Thailand-Cambodia Temple Conflict: Escalating Strikes and Tensions

The Thai army said that one Thai soldier has died and eight others have been injured, while Cambodian officials have said three civilians on their side have been injured in the strikes, according to a BBC report. Thousands have been evacuated on both sides of the border.

It was only in October that the two Southeast Asian countries signed a peace deal brokered by Malaysia and supervised by US President Donald Trump.

The latest attack has reignited the deadly conflict along the disputed border, in which at least 48 people were killed, and thousands were temporarily displaced on both sides of the border in July. Here is what to know.

The conflict in July

Both sides skirmished at the border in a contested area this May, killing one Cambodian soldier. This led to a flurry of nationalist rhetoric on both sides and a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic actions: Thailand withdrew its ambassador from Cambodia and expelled the Cambodian ambassador after a land mine blast caused a Thai soldier to lose a leg. Thailand claimed that the mine was freshly laid by Cambodian troops inside sovereign Thai territory, while Cambodia denied this, withdrawing all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.

Military clashes broke out along the border between the Thai provinces of Surin and Sisaket, and the Cambodian provinces of Oddar Meanchey and Preah Vihear. Thailand launched air strikes on Cambodian military sites, to which Cambodia responded with rocket and artillery fire.

After rebuffing an initial attempt by Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim to mediate, Thailand ultimately moved ahead with the process following an ultimatum by Trump. “When all is done, and Peace is at hand, I look forward to concluding our Trading Agreements with both!” Trump wrote in a social media post.

Despite the ceasefire, tensions have remained high after Thai soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion in August while patrolling a buffer zone between the two countries. Thailand accused Cambodia of laying new mines in violation of the ceasefire.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has demanded that Cambodia meet four conditions, including the removal of heavy weapons from the border, clearing land mines, assistance to curb cross-border crime and management of sensitive border zones to avoid further conflicts, the Associated Press reported.

The contested border

The two countries have disputed their land border ever since it was drawn in 1907 by France, then the colonial administrator in Cambodia. Despite their shared ethnic and linguistic ties, social norms, culinary traditions, and cultural activities, nationalism drove this dispute in part. Both the predominantly Theravada Buddhist neighbours claim the mantle of being the “original” owners of their heritage, fueling the animosity.

According to scholars, these claims of cultural ownership are based on contesting readings of history, which the governing elites on both sides have often propped up to strengthen their domestic positions. Thus, every border skirmish has the potential to devolve into a much larger conflict, a situation that has held since Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953.

At the centre of the border dispute is the Preah Vihear temple, known in Thai as Phra Viharn. “The temple has meaning — both as a cultural symbol and a religious place of worship — to people on both sides of the border,” John D Ciorciari, a professor of international politics at Indiana University, wrote in ‘Thailand and Cambodia: The Battle for Preah Vihear’ (2009).

The temple was built in the 11th and 12th centuries during the golden age of the Khmer Empire, which then governed much of South Asia, including Siam. As the empire declined, Siam made inroads into Cambodian territory. In 1867, Cambodia officially handed the area around Preah Vihear to Siam. However, France colonised Laos and Cambodia around this period, sending the Siamese kingdom from a position of relative strength in its neighbourhood to weakness.

In 1904, Siam and France signed a border treaty that placed Cambodia’s northern frontier along the watershed line of the Dangrek Mountains. By this principle, most of the Preah Vihear complex should have been located in Siam. However, the official map, drawn by the French in 1907, placed the temple in Cambodia. Siam offered weak resistance to this move at the time, but in 1941, its alliance with Japan empowered it to seize control of Preah Vihear. It returned control to France after World War II ended.

Both Thailand and Cambodia have disputed the temple’s ownership since the latter’s independence from France. Thai troops occupied Preah Vihear in 1954, prompting Cambodia to take the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In 1962, it upheld its claim over Preah Vihear.

In 2008, tensions arose after Cambodia sought to list the Preah Vihear temple as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Thai opposition used the issue to attack the government, accusing it of “forfeiting Thai dignity and sovereignty,” Ciorciari wrote. Cambodian leaders also used the issue to rally nationalist sentiment in the country.

Over the next several years, Cambodian and Thai troops frequently skirmished at the border. In 2013, the ICJ reaffirmed Cambodia’s position vis-à-vis Preah Vihear, creating a demilitarised zone around the temple, although this was never implemented. Thailand has since rejected the ICJ’s jurisdiction.