Cambodia & Thailand Hostilities...

[ManilaBoy]

RENEWED shelling along the border between Cambodia and Thailand has resumed for the 2nd straight day resulting in the death of 1 Thai soldier, bringing the death toll to the 2 day old conflict to 2 civilians and 2 soldiers...


Renewed shelling kills 1 at Thai-Cambodia border - Yahoo! News

 

[STURM]

RENEWED shelling along the border between Cambodia and Thailand has resumed for the 2nd straight day resulting in the death of 1 Thai soldier, bringing the death toll to the 2 day old conflict to 2 civilians and 2 soldiers...

We can only hope the situation does not escalate into a full scale war.

Thailand had previously been involved in a border skirmish with Myanmmar, involving artillery and airstrikes, as well as a border skirmish with Laos in the 80's, during which an RTAF F-5 was downed by a SA-7.

 

[T.C.P]

Exchange of arty shells along the border is nothing new in Asia. We exchange shells with India and Myanmar every other week and the chances of a full scale war is in our case is less than nill.

 

[STURM]

Exchange of arty shells along the border is nothing new in Asia. We exchange shells with India and Myanmar every other week and the chances of a full scale war is in our case is less than nill.

Bangladesh has artillery exchanges with India and Myanmmar on a regular basis??

 

[DavidDCM]

Thai-Cambodian border conflict is about the confined and limited issue of that disputed Hindu temple. No big scale war is going to come from this, I'm pretty sure.

 

[T.C.P]

Bangladesh has artillery exchanges with India and Myanmmar on a regular basis??

Yep. The Indo-Bangla border is a very hostile border, with the BSF mercilessly killing Bengali citizens. prior to 2008 whenever a Bengali citizen was killed, arty shells would be exchanged, but ever since the Indian puppets BAL came to power, the BGB has not made as not as many replies as it used and as a result the no. of border killings by the BSF has increased, the recent murder of a teenage girl, Felani has caught the attention of the world, every single major human rights institution in the world condemns these unlawful killings.
Regular arty exchange with the Burmese NASAKA continues though.

 

[T.C.P]

Interstingly enough hardly any one ever dies in these shellings. They more for show rather than a determined attack on enemy positions.

 

[DavidDCM]

T.C.P., as I think not anyone here is familiar with the situation in Bangladesh, maybe you could tell us what all those different abbreviations stand for? BSF, BAL, BGB?

 

[T.C.P]

BSF-Border Security Force-India
BAL-Bangladesh Awami League-current ruling party
BGB-Border Guards Bangladesh, formerly known as BDR-Bangladesh Rifles.

 

[Chino]

I caught a glimpse of the footages on TV. The (Cambodian?) soldiers were firing RPG and PKM over their heads, without aiming, from very well-prepared, permanent-looking positions.

Trust me, no one wants to risk more than telling the other side "we're here".

 

[Chino]

Conspiracy theory!)
In fact, I won't be surprised that these incidents are manufactured by local military commanders to show that the sector is not too peaceful after all. And that their continued deployment there is necessary for security. Maybe they have business interests in that area set up e.g. they are taxing the black marketeers crossing the border etc.

They don't really want any casualties, just for show.

 

[T.C.P]

Don't know about Myanmer-Thai-Cambodia border, but in our border, it is certainly no conspuracy theory, the shellings take place a lot, you can just ask the tribesmen in the borders, when I said, no one dies, I meant none of the Border guards on either side of the border, usually dies, but how many indeginoius tribes people die in these firings is not revealed. But it should be a substantail number.

 

[DavidDCM]

Just to keep things on the run: A Thai military source has claimed that Thai artillery strikes have killed 64 Cambodian soldiers, and destroyed around a dozen artillery pieces and armoured vehicles. Thai and Cambodian governments have not confirmed this staggering high number of casualties, official numbers so far are less than 5 KIA on each side.
Cambodia however has called for a truce and an urgency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the conflict asap.

 

[ID-Forever]

All people in Thailand want this conflict to end soon and i believe that all cambodian think the same way.

 

[swerve]

Don't know about Myanmer-Thai-Cambodia border, but in our border, it is certainly no conspuracy theory, the shellings take place a lot, you can just ask the tribesmen in the borders, when I said, no one dies, I meant none of the Border guards on either side of the border, usually dies, but how many indeginoius tribes people die in these firings is not revealed. But it should be a substantail number.

