Lower Thirds:

0:03  Report by Georg Matthes

1:38 Georg Matthes  DW Correspondent (near Kong Poi Pet)

3:08 Ouer Yuon, Internally displaced

3:50 Georg Matthes, DW Correspondent (near Kong Poi Pet)

4:25 Bun Kamsot,  Internally displaced

Script: 

Watching every move their Thai neighbours make. I have been given permission to visit Cambodian forces at their positions along the border with Thailand. Tensions remain high despite a ceasefire. The Thai side has established what it calls a safety perimeter to protect its citizens from Cambodian snipers. But the soldiers here tell my translator that Thailand is illegally occupying Cambodian land.

SOT Savroun Ry:
 “You see its Thai side and this is what used to be Cambodian here. And now they have to move almost two kilometres from here.”

Close to 150 people were killed and at least 300,000 displaced during two rounds of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia last year. Each country accused the other of starting the clashes. Cambodian soldiers, many of them wearing civilian clothes, show me the destruction. The area remains closed to civilians.

(Male) SOT Soldier:
The 155-millimeter artillery shells exploded all around this house. They kept firing and firing. It just didn’t stop.

Much of the border still looks like a battlefield, with bunkers everywhere. At another border crossing, soldiers show me what they say is a Thai truck left behind during the last offensive. Both sides frequently accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

PTC Georg: “Right here, this is as far as you can get on the Cambodian side of the border. I was here in exactly the same location last year after the first round of fighting, and back then, this Thai military post was 400 meters down the road. So that means since the second round of fighting in December last year, it has shifted.”

Thailand says the military posts form the new safety perimeter and its troop deployment line is exactly where it should be under the ceasefire signed by both parties. Cambodia disagrees. It says more than 20,000 of its citizens are now living in shelters because they are unable to return home.

One of them is 74-year-old Ouer Yuon, who says she lost her house to Thailand. A few months ago, she moved into this waiting village with eight of her children and grandchildren.

+++ PTC Georg: “Thousands of people now live in these so-called waiting villages that have sprung up along the Thai-Cambodian border. Officially, they are temporary settlements, but with little hope of the conflict being resolved anytime soon, people are starting to build new lives here.”

Ouer Yuon has planted a mango tree in her front yard. She has little hope of returning home anytime soon. She and her husband settled close to the border around 30 years ago. Now she says she will never forget the day she had to flee and seek shelter at a temple.

(female) SOT Ouer Yuon, 74 | Internally displaced
“They asked me, “Where have you come from? Why don’t you have a sleeping mat, a mosquito net or a blanket?” I told them I couldn’t bring anything. My husband and I had only about one euro with us. Then I sat down and started crying.”

Thailand is the stronger country, both militarily and economically. Much of the local economy here depended on the open border. Now, just clearing the unexploded ammunition will take a long time, officials say. Demining teams are concentrating first on hospitals and schools.

PTC:
“This is just one of many factories along the 800-kilometer border between the two countries that is now closed down. And it's a good example for the kind of economic pain this border conflict is inflicting, particularly for Cambodia.”

Like many younger people here, Ouer Yuon’s daughter used to work as an agricultural labourer on the Thai side of the border. Now she is unemployed. The waiting villages, each housing thousands of people, are safe. But they have been built in the middle of nowhere, far from jobs and basic infrastructure.

(female) SOT Bun Kamsot, 32, from Boeung Trakuon | Internally displaced
“I want our leaders to help me find work, so I can earn some money and send my children to school. But I can’t go anywhere. I just stay at home and look after my children. My parents are also getting very old.”

On our final day, we wanted to visit a key contested area - a remote temple deep in the mountains facing Thailand. But the soldiers are concerned that new fighting could break out at any moment, so we are stopped.

+++ PTC Georg: “The conflict is hurting both countries economically, and it's also damaging politically. It makes cooperation inside ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, much harder, where Cambodia and Thailand are supposed to work together as partners and neighbors. And until this conflict is resolved, it is the people here in the border region on both sides who will keep paying the highest price.”