A sign hanging from a rusting, ice-green shipping container erected by Thai forces on what they say is the border with Cambodia reads: “Cambodian citizens are strictly prohibited from entering this area.”
On either side of the makeshift barricade, lined with coils of barbed wire, Cambodians mourn the loss of their homes and livelihoods, while Thailand’s military displays what it says are territorial gains.
Thai forces seized control of several pockets of disputed land along the border during fighting last year, amounting to several square kilometres in total.
Cambodian resident Kim Ren said her home in Chouk Chey once stood on land that is now on the Thai side of the barricade and was bulldozed by Thai forces after a ceasefire agreement in December.
“The Thais have reset us to zero. We have no hope left,” she told AFP this week.
Just north of the site, in an area known as Ban Nong Chan, Thai soldiers stood guard as an excavator loaded debris into a truck during a military-organised media tour.
Kim Ren is among more than 1,200 families from her village and nearby Prey Chan—another contested area—who have been sheltering at a temple for weeks, according to local officials.
Blue tents donated by China fill the pagoda grounds some 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the south, where displaced residents survive with what little they managed to salvage.
“Now the Thai thieves have taken everything,” Kim Ren said, referring to her land, grocery stock worth $30,000, and the $50,000 house she built after purchasing land for just $40 in 1993.
People still live here
The long-running border dispute between the two neighbours dates back more than a century and centres on the French colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.
The disagreement escalated into several rounds of clashes last year, killing dozens of soldiers and civilians and displacing more than one million people in July and December.
Cambodia says Thai forces seized territory in border provinces and has demanded their withdrawal. Thailand insists it merely reclaimed land that is rightfully Thai but had been occupied by Cambodians for years.
Thai flags fluttered in the breeze as barbed wire lay strewn across Klong Paeng, another border village visited during the military tour.
Army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said Thai forces “reclaimed” about 64 hectares of land there in December.
“The operation required careful action because people still live here,” he said.
Farmer Pongsri Rapan, 60, said she lost nearly all her possessions except a wardrobe when her house was destroyed by shelling but added, “I’m not afraid because the army is around me.”
She said she had “many good Cambodian friends” and was “sorry that our armies are fighting”.
A senior Thai officer told AFP that Thai farmers were expected to benefit from the land once its allocation was finalised.
Robbed us
Thailand welcomed Cambodian refugees fleeing the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime after its collapse in 1979, allowing many to settle in border areas.
Some families remained long after.
At the temple shelter, 67-year-old farmer Sok Chork said he settled in Prey Chan in 1980, when the land was undeveloped and littered with mines.
“When it was forest, it wasn’t theirs. But after Cambodians built concrete houses, they said it was their land,” he said.
“The Thais have robbed us of everything,” he added, saying his home had been bulldozed.
Prey Chan was the scene of a standoff in September, when several hundred Cambodians attempted to dismantle barbed wire and Thai forces responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Across the barricade, where the village is known as Ban Ya Nong Kaew, the Thai flag flies.
Thai resident Anupong Kannongha said his home was nearly destroyed by shelling, leaving only a charred roof and concrete shell.
“Cambodia did this to us,” he said.
“It really hurts my feelings.”