I think you misunderstood. As I read it, Chino was not suggesting that the incidents are imaginary. I think he meant that the incidents are real, but their purpose is what he described. Commanders fire a few shells where they know they'll miss the troops or border guards on the other side, & expect a similarly deliberately inaccurate response, & both sides can tell their leaders "See? We're really needed!".

 

[ID-Forever]

1. The border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is real and there is no conspiracy theory at all ......... in term of military.
2 This incident will end soon due to the business interests along the border but the conflict between two countries still there.

 

[shag]

Yep. The Indo-Bangla border is a very hostile border, with the BSF mercilessly killing Bengali citizens. prior to 2008 whenever a Bengali citizen was killed, arty shells would be exchanged, but ever since the Indian puppets BAL came to power, the BGB has not made as not as many replies as it used and as a result the no. of border killings by the BSF has increased, the recent murder of a teenage girl, Felani has caught the attention of the world, every single major human rights institution in the world condemns these unlawful killings.
Regular arty exchange with the Burmese NASAKA continues though.

No offence but you have twisted a fact to grind your own axe.
For the alleged "civilian killings", you should explain how these "civilians" die before making a claim that makes it sound like BSF goes on a rampage to kill Bangladeshi civilians. BSF are Indian border guards and many Bangladeshi civilians make regular attempts to cross over into India through the thinly guarded border and thats how they get killed. That being said many Bangladeshis still manage get into India illegally which is unfortunate.
(Bangladeshis comprise the largest illegal immigrant group in Indian states bordering Bangladesh,especially Assam).

This is the standard proceedure no matter which country it is. If you try to run across a border you will get shot down. This doesn't mean BSF has something against bangladeshi civilians, they would stop anyone from crossing the border no matter what nationality, because thats what their job is.

 

[rip]

I think you misunderstood. As I read it, Chino was not suggesting that the incidents are imaginary. I think he meant that the incidents are real, but their purpose is what he described. Commanders fire a few shells where they know they'll miss the troops or border guards on the other side, & expect a similarly deliberately inaccurate response, & both sides can tell their leaders "See? We're really needed!".

There is a lot more going on here than what first appears. I lived in Cambodia and my girlfriend was from the city of Surin in North East Thailand, just on the other side of the border.

First these people from the North East of Thailand are the strongest Red Shirt supports and it is where most of the demonstrators came from that are opposing the current government in Bangkok (remember the riots). This area was once part of the Classical Kamer Empire and they speak a dialect of Kamer and learn to speak Thai where they go to school.

I do not know all of what is going on but some of the issues are that there is a tourist sightseeing trade that is going on, on both sides of the border, the best part of course is at Anchor Wat, (the only world heritage site I have seen that lives up to its name). The Cambodians want a monopoly on this trade and the Thai’s are cutting in on their profit. Plus the super nationalist’s in Thailand, are trying to discredit the Red Shirts any way that they can.

Cambodia is really run more like a criminal organization than a real government, (people get killed in every election). Not a bad place if you are a foreigner but not good if you are Cambodian.

If you want to understand these events follow the money. It always trumps everything else on both sides of this border.

 

[DavidDCM]

This is the standard proceedure no matter which country it is. If you try to run across a border you will get shot down.

Shag, standard procedure in all countries is (or should be) getting arrested and sent back, not getting shot. If this happens regularly in the Indian-Bangladeshi border region, T.C.P. and all others have any right to call it a crime.

 

[shag]

Shag, standard procedure in all countries is (or should be) getting arrested and sent back, not getting shot. If this happens regularly in the Indian-Bangladeshi border region, T.C.P. and all others have any right to call it a crime.

You are right, That could and should be the case under normal circumstances when its only civilians crossing the border.
But do note that this is also a border that is used by majority of terrorist groups to exfiltrate(when there is excessive pressure on them) and infiltrate into India esp ULFA(A militant organisation that operates in Assam), NSCN(I) and NSCN(K). In such a mixup its reasonable to say that if a group of people tries to run across the border and doesn't stop they could be terrorists and BSF is right to stop them at any cost before they get lost in the forests in India free to cause mayhem.

As a counter example the same thing doesn't happen on Bhutan border on the other side of Assam because Bhutan has actively cracked down on the terrorists who try to flee there, and they have stopped using bhutan as a safe haven.
http://www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/IB18-OperationAllClear.pdf
All these incidents can also be avoided if Bangladesh cracks down on the militants using its soil as a safe haven.

All the reasons aside, its always unfortunate when civilians get killed in the mixup.