Cambodia & Thailand Hostilities...

[rip]

In a space of 25 years Thailand has had border clashes with all of it's neighbours excluding Malaysia, then again it has no territorial disputes with Malaysia. It's clashes with Laos and Myanmmar were more intense and serious that they are presently with Camodia, involving strike missions flown by F-5E's, heavy armour and artillery. A main part of the problem I think at present is that all lot of the firefights are a result of units in the field making certain moves that are misintrepeted by the either side as provocative or aimed at seizing a local advantage in some areas rather than being part of some master plan at a higher level.

Rip, does the book mentioned anything about the KPNLF and other factions receiving training in Thailand during the civil war and Vietnamese presence in Kampuchea/Cambodia in the 1980's?

Not very much. Mostly it is about the history of governance or lack of it inside Cambodia with a large part of the book centering around about the UN’s failed effort in nation building, after Vietnams’ withdraw from Cambodia and the following fight over the spoils. Stupid do good foreigners fooled again.

 

[ManilaBoy]

Fighting continues in it's 6th straight day along the disputed border as the death toll climbs to 13 soldiers and 1 civilian...

 

[Chino]

...then again it has no territorial disputes with Malaysia.

The southern part of Thailand - the Muslim insurgency area - is actually populated by mostly Malay Muslims.

(In fact, it used to be the Malay Sultanate of Pattani in hundreds of years ago.)

That they do not clash with the Malaysians may be because the Malaysians chose not to pursue the matter?

 

[rip]

The southern part of Thailand - the Muslim insurgency area - is actually populated by mostly Malay Muslims.

(In fact, it used to be the Malay Sultanate of Pattani in hundreds of years ago.)

That they do not clash with the Malaysians may be because the Malaysians chose not to pursue the matter?

There is a Muslim minority in Cambodia aswell but no insurgency yet.

 

[ID-Forever]

1. We have nothing against the Cambodian and always wish all the best for them but with my respect, it’s pretty hard to deal with their leader ……. I hope the Thai-Cambodian border dispute will end soon.

2. The Majority of people in Pattini, Yala and Narathiwat are Thai Muslims … not Malay Muslims. I used to work in Singapore for many years and had a few nice trips in Malaysia ….. Beautiful countries and nice peoples.

3. From my point of view, the reason why we do not clash with the Malaysians because there is no dispute over natural resources between the two countries.

 

[STURM]

That they do not clash with the Malaysians may be because the Malaysians chose not to pursue the matter?

Malaysia has no claim on any part of Thailand as any potential problems were averted following the 1909 Bangkok agreement signed between Britain and Siam, which settled the matter of Siamese claims on a number of states in then Malaya and drew the present Thai/Malaysian land border. There has in the past been disagreements on the sea boundary on the west coast leading to fishing boats being detained.

The Brits made a similiar deal with the Dutch over the Riau islands, which was part of the Johore - Riau empire, as a result the Riau islands are part of Indonesia. Though a lot of problems facing the world today in places like the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent are a result of artificial borders created by colonial powers for their interests, more often than not against the wishes of the locals, Malaysia is extremely lucky in that it's present day borders are have not resulted in any majors problems with it's neighbours.

2. The Majority of people in Pattini, Yala and Narathiwat are Thai Muslims … not Malay Muslims.

On the Malaysian side of the border, there are quite a few Malaysian Thai Muslims or people of mix parentage, who speak both languages and have relatives on both sides of the border. When I was in Phuket for the first time, I was suprised at the number of Thai Muslims who spoke Malay. I'm not sure if they were originaly from there or from provinces on the Thai mainland bordering Malaysia.

 

[ID-Forever]

8 years ago, My ex-company ran a construction project in Pattani Province and i learned many things about my own country. Most of the local people in Pattani speak both Thai and Yawi (Malay dialect) as a common language and many of them speak fluent Malay.

P.S. According to Thai Army spokesman , Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to a ceasefire.