The latest videos showing injured civilians – and even monks – are very disturbing and indicative of the tense and dangerous situation along the border.
Although these videos undermine the Thai military’s description of their peaceful activities along the border, it is premature to arrive at any conclusions about these incidents just from these videos.
Rather, the Cambodian government should establish an independent inquiry into each incident, preserving all relevant information. This will be critical to ensuring not only an accurate history of what happened but also preserving evidence for any possible legal remedies in the future.
There is nothing wrong with identifying a point of disagreement, different interpretation or perceived violation of an agreement; however, each of these issues must be viewed as distinct from each other rather than conflated or combined. This will avoid confusion of the facts in discrete matters and make achieving a resolution more feasible.
Each of these incidents is fact-specific. Because the facts are not yet settled it is not possible to say whether one side or the other is more correct in their views.
However, the Thai authorities seem to be quick to defer to military responses to these matters. This not only undermines the spirit of peace and belies the US-brokered ceasefire agreement but also appears to be an indication of the Thai military and government’s true and ultimate intentions, which is to secure its interests not through internationally recognised courts of law, diplomatic negotiations or other peaceful means, but by war.
Youk Chhang is director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia. The views and opinions expressed are his own.
