Thai forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas during a stand-off with Cambodian protesters along their disputed border on September 17, Bangkok’s military said, a move that Phnom Penh stated injured more than 20 people.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Cambodia’s leader Hun Manet has accused Thailand of preventing more than 20 families from returning to their homes on the disputed border, according to his letter to the head of the U.N. released on Thursday (September 18, 2025).
The Thai army said the Cambodian residents had “illegally occupied” Thai territory.
The Southeast Asian neighbours agreed a truce in late July following five days of clashes that killed at least 43 people on both sides— the latest eruption of a long-standing dispute over contested border temples on their 800-kilometre (500-mile) frontier.
Both sides have since traded accusations of ceasefire violations.
On Wednesday (September 17, 2025), Thai forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at several hundred Cambodian protesters during a stand-off in a disputed border village, a move that Phnom Penh said injured nearly 30 people, including a soldier and a Buddhist monk.
In a letter dated September 17 to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Hun Manet said Thai forces had “widened the conflict zone by erecting barbed wire and barricades”, and “forcibly” evicted Cambodian civilians from their “long-settled lands” in two border villages in northwestern Banteay Meanchey province since last month.
“Twenty-five families have already been blocked from their homes and fields,” Hun Manet wrote, adding that a Thai military spokesperson had threatened more evictions, “potentially affecting hundreds of households comprised of about a thousand inhabitants”.
July’s military clashes between Cambodia and Thailand were their deadliest in decades, with 300,000 people also forced to flee their homes along the border.
Published – September 18, 2025 10:37 pm IST
