"Thailand’s Kampuchea Incidents Territorial Disputes and Armed Confrontation along the Thai-kampuchean Frontier" By Larry Palmer

KI-Media Note: We would like to thank Mr. Bora Touch, Esq. for pointing out this paper.

THAILAND’S KAMPUCHEA INCIDENTS TERRITORIAL DISPUTES AND ARMED CONFRONTATION ALONG THE THAI-KAMPUCHEAN FRONTIER.
(with special reference to the Prachinburi-Battambang border).
News From Kampuchea, Vol. 1(4) October 1977.

By Larry Palmer.

“I never cease to be amazed by the unshakable skepticism of the Anglo-Americans when the expansionism of their protégés in Bangkok is pointed out to them…The Anglo-Americans are without doubt the only people in the world who refuse to take account of this continuity in Thai policy”: Norodom Sihanouk

On the night of 28 January 1977, a violent incident occurred along the Thai-Kampuchean border near the frontier towns of Aranyaprathet (in Thailand’s Prachinburi province) and Poipet (in Kampuchea’s Battambang province). This incident was widely, although tardily reported in the western press . In general the gist of this reportage was as follows: Kampuchean troops in an unprovoked and coordinated surprise attack, crossed the border into Thailand and massacred the unarmed civilian inhabitants of three Thai villages. Some hypothesized that the Kampucheans were foraging for food; others claimed that “informed sources” had told them that the Kampucheans were upset because the villagers in question had double-crossed them in a business deal . Most reporters did not bother to delve into the circumstances surrounding the incident and when the Kampucheans, after a lengthy investigation, released their version of events two weeks later, it was treated with derision or simply not reported at all. Yet the bulk of the available evidence, most of which comes from Thai sources, indicates that the Kampuchean version is more credible than that of the Thai government.

The key to the Kampuchean account is the claim that the villages involved are on Kampuchean territory. The villages, the Kampucheans say, were established during the tenure of Lon Nol’s Khmer Republic, which was too weak to protest such Thai encroachments. To evaluate this Kampuchean claim, it is necessary to look at the history of the Thai-Kampuchean boarder in this area in some detail.