. "We will continue to make the compensation claims because we have not withdrawn the claims yet", he said.

The spokesman also said the Cambodian government did not hesitate in paying $54 million compensation to Thai businesses when anti-Thai riot in Phnom Penh in January 2003 burned down many Thai businesses and caused extensive damages to the Thai embassy building. The $2 million compensation amount claimed by Cambodia is a pittance compared to the compensation amount Cambodia paid to Thailand at that time, he added.

Mr. Yim Sovan, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said Thailand has shown its contempt for Cambodia and the Cambodian government as it continued to ignore Cambodia's compensation request. "It is because they (Thailand) look down on the Cambodian government, they look down on us, that's why they continue to ignore us", he said.

Mr. Yim Sovan said it is time that the Cambodian government does everything to achieve national unity and unite in taking the Preah Vihear issue to the International Court of Justice.

By Khmerization

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Cambodian and Thai troops clashed at Phnom Trop

Cambodian and Thai troops have briefly clashed at Phnom Trop, 5 kilometres west of Preah Vihear temple, on the first anniversary of the deadly clash here on 3rd April 2009 that killed at least 8 Thai soldiers, reports Kampuchea Thmey.

Mr. Chea Chon, commander of a battalion based at Phnom Trop, told Kampuchea Thmey that around 4:30am on Sunday, 4th April, there was a brief clash that lasted about 5 minutes between Cambodian troops and Thai troops based at Phnom Trop due to the drunkenness of the Thai soldiers. He said, the clash happened when he sent a Cambodian patrol group to check the mountain top after seeing unusual movements of Thai troops when they conduct troop rotations. When the Cambodian troops reached the mountain top, Thai troops shouted abuses at them and ordered them to retreat immediately or they will launch an attack. The Cambodian troops took up positions in their trenches and shortly, Thai soldiers spray bullets from M-16s directly at them.

Mr. Chea Chon said, the first time Cambodian troops didn't return fires. But because those Thai soldiers continued to fire at them, the Cambodian troops returned fires by firing RPD rockets and 12.7 milimetres machine guns. No one was injured from the clash.

The report said that, at 9:30am the next morning, 5th April, a Thai commanders at the Phnom Trop and the nearby Veal Entry frontlines came to apologise to the Cambodian soldiers by saying that the brief clash was triggered by some drunken Thai soldiers.

Deum Ampil reported that Gen. Chea Dara, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Cambodian Armed Forces and commander of the Preah Vihear operations, confirmed the clash by saying that Thai troops also lauched a few rockets into Cambodian territories. He said he accepted the Thai apology but told them not to get drunk and fire at Cambodian troops again. He told them that when they get drunk they should shoot at each other, not at Cambodian troops.

By Khmerization
Source: Kampuchea Thmey and DAP News

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Khmer migrant workers beaten by Thai soldiers

A group of 20 Khmer migrant workers had been severely kicked and beaten by Thai soldiers when a Thai employer had dumped them at the borders near Thmor Puok district in Banteay Meanchey province after they refused to accept to work with very little pay, report everyday.com.

On 13th November, a Thai employer went to the borders to offer jobs to 20 Khmer migrant workers to harvest rice from his rice-fields by offering 40 Baht ($1) per Rai (100m by 100m area). But when they were brought inside Thai territories, the Thaiemployer changed his mind and offered them only 35 Baht per Rai and they refused to work because they felt the Thai employer had cheated them.

The Thai employer was upset and transported them back to the borders and dumped them at Prasat Tbeng Border Pass. There, a group of Thai soldiers had kicked and beaten them, some with broken faces and noses, before they were sent across the borders back to Cambodia.

Khmerization

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Finally they acknowledged their animal behavior.... Thais say soldiers burned teen post-mortem

Thai military officers have acknowledged their soldiers burned the body of a 16-year-old Cambodian boy suspected of illegal logging, but insist they only did so after he was dead, the deputy chief of the Thailand-Cambodia relations office at the Poipet border crossing said Monday.

Leu Chandara said the officers made the admission during a meeting last week, but Cambodian officials are not buying Thailand’s version of events. “We don’t believe them and we are going to conduct our own investigation,” he said. If the story were true, he added, it would raise questions about the soldiers’ motives for disposing of the body without first consulting the Cambodian government.

“They said they did not burn the teenager alive, but why did they dare to burn his body without informing Cambodian authorities?” he said. “What they are doing is trying to hide their bad actions.”

Officials in Oddar Meanchey province accused Thai officials of shooting Yon Rith and burning him alive on September 11, shortly after he was arrested and accused of illegally felling trees in Thai territory. Relatives claim he was lashed to an ox cart before soldiers set him alight. Marks on the cart prove he was alive at the time, they said.

Another Cambodian teenager, 18-year-old Mao Kleung, was also shot and severely wounded by Thai soldiers, but villagers managed to carry him to safety on Cambodian territory.

Like Leu Chandara, Yon Rith’s parents said the account from Thai military officials was dubious. “They are clearly just trying to hide the fact that their armed forces did a cruel thing,” said Nin Khom, Yon Rith’s mother.

Saing Yon, the father of the dead teenager, said: “I would request that the Cambodian government and international organisations find justice for my son and stop the Thai armed forces from committing cruel crimes against human beings in the future.”

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said he had instructed the Cambodian consulate in Thailand’s Sa Kaew province to investigate the case, but consulate officials were also busy with the case of 16 Cambodians accused of illegal logging along a disputed border area.

The group has been found guilty by a Thai court of illegal entry and destruction of forestry and has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison.

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said last week it planned to appeal against the sentence.

Officials at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment Monday.

Source: Phnom Penh Post

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Officials say 16-year-old burned alive

Soldiers kill boy caught logging in Thailand, district governor says.

Oddar Meanchey officials Sunday accused Thai soldiers of shooting a Cambodian teenager and burning him alive.

Yon Rith, 16, was killed after Thai armed forces accused him of illegally felling trees, said Thon Nol, governor of Samrong district in Oddar Meanchey province.

Thon Nol said Yon Rith was first arrested and then burned. Another teenager from the same village in Kon Kreal commune, 18-year-old Mao Kleung, was also shot and seriously wounded, he said, but villagers managed to carry him to Cambodian territory, and he is is now in an Oddar Meanchey hospital.

Officials on Sunday denounced the violence as "cruel" acts carried out on unarmed villagers.

"Why did they burn a person alive? [The armed forces] should have arrested them if they did anything wrong in Thailand," said Pich Ratana, a Cabinet official in Oddar Meanchey.

"Our armed forces did not shoot Thai citizens when they were hunting animals in the Cambodian forest. They just arrested them and sent them back, but Thai soldiers do cruel things to innocent Cambodians," Pich Ratana said.

Thon Nol said officials would discuss the incident today.

"We are looking for all measures to assist the victims as well as actions on the Thai authority," Thon Nol said.

Thai Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Nanh Sovann, a Cambodian military officer who has worked with the Thai military, said Sunday he had heard of the incident but was waiting to see an official report before intervening.

The victim's family recovered his charred body and took it to their village for a funeral the day he was shot, Thon Nol said.

Thai officials have previously taken a heavy hand against Cambodians accused of illegal logging on Thai territory, particularly along the Oddar Meanchey border.

In August, 12 Cambodians were arrested along the border on suspicion of illegally logging.

Their disappearance initially prompted fears they had been killed, but the Thais have since revealed the men are in detention.

Two other men, however, were discovered dead last month. The Thai military said soldiers fired on the group in self-defence.

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