Thailand closes border crossings with Cambodia and recalls ambassador as tensions flare

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand said Wednesday it is closing border crossings with Cambodia from northeastern provinces, as well as withdrawing its ambassador from Cambodia and expelling Cambodia’s ambassador, following a landmine incident in which a Thai soldier lost a leg.

A Thai Army statement said five soldiers were wounded when one of them stepped on a land mine in a border area.

The incident drew a swift response from the Thai government. Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the Foreign Ministry would make an official protest to Cambodia, and further measures would be considered.

The landmine incident on Wednesday a week after three other Thai soldiers were wounded after one stepped on a land mine and lost a foot in a different area along the border, which has several small areas claimed by both countries.

Thai authorities say that the mines were newly laid along paths that by mutual agreement were supposed to be safe. They said the mines were Russian-made and not of a type employed by Thailand’s military.

The army statement called on Cambodia “to take responsibility for this incident, which constitutes a serious threat to peace and stability in the border region between the two countries.”

Cambodia rejected the Thai version of the events as “baseless accusations.” Defense Ministry spokespesrson Lt. Gen. Maly Socheata said the landmine explosion took place on Cambodian territory and charged that Thailand had violated a 2000 agreement “regarding the use of agreed paths for patrols.”

Many border checkpoints had already been closed by one side or the other or operated with restrictions after relations between the neighbors deteriorated following an armed confrontation on May 28 in which one Cambodian soldier was killed in one of several small contested patches of land.

Efforts to defuse the situation have been hindered by the nationalist passions that flared in both countries. There is historical enmity between the two nations.

There have been major political consequences in Thailand, with former prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra suspended from office last month after making what critics saw as a disparaging comment about her country’s military in a phone call to Cambodia’s former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who leaked a recording of it.

Cambodia has denied that it laid new mines along the border, pointing out that many unexploded mines and other ordnance remain all over the country, a legacy of civil war and unrest that began in 1970 and ended only in 1998.

Since the end of that fighting, nearly 20,000 Cambodians have been killed and about 45,000 injured by leftover war explosives. The number of casualties has sharply declined over time; and last year there were only. 49 deaths.

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Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.