Friday 29 April 2011

Who remains where angels fear to tread?

A village defence volunteer scans the almost deserted neighbourhood of Ban Nong Khanna in Surin’s Phanom Dong Rak district after residents fled the border conflict. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD

The villages lie empty, the only sounds are gunfire

29/04/2011
King-oua Laohong & Nopparat Kingkaew
Bangkok Post

Silence enshrouds border villages in Surin, now left with empty houses and a few dogs and chickens to brace for the only punctuation of time _ gunshots.

If anybody travels along the roads leading to the remote villages at the Thai-Cambodian border near Prasat, Phanom Dong Rak and Kap Choeng districts, they have to ask themselves, amid the air of desolation: ''Where have all the people gone?''

The Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department yesterday announced that 44 evacuation centres have been set up so far - 35 in Surin and nine in Buri Ram.

In Surin, about 40,400 people have already been relocated while in neighbouring Buri Ram, 7,800 people have had to leave their home towns.

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