Over 10,000 people displaced after weeks of renewed border fighting with Thailand in December remain barred from their homes behind newly installed concertina wire and shipping containers marking Bangkok’s territorial claims, local authorities said.
Most come from disputed border villages Cambodia says are in Banteay Meanchey province, which Thailand disputes, accusing villagers of encroaching on its territory.
Around 9,000 people, or 2,735 families, from Banteay Meanchey are unable to return to their homes despite a return to a ceasefire between the neighbors on Dec. 27, provincial spokesperson Norng Vuthy said Friday, adding that their homes now fall behind Thai barricades.
Pursat provincial governor Khoy Rida told CamboJA News that about 20 families in Thmor Da commune in Veal Veng district have been affected after their land came under the control of Thai forces.
The area lies near the Thmor Da Special Economic Zone, which has been widely reported to host online scam operations and which Thailand heavily bombed in December, saying the zone encroached on its territory.
Further north in Preah Vihear province, deputy governor Kim Chanpanha said authorities have designated a “red zone” where residents are still not permitted to return.
Four villages remain within the zone and about 1,109 families are unable to go home because the area remains under Thai control, he said.
At least “84 villages” in Oddar Meanchey province remain inaccessible to displaced residents, the Interior Ministry said.
More than half a million Cambodians were displaced after clashes reignited in early December. Around 470,000 have since returned home following the ceasefire, Interior Ministry figures show, while more than 173,000 remain in dozens of displacement camps across border provinces.
Chhoung Sreychin, 31, a resident of the disputed Chouk Chey village, which Thailand claims as part of its Sa Kaeo province, said her home now lies behind shipping containers installed by Thai forces and used as makeshift barricades.
She said her house was damaged during shelling of the village by Thai soldiers, damage she said she later saw after climbing a tree near the barricades.
“During the evacuation, I took only a few clothes to the camp because I was afraid of the gunfire,” she said.
Sreychin said she was evacuated on Dec. 8, the third time she has been forced to flee following spurts of armed clashes along the border last year.
She is sheltering at a pagoda in Banteay Meanchey with six family members and hundreds of other families unable to return home.
Cambodian authorities have accused Thai forces of moving into disputed villages after the ceasefire, taking control of civilian areas and destroying or looting homes. Thailand has denied the allegations.
Thai Defence Ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said he intended to respond to a request for comment but had not done so by the time of publication.
Cambodian government spokesperson Pen Bona declined to comment.
Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry said Thai forces have also taken control over the disputed northern border areas of An Ses, Ta Thav and Phnom Trop along the Preah Vihear border, and six areas, inducing Ta Krabie, Ta Moan Thom and K’nar temples along the Oddar Meanchey border.
Soeung Saroeung, executive director of the NGO Forum in Phnom Penh, said preventing civilians from returning to their homes constituted a continuing violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, including protections under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“Displaced Cambodian families face immediate risks of homelessness, food insecurity, interrupted schooling, health deterioration and permanent loss of land and livelihoods,” he said.
Ly Sreysros, an independent political analyst based in Phnom Penh, said Thai forces had violated the Dec. 27 ceasefire and international humanitarian law by preventing civilians from returning to their homes.
“It is difficult to say this territory belongs to Thailand simply because it is being controlled, as it has not yet been determined,” she said.
