Cambodia Benefits From Internationalizing Border Clashes

The situation of clashes at the Thai-Cambodian border in Surin is still very worrying. Both sides rushed to build up troops and transport heavy weapons to build up bases for launching full attacks. The bases have been built along over 15-km-long borderline from Ta Khwai Temple to Ta Muean Thom Temple.
Cambodia has deployed troops from the Special Taskforce 91, which is under direct command of Major General Hun Manet, favorite son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Main Reason
I believe Hun Manet wants to show and prove his fighting skill to the Cambodian people. This was the main reason that the Cambodian troops crossed the border to try to seize the Ta Khwai Temple three times but they were bombarded by troops from the Second Army Region, causing them to flee back.
It should be noted that when the Thai and Cambodian troops bombarding each other with artillery, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made two-day visit to Phnom Penh as a special guest of Hun Sen.
I believe Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who is a great ally of Cambodia, definitely held a closed-door meeting to discuss the Thai-Cambodian border clashes.
What should be monitored is whether Hun Sen would seek military help from Vietnam if the fighting drags on. It should also be monitored how Vietnam, which is a member of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), will play its role regarding to this problem.
So far, what has become certain is that the Thai-Cambodian border clashes have been internationalized and sent to the United Nations very fast.
Maintaining Cease-Fire
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement, demanding the two countries to stop using force to attack each other. The UN secretary general also called on the two countries to exercise restraint, so that they could hold negotiations to sustainedly solve the problem.
The UN secretary general also called on the two countries to come up with measures for effectively maintaining cease-fire, which should be verified immediately.
I see that the stand of the UN secretary general and ASEAN chairman, who called on the two countries to cease-fire and call for a measure for verifying ceasefire immediately, went along with the wish of Hun Sen.
Hun Sen wants third countries to get involved in the conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia.
This is a main problem that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra must rush to solve.
As a result, Yingluck has made preparations to seek a talk with Hun Sen during an ASEAN Summit in Indonesia early May.
Negative Impacts
Yingluck raised a condition that such a talk must be a bilateral one without participation of any other country or organization.
The use of heavy weapons to bombard each other by the two countries has caused several negative impacts as following:
1. The longer the fight continues, the more casualties of troops of the two countries will happen. Although more Cambodian troops were killed than Thai troops, it was not an issue that we should rejoice.
2. The longer the clashes continue, the more budget will be spent.
3. Now that the situation in the bilateral ties has been under much tension, the hope has become diminished for two Thais, who have been detained by Cambodia on spying charges, to be released and sent back to Thailand.
4. More than 40,000 people in Surin and Buri Ram, including children and aged people, had to be evacuated and had to leave their homes and farmlands behind.
5. The border clashed prevented peoples living along the borderline from visiting each other like what they could do in the past.
6. The protracted fight will damage the border trades.
All in all, the border clashes had tremendous negative impacts.
Only a group of people do not care about the ongoing fighting.
They are Thai gamblers who continued to cross the border to gamble in casinos in Poipet.
As long as the casinos in Poipet are still open, the Thai gamblers will be willing to cross the border to fight against the casinos' owners.
And they will always return home empty-handed.

Cambodian-Vietnamese Border Problem

Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy has renewed his call for the Cambodian Government to reexamine the demarcation of the Cambodian-Vietnamese border after the Cambodian -Thai border situation has eased out. Sam Rainsy made this comment from France in a recent interview.
Sam Rainsy said that the Cambodian Government should now look at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border because the situation along the Cambodian-Thai border has eased.
Changing Scenario
He said that Cambodia had lost more land to Vietnam than to Thailand. He stressed that ‘attention should be shifted to the border with Vietnam because over the past few years the Hun Sen government was using the conflict with Thailand as a cover to deflect attention away from Vietnam, which had grabbed much more Cambodian land than Thailand did.’
In response to his call, Cheam Yeap, Cambodia's People Party MP from Prey Veng constituency, said that the loss of land raised by Sam Rainsy was based on a map drawn by Sam Rainsy himself. He added that the Cambodian Government is currently working on the demarcation of the Cambodian-Vietnamese border by using a modern technology. He said that ‘in order to know who comes in and who goes out, a clear border demarcation is needed, which is currently being worked on by the government. Sam Rainsy's comment has no meaning, substance and thought whatsoever.’
Deflection of Attention
Rong Chhun, a member of the Cambodian Watchdog Council, said that he supported the comment raised by Sam Rainsy, and the government's comment is merely a deflection of attention; he used to inspect the border and found out that Cambodia indeed lost its territory to Vietnam.
He argued that ‘no other basis is better than his going to inspect the border, which he found out that border makers were planted encroaching into the Cambodian territory although the survey and measurement of the border was made with an advanced technology. If they use it a wrong way, Cambodia can lose land because of the fact that the technology is operated by human being.’
Demarcation of Land Border
It should be recalled that San Rainsy made this call at a time when the process of the demarcation of the land border between Cambodia and Vietnam was reportedly set to complete in the end of 2012.
On the demarcation of the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, Sam Rainsy was sentenced to 13 years in prison because he uprooted border stakes at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border planted on Cambodian farmers' land in Svay Rieng Province, and his showing of a map that he used as a basis for affirming that Cambodia had lost its territory because of the demarcation work.