Thai soldiers to carry their comrade injured near the border in the province of Surin, April 22, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Daily News newspaperBy Prak Chan ToulPHNOM PENH. Saturday, April 23, 2011 10 pm IST
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Thai and Cambodian troops delivered again Saturday on their disputed border, a day after four Thai and three Cambodian soldiers were killed in the worst bloodshed since the Organization of the Nations United called a cease-fire in February.
Thousands of villagers were evacuated the thick jungle on the Ta Moan and Ta Krabei temples, approximately 150 km (93 miles) West of the temple of Preah Vihear 900 years, which saw a deadly stalemate in February.
Two Cambodian journalists to Banteay Ampil, a town about 15 km (nine miles) by fighting, said Reuters, another Cambodian soldier was killed and two injured Saturday according to army radio.
The latest confrontation began before dawn and lasted several hours. Witnesses said heavy shelling had stopped but of small arms fire could still heard.
Chhum Sucheat Cambodian Defence Ministry spokesman described the clashes as more intense than the fighting Friday and charged with operating Thailand "spy planes" in the region.
Both sides blame the other for starting the fighting, the most serious since three Thai and eight Cambodians were killed and dozens of people injured in the course of 4-7 February during the bloody border clashes in nearly two decades.
Under a ceasefire agreement, the Thailand and Cambodia agreed on 22 February, to allow military observers non-armed with the Indonesia to be placed along their border.
But this arrangement - negotiated at a meeting of the Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta at the urgent request of the Organization of the Nations United - not yet implemented. International observers said Thailand are not required, insisting that the two countries should resolve the issue bilaterally.
"There is a mechanism in place, so there is no need to cry for ASEAN and the international community," Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya Thais told journalists later Friday in Bangkok.
Responding to a letter from Cambodia, addressed to ASEAN.
stating that the Thailand had staged "a large-scale attack".
For the Thai-Cambodian voltage FACTBOX: [ID: nL3E7FM081]
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ASEAN CHAIRMAN URGES RESTRAINT
The Thailand and Cambodia were locked in a stalemate since July 2008, where Preah Vihear has obtained the status of world heritage of UNESCO, which has opposed on the grounds that the lands around the temple had never been demarcated in the Thailand.
An International Prize Court temple in Cambodia 49 years ago, but both countries claim a patch of 4.6 square miles (1.8 square miles) of land around it.
The temple of Preah Vihear, Cambodia, and Khao Phra Viharn in Thailand, sits on land that forms a natural border and has been a source of tension for future generations.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore said that he is "deeply concerned" and called for restraint and dialogue. The Indonesia, the current Chairman of ASEAN, has urged both parties to stop fighting.
Indonesia "strongly calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities between Cambodia and the Thailand." "for the two parties to continue to settle their disputes by peaceful means", he said in a statement.
The reasons behind the deadly skirmishes of this year are obscure and both sides typically blame the other, but the border dispute has become a bone of contention in tense domestic policy of the Thailand.
Some analysts say some hawkish Thai generals and ultra-nationalist allies, with the Thai King of yellow color, events may be trying to create a pretext for a coup and cancel the elections expected in June or July.
Others say that it is perhaps a breakdown in communication at a time of tense relations between the neighbours and unease after a coup rumor of military State imminent swirled in the day to the next Thailand. The army dismissed the rumors as baseless.
The Thailand and Cambodia are both members of the regional grouping of ASEAN, which plans to form a single market for European style by 2015.
(Written by Jason Szep;) (Editing by Robert Birsel)
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