Sat, Apr 23 2011
By Martin Petty
PHANOM DONG RAK, Thailand (Reuters) - Guns were silent along the Thai-Cambodia border Monday after three days of bloody jungle clashes between rival troops, as a top regional envoy prepared to hold talks to cool one of the deadliest border standoffs in two decades.
Indonesian Foreign Minister and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) chair Marty Natalegawa will meet with his Thai and Cambodian counterparts Monday to push for a ceasefire following the collapse of a United Nations-backed peace deal he helped broker after fierce fighting in February.
The move comes after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged "serious dialogue" to hammer out an "effective and verifiable" ceasefire and halt the grenade and artillery bombardments that have killed at least 10 soldiers since Friday.
At the center of the latest dispute are two 12th-Century stone-walled Hindu temples, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey, in a heavily mined jungle area that both sides lay claim to. Thailand says the two temples are in its Surin province but Cambodia insists the ancient ruins fall in its territory.
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