KUALA LUMPUR: A senior Cambodian minister has rejected claims of newly planted landmines, after a Thai soldier was seriously injured near the border despite a ceasefire agreement.
Senior Minister Ly Thuch, also the first vice-president of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA), said Cambodia had not laid any new mines and remained committed to the Malaysia-brokered ceasefire.
International media reported that the soldier’s left ankle was severely injured early this week after he stepped on the device while patrolling.
Ly Thuch said Phnom Penh regrets the incident.
“But we reject the accusation by Thailand,” Thuch told the New Straits Times.
“We deny the fabricated stories related to landmines.
‘We hope Thailand will stop the allegations.”
Showing a photo of the border area, Ly Thuch said Cambodia was a “mine-infested country” after three decades of conflict.
He said Cambodia’s border area was filled with old mines and posters were erected to warn locals.
“To avoid any untoward incidents, Thai soldiers should not enter areas that are former battlefields,” he said.
Cambodia endured nearly 30 years of conflict, from civil war and genocide to foreign occupation and insurgency, before peace was restored in the late 1990s.
Ly Thuch said Cambodia had set 2025 as its target to become a mine-free country, but it must first hold talks with Thailand to agree on the demarcation of the border between the two countries.
Thuch said over four million old mines have been destroyed since 1997, and the country has some 55,000 landmine casualties.
“Everyone knows our land along the border is contaminated with old land mines.
‘Stop stepping into our territory to avoid injuries,” he said.
Cambodia is prepared to work towards peace and stability to ensure a prosperous region, he said.
“Any minor provocation will destabilise the region and hurt Asean’s reputation as a unified bloc,” he said.
Ly Thuch said despite the ceasefire, the situation at the border was “tense”, and residents were discouraged from returning to their homes for safety reasons.
“Schools remain closed. The children are traumatised.
‘Farmers are unable to return to their farms. It is the rainy season and replanting has to start.
“Cambodian people have suffered tremendously through decades of war, conflict, and the lingering threat of landmines.
“No way we want this conflict to continue.”
Ly Thuch praised Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for brokering a ceasefire and establishing peace monitors to enforce it.
“I urge other Asean leaders to support his peace leadership,” he said.
Ly Thuch said the reopening of the border would happen only if hostilities end and the 18 soldiers were returned.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
